Twas the Week Before Christmas . . .

The Laureate Academy’s final Wednesday-morning Assembly before the holiday break featured the best of old-world ingenuity and new-age technology.

Another of Student Council’s fun and fanciful Spirit Weeks climaxed with a special surprise for the entire student body: the opportunity to exchange holiday wishes with Mr. Siragusa, currently on sabbatical with his family in Edinburgh, Scotland. Through the efforts of Mr. Jones and the magic of Skype, students were able to talk to the man many have missed dearly since his departure in mid-October. Students had many and varied questions for the Director of Upper School and were excited to discover fascinating details and experiences of life in the land of bagpipes, haggis and the heather.

Upon bidding Mr. Siragusa a warm goodbye—accompanied by a giant Christmas card signed by everyone at the school—it was time to judge each of the home room’s efforts in a perfect of example of how TLA’s Student Council succeeds in keeping each holiday-based event new and fresh, yet traditional. This year, instead of making a gingerbread house, each home room was given the herculean task of constructing a Santa’s sleigh with only one piece of standard equipment: a comparatively tiny, twelve-inch square scooter. The only other rule of the contest was that, of course, the students had to pull “Santa”—AKA their homeroom teacher—into the Chapel with the most appealing combination of care and enthusiasm possible.

Needless to say, each “Santa’s” entrance was memorable in its own way, but in the end, Mrs. Dyck’s home room won the day and the hearts of the judges with her booming and impressive chorus of “Ho-ho-hos” aboard a sleigh fairly filled to bursting with artful design, colour and good wishes.

Congratulations to all students in all home rooms for rising to this new, ingenious challenge and for all their creative inspiration and investment in an activity that was a tremendous amount of fun for all.  

Christmas Cheer Board: "Feed a Family"

At this festive season of the year, it is more than usually desirable that we should make some slight provision for [those] in want of common necessaries, [and] in want of common comforts, sir.

--Abridged from A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

Along with all the other Christmas themed activities in the last few days of school before the break, the students of Laureate Academy collected money and groceries to provide a holiday hamper for a needy family through the Winnipeg Christmas Cheer Board.

We obtained the name of a young family from the Cheer Board, and each student was responsible for bringing in one or two items of food.  Each student also provided a toonie, and we were able to buy gifts for the family’s children, and a little bit for the parents, too.

In all, over $170, and four boxes of groceries, were delivered to the family.  From our varied experiences of blessings and plenty, together we have made “some slight provision” for those in need.  

May they, and we, have a very merry Christmas season!

A Taste of Africa

Flight security was comfortably light on Thursday, December 8^th as parents and families boarded the African Adventures Airways flight from The Laureate Academy to various destinations in Africa.

The happy occasion was the Academy’s annual Social Fair, and all aboard enjoyed their experiences in Madagascar, Angola, South Africa, Kenya and Morocco.

Students in grades 1 – 8 presented visual and very active demonstrations of their research and expanded understanding of developing countries, including the devastating problems caused by the A.I.D.S. epidemic, as well as celebrating the colourful and diverse cultures, arts and histories of that great continent.

The Laureate Academy has a number of students and others in the community with various ties to Africa, and their input was on display as well. Students planning and developing the presentations had heard from various parents and friends of African storytelling, history, art, developing connections to these countries more concrete and experiential than just the facts that could be gleaned from textbooks.

Students from grades 3-5 took the group to Madagascar, showing the biodiversity that has developed on the world’s fourth largest island.  They also experienced the geographical oddities of the isolated country.

Next, in Angola, the passengers learned from grade 5 and 6 students how that country is rebuilding after decades of civil war.  Members of different ethnic groups told stories about the interaction between humans and animals, and there were sobering reminders of the legacy of war, in the continued problem of leftover landmines.

In South Africa, the planeload was treated to a news, weather and sports broadcast, by students in grades 7 and 8, highlighting South Africa’s history and an interview with Nelson Mandela.  Breaks in the newscast pinpointed great travel destinations around the country.  

In-flight food was well above normal, as A Taste of Africa allowed the passengers to sample delicacies from around the continent.

More grade 7 and 8 students showed a documentary being shot in Kenya, by a surprisingly clueless documentarian, aided by a very competent and understanding helper.  Experiencing a marketplace showed various art and culture of Kenya, including food.

Finally, still more grade 7-8 students took us to Morocco, where three contestants vied to answer questions about the Education, History, Language and Geography of the north African country.  Each of the contestants was lucky enough to win a trip to one of the country’s tourist attractions, rich with history.

Touching down back in St. Norbert, the travellers and their guides had had a rich and enjoyable experience.  One teacher noted how especially engaging this educational experience had been for so many of the students, and the students seemed to agree. 

There was nothing dark about this continent during this enlightening Social Fair!

