Teacher lauded for virtual classroom

BY JENNIFER HOEGG

Kings County Advertiser

Jason Fuller has a “dream job” teaching three Grade 12 biology courses at Horton High, but a big part of his work reaches beyond the Greenwich school’s walls.

Fuller’s work in a virtual classroom was honoured in October by the Prime Minister’s Awards for Teaching Excellence. The Acadia graduate received a certificate of achievement and a $1,000 prize.

Fuller teaches to advanced placement biology and to students at smaller high schools in the area with the help of the internet. The Kentville resident’s “virtual” class meets “twice a week online, and twice a month we meet (at Horton) in the lab.” Advanced chemistry, human geography and calculus are also offered virtually in the Annapolis Vallery Regional School Board (AVRSB) “because smaller schools didn’t have the critical mass to offer the courses.”

Via the distance course, a scattered group of interested students meet up with their peers, online and in the lab.

Fuller brings his distance students together twice a week with help of Moodle, a web courseware tool. Students use headsets, microphones and keyboards at their schools to “communicate, collaborate and cooperate.” This semester, he has nine Horton students and eight distance students taking AP Biology 12. “This award is not just for myself, but an award for all of us in the school board. It speaks volumes for this program the AVRSB has supported.”

According to the nomination, Fuller not only has a “passion for biology,” he “stresses the importance of students’ developing hands-on, people and teamwork skills, as well as scientific literacy.” As well, a board official lauds Fuller in the nomination for his professionalism and his ability to excite students about learning.

More meaningful than the prize itself, Fuller says, is having been nominated by pupils Sarah Sauvé, Michael Trites and Nicholas Humphreys. “It is very rewarding that it was initiated by students. “We often wonder as moderators of distance learning classes if we’re making an impact. (The student nomination) to me was the prize: I know I made an impact.”

Modestly, Fuller says there are many equally deserving teachers and he works with “outstanding and talented educators at the school, board, department and community level. “It is, in many ways, a team award because - and I can only speak for my profession - where we get in our jobs is thanks to individuals who have been there when I needed them to be.”

Through his nine-year career, Fuller has taught math, agriculture, human biology, computers, resource and science; he’s happiest in his current position, surrounded by beakers, computers and keen students in the biology lab. “We have a lot of talented kids in this board; their commitment is outstanding.”