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the linden school 10 rosehill avenue toronto on m4t 1g5 · 416-966-4406 · www.lindenschool.ca · linden@lindenschool.ca the linden letter winter 2011 highlights of this issue making a difference through math by michelle munk on november 9th linden hosted its third social justice data fair with our best participation ever the gym was full of thought-provoking projects exploring issues such as tropical diseases teen pregnancy childhood malnutrition and maternal health we were thrilled to have armine yalnizyan senior economist for the canadian centre for policy alternatives as our keynote speaker she spoke passionately about the long form census and the students participated enthusiastically after the keynote parents and students toured the projects and learned about the important issues on which the students have become experts all students in grades 1-8 participated in the fair in addition to the grade 12 data management class with some older students participating as willing listeners the grade 1-2 class presented its research on poverty in toronto for which they had collected primary data from the school and also conducted some secondary research the grade 3-4 class compared reported cases of domestic violence to the number of shelters in each province in canada in the grade 5 class students worked in pairs to research an issue of their choice one group compared gas emission levels in various countries one group explored the incidence rates of breast cancer in ontario and a third group looked at energy-saving habits of linden families the grade 6 students presented the findings from their annual waste audit and they also created graphs exploring correlation of various social issues such as calorie consumption and infant mortality and income and child labour the grade 7 8 and 12 students explored topics of their choice with some of the grade continued on page 2 festival of lights page 5 piezometer pizzazz in ecuador page 16 inside linden community news festival of lights sci-tech fair sharing our knowledge around linden sports linden drama linden alumnae update 2 5 6 8 9 13 14 16 20 admissions update the linden letter winter 2011 · 1

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linden community news au revoir sylvie for the past several years linden has been raising money to help sylvie a rwandan high school student go to school our students and sylvie exchange letters with updates on their lives and we have gotten to know her quite well over the years this winter we were fortunate enough to welcome sylvie to linden as part of her first journey to canada she joined us for classes throughout her stay and she got to know our students faculty and staff very well she even taught us some rwandan dancing making a difference with math cont d 8s focusing their projects on the united nations millennium development goals the students and willing listeners who participated in the fair learned about the many important ways that statistics and data analysis can help us to understand and address social issues linden does new york by michelle munk in mid-october beth alexander and i attended the creating balance in an unjust world conference in brooklyn new york the conference explores the connections between math education and social justice as part of the conference i had the privilege of spending a day at the bushwick school for social justice an alternative public school in brooklyn which focuses on social justice throughout its curriculum although many of the values and beliefs of the school were familiar the size and demographics of the school were a stark contrast to the linden school and it was interesting to see how those differences played out in the classroom beth and i presented our workshop a social justice data fair active inquiry as critical pedagogy on saturday afternoon using an interactive workshop model we explored some of our pedagogical practices and shared our experience with the social justice data fair participants were enthusiastic and had many good questions for us we also attended a number of interesting workshops presented by researchers and teachers from across north america it was exciting to learn from our colleagues and to compare the challenges we face as educators for more information on the creating balance conference visit www.creatingbalanceconference.org 2 · the linden letter winter 2011 not surprisingly one of the biggest differences between canada and rwanda that sylvie cites relates to the temperature i didn t expect it to be this cold she says however there are a number of other differences especially as relates to schooling i live at school full-time in rwanda she says my class is 55 students 48 boys and 7 girls we wake up early in the morning go to school all day and study at night there is also scheduled study time on the weekends as well as time to play linden offered a totally different experience i like the classes here very much she says i also like that i get to go home at the end of the day that is not possible at home sylvie also saw the sights in southern ontario during her stay including the cn tower and the toronto performing with the grade zoo her favourite nia12 class at our festival of gara falls she says it s a lights miracle we will miss sylvie but are grateful for the opportunity to meet her and hope we will see her again soon sylvie s self-portrait created in art class.

