Over the past month I've had the real pleasure of interviewing almost all of the finalists from the 2010 Governor General's Award for Excellence in Teaching Canadian History.

Right from the first year that I was involved with the program, I was struck by the how genuine and interesting the recipients were. You really would have a hard time finding a nicer group of six people.

So a few years ago we started doing video in the classroom with the six recipients, but that really didn't seem fair considering the tremendous depth of the competition.

So this year, with our new website in tow, we've conducted interviews with many of the recipients, and the results are similar to the video. Again I was struck by how willing all of the finalists are to share their experience and to pass on their knowledge.

Which got me excited when I was thinking that we have nearly 20 interviews and probably more than three hours of interviews recoded. It's a unique primary source on how history is being taught in Canada at the moment, in the voice of real teachers.

It's not only an exciting resource to inspire new teachers to what can be accomplished in the classroom, but one that will provide insight into what inspired teachers at this time.

It's ironic in a way, because in the past we simply displayed a lesson plan on the website. But isn't that the same as putting up a text book in front of a student and asking them to read it. It's something we never would expect from any of these recipients.

I'm planning on introducing them each a little more personally over the coming weeks. But take a look through the interviews here (anyone with a link has an interview) or browse through them on the homepage.