A Busy 4-Day Week

Digital Day of Learning at St. Joseph H S

Through funding provided by our Student Success Department (Secondary), many teachers at St. Joseph High School participated in a day of digital learning in the school's Learning Commons.  This collaborative, hands-on workshop allowed teachers to share their innovative classroom projects with each other.  I particularly enjoyed learning about classroom applications of Edmodo from Maria Dupont and QR bar codes from Paula Joly.

Teachers Carrie Lindsay, Tara-Lynn White, & Paula Joy check out a QR Bar Code

    

Asian Heritage Celebration at St. Emily

I was pleased to attend a colourful Asian Heritage celebration at St. Emily School on Thursday, May 24.  There were several impressive performances by children attending the school and by individuals from the community.  A hi-light for the children was the Dragon Dance:



Leadership Journey Celebration

On Wednesday, May 23, I attended the annual Leadership Journey Celebration at the Centurion.  This year's celebration included a guest speaker - Lieutenant-General Andrew Leslie.  He spoke, of course, on the topic of leadership, and explained that effective leadership looks the same regardless of whether it's employed  in schools or in the field of battle.  Over 300 people attended the Leadership Journey celebration, and those that attended all sessions of a specific Leadership Journey program received a well-deserved certificate at the celebration.

Lieutenant-General Andrew Leslie addresses a packed room of OCSB  leaders

Book Review: We Need to Talk About Kevin

We Need to Talk About Kevin is a disturbing novel about a nasty teenager named Kevin Khatchadourian who is responsible for a Columbine-style school massacre.   Told as a flashback, using the epistolary structure (a series of letters written by Kevin's mother, Eva, to her apparently estranged husband), the story focuses on the dysfunctional relationship bewteen Eva and Kevin.  As Eva looks back on her relationship with her son, she acknowledges her ambivalence towards motherhood from a time even before Kevin was born and accepts that the lack of a mother-child bond was a factor in her son's deviant behaviour.  Despite knowing from the beginning of the novel that Kevin commits a school slaughtering, the reader encounters quite a surprise at the end.

 As I read We Need to Talk About Kevin, I thought about attachment theory and the work of Dr. Gordon Neufeld.   Clearly, Kevin Khatchadourian's pathological behaviour is connected to a lack of maternal attachment, though the reasons for Kevin's school massacre are, ultimately, incomprehensible - as are the reasons for all such horrific crimes.

Hockey For Hearts

Over the weekend, I participated in the annual Hockey For Hearts tournament at the Bell Sensplex.  The tournament was well organized and loads of fun, although at my age, playing 3 games in less than 24 hours was quite exhausting.  Thank you to all my friends, colleagues, and family members who sponsored me for Hockey For Hearts.   Tournament organizers are still counting all the coins, but something in the neighbourhood of $45,000 was raised for the Heart & Stroke Foundation.

Last year's Hockey For Hearts Team Picture (NHL All-star
Marcel Dionne joined us for our final game)