Teacher wins national award
Retiring teacher at West Kelowna middle school recognized for excellence in teaching sciences
There’s nothing quite like being welcomed by a two-metre-tall, blue-andred robot named Photon. “He greets all my students as they enter the classroom,” said teacher Daniel Massey.
“I’m sure he’s not the reason I won the award, but he’s part of it.”
Massey, a math and maker Grade 7 and 8 teacher at Constable Neil Bruce Middle School in West Kelowna, is referring to the Prime Minister’s Award for Teaching Excellence in the STEM category. STEM stands for science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
He’s one of only two teachers in B.C. to be so honoured.
The other is Lisa Hitch, a Grade 8 French and drama teacher at Sunrise Waldorf School in Duncan.
The award comes just in time for Massey. He’s retiring at the end of this term after 31 years in the classroom.
“And to think, I didn’t really want to be a teacher,” said Massey.
“I wanted to be a mechanical engineer. But I really achieved both because as a math and science teacher, and most recently the maker teacher, we’ve built robots by integrating technology into making things.”
In fact, for his final year of teaching, Massey designed the school’s maker curriculum for Grade 7 and 8 classes.
Just as the name indicates, the maker class has students make items using technology and traditional materials.
For instance, 3D printers, microprocessors and other electronics and die cutters are used to make everything from a simple decal or Tshirt to a robot that can play soccer or rescue someone in distress.
Massey also builds robots as a hobby, which is how Photon came to be in the classroom.
His passion for robots and helping students means his teams of robot-building pupils always do well at the Western Canada RoboCup competition at Okanagan College.
“The librarian here at Constable Neil Bruce (Dayna Hart) submitted my name for the Prime Minister’s Award a long time ago,” said Massey.
“I didn’t expect to win and had forgotten all about it when word came this week that I’d won.”
The submission pointed out that Photon the robot in the classroom is evidence Massey never lost his sense of play.
He is also successful in engaging teens with the use of technology and the sense of accomplishment they feel when they build something from scratch.
While certainly an advocate for fun, Massey is also practical, pointing out to students that integrating math, art, science, English and technology to build things and solve problems are all skills useful in real life.
He’s also involved in a school district-university-community thinktank to discuss the future of technology in education and embedding technology into all curriculum.
What’s Massey going to do in retirement?
Build more robots, of course.