Jack Chapter and World Mental Health Day Assembly

Katie Freeland Community, Events No Comments

One of the newer extracurricular opportunities at the YMCA Academy is our school’s very own Jack Chapter. This high school leadership club was formed in March 2023, and is part of the national network of youth-led groups supported by the Jack.org Chapter program. Jack chapters work “to identify and break down barriers to positive mental health and make concrete change in their communities across Canada.”

On Wednesday, October 11, in honour of World Mental Health Day (October 10), the Academy Jack chapter put on an assembly for the rest of the high school, with help from some students in the senior Personal Fitness/Healthy Active Living class. Here is what the club has written about the day:

The Jack Club is an awesome student-led club, filled with students who spread mental health awareness in everyday life. The main goal of the club is to reduce stigma and increase students’ toolkit of mental health strategies.

The Jack Club planned and put on a mental health assembly a couple of weeks ago. The planning phase involved a lot of problem solving, a lot of opinions, and the use of different organizational skills. The assembly featured both Jack club stations — a hygiene and self-care presentation, an art relaxation station, and a snacks room — and workshops on mental health and food, fitness, and outdoor activities from Jessamyn’s Personal Fitness students. These were followed by a game of Jeopardy.

Students had an opportunity to step into the teachers’ shoes and practice classroom management skills when leading the presentations. Overall the assembly was a fun time; students were eager to participate with some being overly competitive. Jeopardy was hard but exciting. Students were able to answer questions and gain points at the end of the assembly. There was a face off for final Jeopardy between seven students. Three of the final contenders got the question correct (“What is stigma”) and won prizes for their team. The prizes consisted of games, treats, notebooks, stickers, and fidget toys, with the squishy fidget balls being the most popular prize.

Shout out to the Jack members: Evelyn, Maiko, Charlie C., Ella, Fenn, and Ryla, with honourable mentions to Jasper, Lucas M., and Gabby. And thank you to the students in Jessamyn’s fitness class for helping us put together an awesome assembly.

-Katie F and Lareesa

Truth and Reconciliation Week

Katie Freeland Community, Native Studies No Comments

September 30, as we know, is an important new federal holiday, now known as the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. But even before the establishment of the holiday, schools like ours were recognizing Orange Shirt Day. This year was no different in that respect, with numerous activities, both in classes and as a larger group, taking place that week in recognition of the painful legacy residential schools in Canada, in honour of the stories and voice of those impacted, and in hope for a better future born of “truth and reconciliation and justice.”

With our cross-curricular assemblies happening on Wednesdays this year, it was on the morning of September 28 that all high school students gathered together. Leading up to this, students from the Grade 9 Information and Communication Technology in Business class had made posters to advertise assembly and remind students to wear their orange shirts on Friday. On the Wednesday morning, students from three different classes — two Grade 11 First Nations, Métis, and Inuit Voices English classes plus the Grade 10 FNMI history class —- contributed presentations.

The history students presented individual, thoughtful land acknowledgements that showcased their learning about the history of Toronto and the surrounding region, reflecting on their relationship to this land and drawing attention to the past, present, and future Indigenous presence where we live. The English students then presented on poems by Indigenous writers, or read their own poetic creations on the theme of truth and reconciliation, drawing lines and inspiration from what they have been reading. Following the student presentations, most students headed to their choice of rooms to learn more about one of several topics: language, expression, and identity; unequal access to basic services, including health and education, in First Nations communities; or Missing and Murdered Indigneous Women and Girls. After watching a short film highlighting the issue, students discussed and worked on posters that drew attention to several relevant Calls to Action from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. A smaller group spent their time making art for display or decorating t-shirts while listening to music from contemporary Indigenous artists.

But Wednesday’s assembly was not our only special event that week, as several classes headed down to the Indigenous Legacy Gathering at Nathan Phillips Square the next day. By the time students donned orange shirts on Friday, we trust that they did not feel it to be an empty or isolated gesture.

Of course, truth and reconciliation doesn’t end with September. As teachers and staff of non-Indigenous backgrounds, we know that our own learning must continue. At the same time, students in a range of courses will continue to have opportunities to learn about and from Indigenous issues and perspectives throughout the year. In fact, just the following Tuesday, a group of students took part in a two-hour Okichitaw martial art workshop with Indigneous knowledge keeper and Chief Instructor George Lepine. Come back to our blog for more about that exciting activity soon!

Celebrating Forty Years of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms

Katie Freeland English and Humanities No Comments

We love sharing our learning with the larger school community. And just in time to mark an important anniversary in our country, the Grade 11 Law class has created a website to do just that. Our class spent several weeks learning about rights and freedoms in Canada, including the importance of balancing these with changing needs of society and the collective good.

