Note: The information in brackets describes the audio and visual content of the video that is not dialogue or narration.

[On-screen text: Beyond the Classroom]

[Narrator] Beyond the Classroom

[On-screen text: Ms. Marie-Pierre’s Cards]

[Child’s voice] Ms. Marie-Pierre’s Cards

[On-screen text: Desjardins Foundation Prizes]

[Narrator]: Everyone has a stake in keeping students motivated. The Desjardins Foundation Prizes were created to help teachers and educators find new ways of motivating young people to hang in there. This podcast will tell you about a few of these inspiring initiatives.

Kindness is truly a very strong value at La Tourelle school. Yes, we have regular classes, but we also have special education classes. So welcoming, including others, our classmates, with their differences, is a value that’s very strong in our school. And we’ve been working on it for several years.

As teachers, we experience all kinds of situations. One of the situations I experienced that stood out for me, and which led to the nice project that I launched with one of my colleagues, is actually a bit of a sad situation.

It’s a story of kids playing in the yard and a little girl with special needs who approaches them to play with them. It seems to go well at the beginning, but the game quickly takes a turn for the worse.

That is to say that the students give her little challenges, things to do, there’s laughter, and she plays along. For her, these are encouragements, so she continues.

Until a student arrives and says, “No, you’re laughing at her, she doesn’t understand what you’re doing.” The kids that were laughing and playing didn’t understand at the time that all of this was not kind to the different student.

After that, I thought to myself that if one of my students can do this, I want them all to be able to do it.

So if we’re lucky enough to have developed kindness, open-mindedness, respect among my group of 25 students, then they’ll also pass this on to friends of theirs, thus creating a big chain reaction.

So my fabulous colleague, named Christine Jacques, had the idea, “We’ll make paper together, Marie-Pierre.”

The goal of our project was, yes, to develop kindness in the students in the regular classes, and also break the isolation that the special needs students sometimes experience. So we decided to make paper, to make Christmas cards and other things together that the students could sell in their community, in their family, in order to raise money.

The first time I talked about the project, my students were a little unsure, looking at me as if to say, “Ah, it’s with the multi-handicap class, Ms. Marie-Pierre? Normally, we do projects with the 6th grade or the 4th-grade class.” And Ms. Marie-Pierre answered “Yes, we’re going to work with multi-handicaps and we’re going to make paper.”

[On-screen text]

“Are we making paper this week, Ms. Marie-Pierre?”

“Will we go to the Multi class this week, Ms. Marie-Pierre?”

“Are we seeing our friends from Ms. Christine’s class?”

[End of On-screen text]

So at the same time, when I started to explain to them what was expected of them, why I was doing this project, it was very motivating for them! They quickly got involved and then in no time were looking forward to every week. “Are we making paper this week, Ms. Marie-Pierre?”, “Will we go to the Multi class this week, Ms. Marie-Pierre? Are we seeing our friends from Ms. Christine’s class?”

So we threw ourselves into a grand endeavour, and it turned out as well that we had an excellent response. We had lots of cards to make, we worked through all sorts of steps with the students.

We had to rip up recycled paper. Then, we had to mash it. We also dried our recycled paper, which we took out from our little molds.

The students even learned to iron it to flatten it so that we had beautiful cards. And in the end, we did little plastic arts projects where we could decorate our cards.

[On-screen text]

Bravo!

Keep it up!

Super!

You’re the best!

[End of On-screen text]

We still had recycled paper at the end, however, so we said, “What can we do with this?”

So for School Perseverance and Motivation Week, we made little bookmarks that we printed little messages of encouragement on.

So, the conclusion of this nice project was to be a field trip to further broaden our horizons and visit the big city of Montreal. Unfortunately, Covid and the pandemic happened, so we were not allowed to experience this finish. We’re telling ourselves it’s only been postponed!

