Le C-FIER: Responsible interactive and environmental training center

By Annie Pelletier and Julie-Soleil Leclerc Tremblay, educational advisers  
Fleuve-et-des-Lacs Service Center (CSFL)

A team of inspired interveners, teachers taking the posture of learner, a committed community, these are the three ingredients needed for school life to continue in St-Elzéar, in the Témiscouata region. 

In spring 2019, with 11 students, the small Parchemins school was doomed to close. Supported by the CSFL educational services team, the community then made the choice to mobilize and get involved in saving the school in his village. The community therefore takes the matter in hand and sets foot in the world of education. She wants to participate in the development of her next generation.  

Following consultations, renovations, development chores and investments on the part of the community and the School Board, the C-FIER of St-Elzéar takes shape in the fall of 2019. The students are there. encouraged to mobilize as learners and innovators. The teachers appropriate the principles of a conscious entrepreneurial pedagogy and dare to take different approaches. They also make their nest in a differently equipped school, allowing for decompartmentalization and flexibility. Precious time is also reserved for them at each cycle to consult and plan together, with the help of the administration and educational advisers. The team also decides to take advantage of Idée Éducation entrepreneuriale's expertise and receives bi-monthly support. 

The children immediately forged their place in this new school. Some have experienced a shock in the face of change, others have found themselves there like fish in water. At the dawn of spring 2020, with 18 students, it is interesting to see the progress made by each one, whether it is their understanding of this particular pedagogy, their commitment or even their ideas imagined for innovative projects of conscious entrepreneurship. which children of all ages in our school wear with heart. The priority established for the next three months is to plan the development of the forest behind the school: a fully conscious entrepreneurial idea, since it arises from a need of the community and involves collaboration with various stakeholders such as the forestry group, the town hall, the forestry vocational training center and other partners who ask to participate. 

In fact, what we want for the C-FIER of St-Elzéar, it is the expression of everything that makes learning stimulating and meaningful. Authentic projects, links with the community, outings and learning in nature, new technologies as a lever for learning, everything comes together to respond to the natural curiosity of children and to reaffirm the importance of the village school as a pillar of its community.  

Time is our best ally in the implementation of this project. Trying, making mistakes, sharing and collaborating are the keys in this process of change which is already exciting and mobilizing stakeholders in our school and others in its community.