#Clair2020, almost like you're there

I take you with me to the annual conference Clair - See education differently. Here are some great moments that I retained from the 2020 edition of this New Brunswick meeting which seems to have the gift of transforming all those who pass there!

As a media partner, L'École branchée captured some key moments of these three days on the spot. I wanted to prepare a very formal, fact-based article first, but quickly realized that this was impossible. So I'm going there in a more personal way to share my experiences and highlights with you, in addition to contextualizing the interviews we conducted live. It was my 4th participation. 

The opening protocol

Thursday evening is the official ceremony, where the opening speeches follow one another. I learned from it that the New Brunswick Minister of Education and Early Childhood, Mr. Dominic Cardy, wants to make this education system the best in the world, nothing less!

Also, these words of the Director General of the Francophone North West School District really touched me.

In the creative lab

To start the day on Friday, we visited the creative laboratory of the Haut-Madawaska Learning Center, a place where students can come and create beyond their imagination. Moreover, many of them presented their projects to us.

Moreover, the young Luca and Nathan proudly present their home automation project to us. 

A visit from the NB Minister of Education.

We had the opportunity to chat for a few minutes with Mr. Dominic Cardy, Minister of Education and Early Childhood of New Brunswick, which values the work of teachers with young people. He emphasizes the importance of allowing them to take risks in order to achieve themselves. 

Challenge met for a first participation!

We asked Frédéric Côté, mathematics teacher at Séminaire St-François that we already have met in his class here, what he thought of his first experience in Clair. Moreover, he had been challenged to say during his interview "Victoria curling club" and "my boyfriend Dave." See if he made it 🙂

The rich opportunities for discussion during the barcamp

During the barcamp, a session where premises are made available to participants so that they can get together and discuss subjects that they have previously chosen and announced, Manon Richardson, teacher at the Camille-Vautour school, located in Saint-Antoine not far from Moncton, talks to us about the interest of following the progress of the learning of its students with a entrepreneurial educational approach.

At the end of barcamp, my colleague Maxime and I share our impressions and observations following the discussion we have conducted around media education. 

A highlight: the Ignite session

One of the highlights each year is the Ignite session, where 6 people take turns on the stage for a quick presentation of 6 minutes 20 seconds top time (with 20 slides of 20 seconds each) on a given theme. This year the theme was: What shall we do now? 

The entire session: 

Right after, we caught the 6 still feverish presenters! Natacha Vautour, Maxime Pelchat, Guy April, Mélanie Bronsard, Philippe Picard and Gérald Arsenault share their impressions and emotions with us.

Talent to spare!

Saturday morning is the conclusion of the event. It was André Gobeil, director of the Cégep de Chicoutimi, who woke up the crowd in him by eye-popping innovation and education side. 

We met him when he left the stage. 

Immediately after this stimulating testimony, a musical interlude allowed participants to discover the talent of Myra Auvergnat-Ringuette, 1st year teacher at the Externat St-Jean-Berchmans in Quebec, who agreed to replace (45 minutes from notice!) a sick student. Here is her performance, where she played one of her personal compositions (created following her stint at Clair last year)… then her reaction!

Touching farewells

Just after the break, it was Éric Tremblay, grade 6 teacher, who gave a very vibrant testimony on his journey, his mistakes, his thoughts and the pursuit of his personal happiness. He concluded by announcing his official “retirement” from the public scene, he who wrote for the blog of teachers at the Journal de Montréal, was a columnist for the program Entrée Main at Radio-Canada, editor at École branchée and much more, in order to devote himself to his educational universe.

To listen without delay: 

See you next year!

Finally, we captured this precious moment with Roberto Gauvin, one of the initiators of the Clair conference, who is also officially retiring at the end of the current school year, and Claudine Dionne, director of the Learning Center. du Haut-Madawaska, during that moment when everyone said goodbye before hitting the road again.

Here you go 🙂