In other words, this is a project that we would very much like to redo and relive again. I’m certainly counting on getting my students back in contact with the mutli-handicap class every chance I get, to organize future projects.

Most of the time, that’s all kids need, as they’re kind by nature. They’re positive. And if this can inspire colleagues wherever they’re from, well, it will certainly be mission accomplished.

[On-screen text: Marie-Pierre Champagne, École de la Tourelle]

[Narrator] Are you inspired by Marie-Pierre Champagne’s story? Listen to the other episodes of the series Beyond the Classroom...

[On-screen text: This project was made possible by the Desjardins Foundation Prizes]

[Narrator] …to learn about other initiatives from winners of the Desjardins Foundation Prizes.

[On-screen text: We'd like to thank all the teachers and educators who help young people shine.]

[Desjardins logo]

[Narrator] Whether you’re a teacher, an educator or a parent, thanks for being involved with young people. You make all the difference.

[End of transcript]

Note: The information in brackets describes the audio and visual content of the video that is not dialogue or narration.

[Image of a honey dipper, honey, and daisies on a yellow background. The daisies spin.]

[On-screen text: Beyond the Classroom]

Narrator: Beyond the Classroom

[Children’s voices and applause]

[On-screen text: Ms. Forest’s Bees]

Child: Ms. Forest’s Bees

[Image of a pot of honey.]

[Piano music in the background.]

[On-screen text: Desjardins Foundation Prizes]

Narrator: The Desjardins Foundation Prizes were created to help teachers and educators find new ways of motivating young people to keep at it. This podcast will tell you about a few of these inspiring initiatives.

[Music swells.]

[An animated bee flies onto the screen and off to the right.]

[Buzzing of a bee.]

[The bee flies around a globe and off to the right and down.]

Melanie: One little bee can have such a great impact on the world.

[As the bee flies down, the background changes to sky blue. The bee flies past a large school building.]

Melanie: I work in several schools. At one of my high schools, there was an opportunity where somebody brought a beehive to a high school setting. And I thought to myself, "Wow, this could really be a wonderful opportunity in an elementary school setting."

[The bee is joined by two other bees; they fly around and down to a small school building.]

Melanie: The school that I approached to bring the project is an inner city school and it's in an urban community. And I thought, "This would be a wonderful opportunity to bring in urban beekeeping within an urban setting." We often don't see a lot of agriculture in urban settings; our school yard is all concrete. The idea that we can bring in little bees and perhaps plant a garden to support the bees, this was really quite appealing to me.

[Close-up of an animated bee among some flowers.]

Melanie: Normally, when you think of bees, people are scared of bees. But when you start learning about bees and seeing that they actually work really, really hard, there's nothing to be scared of.

[Image of a heart-shaped honeycomb buzzing with bees.]

[Piano music.]

Melanie: We really wanted to involve the students simply in understanding what would be happening in the hive on a weekly basis.

[Close-up image of a honeycomb in the shape of a hexagon.]

Melanie: So we had an urban beekeeper who would come to the school every three weeks and she would give us updates. So the idea was to understand that there are different stages within taking care of a hive.

[Wide shot of the single honeycomb expanding in size. Small video play buttons appear on it.]

Melanie: And often, we would receive little videos or pictures that would be telling us exactly what was happening in the hive.

Melanie: We started off in a small classroom, and then the idea would be to take that knowledge…

[Transition back to the animated bees flying around the school.]

Melanie: ...and the kids would then create posters, the kids would perhaps even present to other classrooms and share what they learned…

[A speech bubble above the school quickly counts up the number of “likes”.]

Melanie: … and then the idea would pollinate throughout the school.

[Transition to a yellow background. Lines of blue circles fill the screen.]

Melaine: Four hundred little pins were created…

[Zoom in on the blue circle in the centre of the screen.]

[On-screen text: Bee Kind, Bee Nice, Bee Generous, Bee Yourself]

Melanie: ...and all the kids would create a saying on it that would either be “Bee Kind,” “Bee Nice,” “Bee Generous,” “Bee Yourself.”

