Equity, Diversity, and Social Justice at The YMCA Academy

YMCA Academy English and Humanities, Experiential Learning, YMCA of Greater Toronto No Comments

Students from the Academy’s Equity, Diversity and Social Justice class held a Social Justice Fair on Monday to share their research and action plans.

This course, part of the Ministry of Education’s new Social Sciences and Humanities curriculum, has quickly become a vital and popular part of our course calendar. It provides a platform for a wide range of vital learning opportunities, including building empathy, engaging with the community, collaboration, and evaluating information sources.

It’s also the perfect vehicle to reinforce the mission, vision, and values of the YMCA of Greater Toronto, and to reinforce the association’s commitment to diversity and social inclusion.

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Students visit Tattoo Sound + Music

YMCA Academy Community, Experiential Learning, Technology No Comments

As part of a unit on the world of sound, the Academy’s two Grade 10 Communications Technology classes travelled to Tattoo Sound + Music earlier this week.

Dana, Steve, and the Tattoo staff spent their morning conducting an interactive, hands-on workshop for the group. Students learned about the process of creating a rich sonic tapestry, how to get started in the industry, what it’s like to work with major clients, and how the equipment in a professional recording studio works. Then, volunteers from each class got behind the microphones and recorded some foley sound effects for a commercial!

Authentic learning experiences like these are vital and highly engaging opportunities for students to build on and apply the skills they learn in class. The Academy group asked many excellent questions, and were excited to learn that some major musical stars had once graced the very spot where they stood.

But we couldn’t do it without support from people like Dana, Steve, and the Tattoo Sound + Music crew, who opened their doors to the school and took time out of their busy schedules to enrich our students’ learning. You can read more about our commitment to experiential learning here.

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Exploring the Turner Exhibit at the AGO

YMCA Academy Arts, Experiential Learning No Comments

Fierce, eccentric, beautiful. These are some of the words associated with the great British Romantic painter JMW Turner.

The senior visual arts class visited the current AGO exhibition of his later works today, and were treated to a guided tour by an education officer. We discussed the work of his period, sketched our favourite watercolours, and stood in awe at his majestic oil paintings which seemed to emit natural light.

“What I like best about the Turner exhibition was the fact that Turner’s art was centuries ahead of its time,” said one student. “I also like the fact that Turner was the greatest watercolour and oil paint abstract artist. The Turner exhibition opened my eye to a new but yet centuries old way of doing art.”

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Volunteering at Habitat for Humanity

YMCA Academy Beyond the Classroom, Community, Experiential Learning No Comments

On Tuesday November 24th and Wednesday November 25th, Academy students, staff, and a volunteer took part in the Home for the Holidays campaign at Habitat for Humanity.

“Habitat for Humanity GTA helps low-income families build and buy simple, decent quality affordable homes through a no-interest mortgage with payments set at less than 30 percent of gross income. This solution not only helps to provide available housing for families in need, it enables low-income families to build assets, reduce their dependence on other forms of social assistance and break the cycle of poverty.”

The Home for the Holidays campaign is a yearly opportunity for groups of youth to volunteer together at Habitat sites to help finish off houses so that the new owners can move in for the upcoming holiday season. Students at The Academy worked at two locations. One was in the beginning stages of construction and will likely be a series of houses being finished for next December and one was truly a Home for the Holidays as they are just putting the finishing touches on.

On day one the Green Industries class and the co-op class met up bright and early at Wellesley Station and travelled to our build site on Brimley Road. Upon arrival, we met and checked in with our Volunteer Coordinator Brenda and got suited into our safety gears (hard hats, steel toe boots, safety vests, and gloves). We were then given the build site safety speech and we learnt the Habitat Cheer (Oyee, a Swahili saying, which means “we can do it” in English) before starting our shift. While partner families have moved in to the first block of this particular site already, the second block is yet to be completed. And this is where the Academy crew came in to the rescue; the two classes helped paint, trim, and finish the last 9 homes on the second block of the site.

On day two, the Drama class and the Literacy class met up at Wellesley Station and this time headed to the build site on Birchmount Road. Like all the first day, the two classes met with their Volunteer Coordinator Darren, got suited into safety gears, heard the safety speech, and learnt the Habitat Cheer before their shift. As foundations is still being poured at the Birchmount Road site, our tasks were very different compared to the first day. Instead of painting and trimming, our students prepared the work site by stacking flooring joists and lumber in a large tent to keep the rain off as they will be used to frame the four houses next week. We also stacked prepared walls and floor boards. Some students worked on digging a 5 foot hole in the ground for a 300lb post on the corner of the property using a post hole digger. We all worked together as a team lifting heavy 3-400lb items. It was interesting to watch our supervisors calculate the weight of the items and how many people were needed to distribute the weight. They ensured that we kept it under 30lbs per person at all times (Yeh!! Math in action!!)

Despite the hard work, the groups had fun and were happy that we were able to give back to the community by helping families get into their home … hopefully just in time for the Holidays.

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Update: We just got word that the homes that were being painted on Brimley Road will be handed over to the families on December 9th!! These families will be Home for the Holidays!!

Annual Cedar Glen Trip

YMCA Academy Beyond the Classroom, Environmental Stewardship, Experiential Learning No Comments

Cedar Glen 2015 That most wonderful time of year at the Academy has come and gone, but as usual, the memories created will remain for entire lifetimes. We are of course referring to our annual visit to YMCA’s Cedar Glen Outdoor Center. This year’s trip was even more memorable than past years because we were afforded the privilege of going for two nights instead of the usual one night. And with double the nights, comes double the fun.

Day 1

Our extra day at Cedar Glen came about as a result of our partnership with Evergreen Downsview coming to an end as an unfortunate consequence of cuts in their funding. In order to continue our school’s environmental stewardship, we reached out to Cedar Glen and were able set up an entire day’s worth of environmental stewardship working at their on-site farm. Our students spent the day harvesting Kale and small melons, mulching small trees, and removing thistle weeds. After dinner, we were treated to an hour of cooperative team building initiative games and ended the day with a camp-fire where we had the opportunity to eat delicious S’mores.

Day 2 and 3

With the hard work and environmental stewardship under our belts, day 2 was all about fun, games, and activities. Students were split into four groups and went about the property participating in various challenges and activities such as high ropes, low ropes, wall climbing, and maze games. After dinner, students got to partake in various field games, went on a night hike, and once again were treated to a camp fire with treats.

On the morning of our last day we channelled our inner Robin Hoods (or Legolas’ for te Lord of the Rings fans out there) and participated in archery as well as atlatl launching. After throwing the atlatls for distance and aiming the arrows for accuracy, students played an animal survival game, ate lunch and headed back home with another year of fun and memories behind us. We are all hoping for a two day visit again next year.

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Gallery One | Gallery Two