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linden community news linden s board of trustees new board chair lorraine lederer steps down as board chair it is with deep regret that the board of trustees accepts lorraine s resignation as chair and trustee of the board of trustees lorraine s health concerns require that she remove some of her responsibilities and time commitments at this time as a parent at linden for many years lorraine always offered her time and energy to every school event and project she is a committed advocate for linden extolling the real and tangible benefits that a linden education offers girls she served for eight years as a trustee with five of those years in the position of co-chair of the board we thank her for the many years of tireless service to the school she will indeed be missed and we wish her a speedy recovery lori newton takes on role of chair we are delighted to announce that lori newton will take over the chair of the linden school board of trustees effective immediately lori is the mother of nora in grade eleven and has served on the board since 2006 she has already brought a wealth of experience to our board in the areas of law human resources and management her understanding of the mission of the school is deep and clearly articulated we are fortunate that she is able to take on this position and look forward to her leadership of the board of trustees save the date the linden school art show monday may 2 6 pm join us as linden becomes an art gallery for our annual art show this event features drawings paintings sketches sculptures installations videos and other creations from all of our art classes you ll also meet linden s newest entrepreneurs our grade 9 business students are creating their own craft-based start-up companies and they ll have their products for sale as part of this project a student-run committee is planning art show this year and they have lots of ideas that will help make this year s show unforgettable don t miss it check this out as we move into the next decade a disturbing phenomenon is becoming increasingly prevalent many girls appear confident and resilient but this self-assurance conceals a fragile inside at linden we work to help girls develop real confidence in who they are and what they can do leonard sax a medical doctor and leader of the montgomery center for research in child and adolescent development wants to do the same in his latest book girls on the edge dr sax explores the girls who look confident and strong on the outside but are fragile within sax examines the self-destructive behavior that can result and offers concrete ways to help girls cultivate stronger personal identities girls on the edge provides readers with tools to help girls become confident women including practical tips on helping your daughter choose a sport nurturing her spirit through female centered activities and more we enjoyed reading it we thought you might too the linden letter winter 2011 · 3

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linden community news a new member of the linden community on sunday september 26 at 2:42 a.m linden teacher christine and her husband jeff welcomed their new 6 lb 6 oz baby daughter meghan cara devon meghan has already outgrown all of her newborn sleepers and she celebrated her very first christmas and hannukkah this past december congratulations christine and jeff ross edward goudie 1915-2010 by lorraine lederer ross edward goudie father of the linden school founder diane goudie passed away this summer mr goudie was a generous supporter of the linden school since its inception without his generous contributions at the very beginning of tls the school s very existence could have been in doubt the board of trustees formally acknowledged mr goudie s support and extended their condolences to diane goudie and her family at their annual board retreat in september of 2010 the board of trustees also wants to thank all of the people who have made financial donations to the school in memory of mr goudie since his death your support is a fitting memory to this gracious man 4 · the linden letter winter 2011

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festival of lights on wednesday december 15th linden celebrated a great first term with our annual festival of lights as always the festival featured performances by the linden band our steel pans bands and our music classes and homerooms and was a wonderful way to kick off the winter break check out these photos from this fun event the linden letter winter 2011 · 5

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science and technology fair an evening of discovery on thursday january 27 linden science students spent the evening sharing their knowledge with fellow students teachers friends and family at our annual science and technology fair all science students from grade 1 to grade 12 participate in the fair each budding scientist finds a question that makes her say i wonder and uses her curiousity critical-thinking skills and knowledge of the scientific process to investigate her question questions asked this year include does interacting with dogs lower your blood pressure and what type of hand sanitizer kills the most bacteria continuing a linden tradition grade 8 and grade 11 students completed specific special projects grade 8 students used lego robotics kits to build and program a robot to perform specific tasks in response to external stimuli for example one group created a dog that responded to commands like play dead and another built a snake that rattled its tail and struck when it sensed a person or object close by our grade 11 students used their knowledge of biological systems to create a new animal from two existing animals and to create internal and external models of this new creature the resulting animals ranged from the fearsome weaglerine a wolverineeagle hybrid to the feisty rabunk a rabbit with the appearance and defense mechanism of a skunk on january 27 it was time for our students to present the results of their investigations they were eager to share and our many willing listeners volunteers from the community who listen to and give feedback on student presentations were eager to listen learn and ask questions of their own presenting to willing listeners is one way we provide leadership opportunities for linden girls developing their presentation skills and sharing their findings also encourages our students to discover more questions and to see the value in what they have to contribute as both a budding scientist and a learner to see more photos from our sci-tech fair visit lindenschool.ca/whatsnew/newsarchives_events.htm 6 · the linden letter winter 2011

