Douglas Hogue: educating from the 'human side of teaching'

Year: 2019 – Province: Ontario

Certificate of Achievement Recipient

Douglas Hogue

Grades 3 and 4
Huntsville Public School, Huntsville, Ontario

"Doug has impressed me with his ability to effectively connect with each of his students. His genuine, fair approach and commitment to high-level achievement when working with all students has become his trademark."  — Nominator

Being authentic, collaborative and caring are at the heart of this veteran teacher's character. Bringing the requisite digital skills into a 21st century classroom, Douglas Hogue, with his grey beard, once black, continues to educate from what he likes to call the "human side of teaching."

Teaching approach

At the heart of Douglas's practice are developing curiosity, making room for empathy, promoting exercise, spending time in the natural world, and collaborating with child-parent-teacher and community learning teams through an honest and sincere approach in which fairness is paramount.

In the classroom

  • Builds an inclusive, safe community no matter the learning challenges present: introduced ideas about the executive functions of the brain, which led to the children becoming more aware of their behaviour and barriers that impeded success, and learning to control themselves.
  • Reaches out to the community to improve the quality of education for his students: local seniors volunteer in class for a few hours each week, reading with and talking to students who struggle with literacy; children seeking to make connections, warm to their gentle demeanour and joy.
  • Ensures students get frequent outdoor breaks each day, finding movement an effective way to motivate students, prime their brain for learning and help with overall attention and organization; each day starts with a series of 12 student-led brain gym vestibular exercises.
  • Uses technology to "level the playing field" for students who struggle with reading and writing, and to challenge others: online guided reading programs feature interactive books at various reading levels and quizzes to provide feedback directly to Douglas so he can monitor student progress.

Outstanding achievements

  • Planned and facilitated with a board consultant a cross-curricular project exploring why people need clean water; students learn about water and environmental protection and, then, based on a research question, create a video, text or performance piece to demonstrate their knowledge.
  • Earned his master's of education, with his thesis exploring elementary teachers' beliefs about teaching reading, so that he could understand their methods and practices, and improve his own.
  • Worked with special education team to implement recommendations from occupational therapy assessment to ensure all students receive assistance to regulate the amount of sensory input they receive, putting multiple accommodations in place.

Get in touch!

Huntsville Public School
16 Caroline Street West
Huntsville ON P1H 2B2
705-789-2318
infohps@tldsb.on.ca https://hps.tldsb.on.ca/
Twitter: @HuntsvillePS