Grey Goblins Win Gym Riot Competition

When teachers and administrators encourage students to have a riot, you would expect they would need very little coaxing.

Exceeding expectations was perfectly all right with the powers that be on an equally perfect fall Friday afternoon, as students of The Laureate Academy brought endless enthusiasm to another installment of what has become a Halloween Spirit Week tradition for our school.

Bringing her perennial “A-game” to the event planning table, Student Council advisor Mrs. Law changed up the format ever-so-effortlessly this year, retaining events of indispensable status, while introducing a few new wrinkles to keep the veterans honest and to wow the rookie participants.

As per usual, four sets of team co-captains were picked, meetings were held throughout the week to select a team colour and name, as well as to create and rehearse a team fight song or cheer, and to decide on participants in those events exclusive of whole-team involvement. The decision to forego the production of a team banner left a few feeling a bit nostalgic, but most didn’t miss the scrambling for paint and enough time to get it finished before the real fun began.

Debuting the songs/cheers outdoors for the first time was an exercise in pure, unadulterated one-upmanship this year. If blue team “Jaws”, slightly arty, interpretive dance-inspired chant (set, of course, to the tune of John Williams’ unforgettably ominous theme music from the movie) didn’t strike fear in the hearts of its opponents, well… And The Colour Black’s frightening impersonation of New Zealand’s uber-intimidating All-Blacks rugby side was just as scary. The Grey Goblins opted for a more witty, wordy cheer, in the football fight song tradition, while the Red Barons’ campy rewrite of the late-Sixties novelty hit, “Snoopy Versus the Red Baron”, by the one-hit wonders the Royal Guardsmen, scored high on the weirdness scale.

With Mother Nature’s full cooperation, rioters caught their breath just in time for the beginning of Round One—a never-before-attempted event, entitled the “Air Frisbee Relay”. Picture four duos from each team participating in a relay race to propel a ping-pong ball around a course of pylons—and the resulting chaos—and you’ve pretty much got what the event was all about. After that, it was a return to the tried and true for the always exciting, “Mummy Wrap” and “Banana Shuffle”. New Event Number Two was called the “Human Conveyor”, another challenging relay event that prevailed upon four pairs per team to coordinate the conveyance of a clothespin along a string from one team member to another, then pass it to the next “belt” in the line of four. It was fun to watch, even as it was, at times, hilariously frustrating for some of the participants. Of course, everyone had a foot-stomping good time with the much-loved “Balloon Stomp”, and the surprise event, called the “Magic Carpet”, was a suitably silly, yet cerebral exercise in protective embracing and problem-solving.

Then it was off the parking lot and onto the battlefield for the ultimate in gym-riot competitiveness and bragging rights—the almighty “Tug-of-War” elimination tournament. Never have so many pulled so hard and grunted so meaningfully for so little material gain. Bags of celebratory Halloween Candy went to all the teams, so no one went home a loser. Nonetheless, kudos must be given to the Grey Goblins, this year’s overall winners of the 2011 Gym Riot. Way to go, team!

Reaching as Deep as Terry Fox

The perennial challenge of the Terry Fox Foundation’s National School Run has been to inspire students to “reach as deep as Terry”. Considering all that Terry was able to do in his abbreviated life and all that has been done since the foundation was established nearly three decades ago, these words might intimidate some.

But as we all know, individuals and groups of students in schools across Canada continue to take on the challenge of honouring Terry’s life and the lives of others who have succumbed to cancer. Camryn, a Grade 8 student at The Laureate Academy, recently lost a friend to the disease. On Wednesday, September 28, with the help of her Mentor and Homeroom Teacher Mr. Rambo, she deftly, but unselfconsciously,  managed to assemble the entire school on the south lawn of Laureate’s Landing for an unseasonably warm two-kilometre run, jog or walk along old St. Norbert’s flood-prevention dyke.

For many of  the students, it was the perfect opportunity to experience this fall tradition the way the Terry Fox Run was meant to be experienced: coatless, toqueless, mittenless and, instead, in a pairs of shorts and a t-shirt, with the sun in the sky and sweat on the brow. Students encouraged each other at most every opportunity, high-fiving as they passed each other and as they crossed the “finish” line. Smiles and modest celebrations abounded, and many teachers expressed genuine admiration for students’ effort to engage in some of that “deep reaching” of which the Terry Fox Foundation speaks.

The run itself is, of course, the culmination of a concentrated campaign of fundraising for cancer research. To date, The Terry Fox Foundation has raised over 550 million dollars worldwide for the cause. With impetus provided by students like Camrym, TLA students chipped in, donating “toonies for Terry” and having their names entered in a draw to win a commemorative t-shirt. Appropriately enough, a whole-school picture was taken to end the festivities, with draw winner Machabe front and centre, proudly modeling his souvenir of an event that has come to mean so much to Canadians and global efforts to combat a disease that touches us all.