Governor General visits the Academy

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

On Friday, The YMCA Academy welcomed a very special guest: Canada’s Governor-General, the Right Honourable David Johnston, visited the school while on a tour of the Toronto Central Grosvenor Street YMCA Centre.

The Governor-General visited a Civics class and chatted with the students about Canada’s government, his memories of school days, and a recent trip to Alert, Nunavut.

Unique experiences like these have a discernible impact on learning; the Civics students are still buzzing about the Governor-General’s visit, and Monday’s class was filled with insightful questions about the structure of Canada’s government.

Grade 9 English – Y News

YMCA Academy English and Humanities, Experiential Learning No Comments

As part of their culminating assignment, the Academy’s Grade 9 Locally Developed English class created “Y News” — a student-created newscast.

Students used their research, planning, writing, editing, speaking, and collaboration skills to create the finished product. They were rightly proud of what they achieved; presenting a creative challenge is a great way to reach new heights as a learner. “I learned how write a newscast and to speak better,” said one student newscaster. “I learned that not too speak fast. I also learned about ideas that came into my head, and I found that I became more creative for the newscast.”

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Celebrating success at the Talent Show

YMCA Academy Arts, Beyond the Classroom No Comments

In what’s become an annual tradition at the Academy, we celebrated the end of the 2015 portion of our academic year with an all-school talent show. Student performers sang, danced, lip-synced, played instruments, screened short films, and even demonstrated their culinary skills.

The Talent Show has become a crucial community-building event for our learning community. Several performers (and one of the three MCs) were new students in September, and the Talent Show was a great opportunity to make new connections. It’s also a great showcase for the school’s expanding arts department —not to mention the perfect way to say goodbye in style to the 2015 portion of the school year.

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Grade 9 English – Handprint Mural

YMCA Academy Arts, Native Studies No Comments

Jim Adams, recent recipient of the Ontario Arts Council’s Aboriginal Educator in Schools grant, spent a week with our grade 9 English class. He shared amazing stories of creation, his personal experiences and other themes and taught us all how important stories are to our past, present and future.

We created a shared story through images, art and words on a mural, beginning with the most unique part of ourselves: our handprints!! Thanks Jim for an amazing experience and we hope you come back again soon.

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Equity, Diversity, and Social Justice at The YMCA Academy

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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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