Marc Lalonde
Year: 2008 – Province: Ontario
Certificate of Achievement Recipient
School: Plantagenet Catholic High School
6150 County Road 17
Plantagenet, Ontario
K0B 1L0
Principal: Sylvie Labrèche
School Telephone: 613-673-5124
School Fax: 613-673-2294
School Email: ecolenda@csap.ednet.ns.ca
School Website:www.escp.csdceo.ca
Subjects and Grades Taught: Transportation Technology, Grades
9 to 12
Teaching Approach
- By using mechanics as the key to open the academic doors for all students, and especially for students who are having difficulty with schoolwork, works to keep as many students as possible from dropping out.
- Is careful to incorporate a variety of subjects, including French, mathematics and sciences, in his teaching activities.
Outstanding Achievements
- Is in charge of an auto mechanics project in which 80 students take part every year. Starting with a beat-up old car, the team builds a racing car, the "famous number 8,"which the teacher drives over the summer. The students work away in evenings and on weekends, getting the car ready, raising funds and publicizing their project. Some of them can even be found in the pits at the track.
- Won the Cornwall, Ontario, Motor Speedway championship in 2007 and ranked second at the Edelweiss Speedway in the semiprofessional category. Named the 2007 Hero of the Year (education) by Sélection Readers' Digest.
Rave Reviews
"When I look at all of his own time that [Marc] spends with students in the evening, on weekends, during summer vacation, I can seriously say that he is in a class of his own as a role model for them." Teacher
"From then on, something inside me caught fire and I felt a strong desire to go to school – me, who never wanted to get up for school in the morning, now I was spending all my spare time there. … The way Marc was always there for his students can't be underestimated." Former Student