French for the Future

I spent some time this week in George Waters Middle School next door chatting with the grade 8 students who will be registering for high school next month. Enrollment in French: Communication and Culture is declining in Manitoba and I'm really trying to encourage more students to stay in French. I made this flyer to share with the students and share it during our Open House on February 9. I hope to see lots of the grade 8's out with their parents and guardians and we can talk about the benefits of learning French.

Choose French! Your future will thank you!

Winter...love it or leave it?

We've been having a roller coaster this winter in regards to our weather. It's been a huge improvement over last year so I'm definitely not complaining. It's been nice being able to get out this year and enjoy what winter has to offer. I am truly grateful to live in an area where we get to have four distinct seasons and all the beauty and adventure each season brings. In case you don't feel the same way I do, here's another blog post from David Suzuki, this time inviting us to celebrate winter.

Winnipeg for Wasichana

Yesterday, our Social Justice group visited Golden Gate Middle School (a partner UNESCO school with St. James Collegiate). Groups of students presented "Give Girls a Chance: Barriers to Education" to all grade 7 classes. Our students spent several weeks preparing for these presentations which featured the videos below. These presentations were meant as an introduction to some of the barriers to education that young girls face in rural Africa - for example, Kenyan girls will miss up to 20% of their classes because of menstruation. We will be presenting to all the classes in George Waters Middle School tomorrow. We are promoting the "Winnipeg for Wasichana" bake sale that is taking place at both St. James Collegiate and Golden Gate (as well as a number of other schools in Winnipeg) in support of the Wasichana Fund. All money raised will go to #padsforchange. Check out this website and video here for more information.

Happy New Year!

Here's hoping that 2015 is off to a good start for everyone! Only three weeks until exams - where has the semester gone?!?

There's a really good blog post from the David Suzuki Foundation that I read over the break I'd like to share. Many people begin a new year with some goals or resolutions for the coming year. I'm usually not one who does, but I'm hoping to generally just be more mindful and in the moment instead of worrying about what lies ahead. David Suzuki reminds us to slow down, not only for ourselves but for the sake of our fragile environment too.

"Let's slow down, breathe, listen, look and feel. Only then will we understand our place in the world and what we must do to live well on this small blue dot spinning in an enormous universe. " 

- David Suzuki, October 9, 2014

Here's to a happy, healthy and mindful 2015 - for you and Planet Earth!

Holiday Fun at Brooklands

Our Brooklands Literacy Group was fortunate once again to receive funding from the United Way so we could share the love of reading with the students at Brooklands school. As we have done many times in the past 10 years, former Brooklands students who now attend St. James Collegiate went back to Brooklands to read. In preparation for our big pancake breakfast event that takes place annually in February, St. James students were able to spend some time with the teachers and students they will be reading to again in the new year. We chose Jan Brett books for each classroom and each group read a story (which was then gifted to each classroom teacher), facilitated a craft activity based on the story they read and provided a small snack for all students.

                                          

                                          

                                              

Happy Holidays to you all! Looking forward to 2015!

Frog's legs, s'il vous plaît!

On Monday, I took my wonderful French class to Café Ce Soir. The owner, Cam, hosted us in his restaurant and provided us with a lesson in French cooking and we were served delicious, authentic French cuisine for lunch. We learned how to make a number of French dishes including béchamel sauce and crème brûlée.

While learning about French cooking (and the vast quantity of butter used) and even some history, everyone was given the opportunity to try les cuisses de grenouilles (frogs' legs) and escargots. It was a unique and rare opportunity for most of the students. They really are an adventurous group!

After sampling the appetizers, we sat down for our lunch that included onion soup for all accompanied by a Croque-Monsieur (baked ham and cheese sandwich), a Salade Niçoise or a Sandwich Calanque (shrimp and egg sandwich). Our meal was finished with an eggnog crème brûlée. C'était délicieux!

                                               

                                                

                                               

It was a great morning! We will have to return to sample some of the fabulous desserts created by Cam!

                             

Magic in the Air

It's been a while since I have been able to post. It just got really busy and I wasn't able to spend very much time here. There's a number of exciting things happening next week that I'm planning to share here too.

Back in September, my French class started making a video. We spent a number of weeks filming a kind of promotional video for French. Then, a group of the students started editing once or twice a week, when time allowed. And now it is complete!

I had heard the song Magic in the Air by Magic System repeatedly over the summer during the World Cup. My kids loved it and we listened to it constantly. I decided that it would be a good song to introduce to my French class since the lyrics were mostly in French and it was an upbeat, catchy song. A promotional video is something I had been wanting to make for a long time and I knew that this was the class to do it with since they had made videos in class in previous years and really seemed to enjoy  making videos. I think the video turned out great and I am really proud of what they have done. Enjoy!