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World's top teacher shares a lesson in compassion I The Star
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compassionWorld's top teacher shares a lesson
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By ISABEL TEOTONIO Education Reporter
Thu., Nov. 8, 2o18
followedBut they never
relationship with her programs she created in their fly -in
village of Salluit,Quebec's
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World's top teacher shares a lesson in compassion I The Star
Maggie MacDonnell, who won the 2017 Global Teacher Prize, is shown in New
the invitation of the United Nations. In the background, a sign proclaims her v
- value of -. - brings to a classroom,"winner of
2017 Global Teacher Prize, who will be in Toronto Saturday to deliver the keynot4
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feel humbled r connected because I also know those young people
amazing things too," says MacDonnell. "l get to see myself now as interwoven into
their story. And I know
L, people I they've saved and I they've positively
affected. ► d I get to understand,I very humanIconnectedall of our
lives can r.
conferenceThe about o"publicI ! a better world,"
Annie Kidder executive director of People for Education, noting MacDonnell's
work "totally exemplifies
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World's top teacher shares alesson mcompassion | The Star
on the community they live in. She lives and breathes the connection between
Isiublic education and the health and strength of the communities it serves."
That connection started in 2010. Raised in rural Nova Scotia, near an Indigenous
community, MacDonnell was well -aware of the injustices Indigenous people have
faced. Plus, she had just spent five years working in international community
development in East Africa, helping refugees, and had honed a set of skills she
wanted to use in Canada's Arctic.
"I thought as a Canadian I should really open my eyes to our own colonial issues
right within our borders," recalls MacDonnell, who moved north in 2010 to Ikusik
School in Salluit, the second northernmost lnuit community in Quebec with a
population of about 1400.
Initially, she hoped to last a year or two in this isolated community, which
experiences a high turnover rate for teachers. She had no idea how she would be
received, "considering how education itself has been a tool in the cultural genocide
of Indigenous people," she says, referring to Canada's residential school system.
And, as an outsider,, she didn't know what she could contribute given the many
challen es the communit T faces such as addiction, sexual abuse.. teen_p_mgnanCA7
housing shortage, food insecurity and a suicide crisis, which she says are
manifestations of intergenerational trauma rooted in colonialism.
"It was shocking to me to see those realities on a day-to-day basis here in Canada,"
recalls MacDonnell. "I took a community approach to education and recognized
young people could be agents of change and solutions in their community ... A lot of
the projects 1 did with my kids didn't take place inside the classroom, they took
place in the community."
The key to getting projects off the ground was developing relationships with the
mayor, councillors, elders and parents — and fundraising. Among them was
suflldin�tqq a fitness centre for the communibp — hunters used sleds to ccull treadmills
and elliptical trainers over the frozen tundra — and the creation of a running club.
MacDonnell is a firm believer that physical activity builds resiliency in youth and
can be used as a tool in suicide prevention.
She also created a community kitchen, where students make meals for elders,
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11/9/2018
World's top teacher shares a lesson in compassion I The Star
nutrition program, where they make healthy snacks for the entire student body.
And she began life skills programs for girls, creating a safe and welcoming
environment so that they stay in school and graduate.
"If my kids are food insecure how are we really going to get to learning? I need to
address (the food insecurity)," she says. "There's a suicide crisis where I work so we
cI',.n talk about graduation ♦rates all we want, but, literally, if kids are killing
Maggie MacDonnell, who won the 2017 Global Teacher Prize, is shown in
New York City during a visit at the invitation of the United Nations. In the
Just last month, Nunavik's school board, Kativik Ilisarnifiriniq, called an
emergency meeting to deal with the suicide crisis, is has claimed at least 13
Inuit youth this year.
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That underfundingkey reason why there's so much struggle with achievement
for young people in those regions."
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World's top teacher shares a lesson in compassion I The Star
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It's good advice, seeing as her students nominated her for the 2017 Global Teacher
Prize by the Varkey Foundation, a charity in the United Kingdom. The $1 million
award — it's paid out in equal instalments over a decade — is for an exceptional
teacher who's made an outstanding contribution. There were about 20,000
nominations from 179 countries — and stiff competition. But MacDonnell won,
beating a teacher who works in Kenya's biggest slum, Kibera, and one who works in
a gang -ridden violent community in Brazil.
"A Canadian wins? I wish our stories were not that dramatic," she says® `\Vhat is
different between Canada, Kenya and Brazil is .., we do have the resources to deal
with this issue."
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noting, "This is Canada and we don't have a teacher for a classroom?"
Since winning, she's travelled abroad on speaking engagements — for instance, to
Chile, Argentina, the United Arab Emirates and the United States, where she spoke
at the United Nations — accompanied by students or youth from the region.
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leave with their now 10 -month- old daughter. They plan to return to Salluit when
they've sorted out childcare arrangements, but in the meantime she is still in
contact with students.
Some have visited her in Nova Scotia, to do runs and learn to kayak. With her prize
money, MacDonnell has grown the running club into a regional one — the runners
are actually headed to the Cayman Islands next month to run in a half marathon.
And, she started an organization called Qajaq/Kayak to revitalize the connection
between Inuit youth and the kayak, which was invented by the Inuit and is called
qajaq in Inuktitut.
MacDonnell has paid for kayaks, gear, instructors and all the costs associated with
flying youth down to Nova Scotia, where they learn to paddle in warmer and calmer
waters.
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11/9/2018
World's top teacher shares a lesson in compassion I The Star
"There's not a lot of Inuit kayakers out there now because the culture has been so
lost due to, in part, colonization," says MacDonnell, who's determined to change
that, There are Go lans to start teachin out ow to build traditional k aks and to
visit Greenland and connect with lnuit paddlers there.
"If we invest properly in young people, and invest properly in education we'll see
amazing results," she says.
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workshops on various topics, such as redesigning Ontario report cards, creating a
students'bill of rights, improving discussions about race and using Indigenous
expertise to develop curriculum. And, there will be a panel discussion on changing
the way we think about equity, moderated by the Toronto Star's race and gender
columnist Shree Paradkar., who is the recipient of the 2018-2019 Atkinson
Fellowship in Public Policy, and is investigating the failure of educators in
providing equitable outcomes for racialized and Indigenous students.
Kidder says the conference is an opportunity to "bring people together to wrestle
with the'wicked problems'— and (MacDonnell's) experience and what she's
learned will help everyone with both the 'wrestling' and with providing a launching
pad for moving forward."
Saturday's conference runs from 9 a.m. to 5 P.m. at the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management, at
175 George St., and costs $75.
Isabel Teotonio is a Toronto-based reporter covering education. Follow her on Twitter: @Izzy74
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