Photo: Ryan Michie, Geoffrey Murray, Justine Olmont, and students at SLHS launch their recently completed canoe

This year’s grade 11 students in Geoff Murray’s construction class have just finished building a canoe. The project was begun this past June by Murray and Outdoor Education teacher Ryan Michie, and the students and staff celebrated its completion with an official launch at Oso beach on October 11.

Prior to the launch the students had put the finishing touches on the canoe, sanding out its rough interior and weaving the nylon seats in the canoe’s stern and bow. The boat, as visually appealing as it is water worthy, was made from local pine and boasts cherry gunnels. It is similar in style to a second boat that the students began this year and are halfway through completing in this year’s construction course. Murray said that the skills they learned finishing off this boat will serve them well when it comes to completing their second one. Justine Wilmont, a student teacher from Queen’s University who joined the group at the official launch, has been shadowing Murray’s construction class and has plans to continue the canoe theme. She will be assisting students in the class with individual canoe paddle projects that will take place later this year. 

The students were thrilled with both the look and performance of the boat as Mr. Michie and Ms. Olmont got into it, paddled it out onto the lake and landed it shortly after at the government dock. Grade 11 student, Norman Harris, who worked on the canoe, said the project has inspired him to consider building his own boat this year. ”I went to Camp IAWAH this summer and did a three-day canoe trip there, which I loved, so the idea of building my own boat would definitely be something I would consider as a fun and worthwhile project,” he said. All of the students seemed thrilled to see how their handiwork stood the ultimate water test.

Photo: Courtesy Cathy Reynolds.

Throughout the month of September students in the JK/SK class at Hinchinbrooke Public School have been learning about the life cycle of the monarch butterfly. In addition to reading information about monarchs, the children have also had the opportunity to witness the various stages of the life cycle first hand.  When school began. Five monarch caterpillars were living in a large cage in the classroom. Over the course of the month the students were able to witness each caterpillar's amazing transformation from caterpillar to chrysalis to butterfly. Once each butterfly was able to fly, the class released it. This proved to be a very moving experience for the students and their teacher, Niki Putnam.

Watching these life cycle stages first hand helped the students to understand the information they were hearing in the books they were reading and songs they were singing.  They are now eagerly demonstrating their knowledge of the life cycle through drama, music, visual arts and writing activities.

Photo: Grade 10 students insert plants for the new butterfly garden.

An eco-auditing contest run by the Kingston Sustainability Centre's "Youth Mentoring Youth" program has awarded Sydenham High a butterfly garden as a reward for the school's environmental awareness. Exactly what does a newly-awarded butterfly garden look like? In this case, it comes as bags of soil, compost and mulch, a lot of pots of plants, shovels, trowels, gloves and water pails. This week, members of the International Society for Conservation Biology (themselves biology students at Queen's) demonstrated planting techniques to two grade ten classes. The garden plot had already been worked up in a sunny spot at the front of the school, and within an hour, the plants were all tucked into the garden, watered and mulched. Western 

Landscape services of Elginburg donated the supplies and initial digging. The plants chosen were native or naturalized ones that will attract butterflies with their leaves, nectar and colour. 

Because this is SHS's garden, the flowers will all be red or yellow, the school colours.  

Photo: Miriam Rutledge (right) and Angela Saxe.

Miriam Rutledge, a grade 12 student at Sydenham High School, is one of the top three finalists of 120 students who submitted stories for the “You Think You Can Write” contest, part of the upcoming Kingston WritersFest, which attracts authors of international renown.

Miriam's story titled “The Cellist” was written in the first person and tells the thoughts and observations of a cellist performing in a recital hall in front of a large audience. Like so many successful short stories, “The Cellist’ is based on Rutledge’s own real life experiences. An accomplished cello player, Miriam has been studying privately with Wolf Tormann, a celebrated cello player, teacher and professor of music at Queens University, for 10 years. She knows first hand in body, mind and soul exactly what a cello player undergoes during a recital. So it is no wonder that her story rings so true, as exemplified when the cellist observes from her view on stage “the occasional luminous face in the glow of a cell phone.” Or as in her second paragraph, when the cellist begins to play, and “Each note is like a pearl, perfectly shaped and shining. My bow flows over the strings like ocean waves over rocks on a calm day. I can feel my body moving with the melody and my soul lifting with each crescendo.”

As in all contests, certain stipulations had to met. No more than 750 words, the story also had to include five words: luminous, ocean, melody, dawn and inspire. Miriam felt confident that her subject could easily incorporate all five words and explained, “I already had the idea of writing something like what I did, so it wasn't that difficult for me to include the mandatory words.”

