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Education innovation achieves recognition
Heather Bilodeau accepts federal award for her creative multimedia classroom methods

Robin Grant
Northern News Services
Friday, June 17, 2016

SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Heather Bilodeau, an English language arts teacher at Ecole Allain St-Cyr, received an 2015 Prime Minister's Awards for Teaching Excellence award for using technology such as audio and video to teach her students language skills.

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Heather Bilodeau, an English language arts teacher at Ecole Allain St-Cyr, accepts her 2015 Prime Minister's Award for Teaching Excellence. She received the award at a ceremony yesterday. - Robin Grant/NNSL photo

At the awards ceremony yesterday, Genevieve Charron, principal of Ecole Allain St-Cyr, said the school seeks to promote and honour excellence in its staff and students - which is why they nominated Bilodeau for the award.

Her teaching method "takes place in a spirit of co-operation among teachers, students and parents, thus creating the best possible learning options," states a federal government website describing the award.

"I do try to co-ordinate with our computer science teacher so students can use technology while they learn," Bilodeau explained.

"Students use the technology for their projects and become more at ease with the technology. It works really well."

Grade 10 student Charles Isaac described Bilodeau as helpful in the classroom.

In one project, she assigned her students online research and asked that the students use video cameras to interview community members to produce a video to present to the class.

For another exercise, the students wrote poems and integrated audio visuals in the presentation of the poem.

"She really helps us with our homework and she really answers specifically," he said. "She's really good with technology and introducing (learning) with technology."

At the ceremony, Bilodeau said she was extremely humbled by the award and thanked her colleagues for making the effort to nominate her.

She also lauded her students.

"Without the students this is really not possible," she said.

"They're the ones that drive us to keep evolving and to keep up to date with what's happening in technology. We keep up with them and I think it's also their work - it's not just me alone."

The Prime Minister's Awards for Teaching Excellence recognizes teachers in elementary and secondary school for their achievements in education and for their commitment to preparing students for a digital and innovation-based economy. Teachers from across Canada are awarded each year.

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