During this time, we also engaged in cross-curricular art activities with the Grade 9 Visual Arts class, in which students from both classes created artwork to express “What freedom and equality under the Charter look like to me…” Some of this art is also included on the site!

The following was written by Grade 11 students Max C and Nathan M, on behalf of the Understanding Canadian Law class:

In 1982, Pierre Elliott Trudeau had a bold vision. He not only wanted to patriate Canada’s Constitution from the United Kingdom, he also wanted a Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms included in our Constitution. A charter that would guarantee and enshrine our rights and freedoms for all time into the most important document and the supreme law of our country, the Constitution of Canada. But this wasn’t only one leader’s vision, it was the culmination of decades of work by so many people that wanted to have our rights and freedoms enshrined in Canada’s Constitution.

April 17th, 2022 marked the 40th anniversary of the signing of the Charter, and it’s been a wild 40 years since this document was brought into the lives of Canadians. While it might have its issues and is often misunderstood by those who want to complain about minor issues, it is still something to live by. It’s a huge part of our lives and important to the nation — and something that should be studied and remembered. To this end, our law class has made a website about the Charter. It goes over a few of the major sections and gives each section its own time to shine. Our site goes into each of these rights and how important each one is. As well, it explains some major cases that shaped these rights, with each page made by a different student in our class. We’ve spent two weeks on this project, so it is our hope that you might find some meaning in these pages made by our class and their sweat and tears. This has been a passion project from everyone, so please enjoy our hard work! Gratias tibi!

Visit the website

Taking Action for Climate Justice

Katie Freeland Beyond the Classroom, Environmental Stewardship, Events No Comments

Nearly three years ago, about 30 students from our school attended the first Global Climate Strike led by Fridays for Future, with several YMCA Academy students even speaking from the podium that day. And since then, we have continued working to empower our students in demanding action on the climate crisis facing our world.

In this spirit, and in line with our commitment to learning that is cross-curricular, experiential, and concerned with social and environmental justice, our students’ learning and activities this past Friday revolved around climate justice. While field trips, assemblies, mixed-grade advisory groups, and cross-curricular learning have long been things that we try to incorporate into our lessons and days, our new schedule of Friday “Flex Days” allows for these to be a regular, consistent part of our students’ learning experience.

To begin the day, students from both the middle school and high school spent the morning learning about climate change, climate justice, and what we might do about these. The presentation and discussion was then followed by a particularly fun, and sometimes messy, activity: sign making for the climate march. In the afternoon, most of the high school headed to Queen’s Park for the youth-led Global Strike for Climate Justice (where COVID-19 health protocols were in place).

We are of course fortunate to be located so close to the action, but we are also lucky to have such a passionate and engaged group of students at our school. At the march, this passion and energy was on full display: from leading chants to taking on the task of carrying the giant inflatable globe creation on loan from Artists for Real Climate Action, all with a combination of enthusiasm, respect, and a willingness to keep learning from the experience. A handful of students remained at the school, but did not miss out on opportunities for action, as they created posters teaching us about young climate activists or wrote letters to government leaders.

Despite the criticism teenagers can get for being materialistic or glued to their devices, or the accusations of not knowing the value of things, many young people are clearly aware of the impacts of unrestrained human activity on the environment, and of how this threatens our very existence. What they may not have learned is to limit value only to that which has been deemed measurable in our economy — and it now seems clear that this is something we should be grateful for. On this day, as on so many others, the students were also the teachers.

Check out more photos from this event on our Facebook page!

Virtual Book Fair

Katie Freeland Events No Comments

This week and next, the YMCA Academy is hosting a virtual Scholastic Book Fair! You — and family and friends — can help support our school and classroom libraries by purchasing books using our unique link. And Wednesday is “family night,” with free shipping to your home on all orders. 

Here are some ideas to make reading a family activity:

  • Plan a regular time for reading (separately, but together), and build it into a habit. Habits take time to form, of course, so be patient but persistent. 
  • Read aloud, or listen together. Young kids are not the only ones who love being read to, although an older teen might prefer an audiobook. Try listening to an audiobook that interests everyone together — at home or in a car. 
  • Make an inviting space for reading. It doesn’t need to be spacious, only comfortable. And ideally, it should provide access to some books! (However, it could also be used for listening.)
  • Check out what others in the family are reading or have read — even if it isn’t what you would normally choose for yourself. A parent might be surprised by how much they enjoy that YA fantasy novel, and a teen might find an essay or book more interesting than they had expected if they just give it a chance. And this also connects to the next point… 
  • Talk about books, characters, newspaper articles, or interesting magazine features together. What was the most interesting thing each family member read about that week? What was something challenging? Or get creative: If a favourite character was at the dinner table with you, what would they eat? 

We hope you find some good books to help get some of these conversations started here!