On Friday, November 1, Sophie Giroux, a teacher at Chêne-Bleu high school in Pincourt, was in Lévis to receive an award. Alongside her former intern Nairy Kazandjian from Vanguard school, she was the recipient of the AQUOPS Star of the Year 2024 Award for their joint project S'évader de la Salle de Classe avec l'IA. 

In June 2023, Ms. Giroux was also the recipient of the Prix reconnaissance en lecture, category: Prix pédagogique awarded by the Ministère de l'Éducation. It's not the first time her work has been recognized at the provincial level. At the time, she was passing on her knowledge to students at Cité-des-Jeunes in Vaudreuil-Dorion. Since September 2024, she has been teaching at Le Chêne-Bleu in Pincourt. 

The Étoile de l'année 2024 award is presented by the Association québécoise d'utilisateurs d'outils technologiques à des fins pédagogiques et sociales (AQUOPS).

For its part, the S'évader de la Salle de Classe avec l'AI project teaches students the ethical and responsible use of artificial intelligence tools to design their own escape games, offering an immersive and enriching classroom experience.  “The project also allows us to talk about the good side of artificial intelligence, and to discuss it with young people.We're talking about the positive sides of this new technology, and also about using it ethically and responsibly.When used in the right way, Chat GPT can be a great learning tool.”

Ms. Giroux sees this distinction as a great encouragement to continue her efforts in creating fun and stimulating school materials. “The award was presented to us at a gala held at the Club de golf de Lévis in the presence of the Minister of Education, Bernard Drainville. The evening was hosted by Andrée-Anne Daneau. We received a trophy and a $500 bursary for Chêne-Bleu high school. We're very grateful to have received this award. It's a great incentive to keep up the momentum and continue creating educational projects to be shared with all schools in the province,” she comments. 

Last September, Ms. Giroux also won a prize awarded by the Fédération autonome de l'enseignement in connection with the Héros 2024 competition. 

Changing the world of education  

Ms. Giroux makes no secret of the fact: the aim of the activity books she designs in collaboration with colleagues is to change the world of education.  “Twenty years ago, I was working as a special education technician in a withdrawal room in a school. I looked after students who couldn't stay in class because they had different problems. One of them told me he found school flat and showed me his textbooks. I realized that he was right and that his notebooks weren't motivating enough. So I decided to go back to school to do my bachelor's degree in teaching and create my own school materials. It's important to encourage and support school perseverance that young people can learn with interesting materials,” she shares. 

In 2009, Ms. Giroux graduated as a high school teacher. In 2016, she co-wrote two activity books with a publishing house. The project was a great success, and the material was used in several schools around the province.

In 2020, she met Nairy Kazandjian from Vanguard School, who became her intern. Together, the pair co-created six projects.“We created material on vaping that was 115 pages long.All our projects are turnkey and can be used as is by teachers.We always try to make the subject interesting and educational.For the S'évapes de la Salle de Classe avec l'IA project, we collaborated with Learn Québec, which will enable us to take it even further,” she says.  

A project that makes its mark in the second language

Over the next few weeks, the S'évader de la Salle de Classe avec l'IA (Escape from the Classroom with AI) school material will be translated into French, and will be at the heart of an educational pedagogical project. “Basically, it's in English. It will therefore be translated into French and offered free of charge to teachers and students as part of their learning of French as a second language. For our part, our high school will be at the heart of a language exchange involving our material with Westwood Senior High School, located in Hudson, in March 2025. It's going to be a lot of fun.” 

In concrete terms, as part of this initiative, French-speaking students at Chêne-Bleu will discover the games of their English-speaking peers, and vice versa, reinforcing their language skills and intercultural understanding in an authentic context. Teachers wishing to organize a language exchange can take advantage of funding from the PÉLIQ-AN Québec program, which covers transportation costs and all necessary materials.

In April 2025, the material will also be donated and presented at the AQUOPS conference, attended by many of the province's teachers. “Teachers who can't attend will be able to access the material on a dedicated website.They will be able to purchase them through this transactional platform, and schools will then be able to reimburse teachers who have purchased them,” she concludes. 

The material will also be presented at the Sommet du Numérique en Éducation in May.