As a young student in Zenia Dusaniwsky’s Elementary School art class, Shirley Barnea was putting the finishing touches on a painting of a cat when a splotch of black paint landed exactly where she didn’t want it. She called Zenia over in dismay. Instead of helping her clean it up, Zenia asked what she saw in it. The splotch became a mouse.
Generations of St. George’s students know that moment well. In Zenia’s art room, mistakes turn into possibilities, and every child leaves believing their ideas are worth expressing. This year, Zenia’s incredible career as a teacher earned her national recognition. Zenia has received a National Certificate of Excellence in the 2026 Prime Minister’s Awards for Teaching Excellence, and she is the only recipient from Quebec in this category.
The Teaching Excellence awards honour elementary and high school teachers of every subject who help young people build the skills and confidence to thrive in a changing world. Since 1994, more than 2,300 Canadian educators have received a Prime Minister’s Award. This year, just 60 were chosen from 221 nominations, each read closely by volunteers from Canada’s education community looking for excellence in every part of a teacher’s work.
Seeing young learners as serious thinkers.
Asking Big Questions, Building Real Answers
Zenia has always treated her young learners as serious thinkers. Her curriculum is built on questions most adults would hesitate to ask a five-year-old. In Kindergarten, students explore why humans create art at all, beginning with the cave paintings of Lascaux. In Grade 1, they ask where ideas come from, perhaps sketching sunflowers on the school grounds and transforming them into imaginary creatures.
By Grades 3 and 4, students are debating what makes something art in the first place. The thinking always leads back to making. Grade 2 students build clay characters and sets, then bring them to life with stop-motion animation for a Claymation Showcase. Grade 3 students have used LED lighting and circuitry to create an installation of the Big Dipper as a fisher, inspired by a Cree legend.
“Zenia helps me feel confident in my ideas by telling me that there is no wrong answer in art.”
— Gigi, Grade 4
Zenia guides students through the galleries during a visit to the museum.
Creating Art That Travels the World
Zenia wants students to feel like working artists, so their art rarely stays on the classroom wall. It has filled Montreal storefront windows and been exhibited at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. In the Elementary School entrance hangs a Chihuly-inspired chandelier made entirely from upcycled plastic bottles that every student helped collect and paint.
During Water Week 2024, students examined global water issues and created a collaborative mosaic together. It earned a Special Jury Choice Award in the inaugural reEarth International Art Prize, chosen from submissions representing more than 35 countries. The piece went on to international exhibitions in Auckland and Venice, giving Elementary School students a place in a global conversation about climate action.
“What was so magical for me was that the projects I made in Zenia’s class were new and exciting, things I didn’t know were possible, but they were also always uniquely my own.”
— Shirley Barnea, Former Student
The thinking always leads back to making. Zenia Dusaniwsky shows students how their colourful fish sculptures come together in the Elementary School art room.
Teaching as a Team
Great teaching rarely happens alone, and collaboration here runs both ways. Zenia and her colleagues trade ideas constantly, looking for ways art can deepen what students are learning in other subjects. Often, a new project begins with a conversation sparked by student work on the walls.
Together, they have created projects that cross every subject line. Students have designed masks for a black-light dance with the Physical Education team and programmed dancing robots with our science specialist. With the English Language Arts teacher, Grade 1 students wrote their first piece of the year about the plants they adopted for the living wall in the student entrance.
Zenia is a lifelong learner who loves to share what she learns. In 2024, she attended the Canadian Society for Education through Art National Conference, and last summer she offered a 3-day workshop to educators in the Dominican Republic, sharing some of the incredible professional development that she has partaken in at St. George’s over the years.
That generosity shapes teachers across the school. Elementary School Principal Aidan DeJean first learned from her as a new teacher. When new teachers or student teachers visit, we ask them to spend time in Zenia’s classroom to see expert teaching in action. Fittingly, she was nominated by two colleagues, Teaching and Learning Directors Dani Jansen and Laura Officer.
“She is a constant source of inspiration for faculty members, always willing to share her expertise, which inspires us to think more creatively about our own teaching.”
— Emily Flaherty, Elementary School Physical Education Teacher
Zenia joins colleagues at a teaching workshop.
Teaching Excellence Is All Around Me
Asked about the award, Zenia pointed straight back to the community around her.
“I feel deeply honoured to receive this award. In fact, I was incredibly moved just at the thought of being nominated. Teaching is a team effort. About three decades ago, I had the good fortune to land here at St. George’s School of Montreal, where I work with a phenomenal group of colleagues who mentor, motivate and inspire me daily, and an administration that trusts me in a job that invites me to be creative and playful with my students. It’s astounding to me that I would ever be paid to do this, let alone be recognized for it. St. George’s is special in that teaching excellence is all around me.”
— Zenia Dusaniwsky, Elementary School Art Teacher
That is what this recognition reflects. When teachers are trusted to explore and keep learning from one another, students feel it every day. Somewhere in St. George’s Elementary School right now, a child is looking at an unexpected splotch of paint and seeing a mouse.
