Team Unbreakable Virtual 5K!

Rein Tammemagi Community, Healthy Living No Comments
Students participate in last years Team Unbreakable running event
Photo from last years Team Unbreakable event

Well, while this whole pandemic has put a damper on our training it can’t keep determined athletes from keeping fit! The YMCA Academy’s Healthy Active Living classes hit the ground running when the lock down struck and spent the first couple of weeks researching the best ways to keep active during this predicament and constructing plans to keep fit at home. And If I have been led to believe correctly, all of my Healthy Active Living students have been doing just that.

Now it’s time to put our money where our feet are and cap off the year by taking on the Team Unbreakable Virtual 5K. This year, we won’t be gathering in a large group to complete the distance, but rather participants can run or walk 5 km on their own, at their leisure, at any point between 9 am and 9 pm on Father’s Day, Sunday June 21st. It happens to be the perfect way to celebrate your dad! If you feel like joining the team please check out the Team Fundraising Page of YMCA Academy where you can sign up.

I hope to see you all out there! … virtually, of course.

Writing for Change: Advocacy Letters

Katie Freeland Beyond the Classroom, Community, English and Humanities No Comments

Students learning to write Advocacy letters during social distancing

Over the past years, Academy students have been known for making their voices heard in both the school and in the broader community. Whether it’s the Civics class organizing a walkout in support of a current, relevant health curriculum, or several students from our school speaking from the podium at Toronto’s first youth climate rally, they have shown themselves to be eager advocates for their communities, and for a better future.

Of course, there are fewer opportunities to get involved in community action under the circumstances, but students in the literacy skills class have been doing just this by writing thoughtful, persuasive advocacy letters to various leaders and decision-makers. This is not my first year assigning and preparing students for this task, and each time I love to learn what issues matter to them. There is always such a diversity of ideas! Here are just some of the (student-chosen) topics this year:

  • why we should do more to combat racism
  • homelessness and affordable housing in Toronto
  • neighbourhood traffic safety
  • the importance of art, music, and physical education in schools
  • funding for autism services
  • the need for more library branches

In writing their letters, students are learning not only to express and support their opinions in organized paragraphs, but also to write for a real, authentic audience. Moreover, they are learning that literacy skills are not just for school or for getting a job, but can be powerful tools for bringing about positive change. And especially right now, it’s my hope that we can equip them with more of these.

Pasta, cookies and eggs!

Katie Clay Beyond the Classroom, Community No Comments

 

Cooking Club has been busy the last few weeks making a variety of yummy foods. We had a pasta lunch with different types of noodles and sauces, including homemade tomato sauce and alfredo sauce. We got baking and made lots of kinds of cookies from chocolate chip to peanut butter to salted caramel chocolate chip shortbread. And finally, this past Wednesday we whipped up omelettes and other egg preparations with a variety of ingredients.

Students and their families have been enjoying coming together each week to make their meal and see what others are cooking up. There has been a steady attendance of 13 – 15 students each week and everyone is always excited to see each other.

Virtual Worlds: A Home away from Home

Andras Nagy Beyond the Classroom, Community No Comments

 

When we first embarked on this virtual journey there was nothing but wilderness: forests, rivers, canyons, green fields, and wild animals in this new environment. Our virtual world is now 43 days old and has been running almost 24/7 (minus some downtime during classes). The initial week of getting situated and figuring out what we as a community wanted to build was quite structured, we discussed community rules, being a responsible virtual villager, the essentials of settling in a new world (building shelter, respecting borders, sharing resources, etc.) After that initial phase, we removed most of the structured goals and activities and observed what the students would create on their own during club time and on their own time.

It has been an absolute pleasure observing the birth of a vibrant community created by students cooperating, planning, gathering resources and helping each other build whatever they saw fit. I witnessed the creation of not just buildings that acted as shelter, but actual homes – all with unique individual designs and aesthetics. The further I explored I found:

  • Hidden Green Spaces and Community Gardens
  • Sustainable Houses with vegetable gardens and farm animals
  • Intricate road networks for travelling between communities
  • A ‘Sea Turtle’ farm situated in a small canyon water reservoir
  • Industry and Mining areas for resource extraction to build structures from new materials
  • Forges and Workshops to create new and better items for community members

I look forward to seeing what else this community will create in this new world! Next week we will be bringing some more structured goals back, specifically the ‘Great Wall Initiative’ and the development of our community village with public buildings for new players.

Solving mysteries in the land of fantasy

Ada Miller Community No Comments

 

Here lies a land of mystery, intrigue, and adventure. Academy Students have been solving mysteries in this world, bringing wrong-doers to the proper authorities and showcasing their problem solving skills. From a simple case of the wronged party looking for peace, to the most recent foray into mystery, solving the case of a haunted lighthouse.

Each week we’ve been exploring these mysteries and a common theme seems to be occurring, ghosts! Is the party haunted? Unlucky? Or are these spirits drawn to the party because they know that they can count on them to give them the peace they desire? Only time will tell.

While we use traditional Dungeons and Dragons as a club tool, not everyone has access to the tools that make that particular game unique (including rule books and dice). So we had to improvise. We decided that this group will use video calls to communicate with each other and the group. We also decided to use a system that utilizes only traditional six-sided dice and an approach where characters the players play use a simple word based system to showcase what their personas are both good at, and not-so-great at.