[An animated bee flies onto the screen. The on-screen text changes and the bee continues flying around.]

[On-screen text: Bee Day]

Melanie: And we would actually have a whole Bee Day party. You know, a celebration: you're here, we're welcoming you, and we're embracing that you are now part of our school, you’re our little neighbors that live upstairs.

[Transition to an image of a bee smoker on a yellow background. A beehive appears beside it.]

Melanie: For most people and most students, they don't even imagine the idea that you can actually have a beehive come to your school and have a beekeeper, an urban beekeeper, come and explain to you what urban beekeeping is. So there was a lot of interest and a lot of questions.

[The smoker blows smoke on the animated bees buzzing around the beehive.]

Melanie: And honestly, they were questions you would never think of because kids have the most unique questions! It was really exciting to see where their minds went with it.

[Transition to an image of colourful flowers on a pink background. An animated bee flies among them as the flowers spin.]

Melanie: It allowed them to develop some critical thinking, some critical questions. It gave them a level of wanting to learn, to engage in their learning.

[Piano music.]

[The bee flies up off the screen as the background transitions to yellow. Individual images of bees appear.]

[On-screen text: Worker, Queen, Drone]

Melanie: Within the hive, there's worker bees, there's the queen bees, there's the drones, there's the bees that just go out and pollinate and come back.

[Transition back to the bee buzzing around spinning flowers on a pink background.]

Melanie: So they were able to learn all the different roles and see that a beehive can be symbolic of how we can work together in the world. If we all have different roles, we all have different importances…

[The bee flies down and the screen transitions to an image of a honeycomb in the shape of a thumbs up.]

Melanie: ...but when we all work together for the greater good, we all come out on top as well.

[Piano music.]

[A bee flies off to the right and the background becomes white. Text flies up from the bottom of the screen.]

[On-screen text: BzZzZzZz]

Melanie: We have one last visit to the school from the beekeeper where she's going to come and close up the hive for the winter because it's getting cold outside and the bees are going to have to go to sleep for the winter.

[Transition to an angled image of honey dippers and pots of honey on a yellow background.]

Melanie: But at the same time, she's going to bring a hive that has been working all summer and the bees have been creating honey.

[The image rotates to the left and fades, leaving a single pot of honey in the centre.]

Melanie: The honey will be extracted and processed, and we're going to receive about 100 jars of honey.

[The pot of honey multiplies until the screen is full of rows of honey pots.]

Melanie: We're really hoping that we'll be able to sell the honey simply so that we can start collecting more funds so that we can continue the project for next year. I'm hoping the children, the students, will come up with something creative that we can do. I'll leave that up to them.

[Transition to a blue background.]

Melanie: When you allow them to engage in entrepreneurship, they come up with the best ideas. So we’re really hoping that the impact will continue to grow in the community…

[A pot of honey appears in the centre of the screen.]

Melanie: ...because they're able to see that their little actions that they can do right now…

[Circle wipe transition to a yellow background. Animated hearts fly up from the honey pot.]

Melanie: ...can make the world a better place.

[Piano music.]

[A photograph of Melanie holding a “Save the bees” bag.]

[On-screen text: Melanie Forest, LaSalle Elementary Senior School]

Narrator: Are you inspired by Melanie’s story? Listen to the other episodes of the series, Beyond the Classroom…

[On-screen text: This project was made possible by The Desjardins Foundation Prizes.]

Narrator: ...to learn about other initiatives from winners of the Desjardins Foundation Prizes.

[On-screen text: We'd like to thank all the teachers and educators who help young people shine.]

Narrator: Whether you’re a teacher, an educator or a parent, thanks for being involved with young people. You make all the difference.

[Desjardins logo]

[End of transcript]

Note: The information in brackets describes the audio and visual content of the video that is not dialogue or narration.

