Cirque du Soleil concludes a partnership with
the Eastern Townships School Board
for its new shows in Asia
MAGOG, September 27, 2007 – The Eastern Townships School Board (ETSB) is pleased to announce a partnership agreement with the Cirque du Soleil to educate young people in elementary and high school traveling abroad with the Cirque. Child performers and children of Cirque du Soleil artists and employees will be able to continue their studies in Tokyo (Japan) and possibly Macao (China), under a pilot project, thanks to the expertise developed by the ETSB in computer-based teaching.
“It is a great privilege for our school board to collaborate with a prestigious organization like the Cirque du Soleil,” said ETSB Director General Ronald Canuel. “The unique expertise of our team of teachers in using new information technologies for teaching purposes and their capacity to respond creatively to the specific needs of students convinced the Cirque du Soleil administration to entrust us with this mandate.”
“The Cirque du Soleil has been offering educational instruction to its young artists and the children of artists while on tour for 13 years now, explains Linda Gosselin, Vice-President of Human Resources for the Cirque du Soleil. The development of permanent shows in Asia, represents a challenge in offering educational services to our youth on site. We therefore had to find an innovative way of teaching our young people while responding to our particular needs. The ETSB offers us a made to measure solution with their virtual school project.
In the initial phase, the ETSB will provide services to a few students on two Cirque du Soleil performance sites, Tokyo in Japan and possibly Macao in China. Teachers at the Eastern Townships School Board will use an approach of blended learning that combines traditional in-class leaning with online learning.
In concrete terms, students will receive four to six hours of instruction per day, depending on their individual needs and program requirements. Always in the company of an onsite educational assistant, the students will learn online with a regular ETSB teacher in real (videoconference, chat, etc.) or differed time (discussion forum, e-mail exchange, tutorial, etc.).
A pioneer in Canada in the integration of new information technologies and communications into education, the ETSB implemented in 2003 its Enhanced Learning Strategy whereby each student in each of its institutions — from Grade 3 to Level 5 – received a laptop computer.
This innovative approach has three main objectives: to enhance student achievement; empower the teaching personnel in the elaboration and implementation of programs of studies and to implement a pedagogical solution

that is both flexible and accessible and that will stimulate the imagination of young people, encouraging them to strive for excellence. Results observed to date indicate increased student performance in reading and writing while school absenteeism and behaviour problems have decreased significantly.
“The program being implemented for the Cirque du Soleil will be an exceptionally fruitful distance education experience that will enable us to develop and enrich our expertise to an even deeper level, for the benefit of both our teachers and students. Quality of education as a whole at the ETSB will improve,” explained Mr. Canuel.
The ETSB’s Enhanced Learning Strategy is now entering a new phase with the implementation of the Global Learning Circle with the goal of sharing the school board’s unique expertise in using information technologies for instructional purposes.
“Our goal is to help other communities face the educational challenges of the 21st century,” said Mr. Canuel. “We can be useful on two fronts: by sharing our know-how in terms of using laptops in class with institutions both near and far, and by providing direct teaching services to students using the internet thanks to teachers skilled and experienced in using the new technology in their educational practice. We are therefore in a position to provide quality educational services throughout the world to organizations that include young people at the elementary and high school level, as is the case with the Cirque du Soleil.”
The Eastern Townships School Board program with the Cirque du Soleil is set to begin in October.

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Source: Eastern Townships School Board (www.etsb.qc.ca)
Information: Sharon Priest
priests@etsb.qc.ca
819-868-3140
Media relations : Roch Bilodeau
Phare Communications
rbilodeau@pharecom.ca
819-347-7622