Pierre Veilleux
Alberta Teacher of the Year
Ecole Varsity Acres School, Calgary
Grades 5-6, French Immersion

My teaching philosophy and philosophy in action
I believe everyone can learn. This happens at different rates and in many ways. The job of a teacher is to adapt his teaching to the way the student learns best. One way I do this is by setting up open ended projects. These projects have a minimal set of objectives to respect so all students have the same basic project to do. The higher achieving students, however, will have room to expand and present more content in a more colorful way.

I believe in helping both the student and the parent. After all, the teacher is an education professional and as such, has the knowledge and particularly the perspective to help the student and his/her parents to understand certain things about school that otherwise they may not have understood or have taken a longer time to see. Oftentimes during the year, when talking to a parent who is concerned about his/her child’s learning, I will put the child’s problem into perspective by comparing it to the rest of the class, or to the many years I have taught. For instance, a couple years ago a mom was going back to work and was concerned that her daughter would be negatively impacted by this and that her child’s learning could be greatly affected. The little girl who had spelling problems was a hard worker and slow at doing her work. However, her attitude was one of the best. Being the teacher of many kids for many years, I knew that she would be fine given her willingness to succeed. That’s what I explained to the mom, who realized as the months passed by that her daughter adapted just fine to her mom going back to work.

I believe in communication. From the first day of school to the last, communication channels have to be open so I can help the student and his/her parents the best I can. The way I communicate with parents and students is diverse. At the beginning of the year, I collect all students and parents email addresses. That way I can communicate personally with anyone if there is a need. I also use email to send a weekly homework update. This has greatly helped my class management, parents and students.

I believe that the teacher, the student and the parents form a team. This team is the key to success, more for some kids than others. Kids that are at risk beneficiate the most from that union. Again, the communication kicks in and email is the way to go. Students and parents will email me on a regular basis when they need for any kind of information they feel I should have or concern that may arise.

I believe school should be fun. A touch of humor on a regular basis will bring a smile on students’ face which will open the door to learning.

My greatest teaching accomplishment
The class council is probably the most powerful activity I undertake with my students. The class council gives students a chance to be part of the democratic process in which they live at school and as part of the world community. To be elected, a student must prepare a speech and a poster to be hung in the classroom. In the speech the candidate will focus mainly on three topics. The main one is the cause that they want to help. They need to explain to the class why this cause should be the one that as a group we should work on. The second part of the speech, is about the class party of that term. The candidate will bring forward ideas of activities the class could do during the party. There are 4 terms during the year: Halloween, Christmas, Easter and end of year. The final part of the speech is about the special day. In each term, there is a special day that the class can have while we work. For instance, it could be “funny hair day”, when students come to school with their hair a different color, or “twin day”, when students come dressed up like someone else.

For each cause, we need a way to fundraise, the reason being that most of the time we need money to do something, be it educate the people or just send money to an organization to help them help others. Here are some examples of causes we have helped in the last few years:

• Ryan’s Well
• Anti Slavery International
• Help the Afghan Kids
• Doctors Without Borders
• The Calgary Children’s Hospital
• The Mustard Seed in Calgary
• The Canadian Wildlife Federation
• The Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation
• Inn from the Cold
• Hawks helicopter
• Hana’s Suitcase

Here are some creative ways to fund these causes:

• set up a talent show and ask students to pay a dollar to come and watch
• sell freezies or popcorn at recess
• set up a “Break a Rule” day, where students have the opportunity to buy a hand-made button that allows them to break a school rule for one day, for instance, chewing gum
• have a carnival at lunch time and charge students to come and play
• sell Tim Horton’s hot chocolate at recess
• have “cancer bracelets” made and sell them

When it is time to learn about an organization or educate our school population, technology has always come into play. We use word processing software to write and edit our announcements. We use the Internet to learn about the different causes and the organizations that help them. We use multimedia software to build presentations to be shown to the students so they know more about it. We use email to contact the different organizations that we help around the world and locally.

The class council is a place where students learn many things but mostly how to cooperate, develop leadership, express themselves, respect different views than theirs, organize fundraising, learn about the world and the less fortunate, meet interesting people online or in class, and make a difference.

The most critical issues facing educators today
I am not sure which one is the most critical, it might depend how we look at it. For me, it is the increase in the day-to-day operations. When I started teaching 19 years ago, there wasn’t so much to take care of. Because society has changed over the years, the school has started to take more responsibilities with children. Teachers need to deal with children coming from more families where both parents work or families that have been affected by a divorce. Also, the school boards now have to create policies to protect themselves against parents who can and will sue them in court. In the past, there wasn’t so much of that kind of behavior happening. Teachers have to be aware of all the responsibilities they have. Another thing is the quantity of information coming to teachers. It has greatly increased with the Internet and email. Email particularly is an easy way for many people and organizations to reach educators. The screening of information is essential in order to be functiona, but time consuming. These are only a few examples of the daily work of a teacher, not mentioning the teaching itself! I think that teacher coming to the profession today have a much harder time to adapt to their reality than teachers did 20 years ago.

One thought to inspire teachers to succeed
Even though the profession has changed quite a lot over the years and has become harder in many ways, teachers need to “hang on”, remember what they believe in and support each other. In this regard, technology will help them communicate, share ideas and support each other better than it was possible in the past. The Internet can help teachers around the world to “connect” and work together, making the daily work more interesting and easier in some ways.

One lesson every student should learn
As for students, one lesson they should remember is that everyone can learn given time, effort, help and understanding. The school systems have done quite a lot in the last few years to accommodate all types of learners. All we have to look at is all the charter schools and online learning.

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