[On-screen text: Beyond the Classroom]

[Children’s voices.]

Narrator: Beyond the Classroom

[On-screen text: Mr. Guillaume’s Graffiti]

Teenager’s voice: Mr. Guillaume’s Graffiti

[Piano music.]

[Image of a can of spray paint.]

[On-screen text: Desjardins Foundation Prizes]

Narrator: Helping students stay in school is everyone’s business. The Desjardins Foundation Prizes were created to help teachers and educators find new ways of motivating young people to keep at it and believe in themselves. This podcast will tell you about a few of these inspiring initiatives and the people behind them.

[Music ends. Voices can be heard in the background.]

[A Polaroid picture of a youth centre following the spray painted lines of a graffiti in progress.]

Guillaume: Having the youth centre inside the school, but also in the community, is motivating for certain young people, this I’m sure of.

[Piano music resumes.]

Guillaume: For me, the youth centre has been part of my life since 1996 already.

[A Polaroid picture of a hand giving the “V sign” (index and middle fingers raised) with “1996” written on it appears next to the Polaroid of the youth centre. The Polaroid of the youth centre continues to follow the lines of a graffiti.]

Guillaume: At that time, I was 12 years old and I was involved in school committees, then at a certain point, I had a particular project.

Guillaume: The people from the Youth Centre had said to me, “Hey, Guillaume, we’d like to hook up with you on this project.” So I said yes, then I started to go there regularly.

[A Polaroid picture of a hand giving the “rock on” sign (thumb, index and pinkie fingers raised) with “2002” written on it appears next to the Polaroid of the youth centre.]

Guillaume: And then, once I was 18 years old, I could no longer go to the youth centre so I started to work there as a facilitator. It’s been the only job I’ve had since I started working.

[The Polaroid of the youth centre continues to follow the lines of a graffiti. A Polaroid picture of a hand giving the “thumbs up” sign (thumb raised) with “2020” written on it appears next to the Polaroid of the youth centre. The Polaroid of the youth centre continues to follow the lines of a graffiti.]

[A basketball can be heard bouncing in t

he background.]

Guillaume: I quickly got the importance of how when you want things done, it’s kind of up to you to make sure they get done. This is true when you’re a teen, and it’s true when you’re an adult too.

[The youth centre flies up and out of the Polaroid picture and takes off like a rocket, leaving a graffiti-like exhaust trail in its wake.]

Guillaume: This desire to get involved in the community began to take shape when I started going to the youth centre regularly, and it still plays an important role in my life today. I think you have to start out small, with something like this.

[The youth centre flies up and over a ladder. A bullseye target appears centre-screen. Balls bounce off of it. A dart hits the centre of the target.]

Guillaume: We’re about offering recreational time, but we’re not a recreational organization. Sometimes people think we only do recreational activities, but there’s a very specific objective to the various activities that we organize. We aim to create a bond with young people, to develop a meaningful relationship. And it’s through these activities, recreational or otherwise, that we develop a bond with young people. And this helps us do even better prevention and awareness work, which makes us a meaningful adult role model for young people.

[Hands come in from each side of the screen and fist bump each other in a gesture of unity.]

[An airplane flying can be heard.]

[A map shows a plane taking off from Quebec and flying overseas to touch down in Belgium. A heart-shaped graffiti is drawn beside Belgium.]

Guillaume: We went to Belgium in 2011 for a community involvement project. In Europe, the art of graffiti was very, very common. In 2013, we welcomed our first Belgian group here. We had a brainstorming session, then we made graffiti. It was a really great experience.

[The plane turns around and takes off from Belgium to fly back to Quebec.]

Guillaume: The graffiti that we did with the young Belgians is still in our youth centres, and it’s the same thing over there; the graffiti we did with the Belgians is in their centres too.

[A rough sketch of a graffiti is spray painted on a sheet of graph paper using a stencil.]

