About 40 people gathered to hear David Mandzuk, dean of the faculty, and Melanie Janzen, associate dean of undergraduate programs, discuss both the advantages and challenges of introducing the new program.

“Today marks a fresh start, a new year, new students and many new opportunities to do things differently,” noted Mandzuk in his introduction.

“Today’s launch also marks yet another milestone in the Faculty’s history. The last time a new B. Ed. was launched was back in the late 1990s.”

The new program, said Mandzuk, will run concurrently with the old B.Ed. program this year, meaning Year 1s will be studying under the new program while Year 2s will continue with the old program.

This will pose challenges, he noted. “We can undoubtedly expect some ‘road bumps’—when those happen, work with us to find a way forward,” he encouraged faculty and instructors.

Mandzuk acknowledged the hard work and dedication of many of the faculty members and support staff behind the scenes in order to plan new courses, “often in new and innovative ways.” He also noted that the faculty has received great support from its educational partners during the changeover.

The dean added that in 2006, the faculty approved in principle the Association of Canadian Deans of Education Accord on Initial Teacher Education and that the principles the faculty committed to are still relevant today in this new program, including: assisting in the development of teacher candidates’ professional identities and teacher agency and helping them to develop an awareness of their professional responsibilities in a changing world.

“Thank you for remaining committed to these principles.”

New program details

Janzen outlined some of the details of the new B.Ed. program—including greater program flexibility, emphasis on teaching to diversity, broader preparation for the K-12 experience, more variety in practicum experiences, more responsiveness to students and more elective space.

Launching the new program is exciting because it provides faculty the chance to do some reinvention, she said, especially in elective courses.

“We should be thinking about what types of electives we want to create.”

And a change to the practicums (each practicum is now a standalone, three-credit hour course) means that those who need to take a leave for medical reasons, for example, do not lose their practicum credit for the practicum they completed in a particular term.

Janzen says the new B.Ed. program also allows the faculty to work more closely with the schools involved in practicums.

“I’m always excited by change—I think it’s very energizing.”

B.Ed. classes officially began on Sept. 15.

Zalis created a full, 90-minute oratorio entitled i believe, based on a holocaust story of “racism, hatred, destruction and hope” and will be presenting his creative thesis performance July 10 at Crescent Fort Rouge United Church. The piece is both a retrospective and prospective “arts-based educational research study” of his musical creation, which he calls “a modern oratorio for empathetic learning.”

The oratorio has been seen by audiences all over the world.

He had originally created the i believe overture piece in 2004 and it has since been shown to audiences all over the world including New York, Toronto and Germany. The three-part creative thesis included a retrospective study of i believe as an example of arts-based educational research and a prospective study of i believe via his work on a sequel to the oratorio called Nostos. (During the July 10 concert, the choir will also be singing one song from the sequel called “Home,” which will be conducted by Zalis.) The third requirement of Zalis’s creative thesis is the public performance itself, which will feature soloists, adult and children’s choruses, strings and piano.

Zalis, who is the music director at Miles Macdonell Collegiate in Winnipeg, first created a 12–minute portion of the musical for the opening of the Arthur V. Mauro Centre for Peace and Justice in 2004 and it grew from there.

“I was taken by the Holocaust in a deeply disturbing manner. I am a history major as well [during undergrad at U of M]. I decided to create a new work based on the Holocaust, human rights and genocide and all those pertinent issues that affect and impact our humanity.  I felt compelled to create a large-scale work that told a critically important story about “us” – the human condition. What I did differently was doing it in conjunction with schools and choirs and the Winnipeg symphony orchestra over three years. The premiere sold out.”

“That essentially was my thesis.”

However, Zalis says he waited several more years—performing the work with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra from 2005-07, and after that in cities including Toronto, New York and Germany—before proposing i believe as a creative thesis with Francine Morin, department head of Curriculum, Teaching and Learning in the faculty and a professor of music and arts education.