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science and technology fair les robots meghan 9a kalia 9a daniela 9a the linden letter winter 2011 · 7

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sharing our knowledge linden and technology the ecoo conference by chiku grade 12 on november 11th 2010 the members of last year s grade 12 communications technology class ­ alannah ayesha leeat and me ­ attended the annual ecoo educational computing organization of ontario conference with our teacher kat goodale there we volunteered for various activities such as helping people register for the conference and selling books there were many seminars presented during the conference one of which we prepared and presented with kat the main topic of the presentation was how to incorporate technology in everyday learning using media such as podcasting video and visuals we let the conference room know exactly how technology-forward linden is ­ not only in the technology classroom but across all subject areas we showed projects that were made for other classes such as drama and demonstrated how technology is now incorporated into many classes reviewing projects we did in class last year was a nice reminder of how much we learned about technology and computer programs such as scribus a desktop publisher we used to lay out the yearbook aviary an audio editor we used for podcasting and adobe premiere a video-editing software we used for making and editing videos overall the conference was a great experience we learned about new programs and technology which will be used in classrooms across canada and we had the opportunity to share projects we worked on we got the best of both worlds by being able to not only showcase our work but to play around and discover other forms of technology that are really useful in classroom learning top leeat chiku ayesha and alannah in their ecoo t-shirts bottom the girls help conference attendees to register spreading the word at stao in november beth alexander presented a session at the annual conference of stao the science teachers association of ontario her presentation entitled the science of the underground railroad explored links between civil rights science and technology and aimed to help teachers in ontario use hands-on science activities to explore this period of history with their classes this was beth s third time presenting at the stao conference to learn more about stao visit www.stao.org 8 · the linden letter winter 2011

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around linden la visite du dr kendra mcsweeney la classe de français de grade 9 le 14 janvier le dr kendra mcsweeney a rendu visite à linden pour parler de son expérience au honduras le dr mcsweeney est géographe de l environnement humain elle étudie la relation entre les gens et la région qu ils habitent elle a passé deux ans au honduras avec la tribu des tawakas dans la forêt tropicale elle a suivi les tawakas dans leurs activités surtout dans la forêt pour voir dans quelle mesure ils vivent de la forêt ils connaissent plus de cent variétés d arbres différents et ils construisent eux-mêmes leur maisons sur pilotis avec différentes sortes d arbres le dr mcsweeney a appris à parler le tawaka surtout avec les enfants qui n hésitaient jamais à lui corriger ses fautes alors que les adultes étaient trop polis pour le faire fiscal matters excerpts from the treasurer s report the following are excerpts from the treasurer s report presented at linden s annual business meeting on november 24 2010 diane goudie linden co-founder and board member presented the report as you know eleanor and i founded the school in september 1993 we opened our doors to 37 girls and 12 teachers last year we had an enrolment of 144 students a faculty of 25 and an administrative staff of 8 we are a not-for-profit organization which is almost entirely funded by tuition last week we received linden s financial statements for the fiscal year july 31st 2009 to august 1st 2010 i would like to share some of that report with you · our operating capital increased by 3 because of an increase in enrolment · the amount of interest which we paid on our mortgage dropped from $86,000 to $44,000 a reflection of our new mortgage with td canada trust this replaced our former mortgages which were held by three private lenders · we paid off significantly more principal last year meaning the amount of our outstanding mortgage dropped nearly $100,000 to $1,235,284 · our highly successful annual giving campaign added $37,000 to our income ­ almost double the amount from the previous year we are pleased to report that we had responses from 23 of our families an additional 32 of donations came from our linden community of faculty alumnae grandparents and friends · our expenses last year were fairly consistent with the previous year with our increased enrolment we were able to add substantially to our emergency fund · wages and benefits accounts for 79 of our operating costs · the building itself accounts for 7 of our costs leaving 14 of operating for supplies advertising leases on equipment and insurance i am pleased to report that the school is in a sound financial position and will continue to be so in the future with the on going enrolment patterns we look forward to a future of growth and expansion with your support and that of the families who are yet to join us in this exciting venture the linden letter winter 2011 · 9

