Michael Willems. (Photo by Brett Clifton)

By David Opinko

Coaldale’s Michael Willems wins Prime Minister’s Awards for Teaching Excellence

Nov 23, 2021 | 11:15 AM

COALDALE, AB – A Southern Alberta teacher is being recognized for his work in adapting to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Michael Willems has been named the winner of the Prime Minister’s Award for Teaching Excellence – Well-Being and Engagement in Distance Learning.

“Throughout my time as a teacher, I saw first-hand the dedication of Canada’s educators,” said Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in a statement. “Every day, they play the role of inspirational coach, mentor and advocate empowering the next generation of Canadians. I congratulate all the 2021 award recipients who have made significant contributions to our communities during a challenging year, and I thank them and their many colleagues across the country who continue to bring out the best in our kids. Our country is a better place thanks to our educators.”

Willems told LNN that it felt amazing to receive this recognition. His own daughter got to share in the experience in a unique way.

“I got the phone call in front of my daughter, and she’s only two, so she got a very quick lesson that some tears are happy tears and some screams are good screams, so there was much excitement.”

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As part of the Palliser School Division, Palliser Beyond Borders (PBB) had already existed for a number of years as an online, distance learning program. At the onset of the pandemic, classes quickly shifted to an online-only approach.

Willems, a Grade 6 teacher at R.I. Baker Middle School in Coaldale, was approached by PBB to further develop their online programming and expand it across the school division.

“How do we establish an online program that focuses on connection first over anything else? That ties in really well with my own pedagogical beliefs, my own professional beliefs. It was, how can we make this community-focused, how can we make this communal-focused so it’s not just me on a screen talking to kids?”

He ended up teaching over 150 students from many different areas, including Coaldale, Calgary, Las Vegas, and even Nigeria.

There were numerous ways in which technologies and practices were incorporated into his new teaching approach.

Willems offered separate online spaces from the instructional Google classrooms where he and his students could engage with each other. They would play games, share memes, talk about their daily lives and show off their pets, recognizing that “kids need to be kids online, separate from instruction, just like how they would in person.”

He would host weekly and monthly challenges that both engage student learning while allowing them to have fun together.

One thing he was especially proud of was having his students “be the leader” and teach the rest of their class something they were passionate about. Some students lead short courses on coding, while others focused on drawing or dancing.

Because of this strategic direction, Willems said he has seen more engagement from parents than at any other time during his career.

It no longer became a matter of “parents vs. teacher,” as everyone was learning and adapting to the new system at the same time.

“Parents were seeing the effort I was putting in to make sure that their kids were feeling heard, that their kids were feeling supported, that I was there and accessible to them. I had a lot of parents be like, I feel like I just learned a whole new Grade 6 content because I sat in on every one of your lessons just outside of camera.”

Typically, the winners of these awards are flown to Ottawa to receive them directly from the prime minister. Due to COVID restrictions, Willems was informed that they will not be able to host the traditional event, but there will be an alternative of “equal measure.”