Students and their teachers are also filmed talking about their work and how it relates to the theme. The video can be viewed here.

A booklet highlighting the winners work is also produced and be downloaded here.

This is an awesome program for creative high school students and the awards are substantial. If you know a young person who loves to create, send them here to check out the rules and guidelines for next year’s program.

Yet another clash between religion and freedom has occurred at a Catholic high school in Ontario. This time things went down at St. Patrick High School in Thunder Bay on March 10, 2011.

Alexandria Szeglet, a Grade 10 student, attached to her school uniform a piece of green tape with the word “CHOICE” written on it. This was her response to a  number of other students who wore a red piece of tape with “LIFE” printed on it and choose not to speak for the day to as part of an anti-abortion/pro-life event.

Not only did Szeglet wear her green tape pro-choice message, she handed out pieces of the green tape to many other students as well. Szeglet as well as another dozen students were sent home for their actions. The principal of the school, John de Faveri, stated that “the pro-choice students were not appropriate in the context of a Catholic school.”

To read more about the situation, read this article or this one.

Many of my colleagues have speculated about the longevity of the separate school system in Ontario. Those who believe its days are numbered seem to think that it will be an economic reality that will eventually lead to its demise. They believe that during some provincial election far in the future, some party will bravely put forth the issue of the amalgamation of the school systems as a cost-saving measure.

I disagree. While there is certainly some duplication in the administration of the two systems, coterminous school boards are already sharing many resources and have combined for purchase power to the point that much of the savings have already been obtained.

What I believe will be the downfall of the Catholic school system in Ontario will be their individual board’s inability to afford students their basic rights while adhering to the ancient tenets of Roman Catholicism. I don’t see our province’s human rights regressing and I doubt the Catholic church is set to become more progressive in its social views. As this gap continues to widen, Catholic schools are going to struggle to remain relevant and viable in the eyes of the public.

It will be the public’s disgust with the positions and actions of Catholic School Boards that will lead voters to dismiss the separate school system and demand a single, unified one. It won’t be this provincial election, or probably even the next, but the clock is ticking.

The video below, New Boy, is ten minutes of wonderful story-telling and pure craft.  Based on a short story by one of my favourite authors, Roddy Doyle, the film brings the anxiety of being the new kid in the class to a whole new level.  I love how the teacher unwittingly and unintentionally becomes the solution to the conflict.  The film won many awards including the Best Narrative Short Film at the 2008 Tribeca film festival.

Ten minutes – you won’t be disappointed.

There was a time, as a young teacher, when I believed that academics working in the field of Education based their politics on their personal experience within the Education system.  That is, I thought that after working in and studying Education, those looking down at us lowly teachers from their ivory tower came to their academic conclusions based on their observations and then sided with a political perspective which supported their findings.  I realize now that politics is their initial point of reference for such so-called experts and that Education is merely subject of their gaze.

Case and point: How long have we in Canada heard about how we need to move to a more privatized and competitive schooling system, like the United States?  Charter schools, private schools, voucher systems – these were all supposed to give American kids an advantage over the students on this side of the border.  And – as a bonus – these privatized systems would, incidentally, lower taxes.

But recent results of international testing show Canadian students performing much higher than their American counterparts.  The Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), ranked 15 year-old Canadian students fifth out of 57 participating countries when tested for math and science, while American students lagged behind in 32^nd place.  Canadian students also proved superior in reading literacy skills.  All this while Canada only spends 3.4% of its GDP on education ($8,169 per student) while the U.S. spends 3.9% ($10,692).

So how do the right-wing edu-pundits respond to this?  In a recent National Post article, they have done an about-face saying that the achievement of Canadian students is due to our country’s competitive and somewhat privatized Education systems.  What???  Suddenly Canada’s Education system is competitive?  Nowhere in the article are there any arguments or explanations demonstrating that our system is truly more privatized or competitive than the American one or that pitting educational systems against one another is good for students.  This is certainly a clear case of right-wing spin.  Not surprising to find in the National Post, but depressing to see nonetheless.

The timing couldn’t have been worse.  We were just about to leave for a four day camping trip.  The dog was in the kennel and there was no one to watch over the pond.  People came out and gawked at the huge bird that was obviously eyeing my pond.  After a short while, the bird disappeared and I optimistically reasoned that it had flown to the nearby river where fishing might be less of a public spectacle.  Then, as I was packing the car with camping equipment, the bird returned and landed on the fence, a mere few metres from the pond’s edge.  I chased it out of my yard, but it flew around in my head during the whole camping trip.  I dreamed of  returning to an empty pond with fish carcasses strewn across the lawn.

When we actually did return home, the first thing I did was check the pond.  The fish were acting skittish, but everything seemed okay until I noticed one koi floating dead in the reeds.  After netting and examining it, entry and exit wounds made it clear that it had been speared.  I later netted the remaining fish and found them all accounted for, but two had small nick wounds in their sides which led me to believe that it too was the work of the heron.  Damn you heron!

The dead fish wasn’t my nicest or my largest or my oldest, but it was one of the prettier fish in my pond.  I picked it up as a very young fingerling years ago, very cheap, and I thought that it might develop into a Tancho (white koi with a red circle on its head).  After a year or so, it did indeed develop the marks of a Tancho and later its back turned a metallic grey, thus making it a fairly rare Tancho Kujaku koi which, to us koi geeks, is sort of special.

