Halloween: Designing a Haunted House!

MJ Duggan Arts, Beyond the Classroom, Community No Comments


Hello we are Sasha and Ryla, and we’re here to talk about the middle schools first ever collaborative project!

Since we are in the month of October we have decided to make and design a haunted house in honor of the upcoming holiday, Halloween. The first thing the middle school class did was brainstorm different themes for our haunted house. We then decided on the themes of this year’s YMCA Academy haunted House which are “World war 2 zombie apocalypse” and “zombie hospital apocalypse”. And for a bonus there will be a tax evasion room! Next, we brainstormed and discussed ideas for the layout of the haunted house. Finally, we began to build! We had some setbacks along the way but we kept on working hard and working together.

Everyone in the middle school class also made sure that the haunted house was safe and socially distanced due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Due to the ongoing pandemic we are only allowing teachers, as well as staff and students in Grade 7/8 to go through the haunted house. Since the high school students won’t be able to go through the haunted house in person our handy dandy photographer and videographer, Lucas M, also known as McChicken, will be taking the high school students on a virtual tour of the haunted house.

Happy Halloween!

Sharing Information about the Toronto Public Library

Katie Freeland Beyond the Classroom, English and Humanities No Comments


With so many of our interactions with other people and places in the city dramatically altered right now, it can be harder to find the community resources that enrich teens’ lives — and support their growth and learning. However, as the Literacy Skills class has learned and wants to share, the Toronto Public Library remains accessible in a variety of ways. And, once we’re able to connect more easily and frequently in person again, there will be even more services and programs for youth at library branches throughout the city. People can also visit Fairmont Royal York Toronto Hotel while they’re at Toronto.

The Grade 9 and 10 students in the class were tasked with collectively creating an informative website for their high school and middle school peers about a few different aspects of the library. Having a whole-school Google Classroom page means that this site is easily shared with all Academy students.

The first step, of course, was to gather the information. And while two of the city’s most impressive branches, the Toronto Reference Library and Lillian H. Smith, are within walking distance of the school, students were not able to visit these this year, so all the information had to be found on the library’s website. Fortunately, the site is filled with information, and gave students a chance to practice some of the reading skills they have been developing. Once they had gathered and collaboratively sorted their notes into different topics, students chose a topic and each wrote a paragraph to inform other teens on the subject. They then pasted and organized their writing into different web pages to create a Google Site, using various text features and graphics to make the information clearer and more engaging for their audience. They may have had a little too much fun with the images, but you can see how they were able to prevent this from distracting their readers too much by checking out their site here!

Virtual Worlds: Minecraft Club Promo Video!

Andras Nagy Beyond the Classroom, Experiential Learning, Technology No Comments

Our Virtual World is now 6 months old! To celebrate we decided to create a short promotional video to showcase all the amazing and creative things our students have built. I am looking forward to what else we will achieve this year as the club has grown significantly since the start of the school year. If you are interested in the history of the Minecraft club you can see some of our previous blogposts.

Minecraft: Building Virtual Worlds – The Origin story of our Minecraft world!
Virtual Worlds: A Home away from Home – Building and Living in a Virtual World during COVID-19 Shutdown.
Virtual Worlds: The Great Wall Initiative – Securing the frontier, and the start of group adventures.
Virtual Worlds: Building a Community Village – How to build a community village and helping new players.

Enjoy the video!

Tapping into the Entrepreneurship Spirit

Luka Ilic English and Humanities, Events No Comments


We are just a week into the Entrepreneurship class but have already covered a wide range of topics. The class consists of a terrific mix of students, some of which already have entrepreneurial experience, and others who bring forth new and exciting ideas to the table.

Thus far, students have completed an entrepreneurial self-assessment, examined the pros and cons of becoming an entrepreneur, and identified essential qualities, skills and characteristics of an entrepreneur. In addition, students presented a brief profile of an entrepreneur of their choice, studied famous Canadian inventors and innovators, watched pitches from the Dragons’ Den show, and explored various different leadership styles.

Things will only get more exciting as students test their leadership skills in fun games and challenges, interview existing entrepreneurs to gain additional insight straight from the source, and develop their very own business plan.

There is no question of the severe impact this pandemic will have on our economy. There are many jobs, businesses, and industries that have been forced to shut down or are barely staying afloat. In some rare cases, there are examples of businesses that were fortunate enough to adapt and stay healthy during this time of crisis. As part of the course, students will analyze the ways in which different businesses have reacted to the change in market conditions.

Socially Distanced “Front to Front” Drawing

Zoe Rutherford Arts, English and Humanities No Comments



Even though during this pandemic we have to be distanced from each other, communication and collaboration are still important skills to be practicing! Last week, the Grade 9 Learning Strategies class learned about interpersonal skills and collaboration. They discussed what interpersonal skills are, why they are important and how we can best practice them (in a safe way!). They also discussed what it takes to be strong communicators and active listeners.

To put these ideas into practice, we did a “front to front” drawing exercise. In non-COVID times, this activity would be done “back to back”…but 12 students in a room with masks on talking back to back would likely be a bit too tricky! Students were paired up and asked to identify as Person A: The Speaker or Person B: The Listener. Person A was given a picture and Person B was given a blank sheet of paper and a (sanitized) pencil.

The rules were that Person A had to describe the drawing to Person B using as many details as possible! Instead of just saying “draw a circle”, they were encouraged to dive deeper and say “draw a medium sized circle, about the size of the palm of your hand in the exact centre of the page”. The catch was that Person B could not talk at all! They had to really listen to their partner and focus on what they were saying in a room filled with other distractions.

Once pairs finished the first round, they then did another and switched roles. After, we had a discussion of what strategies worked and what didn’t. Some students liked being both Speaker and Listener while others were drawn to one over the other. Overall, the activity was a blast and comparing the drawings in the end created lots of laughs. Not to mention, some of them were really accurate! It was nice to see students enjoying themselves and connecting with fellow students, despite the strange times we are in!