Gary Simons

Recipient of the 2003 Governor General's Award for Excellence in Teaching Canadian History

June 3, 2010

Thousand Islands Secondary, Brockville (Ontario)

Gary Simons is a 25–year veteran with a reputation for innovation, student success and making Canadian history come alive. His senior students engage in history debates, role–play and computer simulations. Through a family budget analysis, Gary's students realize the gravity of suffering experienced by people in the 1930s. In “Men of Courage: World War II Computer Simulation,” students experience the war as a Canadian soldier, sailor or airman. In “Native Peoples Survival Simulation” the hardships faced by early native peoples are made relevant through analysis of a similar modern–day scenario.