“It’s still not a common type of thesis. I wasn’t sure if I was going to come back to U of M. But Francine Morin was there. We had a meeting and I believe she understood me, she advocated for me, guided me. She is simply an outstanding professor and educator.”

The piece is sung in 12 movements that depict the arc of “a holocaust story” as seen through the eyes of two young people, says Zalis. It also includes commentary from the chorus, which represents different communities.

“In addition to that, it’s seen through the eyes of the perpetrators so you get two sides of a story – the heinous and sublime. A callous disregard for humanity versus those saying ‘Oh, why me?’

In one portion, the chorus talks about the horrors of the holocaust.

“What I saw and what I heard

The smell of hell that filled the earth

The cold, the dark, the hunger pains

The cries for help but no one came.”

The story also looks at what happens after liberation. “What now? Will I love again?” is part of one of the solos.

“In other words, putting it all into perspective,” says Zalis.

Performances of i believe are moving, with many saying that ‘It changed my life.’

He notes that since its inception, 25,000 people have seen it and one of the most common responses is “It changed my life.”

“It sounds drastic,” he adds, “but it has happened so often that it makes us think there is something missing in our understanding of the arts as a form of inquiry that can enlarge understanding”.

He says he created the melody to keep listeners humming the songs long after they leave.

“I felt that if this is going to resonate it had to haunt.”

*All proceeds from public ticket sales of i believe will be donated to the Canadian Museum for Human Rights.

i believe will be performed Friday, July 10 at 8 p.m. at Crescent Fort Rouge United Church, 525 Wardlaw Ave.

Tickets can be purchased at McNally Robinson,  University Centre Answers Booth  and Winnipeg Youth Chorus or 204-479-6468.

“There was a real thrust afoot to move from siloed teaching to what is known as design-school teaching, which is more experiential and integrated,” explained Elliott. “The thinking was that the old school, conservative way things used to be taught was unrealistic. In the business world, one decision in finance always affects organizational behavior, marketing and supply chain. Why would we look at these things in isolation?”

With that approach, the curriculum was revamped to provide an innovative program for students.

New students begin the program with online boot camps, designed to teach the basics of Excel and math. These boot camps may seem basic, Elliott says, but they provide a foundation for future learning.

A new course, Critical & Creative Thinking was added, and for most students, this is the first class that they take in the program. “The timing of that is viewed as a really good idea,” said Elliott. “Students get to use critical and creative thinking concepts as they work through the program.”

The school of business has introduced innovative changes to the structure of the Asper MBA. The core courses were reduced to allow for more electives. When designing the program structure, Elliott surveyed business professionals, asking what they would see as valuable additions. New theme concentrations were added in international & emerging markets, sustainability and entrepreneurship & innovation.

“We are one of the most flexible programs in Canada now,” said Elliott. “The flexibility that the program allows you to have with electives, you really can tailor your MBA for your professional goals, but also your personal interests.”

“That really in a nutshell is what’s been big about our new curriculum,” explained Elliott. “The reduced core, the increased flexibility, the novel structure, the themes, and the way it’s set up with the boot camps and Critical & Creative Thinking.”

The goal with all of this change was to produce a well-rounded student experience and well-rounded graduates. Elliott explained that Asper’s close contact with the local business community influenced the design of the program. “We hear from the business community that a student with integrated knowledge works better.”

Moving forward, Elliott continues to search for new ways to provide exciting learning experiences for students. International exchanges, consulting projects and competitions are all being planned.

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition, Feb. 19, 2015.

An excerpt:

History is important. Not just for the sake of filling some time in school. Not just for giving historians something to do. It’s important for us all in our shared journey of discovering moral truth in our world.

Knowing events of the past can guide, inspire, and give us pause to consider and reconsider how we think, feel and act.

Perhaps most important for me is how history allows me to better understand the people with whom I share this world. As Benjamin Disraeli once intimated, history is principally biography — it is the stories of people.

Click here to read the whole article.