Photos from our winter camping experience, the one on the left is a group photo of 9C and B, the right is a photo of Ben, Amir, Zuhair and I infront of our quinzee. Here is a link to that blog: https://jleigh23-yorkschool.blogspot.com

Photos from our first adventure as a class, Wanakita. Both photos are group shots, the first after a canoe trip to Crown Island, and the second was taken in the middle of our trip on the second day. Here is a link to the Wanakita Blog:https://jleigh23-yorkschool.blogspot.com

This ICE year has been hectic, from all the amazing trips that were planned by our amazing teachers, to all the wonderful class projects. For me this year was my first year at the York School and I can safely say it has been awesome. We had an amazing experience of travelling to the capital of our nation Ottawa, or our one-day excursion to Toronto Island, where we learned how to interview the public, little did we know this skill would be important later in the year. We got to see a play, and most excitingly we went winter camping. Almost everybody who took part in our 5-day journey through the white north of Ontario, which actually was not all that north, and paired up with 9B to explore the wilderness and build quinzees, or I like to call them igloos. All in all, it was a very exciting and eventful year. However, there is one event that was unlike the others, yes, its online school.

The online school truly is unique, with the ability to accesses anything in your house without the teachers knowing it at times became difficult to stay on task. I am sure the teachers were aware some of us did not even listen to the classes, nonetheless, it was a truly unique experience. For me adjusting to the schedules was difficult, disciplining myself to wake up on time for classes, and then actually do the work assigned proved to be quite the task. Of course, I managed to do all of my work, but, I, unfortunately, cannot say my attendance was close to perfect. Of course, my least favourite part was managing to wake up or remember the irregular classes, such as Advisor and the Personal Project Meetings, which changed days many times, which proved difficult. However, the online school did not go without its ups. The freedom and large time periods to make progress on your schoolwork were very beneficial for me, and I can say for sure many others. For me this experience was a great one for working on the work ethic. Throughout my school career I would say my work ethic was not always the greatest, but during online school we had a lot more freedoms so I had to take a little more responsability and do my work. Also online school has made me realize how awesome it is to actually go to school and socialize with your friends instead of staying home.

Ice has been a great growing opportunity for me. From learning various skills, such as how to make documentaries, or podcasts. Throughout the year we learned about Canada and its character and in doing so I have learned about my character, and it really has been quite a year. From the worldviews at ALIVE, or the character exercises about being a leader at the prep day, ICE has helped me realize my flaws and strengths. As a student I believe my work ethic has gotten increasingly better compared to previous years, and that is partly due to ICE and a bit of online school as I mentioned above. I think that ICE was an enjoyable challenge which made school, interesting and fun. Finally as a Canadian, I have learned about Canada as a whole, our challenges as a country, or past, and our political system. This year I have become more involved in Canadian Politics than I have any other year thanks to the ICE program. Again this year has been amazing, and I am really glad that I chose this school as my High School, and I especially grateful for ICE which is uniqe to York and all of its wonderful teachers.