Oct 15th, 2012 – Canadian Shoreline Cleanup

YMCA Academy Environmental Stewardship, Experiential Learning

On September 21, 2012 the entire school participated in the Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup.  This year we focused our efforts on cleaning a section of shoreline along the Don River in E.T. Seton Park.  The Grade 12 Environment and Resource Management class did a great job serving as “ambassadors” for the event – encouraging participation and furthering the Academy’s commitment to environmental stewardship.

We had a great turnout and collected over 100lbs of garbage that afternoon, and you can continue reading to find out the process of the same.  Wildlife sightings included turtles, a rabbit and a fox.  Many students commented that they were able to experience a part of Toronto that they didn’t know existed.  Special thanks to the Ontario Science Centre for donating cleanup supplies and allowing us to use their recycling and waste facilities.

Check out the rest of the pictures on our Facebook Page!

Oct 9th, 2012 – WE DAY Toronto Pictures

YMCA Academy Beyond the Classroom, Community

“We rocked WE DAY!  The grade 10 Comm Tech and grade 11 Media Arts classes were lucky enough to attend this year’s WE DAY celebration.  Over 18,000 Ontario  students jammed the ACC and sang, danced, listened, cheered and kicked off a year of social justice work.  Martin Sheen, Al Gore, Justin Trudeau, Craig Keilburger, Molly Burke, Romeo Dallaire and Spencer West inspired us to look at important global issues and called us to action in our schools, homes and communities.  Jennifer Hudson, Nelly Furtado, K’naan, Hedley and Shawn Desman lifted us up in song and sent us back out into the world to take part in change. “It was amazing because it had very interesting speakers. Volunteering = good times”

Alex, gr. 11 Media Arts.

Check out the rest of the pictures on our Facebook Page!

Oct 5th, 2012 – Academy Feast of Thanks

YMCA Academy Beyond the Classroom, Community, Native Studies

Dear parents, guardians, and students,

Next Tuesday, October 9, the students in our World Religion and Native Studies classes are hosting a special YMCA Academy lunch to celebrate Canada’s Indigenous people at this time of Thanksgiving.  These students are creating educational displays and are bringing in food and snacks to share with our school community and employees of several YMCA departments including Diversity and Social Inclusion.

We would like to offer you the opportunity to contribute to our celebration by sending your son or daughter to school on Tuesday, October 9 with a food or snack item to share.  Any donation is on a completely voluntary basis.

Thank you for your support and have a great long weekend!

Sincerely,

Oct 5th, 2012 – TEDxYMCAAcademy!

YMCA Academy Events, TEDx

The idea behind TED is simple: spread ideas worth spreading.

On October 13th, we at The Academy will inded spread some ideas worth spreading by hosting our third TEDx event, this one under the theme of “Machines and Minds.” You can learn more about the event at www.TEDxYMCAAcademy.com

TED is huge. Every day, 450,000 log on to the TED site. Here’s an interactive map posted just a couple of days ago to show just how broad TED’s reach has become: http://blog.ted.com/2012/09/28/who-else-is-watching-tedtalks-a-visual-map/

The way it works is pretty simple. Over a few hours, we have some really interesting people deliver a talk on whatever they want, as long as it relates to the theme we’ve chosen. We fill the auditorium at the Central Y then have up to a thousand people or so follow our livestream. Later, we post videos of the event on our site and the TED folks watch these. If they really think that one or two are world-class, they post them on their site and that gives our TEDxYMCAAcademy speaker a chance to be seen not by a thousand people, but potentially by hundreds of thousands.

And that’s how ideas worth spreading actually spread.

We think that education should work more like this. Great ideas should become viral ore easily and not get lost in the constant noise of education battles. That’s one of the amazing things about a TED event – it’s not about point and counterpoint, it’s about a buffet of ideas for the mind. You pick and choose what is to your taste.

We’re pretty confident that the event we’re holding on October 13th will be our best one yet. Over the next few days, we’ll finish loading speaker bios to our site. While the event sold out quickly (the term being used loosely, as the event is free), we’ve had many requests for more tickets. While we’re limited by our capacity, please do show up in the auditorium of the Central Y by 09.45 on the day of the event and we’ll fill any and all empty seats. We’ve always been able to accommodate people who show up at the door.

And between now and then, please do spend some time looking at the TED site, get a sense of the wealth of ideas TED speakers share, and a taste of what you’ll be able to sample and enjoy on the 13th.

See you then!

Don Adams, Head of School

Sep 25th, 2012 – TEDxYMCAAcademy, Oct 13th

YMCA Academy Events, TEDx


The YMCA Academy’s third TEDx event will examine the relationship between the concepts “machine” and “mind” as they affect our ideas about the diagnosis and treatment of learning disabilities, differentiated instruction, and assistive technologies.

For details, or to register, visit tedxymcaacademy.com

Oct 13th 2012
 9:30am-2:00pm
15 Breadalebane St. 3rd floor, Auditorium of the Central YMCA