Well, here is the problem with amateur koi keepers: we buy our fish cheap and young, and when they grower older and more sizable, the fish gain in value to an amount that we ourselves would never think of spending on a fish.  To replace this particular koi would probably cost over $400.  And I won’t replace it . . . at least not with a replica.  I do intend to console myself by doing a little koi shopping over the next few weeks.  I’ll leave you with an image of a Tancho Kujaku — not the one I lost, but one pretty much like it.

Although I have had students perform outdoor theatre and I have taken leadership students on camping trips, could a typical day-to-day lesson actually be facilitated outside?  Well tire manufacturer Bridgestone Canada and not-for-profit organization Evergreen have teamed up to provide one Mississagua, Ontario school with an outdoor classroom.

You would think that this was big news but good luck finding any reference to the project on the websites of either Evergreen or Bridgestone or even a local newspaper.  I came across it here, on a trucking news website.  Interesting.

Canada has no shortage of talented chanteuses.  I was interested to hear that both Sarah McLachlan and Sarah Harmer had recently released new albums and I had the sudden urge to pit them against one another.  So this is the Sarah vs. Sarah cage match.  Listen to both releases below and decide for yourself who will be Canada’s last Sarah standing.

Personally, I think Sarah McLachlan has the advantage here.  From her early contributions to Vancouver-based. elctro-industrial band Skinny Puppy, to her 90s fem-a-polooza Lilith Fair, McLachlan has certainly made her mark both in Canada and internationally.  She is also involved in many charitable causes including rights for animals.  She has no trouble getting support, resources, or talent to help her along.

Sarah Harmer, on the other hand, broke out with the fairly obscure Kingston band, Weeping Tile, but is best known for her solo work.  Her last four albums struck a chord with Ontarians but never really sounded outside of Canada.  Her activism is as passionate as McLachlan’s but perhaps on a less public scale.

At the risk of influencing your decision, I have to give it to Sarah Harmer.  Aside from the fact that I am a sucker for any underdog, I think that Harmer stretches further this time.  Perhaps McLachlan is catering to her established audience, but to me she is singing the same old, same old.  Harmer is pushing herself into a new realm and bravely experimenting.  I expect that I will hear many more tracks from Mclachlan’s new album, but I am looking forward to listening to more of Sarah Harmer.

I never felt very comfortable receiving gifts from students, however I have accepted (among other things) the following gifts: home baked cookies, a chocolate Easter bunny, a hand-knit toque, two traditional Korean figurines, pieces of student-made art and countless mugs.  My most treasured gift was a hand-painted flower pot, made to look like a can of Fresca.  The student who made this for me was a talented artist who noticed that I grew plants at the back of my classroom and that I drank far too much Fresca.

However, my most common and appreciated gift was usually given to me by students after having written their final exam.  About one student in ten would drop off their completed exam on my desk and then shyly thank me for what they experienced in our class.  Some bolder kids would shake my hand and specifically tell me what they enjoyed most over the semester.  Now that’s a gift every teacher would welcome.

My Fresca flower pot.

Robinson is a great supporter of the arts and its inclusion in public education.  He believes that creativity in schools is being strangled and he points to rigid bureaucratic systems (and standardized testing in particular) as the culprits.  Much of what he says is out of vogue with education pundits as he champions soft concepts such as creativity and imagination . . . things that are difficult to standardize and measure.  He  has delivered a wonderful TED lecture where he passionately asks that schools not be treated like fast food joints.

Take a quick look at this five-minute clip from the Bonnie Hunt Show to hear him speak on standardized testing:

Everything that can be counted does not necessarily count; everything that counts cannot necessarily be counted.

-Albert Einstein

]]> http://banderblogger.wordpress.com/2010/06/21/186/feed/ 0 banderblogger ken robinson http://banderblogger.wordpress.com/2010/06/20/remembering-a-powerful-activist-from-attawapiskat/ http://banderblogger.wordpress.com/2010/06/20/remembering-a-powerful-activist-from-attawapiskat/#comments Mon, 21 Jun 2010 02:10:21 +0000 banderblogger http://banderblogger.wordpress.com/?p=181 ]]> I should have posted this much earlier, but sometimes when you hear bad news you expect that everyone else must have heard it too and that they all feel the loss as you did.

It seems that this story has been either missed or certainly under-reported by the major media outlets outside of Northern Ontario.  I find this surprising as young activists are rare and successful young activists perhaps even more so.  So when I heard that Shannen Koostachin from Attawapiskat was killed in a car accident earlier this month, I thought it would make headlines.

For those of you who have never heard of Attawapiskat, it is a tiny community near the uppermost limits of Ontario, situated just upriver from James Bay.  In 1979 a toxic oil spill seeped under the community’s only school and was never properly cleaned up.  Students were forced to use the contaminated school for over 20 years while successive federal government’s ignored pleas for help.  The school was finally closed when parents no longer allowed their children to attend and teachers refused to work there.  For the past 10 years, students were educated in a mish-mash of portable buildings and shelters.  The community launched a campaign to have a proper new school built and Shannen Koostachin, barely in her teens, emerged as an unlikely but persuasive activist.  Hearing Shannen speak was a humbling, yet invigorating experience.  She spoke simply and directly enough to hush a room and inspire respect.

Shannen lived to hear the federal government formally promise the funding of a new school for Attawpaiskat, scheduled to open in 2012.  What a shame that she will not be there see it.  A sad story, but perhaps her legacy will encourage others to realize the power of one voice — even the voice of a single child.