Teacher up for Governor General’s Award

Cross-country learning transcends distance

It’s a history class that spans more than 3,827 kilometres and has been nominated for a national award in teaching excellence.

An interactive learning tool used to teach history to Grade 5 students has earned Gale Walker, and her partner Toby Daigle, a nomination for the Governor General’s Award for Excellence in Teaching Canadian History.

The list of teachers that have passed the first stage of judging has been shortlisted to 25 people with six finalists to be decided shortly.

“We’re sitting on pins and needles to see if we’re in the top six,” a smiling Walker said.

Walker, a teacher at Bairdmore School in Fort Garry, has been included in partnership with Daigle for their collaboration, through whiteboard technology and online video conferencing, for getting their Grade 5 classes to interact and learn together about each other’s regional history.

It should be mentioned that Daigle is a teacher at Rexton Elementary School in Rexton, New Brunswick.

“When you look at the technology they used to link up the two provinces it’s tremendous,” said Bairdmore principal Rob Gendron.

The technology he’s talking about is a Smart Board interactive whiteboard – a system that combines the simplicity of a whiteboard with the technology of a computer.

In essence it’s a touch screen whiteboard that connects to a computer and projector to let the user control computer functions, write and save work directly on the display.

Walker and Daigle took it a step further and included a web cam and software called ‘bridgit’ so that each other’s class could interact in real-time.

The result has been evident.

“We’ve managed to overcome time differences and such to bring her class and mine together in real-time, Walker said.

“Which was amazing because it also taught the kids about the time zones.”

This is the third year the 28-year-teacher has been holding ‘cross-classes’ with her counterpart in New Brunswick, each year focusing on a different topic.

When the classes are sharing online everyone gets involved. One class teaches the other about their past and vice-versa. The kids prepare and present the presentations and then answer questions that the other class might have.

The latest project involves trading the histories of each other’s Aboriginal past. The Bairdmore students focused on the plain tribes while their counterparts reported on Mi’kmaq history.

They also compared their French histories with Walker’s class doing a presentation on the Festival du Voyageurs and Daigles on Acadians.

Walker found out that there was more learning going on that they hoped for.

“It was all the little things we learned, like we found out that poutine is different here compared to there,” she laughed.

There were also a few surprises that arose out of the project.

“It has been just amazing. A lot of the kids have become cyberpals and they talk to each other online all the time,” Walker said.

It’s obvious that Walker’s enthusiasm for her job shows.

“She was an awesome teacher, she makes a lot of jokes and makes it really fun and easy to learn,” said Michaela Lang, an 11-year-old student who was in Walker’s class last year.

The last Manitoban to win the prestigious award was current Minister of Education, Citizenship and Youth Peter Bjornson in 2003.