The students examined an unbelievably moving photographic essay today. Renee C. Byer documented the tragic final year of Derek Madsen, who contracted an incurable form of childhood cancer. The essay, entitled, “A mother’s Journey” is not an ordinary cancer saga, rather it defines what family, tragedy and unconditional love is all about. It won numerous awards (including the 2007 Pulitzer) and cannot be viewed with indifference. It forces all of us to evaluate our lives and cherish the moments we have while occupying this most temporal of all worlds.

A great discussion ensued with the students – they trying to find common ground with the subject of the essay, a boy just a few years younger than they are. Powerful stuff.

To view this essay go to http://www.poyi.org/64/WUA/first_01.php

SCIENCE: students are just completing a unit on Motion. Position-Time Graphs; study of slope; average velocity; scalar and vector qualities. Unit exam s set for Feb. 14.

MATH: Students are completing their “Solving Rational Expressions” unit. A comprehensive algebra unit, the students are required to utilize the year’s skills in order to solve the problems.

ENGLISH: The students thoroughly enjoyed The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie. A unit exam and in-class essay were completed last week. The students are just completing a vigorous Parts of Speech unit. The goal of this unit is for the students to be able to successfully diagram any sentence placed before them. Our next novel will be Ken Kesey’s classic: One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.

SOCIALS: Current Events are the focus of this unit. The current pipeline debates; state of Canadian reservations; mental health issues; ecstasy related deaths; are just a few of the topics we have been examining in class.

Streetfront continues to work in partnership with The Environmental Youth Alliance and Britannia’s Urban Garden Project. Currently the students are constructing a number of new compost bins for our garden. Barry and Ian Marcuse (Project Leader for Britannia’s Sustainable Food Program) will help the students create the design and then lead the construction. Students have also started planning which plants will be part of the spring seeding. An emphasis will be placed on traditional medicinal herbs, which will start inside the portable under grow lights. This will be followed by a pollination and bee hive building workshop. It’s wonderful to see the students start to recognize the impact food security can have.

Discussions in class have been lively lately.
The students really enjoyed the documentary: “A Class Divided”, in which Jane Elliott tries to teach her 3rd grade class the real, palpable effects of discrimination.
The tragedy that has befallen Attawapiskat really shocked the students and led to a full exploration of the issues. Topics ranged from the “ghettoization of Reserves”; to financial management; to “exponential growth” and population trends.
We watched the outstanding National Film Board digital short: The Test Tube with David Suzuki. In this amazing short – David Suzuki succinctly shows how the world’s resources are vanishing at an astonishing rate. Check it out yourself at http://www.testtube.nfb.ca
We are in the midst of a short story unit. Some of the all-time masters are on display here. Hemingway’s “Old Man at the Bridge”. Tobias Wolfe’s “Hunters in the Snow” and O. Henry’s “Gift of the Magi”.

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May 27th, 2011

Went to Seattle with 14 students on Saturday morning (met at 5:30 am). The students were super excited (but quite anxious) about the journey they were to embark on.

Our first stop was the outlets – the kids got a chance to see the aftermath of Black Friday. They did some shopping and then it was off to the Marathon Expo to volunteer for 4 hours. After the Expo we headed back to the Queen Anne (quite possibly the stinkiest hotel in Seattle but one of the cheapest). We had a huge meal and then retired.

The half marathoners started their race at 7:30 and the full marathoners at 8:15.

The weather was horrible – rain; wind and more rain. The kids battled and fought their way through and all of them finished (plus two staff).

It was another amazing sight to have so many kids push themselves to their limit; fight through all types of adversity and self-doubt and weather the physical and emotional journey that all long distance runners face.

Congratulations to the following:

Half Marathoners:

Willy Dugray (age 16)
Lukas Bezanson (15)
Eriana Morales (15)
Sebastian Austin (13)
Jayde Becke (15)
Gord Howey (age unknown)

Full Marathoners

Matt Morin (15)
Joe Malley (15)
Vaughn Mills (17)
Kyle Leo (16)
William Vu (17)
Shwana Bestoun (15)
Frankie Joseph (16)
Jordan Braun (14)
Raymond king (16)

Once again the Streetfront students have showed the world that regardless your circumstance – great things can be achieved if you fight for it.

Thanks to everyone who has supported us this year.

Strachan Hartley Legacy foundation
C.L.I.C.K.
Northshore Athletics
Britannia Secondary

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The half marathoners have just started and I’m walking back to pick up the fulls.

Should be exciting times. Weather is ok – better than expected.

Wish us well. 14 kids on the course!

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English – just finishing “A Long Way Gone” by Ishmael Beah. Memoir of a former child soldier in Sierra Leone

Socials – just finished a Canadian geography unit. Will be starting a unit on Africa next week.

Science – Reviewing Unit 1: Biomes and Unit 2: Cycles of Nature in preparation for next week’s test

Math – starting polynomials next week.
Sent wirelessly from my BlackBerry device on the Bell network. Envoyé sans fil par mon terminal mobile BlackBerry sur le réseau de Bell.