Minor Details - January 27

January 27 - 31, 2020

Belonging vs Fitting In

Pink Shirt Day is coming up in February. Part of the purpose of the day is to remind us all about the toxic effects of bullying. We all pay the price of a culture that tolerates bullying: those who are the targets of bullying behaviour, those doing the bullying and those of us who are bystanders.

Since the first Pink Shirt Day in 2007 when two Canadian students, David Shepherd and Travis Price, took a stand against homophobic bullying after a fellow student was threatened for wearing a pink shirt, what I know is that bullying is still a daily occurrence for some students.

I have been wondering why we target people who are different.

Throughout history, people who look different and think different are the ones who change the world.

Jesus. Mahatma Gandhi. Galileo. Socrates. Joan of Arc. Charles Darwin. Albert Einstein. Martin Luther King Jr. Nelson Mandela. Mother Teresa. Rosa Parks. Bill Gates.

Most of these people experienced ostracism and even persecution for having ideas that challenged thinking at the time.

Elon Musk, billionaire founder of Tesla and SpaceX, was told that his idea for an online financial services/payment company was ridiculous and that no one would ever pay online. EBay bought his PayPal company for $1.5 billion in 2002.

After Ellen DeGeneres' memorable "coming out" episode of her sitcom, she was not the only actor shunned by Hollywood. Oprah Winfrey received death threats for simply having a supporting role. DeGeneres never shied away from being herself. Today, her talk show has over 4 million viewers who tune in each episode.

US Vice President Al Gore was completely vilified when he started talking about climate change in 1998. And what about 16-year old Greta Thunberg? The young climate change activist who calls being on the autism spectrum her "super power" has inspired millions of people around the globe, yet still receives vitriolic push-back from politicians.

Sigh. Have we learned nothing?

School, unfortunately, seems designed to encourage us to "fit in". Students are grouped together by age and told they must learn a curriculum designed for them. They are expected to progress more or less at the same rate. Difference is something that is frequently mocked and stifled. Those of us who think, act or look different become targets.

We have decided that there are 3 things for which we will hold each other accountable in our sincere effort to create a community where we all feel like we belong. One, we will listen to each other. Two, we will not judge. And three, we will accept each other because we are different. We will fall down. We will make mistakes. We will have courageous conversations. What we won't do is give up.

American anthropologist Margaret Mead is famously quoted as saying, "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has".

I hope that we can become that group of thoughtful, committed citizens.

January 30

Values Banners Arrived Today!!

Our finished banners arrived this morning! They look amazing and we can't wait to have them installed on the wall across from the office.

We will take pics when they are officially installed.

Thanks to Mr. Halliday and Mr. Mitchell for funding this project. Thanks to all the teachers and students at Glynn A Green who shared their values. And thank you to Christina Dero and the team at Media Services for their amazing work.

January 29

Website Evaluation

We spent an hour today reviewing and evaluating our Gator Gardens website designs. We realized after reviewing 10 different sites that it's exhausting! We'll finish reviewing the other half tomorrow. There are some absolutely amazing website designs!

We built our own rating system using criteria we discussed as a class (see image to the right). Part of the design process involved learning to use the Google Sites app. Once we finish the evaluation process, we will have class discussions to determine which website will represent Gator Gardens.

Be the Particle Presentations

Today we did group presentations showing our understanding of how the 6 points of the Particle Theory explain what happens to a solid as it is heated to produce a liquid and then a gas.

Click on the image (right) to see a great short presentation by Eden, Madelyn, Zach & Hudson.

Run-on Sentences ... Shud we Care?

we have notised that runon sentinses seem to be a gramer ishue for a lot of intrmedate riters it makes riting a lot more challinging to read is it rely a problem though we often dont wury about speling or gramer or puntuation in our day to day comunikation thru texting why worry abot it our discussion was about how difficult it is to understand riting with speling and gramer mistakes its also unprofessional

January 27

Creative Writing Task

We are working on editing our work, especially for run-on sentences and correct spelling.

The task this morning was to write something creative about the image shown to the right. This is an actual photograph of a condo building in Toronto before it was torn down. The balcony facade was removed before demolishing the building.

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