TEACHERS ‘WEEK
To arouse the interest of his students, Olivier Champagne can play the guitar in class.
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Make mathematics attractive and interesting, mission impossible? Difficult would be child’s play for Olivier Champagne. This is why he accepted this impossible mission in 2003.
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As part of Teachers’ Week, presented from February 1 to 7, L’Avantage spoke with Mr. Champagne, a math teacher at the Mont-Saint-Louis school located in the district of Bic. The man of science teaches this often unloved subject to secondary 1 and 2 students.
“Math is not necessarily the preferred subject. I have to work hard to make people like my material, he laughs. I try new business, innovate and come up with ideas that make math more concrete and easier to understand. “
Once a year, he invites young people to go outside with their cellphones and take pictures of buildings or structures so that they can measure their height. He can also play the guitar and blackmail his students. “It speaks to them a lot more than calculating the area of a triangle on a sheet, without context! He says.
He may as well offer them a painting project. “Students must take measurements of a room in the school. They calculate the area to be painted. Then they find the number of paint stripes they will need to repaint that room. They will shop online to find the costs to repaint said room. They also have to buy materials and they do their own invoice with Excel. “
Mr. Champagne believes that the relational aspect is very important to help understand and love the material.
“I think I am able to relate to the students. I love them a lot. I often tell them that they are thin and beautiful. I find them wonderful and I really enjoy working with them. Once this link is established, it is easier to get our ideas across, even if the material is not easy, ”he emphasizes.
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“We have a great school at Bic. We are able to establish beautiful bonds with the students. We invest more than just delivering the material. “
Remote teaching
In December 2019, Olivier Champagne agreed to replace an educational advisor at the school board. At the time, he had no idea that a global pandemic was approaching. When the pandemic arrived, it was necessary, with his colleague Julie Bérubé, that he was transferred to a 10 cents so that teachers had the necessary tools to be able to teach at a distance.
“I had never taught remotely and I didn’t think it could ever happen to me. I had to consult and follow a lot of self-study to be able to guide and support teachers in this. We made video clips on lots of tools for students and teachers, ”he says.
Mr. Champagne recently gave a workshop to his colleagues on the use of a specific tool for distance education. He finds this way more practical, since he does not need to erase his notes each time as on a whiteboard in class with markers.
“I work on an iPad with a stylus. I can write directly on the iPad as if I were writing on a piece of paper. There is no screen sharing. Students see what I write in OneNote live. I can change the page and the students can review what I wrote. It leaves traces. “
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