Teacher recognized by PM
Gene Jenks honoured for innovative distance learning program
Sarah Ladik
Northern News Services
Thursday, June 2, 2016
INUVIK
A familiar face is garnering national attention for his achievements in education.
East Three Secondary School teacher Gene Jenks, who organized a skating and hockey league in 2014, has been honoured for his work bringing education to remote communities. - NNSL file photo
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"I'm humbled, and honoured," said Gene Jenks.
Jenks, a former teacher at East Three Secondary School, has received a Certificate of Excellence from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for his work bringing education to remote communities in the Beaufort Delta.
After about five years working in classrooms both physical and virtual he now works as the information systems and technology consultant for the school board, expanding the e-learning program into other regions.
"As a senior high teacher, you have to do the curriculum. You have to do Shakespeare," he told the Drum last week. "You can't let geography stop you."
When it began, the distance learning program was one student in one school on a conference call, Jenks said. Now, it can involve as many as five different classes on a single large screen, with students and staff communicating in real time, face to face.
"If we're doing Shakespeare and have Romeo in Ulu (Ulukhaktok) and Juliette in Fort McPherson, then so be it," he said. "We make it work."
The success of the program in the Beaufort Delta led to plans to see it expand throughout the territory. Jenks is now part of the first year of a pilot program to do just that.
"It's a good teaching practice," he said. "I wanted to help get it going. We're trying to strive for equity in the delivery of education up here."
But even before the e-learning became a dominant force in the classroom, Jenks was affecting students' lives.
"When we were in his class, we told him that if we hadn't had him, we wouldn't have stayed in school, probably," said former student Jacinta Larocque. "I feel fortunate to have had him as a teacher."
Larocque's favourites were To Kill a Mockingbird, as well as the Bard, which she said Jenks made not only accessible, but also fun.
"He was great," she said, noting that she's now a summer student at the board office where Jenks works, too. "He really made a difference for me, and I know he did for other people too."
