Remember the theme song from Cheers, “Making your way in the world today takes everything you’ve got”?
Well, it strikes me that this thought is truer today than ever — especially so if you are a student with a learning difference and your individual gifts are not recognized by your school.
When you were in school, how often did you get a helping hand just when you needed it? If you did, I’m sure that experience is one that resonates for you still – most of us recall the caring support of an amazing teacher who somehow knew just what we needed exactly when we needed it.
We have worked very hard at The YMCA Academy to design a program and assemble an amazing faculty so that we can constantly give our students such support.
All our students share a common bond: school wasn’t working for them before. Now, it does. Why? Each academic year, every YMCA Academy student receives approximately 1,200 hours of direct support from a caring and fully qualified staff and faculty! We individualize our program for each student, to recognize their individual strengths, and to support their areas of need. We teach our students to learn, to advocate for themselves, and to succeed in the world on their own.
That turnaround is remarkably powerful – it’s like nothing they’ve seen or experienced before!
Come and see for yourself – visits are always welcome!
On Thursday, March 29, 2012, Grade Ten students across the province, including our students at the YMCA Academy, will be writing the Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test (OSSLT). The successful completion of the test is a requirement for any student pursuing an Ontario Secondary School Diploma granted by the Ontario Ministry of Education.
This year we have 11 students writing the OSSLT. This number accounts for nearly 37% of our student body and as such, we require the full support of staff and resources at the Academy on the day of the test. To meet the needs of our students and to provide individual accommodations for those writing the OSSLT, we require additional space and staff support on the day of the test.
For this reason, school will be closed on Thursday, March 29, 2012 for all students who are NOT writing the OSSLT. School will resume with regular classes on Friday, March 30, 2012.
If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact me at the Academy.
Hi, friends. I wanted to take a few minutes today to update you about some of the amazing new things we’ve launched at The Academy this year. It’s a huge part of who we are today and will be tomorrow.
Admittedly, The Academy was one of the best kept secrets on the Toronto education scene for years. Part of the reason is that we’re a relatively small school. But our success in working with high school students with learning disabilities really has been world-class.
For those unfamiliar with the school, we have helped our students to succeed both within our walls and beyond.
But we do much more than that. Adolescent research has summarized 40 specific developmental assets that can increase a student’s life success. At The Academy we strive to increase and support the development in these assets and thus student resilience. A look into just a few of these assets can show the impact of The Academy on students’ non-academic growth:
We understood that the best way for a lot more people to know about who we are and what we do was to do broad school outreach, both in person and through technology. So we’ve done this in both ways this year through several new programs:
TEDxYMCAAcademy: Yes, we have our own piece of the TEDx franchise! Created in the spirit of TED’s mission, “ideas worth spreading,” the TEDx program is designed to give communities, organizations and individuals the opportunity to stimulate dialogue through TED-like experiences at the local level. We had our first even in October with the next one not far away in May. We will very soon be announcing that event.
The Academy Summer LD Institute: As we are a centre for excellence in LD teaching and learning in Toronto, it made perfect sense for us to host a two-day summer institute for teachers. You can learn more about the August 2012 event here: http://ldinstitute.eventbrite.com
Institute for Homeschooling Parents: We realized that many parents who are responsible for the homeschooling of their children face the same issues as teachers do. Yet they are a very under-served population, especially by schools. So we wanted to change that by offering a one-day event in September 2012. Details to soon follow.
LD Drop-In Events: The idea is that one evening a month, we host an open forum. Everyone is welcome and we share information and resources about LD, LD education, and much more. We also provide great coffee and treats!
Parent ED 2.0 Series: These new events happen regularly (every 6-8 weeks) and are a deep dive into a topic for prospective and current parents. Like all of our events, it’s open to anyone in the community who is interested in attending. Our next event in this series is in two weeks, at 7pm on Monday, March 26th. The topic is: Parental Engagement: Solutions-Focused Parent-Teacher Interviews.
Series for Guidance and Special Education Teachers: We had our first event in this new series last weekend and are planning our next one. There has been significant demand to run these as online professional development events so that a larger group of educators can join in. So we’ll try that, as well as the idea of going into another school, running a PD session there, at the same time as live streaming it. Out next event is at 8pm on March 20th. Look for details soon on our website.
Our Teachers in the Community: This one isn’t new, but our teachers have excelled this year at sharing their expertise in the larger community of teachers and learners. A perfect example in Nicole’s and Zareh’s Teaching Games for Understanding work, which you can see here.
