During the 2014-15 school year, I was pleased and honoured to receive the Maple Leaf Educations Systems Medal of Excellence and Honour in Dalian, China. 

More than being recognized for my hard work and efforts in teaching at a high school of almost 3,000 students, the award was presented to me by the Canadian Ambassador to China, the Honourable Guy Saint-Jacques.
That was an honour in itself.

     In English 12, one theme that regularly appeared was Dystopia. In an effort to introduce the topic, I created a letter, ostensibly from the administration and with their full permission, that listed brutal, totalitarian criteria for students to continue in English 12 class. 

     These criteria included student seating arrangements according to current marks and those marks would be posted, with students’ full names, outside the English 12 office.

     Students were made to sign the letter on pain of egregious punishment. It was only at the end of class when I would point out that the first letter of the first word of each of the points spelled out the word ‘FASCISM’, and the letter was a hook to capture their attention. After a discussion of their feelings regarding the letter, the upcoming topic was outlined, and I made a plea to the class to not say anything to later classes about the letter. 

     Over the years, I only had one student refuse to sign the letter, and not one student in all of those years spilled the beans to upcoming classes.