As far as her creative writing goes she says she enjoys it and is currently taking a senior level English course offered at SHS called "Writer’s Craft”. “I've always loved writing creatively. I've written a tragic romance and other things but they tend to be mostly related to school assignments.”As far as pursuing a writing career, Miriam says she hopes to get accepted into the COCA course offered at Queens, which combines computer science with the creative arts so that she can continue her music studies and study fine art as well.

The contest came to her attention thanks to Angela Saxe, a teacher/librarian at SHS and one of the two volunteer youth coordinators at the Kingston Writers’ Festival. Saxe, a writer herself, feels strongly about giving students more opportunities to write creatively. “Not only does the contest bring an awareness to students of the Kingston WritersFest, which in the last couple of years has been aiming some of its programming to youth and young writers, but the contest also gives students a chance to write creatively outside of the school curriculum, which is a good thing.”

The festival will be held from September 22 – 25, and now Miriam is just waiting for the judge’s final verdict, which will be announced on September 22 at the opening night at the Grand Theatre. For more information visit www.kingstonwritersfest.ca

Photo: New SLHS vice principal, Mr. David Russell

Students and staff at Sharbot Lake High School need no introduction to their newly appointed vice principal, Mr. David Russell. A long-time teacher at the school, Mr. Russell has taught many subjects during his seven-year stint there, including law, phys. ed., technology, social studies and media arts.

As a result of his experience, he brings to his new post an intimate knowledge of not only the school curriculum but also of the students and staff, which he says is a huge benefit. “I have a great rapport with both students and staff and have also over the years worked with numerous teachers who had a long history at the school, so I feel I have a real understanding of the school’s history and culture.”

Russell, who lives in Tamworth with his three children and his wife Wendy, who also teaches at SLHS, grew up in Scarborough and prior to beginning a second career as a teacher, worked as a technician and in management at Bell Canada for 12 years. In 1991 he graduated from McMaster University with a history degree and did his practical teacher training at Durham University in Durham, England.

Before joining the Limestone District School Board, Russell taught for eight years at Dunbarton High School in Pickering, a large school with close to 2000 students - 10 times the size of the student body at SLHS. “The nice thing about a smaller school like Sharbot Lake is that everyone knows everyone and every individual feels like an integral part of the bigger picture,” he said.

In the role of vice principal, Russell said he is looking forward to the challenge that comes with dealing with “something different everyday” as well as the opportunities that come with having a wider impact on a greater number of students and on the school as a whole. He mentioned a few goals he would like to achieve as vice principal: first, to provide a fun and positive atmosphere for both students and staff at the school; second, to ensure that all students pass their literacy tests; and third, to help students reach their highest academic potential.

Asked about possible drawbacks to coming to his post as an insider, he replied, “Managing the change in relationships might be an issue in that I am now in more of a disciplinary role with the students and in more of a critical role with the staff. But, that being said, so far that has not been a problem at all.” Instead Russell sees his history at the school as an overall advantage. He looks forward to working with Principal Heather Highet, with whom he says he shares a similar overall approach. “We see eye to eye on a number of things and tend to approach things with a similar outlook, which makes for a great working relationship.”

Russell looks comfortable in his new post and no doubt it must be equally comforting for students returning after the summer to recognize a well-known staff member who will now be assisting at the helm.

A hot July night proved to be a less than ideal time for most people to attend a public meeting on the draft design of the new Kindergarten to Grade 12 school in Sharbot Lake, which at this point is planned for completion in just over two years.

Terry White from the Ventin group in Toronto presented the design to school administrators and school board officials and a few members of the public in the cafetorium of the existing Sharbot Lake High School on Tuesday evening.

The three-storey L-shaped design with a cafetorium and double gym located on the second and third floors is similar to one that was agreed to in June by a design committee that included members of parent councils as well as board employees.

Terry White, who has been designing schools for over two decades, said that he normally would put the gym and cafetorium on the ground floor, “but the layout of the site and the demands of this school made that unworkable in this case, so we settled on a second floor gym.”

The way the building is planned however, there will be direct access to the second floor from the exterior of the building at three locations, “so there will be a lot of access nonetheless,” White added.

The plan is for the school to be located in the parking lot, as far towards the north as possible before it hits the flood plain towards the existing playing field, which will remain.

The wood and auto shops will be located on the ground floor at the north end of the building, with the cafetorium and double gym above, stretching out past where there is currently a basketball court and into where there are now rocks and trees to the west.

Part of the plan is to excavate into that rock to fit the gym in, allowing direct access to the gym from behind the building as the landscape rises.

The rest of the building will extend to the south, towards where the existing school is now located.

The kindergarten rooms will be located on the ground floor, at the south end of the building, adjacent to the elementary playing field. The elementary classrooms will be located on the second floor and the high school classes on the third floor.