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around linden fur feathers and fun by stephanie bass on november 19th the linden school held its annual science olympics with great activities organized by senior school science students the junior and middle school students participated in scienceinspired fun that included and this is only a few of the great activities an egg-drop challenge a biology scavenger hunt and a marshmallow catapult contest we kicked off the event with a fascinating presentation by creature quest and the ontario falconry society first the school walked to nearby rosehill reservoir park for a flight demonstration starring a beautiful falcon and her handler ed several students held the falcon with the handler s assistance next students met a collection of animals from all over the world all students saw the animals up close ­ and many even touched them crowd favourites were the tamandua anteater and the soft chinchilla animals that caused the biggest crowd reactions were the chilean rose tarantulas and the ball pythons grade 3 student sara and grade 9 student tate were able to feed a beautiful blue and green chameleon named ebeneezer when i asked sara if she was scared she replied no i loved it he had a slimy tongue the science olympics ended with an awards ceremony the senior students congratulated all of the younger students on their participation in the afternoon when we asked girls in grades 1-4 if they had a good day the question was met with a resounding yes congratulations to the student organizers the event was a great success by mackenzie and isobel grade 4 november 19 was the day of the science olympics a company called creature quest showed us many animals as a bonus feature we saw a falcon take off for a flight after that we were divided into teams following that were many activities some of which were animal jeopardy paper skyscraper and animal scavenger hunt we also had a pit stop cheers to a good day 10 · the linden letter winter 2011

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around linden creating a disturbance in the art world by shelley grade 9 for part of our first term we did a unit called pretty ugly we broke off into groups and looked up famous paintings with women as the subject all these paintings were depictions of what male artists thought women should be we did this as a way of connecting ourselves to art history in our groups we worked to recreate these masterpieces with ourselves as the subjects of the paintings we painted the backdrops figured out what to wear for our costumes and took the pictures when we had staged a recreation we then took new photos but with these next pictures we added something strange or disturbing to our pictures for example one group put on fake blood or used fake teeth the purpose of this exercise was to change the way that women were portrayed by the masters where beauty and perfection were the measure of their worth jamie shot by jennifer in their recreation of thomas gainsborough s 18th-century mrs john taylor take a look at some examples of the final product of the girls hard work and creativity katie and tate photographed by zoë in their recreation of bartolemé esteban murillo s 17th-century a girl and her duenna the linden letter winter 2011 · 11

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around linden ladles and loans kiva fundraiser by the grade 5 class this fall we read the book one hen it was about a little boy who helped his family by buying one hen he used the money he made from selling the hen s eggs to buy more and more hens he got so busy that he hired other people in his community our teacher soteira told us this was a result of something called microlending in november we went to the out of the cold program at the metropolitan united church where we helped set up a soup lunch for people who can t afford food this gave us the idea of running a soup lunch at linden to raise money to help other people we had 11 soups donated to our project from linden staff and grade 5 families we raised $105 and together chose to donate it to the following kiva projects · cruz magdalena montesdeoca vera portoviejo ecuador señora cruz is 51-years old and has three adult children cruz s husband is a driver together alexa leigh and emma prepare soup for their kiva fundraiser two sons in her sister s house in ulaanbaatar mongolia s capital ulziiburen operates both a dairy product and a newspaper trading business in a rented stall at the grocery shop next to the bus station of bayanzurh district we loaned her $25 to buy supplies for her stall they sell all types of clothing we loaned her $25 to buy merchandise for her clothing business · ulziiburen shuher sansar ulaanbaatar mongolia ulziiburen shuher is 37 years old and lives with her husband and · francine nyirahirwa kigali rwanda francine nyirahirwa is 36 years old married and has five children who are between the ages of 2 and 14 she runs a small general store that sells a wide variety of food and other items francince has been in this business for about five years we loaned her $25 to buy goods for her general store · juana francisca corinto morazan el salvador juana 54 is a general merchandise and cosmetics merchant she lives alone because her children have formed their own families for 20 years she has sold decorations cosmetics and clothes she works all day every day of the week we loaned her $25 to buy cosmetics for her shop the rest of our funds 4.48 were given to kiva for their operating costs in the end we had a great time and feel proud to be supporting all these women through kiva to achieve their goals going to the p.a.r.t.y by allison cleland in october the grade 10 class took part in the p.a.r.t.y prevent alcohol and risk-related trauma in youth program put on by sunnybrook hospital the students met real patients who have suffered various traumas due to drug and alcohol use helping them gain a greater understanding of the challenges that may result from abuse of these substances the purpose of this program was to provide young people with information about injury trauma that will enable them to recognize potential injury-producing situations make prevention-orientated choices and adopt behaviours that minimize unnecessary risk this program is a vital component of the growing community effort to reduce death and injury in alcohol and risk-related crashes and other incidents 12 · the linden letter winter 2011