Guillaume: For this project, we asked young people to create graffiti, or more specifically, to sketch out what they would like to have as graffiti. Then we hired a professional graffiti artist to really get the young people into it, and also give them techniques, and give them ideas.

[Children’s voices.]

Guillaume: The advantage of having a professional artist with us, is that the things young people learn are even better. Because it’s his job, his specialty, his passion. But the artist isn’t there to do the graffiti for the young people, otherwise we’d be a bit off target with our youth centre project philosophy, which is “by and for youth”.

[The graffiti on the piece of paper is revealed: it’s a tree.]

[On-screen text: By and for youth]

[Many different coloured cans of spray paint fly around the screen.]

Guillaume: What I find interesting in this is that it promotes an art form that’s not very common here, outside of the city, and it demystifies this art form, which is sometimes associated with vandalism, when that’s not the case at all, depending on the way it’s used.

[Piano music resumes.]

Guillaume: What’s interesting is that it’s an art form that can communicate messages in an original way. So we did graffiti about tolerance of differences,

[The flags of several countries scroll across the screen.]

Guillaume: …whether in terms of ethnicity or sexual orientation. We made these two graffiti as a way to raise awareness. It’s an original form of prevention, and it’s permanently there in the school.

[On-screen text: It’s the pride of making it to the end of the process.]

Guillaume: What this offers to youth? Well, first of all, it’s the pride of making it to the end of the process. I think this project, like others, ends up building their self-esteem too.

[On-screen text: It ends up building their self-esteem.]

[Feet in running shoes walk up some steps.]

Guillaume: Because what may seem tough at the beginning, or what you may have doubts about at the start, in the end, when you take it one step at a time, when you have someone to guide you, as was the case with the graffiti, when you consider the final product in front of you, it’s you who made it happen. I think this builds self-esteem in young people.

[Applause.]

[An image of an envelope appears. A “1” in a red circle in the top right indicates an unread message.]

Guillaume: A few years ago, one of the participants that we’d been in Belgium with sent me an email, perhaps two or three years later, when she’d grown into a young adult, no longer a youth benefiting from the services of the youth centre.

[The envelope opens. Confetti flies out of it and the “1” in the red circle turns into a 1st place ribbon. Several cans of spray paint fly out of the envelope.]

[Applause.]

Guillaume: She had submitted an application to do graffiti on an overpass, and her application was accepted, she did the graffiti on the overpass, which is still there today, in the neighbouring city. So sometimes, what we do can spark a new passion in young people.

[Lots of different coloured cans of spray paint fall from the sky.]

Guillaume: When you have fond memories, when you feel a sense of belonging to your youth centre, to your community, I believe that it can have an impact on the career you choose to pursue outside of the city.

[The Polaroid of the youth centre reappears. A line of spray paint advances toward the camera and then moves past two other Polaroid pictures.]

Guillaume: For me, what I went through as a teenager, I didn’t have trouble at school, but I also wasn’t very motivated either. What interested me was everything that was happening outside of school.

[A can of spray paint appears in the centre of the screen. Animated hearts fly up from the can.]

Guillaume: So yes, I think that having the youth centre inside the school, but also in the community, is motivating for certain young people, this I’m sure of.

[Piano music resumes.]

[A photograph of Guillaume.]

[On-screen text: Guillaume Rodrigue, Maison des jeunes l’Olivier des Etchemins]

VO CONCLUSION

Narrator: Are you inspired by Guillaume Rodrigue’s story? Listen to the other episodes of the series, Beyond the Classroom…

[On-screen text: This project was made possible by The Desjardins Foundation Prizes.]

Narrator: ...to learn about other initiatives from winners of the Desjardins Foundation Prizes.

[On-screen text: We’d like to thank all the teachers and educators who help young people shine.]

Narrator: Whether you’re a teacher, an educator or a parent, thanks for being involved with young people. You make all the difference.

[Music ends.]

[Desjardins logo]

[End of transcript]