May. 11th, 2012 – TEDxYMCAAcademy Details

Dear Parents / Guardians and Students,

Just a reminder that tomorrow (Saturday – May 12th) is our 2nd TEDx event – The Heart and Soul of Learning Disabilities.  It takes place at the Central Y Auditorium (20 Grosvenor Street, Toronto) from 10am to 2 pm.  If you are still interested in attending but have not registered for it, please visit:  http://www.tedxymcaacademy.com

If you are unable to attend in person, the event can also be viewed live at (the streaming starts at 10am):  http://new.livestream.com/tedx/events/875960

Apr. 27th, 2012 – Walk for Strong Kids Campaign

On April 26th 2012 The YMCA Academy staff and students joined the Family Development Centre’s childcare kids on their BIG walk in support of the YMCA Strong Kids Campaign!!  Thank you to Scholar’s Choice for sponsoring the YMCA Walk for Strong Kids!

Our walk began at 9:30 am on Breadalebane St. We travelled in a parade of singers and banner holders down to College St then up Bay St to Grosvenor St – ending our procession in the Central YMCA gym for bouncy castle fun.

Thank you to all our volunteers and supporters. What an amazing event!

Check out the rest of the pictures on our Facebook Page!

Apr. 10th, 2012 – The Academy Summer Institute

The Academy Summer Institute 2012

 

Much of the outreach I do personally on behalf of The YMCA Academy, and much of the outreach through our website and social media, focuses on data. We collect a great deal of data as required by the Ministry of Education, and a great deal of other data as well — on social determinants of health for adolescents. Because of this, we legitimately claim considerable success with our students — take a look.

As teachers and administrators, we are asked every day how we do what we do. Most often, we are asked by teachers who work at mainstream schools, not those who specifically serve an LD population. Answering that question has formed the impetus for our creating The Academy Summer Institute 2012 — to share our successes working with students with learning disabilities and learning style differences.

When you consider it more closely, though, almost every teacher in the world serves a LD population to some degree in each of his or her classrooms. The techniques and ideas we will demonstrate and share really come down to excellent teaching. You will find that what we do here at The Academy is fully relevant in all classes for all students.

So the Institute was born naturally, out of inquiry, curiosity, and demand. Our goal is to convene a really talented group of people this August here at The Academy.

It’s a conference with an “unconference” component because we want the dynamic of small groups to drive some of the curriculum at the institute.

We firmly believe in having people walk away with tools they can immediately use. That also explains timing of the Institute – August 23 and 24, 2012. The ideas and techniques generated there can almost immediately be put to use in the classroom.

We look forward to seeing you this summer. Space is limited to 200, so I encourage you to act quickly! For more information, please visit our website. To enroll, click here.

Don Adams, Ph.D
Head of School, The YMCA Academy