The administration office and the library will be located on the first floor, where the two parts of the L-shaped building meet. Across from the administration offices there will be a library and a computer lab, which will open up onto a courtyard behind the building.

The cladding of the building could include brick, concrete and perhaps wood, and there will be a number of full-length glass windows employed to bring natural lighting to the library, the entranceway, and other parts of the building.

Among the community-focussed features of the design are plans to orient the cafetorium to optimise theatrical performances by North Frontenac Little Theatre and the school drama department. Not only will there be seating for 200 – 225 people in the cafetorium, the wall to the gym will be removable, creating the option of a 600 plus seat theatre.

The temporary wall in the middle of the double gym can also be removed, creating a space that could potentially hold as many 1000 people.

Dianne Lake, who attended the meeting as a member of the public but pointed out she not only attended Sharbot Lake High School, but spend 28 years running the cafeteria, made the point that during the 1998 ice storm the school spent 22 days as an emergency shelter and relief centre.

“That extra capacity for a public space might become a huge community asset some day,” she said.

Terry White said that the final design should be ready for public viewing in the early fall, and he hopes the project can go to tender in late October. Preliminary construction could begin before freeze up.

Ann Goodfellow, the school board trustee for the region, pointed out that the Ministry of Education will require that a complete costing be done for every aspect of the project before they approve it.

“Maybe we can break ground next spring,” she said.

The municipal building permitting process will also need to be undertaken, and will likely include environmental assessments.

There were no representatives from the municipality at the public meeting.

Photo: NAEC's new young authors

Each year, radio station 98.9FM The Drive gets money to promote Canadian music. The station has decided to put the money into music programs across the Limestone board, and is donating $1000 each to 13 schools. North Addington Education Centre was lucky to be one of them and on April 4, Joe and Jenn-O of The Drive, presented the music department with a $1000 cheque. Beth Lindsay of the music department says the department is very grateful for the donation and plans on using it towards repairing many of the instruments so they will continue to have the resources to run a successful program at the school. Nick Smart, Mike Deshane and Daryn Bolland played two rock songs for their classmates and the DJs. The clip should be aired on Friday morning.

Photo: NAEC's new young authors

Students in Ms. Buck’s grade 5/6 class at the North Addington Education Centre in Cloyne were feeling quite proud this week, and with good reason. All 27 students were celebrating the arrival of their very own, newly bound, hard cover, one off copies of a non-fiction book, which each had authored by themselves.

The book project was the brain child of their teacher, Ms. Buck, who is a first year teacher at NAEC, and it was geared to cover the non-fiction section of the language curriculum. “I thought this project would definitely be a lot more fun than writing a test. My goal was to really engage all of the students, especially those who might otherwise be lukewarm about the thought of writing, researching and creating an original piece of writing.” By choosing their own topics, the students had a chance to be creative while learning how to research, write, design and lay out a work of their own making. The finished product gave them something tangible at the end, something indeed worthy of celebration.

Ms Buck provided the students with a check list of what they needed to include: a table of contents, a glossary, at least four sub headings, fact boxes, at least one photo per page and a biography.

The class worked on their books on and off for about two months and when they were completed, the individual pages were printed off before Ms. Buck sent them off to be bound in hard cover at Smiths Fall Book Binding. She was as surprised and delighted with the finished results as her students were. “The finished books are truly amazing.” The cost of $10 per book seems nothing compared to the pride each title has bestowed on its author, many of whom say they never thought they could have accomplished such a undertaking.

One proud author, Max, chose fruit as his subject because of his love of pie and he included in his book all kinds of exotic fruits, where and how they are grown and what they are used for.

Grade six student Emma's book titled “The World of Polar Bears” explores a subject that is near and dear to her heart. Other titles included “Blob Fish”, “A Walk with Brock Throughout Canada”, “Extreme Sports” and “In the Life of a Moose”.

With the new books in hand the students will now prepare presentations to the class and will also have a chance read their books to the younger students at the school.

Ms. Buck was pleased with the enthusiasm her students showed for the project and plans to repeat it again next year. “This is something that motivates the students and gives them a real sense of accomplishment.” Judging by their faces and their intent desire to speak about their new works, these first books might not be the last ones created by the students in this class.

Photo:  Lloyd Arnold and Carol Belanger

Every Thursday evening between 7 and 9PM the gym at Sharbot Lake high school comes alive with the sound of squeaking rubber-soled shoes and the whoosh of high-speed birdies.

That is the time that anyone seeking a bit of good, clean, social fun and fitness can meet on the badminton courts in the gym and enjoy two hours of non-stop play.

