John Senisi

Year: 2017 – Province: Ontario

Certificate of Achievement Recipient

John Senisi

St. Jean de Brébeuf Catholic High School
2 Davos Road
Vaughan, Ontario  L4H 2Y1

Principal: Rocchina Antunes
School telephone: 905-851-3259
School email: sjdbh@ycdsb.ca
School website: N/A

Subjects and grades taught: Grade 9, 12. Visual art, photography

Integrating arts subject matter across other disciplines to design large projects that will ultimately benefit the community, John Senisi shies from convention and encourages students to create partnerships that connect them to the real world.

Teaching approach

In Senisi's classroom, student ideas and opinions are not only valued but encouraged. Senisi serves as a resource in a collaborative company-style environment, where students take charge of their own learning and develop skills to support one another.

Outstanding achievements

  • Senisi regularly demonstrates the relevance of a subject to society by enhancing classes with demonstrations, tours and discussions with city councilors, members of parliament, photographers, graphic designers, community activists and more.
  • Students participate in developing creative projects and exhibitions like producing documentaries of various conservation areas for publication on their YouTube channel.
  • Senisi's students created the Vaughan Retrospective and used historic photographs from the City of Vaughan Archives, City Clerk's Office, to match the location in their chosen historic image with the present day geographical location. The project won an international Apex Award for Publication Excellence.

Rave reviews

"John teaches with passion, commitment to his students and to our school and he loves his job! He was born to teach, inspire and collaborate with kids. John works tirelessly to create a challenging, encouraging environment for his students"

Nominator and colleague

"While creating art in his class, Mr. Senisi helped me discover my potential. He provided me with constructive criticism, teaching me that learning is an ongoing process, which modelled a lifelong habit of knowledge seeking."

Former student