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sports linden great season for senior basketball team by allison cleland though few in number the senior girls demonstrated outstanding teamwork and sportsmanship during the entire basketball season in a very competitive league the senior basketball team placed fifth out of nine teams with tenacious defense and endurance the girls came within points of the team that placed number one in the final league standings due to the frequent number of away games we are extremely lucky to have such supportive and enthusiastic parents who have helped chauffeur our team to various gyms around toronto thank you for your time humour and cheering the 2010 senior girls basketball team members include katie onyka monica and elaha grade 11 and annabel alex and julia grade 12 very well done linden allison gives annabel a few basketball pointers junior basketball team are ssaf champs on thursday december 2 the junior basketball team repeated as small schools athletic federation champions here is what coach elizabeth had to say about their effort at the final four tournament both games were very exciting our semi-final game was the girls best overall team effort with fantastic positioning and passing strong defense and great play execution it was like watching magic on the court seeing all of the girls play smart work as a team and show such heart mira and i were extremely proud of the girls and you could tell they knew how well they played the final game was a nail-biter against bond academy the same team we played in the finals last year the game was tied 19-19 with a minute and half to go the bench was wild with support for the five girls on the court and the girls playing in that last minute kept their cool and got the job done all were thrilled with the results what a group of girls congratulations girls thank you also to the parents and guardians who supported the girls throughout the season the team appreciates it photos courtesty of inr photography www.inrphotography.com the linden letter winter 2011 · 13

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drama linden student work shines at senior drama night by jenn haines on november 15th students in grades 9-12 put on a wonderful evening of one-act plays for parents teachers and guests to showcase their talents students in grade 9 wrote their own sound compositions melding music and sound using audio software called mixcraft they then created intriguing narrative movement pieces to this music titled crash the cab catastrophe and the masquerade murder students in grade 10 performed an abridged version of the first act of hayavadana by girish karnad making their own masks and demonstrating their developing ability to act without facial expressions students in grades 11 and 12 showed off their script-writing abilities by staging plays written by members of the class the students performed the flight by elizabeth grade 11 strangers by katie grade 11 phantom life syndrome by maddy grade 11 the accident by noa grade 12 and the view from up here by sinead grade 12 stage managers nina grade 12 and andie grade 11 made sure everything ran smoothly the evening was a great success as the audience left entertained and impressed with the students high level of creativity and acting talent 14 · the linden letter winter 2011

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drama linden modernizing a classic at grade 8 drama night by the grade 8 class grade 8 drama night was a spectacular evening we really enjoyed writing and rehearsing our modern adaptation of shakespeare s romeo and juliet and it came together with tremendous effort focus and determination by all involved wen-do empowering for grade 7 class by severen meghan and beth grade 7 in december the grade 7 class took a two-day course on wen-do women s self defense throughout the course we learned to protect ourselves from attackers coming from all angles in a variety of situations we learned simple yet effective moves and the ideal targets on an attacker s body our instructor deb chard was very supportive it was a great experience and we learned a lot and gained much confidence in ourselves left kiara lets out a yell during wen-do practice right samantha just after breaking a board with her fist the linden letter winter 2011 · 15

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