Monique Cadieux looks to First Nations to inspire students at her Guelph school
The plain grey rock on teacher Monique Cadieux’s desk is a secret tool for teaching students something remarkable — how to solve fights.
The Talk Rock, an idea this Grade 4/5 teacher at Guelph’s Victory Public School borrowed from First Nations traditions, is used to steer young, heated tempers through the kind of respectful discussion that can bring them to a solution — often on their own.
It’s just one way this former social worker’s classroom nurtures children’s souls and social skills, collaboration and confidence, as well as the curriculum.
The focus on student mental health — from teaching kids to “change their mental ‘scripts’ from negative to positive," to posting the five steps of collaboration on the wall — has won her an Honourable Mention in this year’s Toronto Star Teacher of the Year Award.
“I don’t have rules as much as questions like, “Does your behaviour respect our learning environment?” said Cadieux, who brought her anti-oppression training from working in women’s shelters with her 15 years ago when she became a teacher.
While she is not First Nations herself, she said many of the teachings fit her focus on respect, and she starts each year with a smudge ceremony where students wave cleansing sweet sage smoke over them to cleanse their minds and hearts to prepare to learn.
When students have a disagreement, they take the Talk Rock, made of quartz, granite, mica and feldspar, to a table outside in the hall and use it to talk things through.
“Only the person holding the rock can speak, and they pass it around the circle once so each person can have their say and others listen, then pass it around again so they can respond to what was said, and on the third pass they try to reach a resolution and maybe an apology,” Cadieux said one day recently, before taking students outside for a version of Quidditch dodgeball she adapted from the Harry Potter books.
“She teaches in a very unique way; she’s very specific,” said Keon Nguyen, 10. “We do fun activities — we love yoga! And the smudge ceremony is very calming; it makes you feel like you can respect others.”
Justine Dainard was one of several parents who nominated Cadieux for the Star award.
“Monique offered her students a powerful taste of how rich Canada’s aboriginal culture is, which is what young Canadians should always be learning but is especially crucial at this point in our history.”
This fall, Cadieux has arranged to have her class train as budding film critics by being the ones who choose the short children’s films to be shown at Guelph’s upcoming Festival of Moving Media. They’ll view the entries, discuss their message and artis-
“Monique offered her students a powerful taste of how rich Canada’s aboriginal culture is, which is what young Canadians should always be learning.” JUSTINE DAINARD NOMINATING PARENT
tic merit and decide which ones make the cut.
It’s one of the many “extras” Dainard cited in her nominating letter. Cadieux pinch-hit for the librarian when she was on leave, and launched book clubs, held daily storytimes and ran a book fair.
She also has created an annual schoolwide enrichment festival one afternoon a week for several weeks where parents and community members come in and share their expertise with multi-age groups of children, from making jam to Lego robotics, calligraphy to claymation.
Says Dainard: “Monique Cadieux is one of those teachers former students will speak about for decades every time they remember the people who made a difference in their lives.”