New School Video: We’ve had amazing feedback on our new school video – huge thanks to all who were involved in the making of it. If you haven’t seen it yet, it’s on the landing page of our site at www.ymcaacademy.org
Our Website and Social Media: We’ve ramped up to a daily, if not hourly, presence on Twitter and Facebook. Through social media, we’re much better able to connect with constituents and make our mark as a leading school in the LD space not only in Toronto but the world. We have spent a lot of time making our website not only highly functional but dynamic. Every brand’s website is their window to and from the world. We understand this and are working hard to make it the place you’ll want return frequently.
And there’s much more in the works. We’re also very open to suggestions! Our home at the new Education Centre at the Central Y is a beautiful and highly functional space. If you have a suggestion for an event or series, please let us know!
Thank you very much for your time today. I look forward to seeing you here at school soon.
I have been thinking a great deal about curriculum lately. Curriculum – the collection of courses studied at a school, or the collection of courses studied during one’s career as a student
One of my duties as Head of School is to ensure such course collections express the mission and vision of a school – how can it attain its goals through the courses it offers? Traditionally, the focus of curriculum development is on scope and sequence, order of concepts, progression of assessment and evaluation models, and pedagogical approaches.
I think it’s time to make a bold declaration: this notion of curriculum is dead. Curriculum as the source of what you know – well, it no longer is, at least to the extent that it once was. For many students today, AND FOR MOST LEARNERS OUTSIDE OF SCHOOL, what you know isn’t the important issue. Rather, discovering what you need to know, and developing the skills to locate sources of such knowledge, is what is often given the label of “21st Century Learning.”
A case in point – I recently bought my first motorcycle. I tried to put it up on its centre stand, and couldn’t do so. I thought it would be just like putting my bicycle on its kickstand when I was a kid. I couldn’t, though. It was too heavy, and it simply slid on the stand as I pulled back on the handlebars. I knew what I had to discover – how to use the centre stand. Hmmm…nothing in the motorcycle’s manual to help. So I searched YouTube, and immediately found a short video clip showing how to do it. That visual knowledge, along with the audio explanation, was perfect. Back to the Honda, first try – piece of cake.
My 1976 Honda CB400F, on its center stand!
Still, such use of YouTube is very limited. In my example, while the medium is different, the process is still much like finding information in a textbook or encyclopedia. It’s up to me to find the information I need. YouTube, however, is more than just a “post and retrieve” portal. As Peter Skillen (a teacher at The YMCA Academy) demonstrated the other day, it presents a learner with an opportunity to visually represent a problem, and seek solutions from others. This is learning is a social context! Have a look at the following, and you will see what I mean:
In this post, a young learner leverages the social media aspect of YouTube to solicit solutions to his problem — how to start a fire with a bow drill set. He engages a loosely-formed learning network to provide answers to a problem he has creatively expressed visually and verbally.
I think we have to embrace a new educational paradigm. Variations on a cliché will express my meaning:
Original paradigm – “It’s what you know.”
Later (especially espoused by graduates of elite schools) – “It’s not what you know, but who you know.”
Today – “It’s not what you know, but HOW you know.”
Curriculum must focus on how one learns, not just what one learns. A recent series of meetings I attended in Silicone Valley demonstrates how far ahead of the educational curve many tech-related companies are – providing many more ways of knowing than I could have imagined in my days as a student — listening to teachers, copying notes from the chalk board, watching the occasional filmstrip, churning out an essay or report. Since Gardner, of course, we are all aware that intelligence encompasses several types, and that we must design our pedagogical approaches to serve each of them. Textbooks, Blogs, Wikis, Videos, Labs, podcasts, conferencing – each of these allow access to information appropriate to different styles of learning. Each is facilitated by technology solutions to be found in the YMCA Academy.
Technology functions to make a greater repertoire of communicating understandings available. But not just communicating them to the students. Students have available to them many modes of expression, enabling a huge variety of ways students can demonstrate their understandings to their teachers and peers. The opportunity to express their understandings in ways they find creative and interesting is, I think, the best motivation for student learning. Step into The Construction Zone at the Academy for so many examples!
The YMCA Academy. With a curriculum designed to meet the exacting demands of the Ministry of Education, it embraces, but moves far beyond, the knowledge a student needs to acquire, to focus on how it is acquired, and how it is expressed.