Ron Abbott of Godfrey is almost always there. He mans “the box” and will happily supply racquets and birdies (a.k.a. shuttlecocks) to those in need. Ron has been heading up the weekly sessions ever since retired SLHS teacher Gary Giller started the tradition close to 30 years ago. When Ron is not manning the box he is on the court enjoying a game. “It's such a great way to keep in shape and they say that in badminton you actually use more muscles than in any other kind of sport.” That being said, Ron adds that it is also not a particularly strenuous sport. He can count the number of injuries he's witnessed in his decades of play on one hand. He stressed the fact that it is also a relatively easy game that almost anyone can play and quickly become good at.

The two courts in the gym can hold eight players at a time and usually anywhere from 8-15 players will show up on any given Thursday night. Many of the regulars have been coming for years and to keep games interesting it is pretty common to see teams regularly switch up partners. Ron informed me that a good team is one where “the two players can anticipate their teammates’ moves and who cover each other on the court.” Because the game tends to be one of strategy, two partners who work together will tend to go a long way.”

The more competitive players will tend to seek each other out but competitive play on the whole tends to be a secondary consideration for most. Instead it is a friendly feeling of camaraderie that prevails in the gym.

Ann Temple is the newest player to the sessions and she travels 25 minutes to come every Thursday night to play. “I heard about it from a friend and started coming and found the environment very welcoming, helpful and easy going. Though I wasn't very good when I started I feel I've come along way.”

Lloyd Arnold of Crow Lake, who will be turning 80 in June, has been attending the sessions since moving to the area. He is an experienced player and played in an industrial league in Montreal back in the 1950s. “I have always loved the game and when I moved out this way thought I should get back at it. I have always enjoyed playing the game and it definitely helps keep me nimble.”

The sessions are held throughout the regular school year with breaks for Christmas and in March.

Anyone is welcome to play and children under 16 must be accompanied by an adult. Normally the fee is $5 per semester, though this year the fees were waived due to a surplus in the coffers.

Ron encourages anyone interested to come and try it out. “It’s a lot of fun and usually after a few tries people tend to pick it up pretty quick.”

Players just need to wear rubber-soled shoes and Ron will be happy to get them every thing else they need.

Photo: Hinchinbrooke Grade 6/7 students lead the Fun Days.

Students at Hinchinbrooke Public School are coming to understand the daily hardships that youngsters in Kenya face thanks to the efforts of HPS teacher Debbie Jones and her grade 6/7 class. For five years now Ms. Jones and her students have been holding Fun Days for Kenya, monthly school-wide fundraisers designed as a fun way for students at the school to raise money for people in Kenya. Hope2 Kenya is a not-for-profit organization begun by Sandy Foster, a long time educator from North Bay who in the past has visited HPS personally to thank them for their ongoing support. The organization raises funds to implement a number of different projects in Kenya, all of which aim at helping Kenyans to become self-sufficient. In Sandy's words the projects are meant to provide “ a hand up” rather than “a hand out”.

In July 2010 Sandy was joined by an eight member team and traveled to Kenya to complete a number of different projects they had started there, including Veronica Home, an orphanage for children with HIV/AIDS and Kolongolo School. The team also set up a food distribution centre for widows in need.

HPS students in Ms. Jones’ class explained in particular what they are learning by putting on these regular fundraisers to support Foster and the organizations ongoing efforts in Kenya.

“We are fund raising to help give the kids in Kenya a chance to do what we always get to do,” said Hanna Smail. Megen Hole added, “We tend to take for granted everything that we have here at home so this is a chance for us to see that we can make a difference and help others who are in need.”

The Fun Days take place in the gym and every class in the school is invited to participate in a number of different games and activities. Debbie Jones' students are in charge of designing, setting up, and organizing the entire event. They also sell the tickets, run all of the booths and afterward do an in-depth analysis of which activities were successful, which were not and assess all the numbers.” Not only are the students becoming aware of others in the world who are in need and learning that they can help make a difference, but the event also provides the students with an opportunity to practice a number of educational skills that they are learning- math, geography and a number of other related skills.

Ms. Jones feels it is important to give her students a chance to do something to help others in need in the world and likes to share Foster's motto, a motto Foster borrowed from Helen Keller that states, “I am only one, but still I am one. I can not do everything but still I can do something. I will not refuse to do the something I can do.”

In Sandy Foster’s words, this means, “No child should be dying of malnutrition, water borne diseases, malaria, TB or AIDS. No child should be left an orphan without having basic needs fulfilled. The little I can do might help the child who may one day lead Kenya into democracy and peace.”

So far this year Ms. Jones’ class has helped the school to raise $700 for the Hope2Kenya team, which for its size is no small feat.

For more information visit www.hope2kenya.org