Award Recipients

Holly Richard’s students engage in a wide variety of academic and co-curricular activities meant to deepen their awareness of the connections between First Nation, Métis, and Inuit histories and cultures. 

Brian Clancy, Lisa Sheppard, and Catherine Morneault gave their grade six French immersion students a big challenge for their school year: “How can we collaboratively teach our community about the Canadian experience at Vimy Ridge and do something AWESOME in the process?” 

Elizabeth Freeman-Shaw and Sarah Murdoch introduce their first unit of Grade 10 history through the lens of Indigenous Issues in conjunction with the introduction and application of each of the six Historical Thinking concepts. 

To celebrate their school’s 60th anniversary, the students in Geneviève Marois’ class decided to hold an exhibition on its history. They presented the information in a number of creative ways, including with an interactive timeline, skit, movie, and dance.

As part of a lesson called Shifting Commitments: Safety, Security and Sacrifice in a Changing World, Mr. Brumwell’s students use game technology to travel back to their high school during the Second World War. Learners are presented with primary source artifacts triggered through Global Positioning Systems (GPS) and Quick Response (QR) codes on their mobile devices.

Ms. Janzen’s students completed significant primary source research at local and provincial archives in order to investigate the lives of various people throughout Manitoba’s history. After gathering and interpreting their research, students then collaborated with a local playwright, Debbie Patterson, to create a play called Shadows of Manitoba’s Past.

In Ms. Sadowsky’s classroom, her Native Studies class begins with one simple question: “Who is a Treaty person?” From this question, the entire course unveils as students relive Canadian history as part of a semester-long simulation.

Ms. Shergill’s project, entitled All My Relations, involved an inquiry into the historical and contemporary relationship between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal peoples in Canada. Students reflected on collective rights through an examination of treaty agreements and researched and analyzed significant events that have shaped both the past and present state of the relationship.

A teacher at the Collège Notre-Dame de Sherbrooke, Mr. Yoland Bouchard has based his innovative pedagogy on a deep-seated desire to understand his students and to instill in them the essential historical knowledge and skills for understanding Canada's history. His musical approach – whereby the student discovers and analyzes songs in their respective historical contexts – allows adolescents to connect with their age-specific fields of interest.

Ms. Whitfield’s students took part in “Historical Thinking Missions,” where they conducted historical research and field work to learn about the history of Toronto’s St. John’s Ward. Students learned how to interpret and analyze historical photographs, fire insurance maps, tax assessment records, and census data.