Recipient's Name: Christopher Giesler

School: Southwood Secondary School

Grade: 9, 10 and 11 Geography

Number of Years Teaching: 6.5

Christopher's realization that he wanted to be a classroom teacher came while conducting workshops for students at Environment Canada's museum where he was working for the government. He returned to school to do his Bachelor of Education and then headed to South Korea to teach and travel so he would have first hand knowledge and experience to bring to his students. He strives to show his students that there are opportunities in one's life to do amazing things and that there are many possibilities to go further with geography.

Christopher is constantly taking his students out into nature to help to provide ownership for students as well as many creative learning opportunities. In his grade 10 Sustainable Living course he provides his students with challenged based learning so they can further understand their place in the solutions around environmental degradation and climate change.

Christopher loves a day of teaching when the students are almost running the show a day where their interests spark his interests

Two of Christopher's students nominated him. Mallory and Jessi wrote:

Mr. Giesler cares about our education and wanted to make sure we had every possible opportunity to learn about geography. He achieved this by introducing two new courses at Southwood. One of the courses helps us understand why the world is important and why it is our job to take care of it; to help us do the right thing. His largest contribution has been through creating the Environment Team. This is a group of about 20 dedicated students who feel passionately about the environment. He challenges the group to come up with creative ways to inspire and motivate students of Southwood to be proactive and excited about the environment. Mr. Giesler helps guide the students in making changes.

Mr. Giesler is laid back and very approachable making him easy to ask questions to. When students aren't afraid of being wrong or making a mistake they contribute more. He is so full of knowledge that class is exciting and never boring because he can teach beyond the text book and adds interesting extra facts and experiences.