Canadian award for collegiate educator
- Details
- Published on Saturday, July 1, 2017
By Sheila Runions
The Rivers Banner
Readers may recall the June 16 edition of Rivers Banner contained a full page story about the grand opening of Rivers Wetland Centre of Excellence. Included in that ceremony was the presentation of an award of excellence from Canadian Network for Environmental Education and Communication (EECOM) which named Rivers Collegiate EECOM’s most outstanding school, kindergarten-Grade 12. What the school didn’t know at that time was that one of their teachers, Mr. Daniel Kiazyk, also received an EECOM individual award as the best environmental educator.
Kiazyk commutes to Rivers from Minnedosa and has been doing so since the fall of 2008. The senior years (Grades 9-12) teacher began his career 26 years ago when he was trained in social studies and French. Fifteen people were nominated for EECOM consideration, with only one being named the winner; an honourable mention for Daniel means he, in essence, placed second best in all of Canada.
“I was selected in part for the work done at our Wetland Centre of Excellence. Other factors considered included the courses I've developed and delivered to support the wetlands program, as well as our effort to reach youths who need another means of making a connection with school and our community.”
The award columns at left list some graduates honoured by Ducks Unlimited Canada for their work at the wetland centre in the last five years; Kiazyk also offers praise for the class of 2017.
“I am very proud of our graduates and in particular, those who have followed our school's unique environmental-focused courses. I'd also like to acknowledge our community's involvement in our programming to having been pivotal in our students' and environment course's successes. Perhaps Rivers Collegiate may be able to propose a ground-breaking means of integrating the outdoors/environment into our school divisions piloting of the very important PAX program to be introduced this fall in our division's schools.”
PAX will teach students autonomous self-control and self-management through collaborating with others for peace, productivity, health and happiness, so states the Manitoba Government’s website. PAX is an evidence-based, childhood mental health promotion strategy which combines the science from PeaceBuilders, Good Behaviour Game and other studies. PAX is a set of tools and strategies used by teachers and students that creates conditions for active teaching and lifelong learning; longitudinal studies have shown that students who participate in PAX in Grade 1 do better in, and are more likely to graduate from school, need fewer special education services, have better mental health (including less suicidal thoughts/attempts), fewer smoking, alcohol and drug addictions, and are less involved in crime into their adult years.
