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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 spring 2011 highlights of this issue lending a hand in new orleans by maddie grade 12 after much planning and excitement on an early wednesday morning in mid-february the graduating class of 2011 set out for the big easy our accommodations at gentry house right in the middle of the beautiful french quarter allowed us to gather in one of three apartment-style rooms for breakfast and dinner every day the owners also delivered croissants for breakfast each morning on our first afternoon in the city we explored the french quarter and made our way to the only grocery store in the surrounding area and about the smallest one we d ever seen our first exploration of the city was working with habitat for humanity on two different building sites over two days most of us were unsure of what to expect we had seen the news reports on hurricane katrina and some of us had read books or seen documentaries the girls dig in at a habitat for that further informed us humanity building project about the catastrophic handling of events during and after the devastating storm the site coordinators were helpful and informed about the organization s mission and procedures matt one of the coordinators described habitat as giving a hand up not a hand out on the first day we worked on a site in the 7th ward a neighbourhood hit hard by the storm but not as badly as the upper 9th ward where we worked on the second day the house we worked on in the 7th ward appeared to be the last empty lot in the vicinity and the neighbourhood was mostly recovered i was quite shocked to see the situation in the upper 9th ward i got a chance to see more of the neighbourhood when i went with two young americorps continued on page 2 grade 11s in the winter wilderness page 4 happy international women s day page 6 inside week without walls spirit week social justice linden women the art world around linden sports linden music linden drama linden admissions update 4 6 8 10 11 15 16 18 20 the linden letter spring 2011 · 1

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grade 12 service trip lending a hand in new orleans volunteers to get water from another habitat site further down the street on a block where houses stood a metre or two apart before the storm and extended from about the equivalent of avenue road to yonge street there were six or seven houses currently inhabited by families beside the site we were working on a house was still dilapidated and had not been touched since the storm i knew what the conditions were like before going on the trip but i couldn t believe that in the 21st century in the united states the conditions had not changed significantly after six years while this is despite the best efforts of many aid organizations and hardworking people the reality is that many areas in new orleans and the surrounding towns are still not much better off than they were five years ago in new orleans we had the opportunity to see a parade first-hand the parade went on for longer than we expected and we were all starving by the end we made our way over to one of the few restaurants in the quarter that was open late only to find that it was closed after much deliberation not to mention walking we ended up at the ihop on canal street some ordered giant stacks of pancakes and others broccoli don t ask why on sunday morning we had a delicious breakfast of beignets and café au lait from café du monde on the riverfront in the afternoon we went on a tour of the bayou we saw two alligators a few snakes and some cool swamp trees with their roots in the air our tour guide told us what rural life in louisiana was like and we came to understand why their license plates claim it to be a sportsman s paradise that night we had dinner at gentry house and then made our way over to the legendary preservation hall a highlight for most of us listening to the musicians at preservation hall was most definitely worth the hour on saturday we volunteered with handson new orleans to clean up and revive a public cemetery afterwards we took a tour of a new orleans landmark the lafayette cemetery because of the height of the water table and erosion people cannot be buried underground instead in keeping with spanish tradition a family will purchase a family e 9th ward tomb or mausoleum and famed home in th ve a collaps district abo ily members are laid to rest in the garden elow a home b inside we took a new orleans streetcar for the first time back and-a-half wait to our rooms in the french quarter on monday we took the historic st charles streetthe weeks leading up to mardi gras are always car to take a walking tour of the garden district filled with festivities and parades during our time the stark contrast between the economic situation 2 · the linden letter spring 2011 cont d on next page

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grade 12 service trip lending a hand in new orleans in the 9th ward and the garden district was emphasized when we took a tour of the women s opera guild house the woman giving us a tour of the beautiful 19th-century mansion described the trouble they went through to replace the silk drapes at a cost of fifty thousand dollars silk drapes for one room cost more than two thirds of an entire habitat house in spite of these disparities we enjoyed what each place had to offer and what we could learn from them for lunch we enjoyed the mexican fare offered at juan s flying burrito afterwards we made our way over to mardi gras world where many of the floats in the mardi gras parades are made we ate our last dinner in new orleans at an amazing restaurant with some of the best food i have ever had the menu offered traditional southern foods such as jambalaya gumbo and southern pecan pie the food was delicious and it was a memorable meal as tuesday was our final day we enjoyed our last breakfast of croissants packed up our suitcases and left the french quarter behind in a limousine while the contrast of ending a trip based on service by riding to the airport in a limo was a bit much all i can say is that the cab company sent it without our knowledge and that the ride to the airport was one of the many highlights of the trip journal de notre voyage à la nouvelle-orléans mercredi 16 février 2011 arrivée à la nouvelle-orléans nous nous installons au gentry house en plein quartier français jeudi 17 février 2011 le site habitat pour l humanité nous nous mettons au travail creuser la fondation et installer la structure en bois vendredi 18 février 2011 il fait chaud samedi 19 février 2011 nettoyage du cimetière holt la nouvelle-orléans se prépare pour le mardi gras dimanche 20 février 2011 une visite dans les bayous lundi 21 février 2011 promenade dans le garden district et retour à toronto in closing i think i can speak for all of my classmates when i say that the trip changed our outlook on the world brought us closer together as a class and was a really rewarding experience top at mardi gras world middle riding the historic st charles streetcar bottom cleaning up a public cemetery the linden letter spring 2011 · 3

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week without walls snowshoes and s mores grade 11 trip to algonquin in february our grade 11 class set out for algonquin park for their week without walls they stayed at the algonquin park eco-lodge a lodge that runs entirely on micro-hydro electricity generated by a nearby waterfall and tried their hands at many outdoor winter activities we asked them to reflect on their experience and here is what they shared on outdoor campfires on several occasions we had the opportunity to have outdoor campfires this was a great way for us to try something that we couldn t do in the city it also gave us a great excuse to make jiffy pop and eat s mores we had a lot of fun collecting the wood to burn in our fire on stars the stars at night were amazing they covered the whole sky and really lit it up seeing so many stars shining so brightly was a real treat because as we all know it is very hard to find skies that look like that in a city like toronto knowing that made the beauty of the stars even more memorable than it already was on the polar bear dip just down the road from the lodge was a nice hot tub and sauna it was a way for people to relax and get rid of any stress or aching muscles from the day s activities near the hot tub there was a hole cut out of the ice on the lake the idea was to come from the hot tub jump in the freezing water and then run back to the hot tub a bunch of us did it ­ some more than once on snowshoeing during our 3-4km snowshoe walk we came across wolf tracks a kill site and a beaver s dam eventually we had to cross a frozen lake and we each went one by one during the walk we were accompanied by the eco-lodge s dog tucker 4 · the linden letter spring 2011

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week without walls snowshoes and s mores grade 11 trip to algonquin on team dinners wilderness food has a reputation for not being so great so in order to avoid famine our class decided to cook dinner every night we split into teams and each team was designated a night when they would be responsible for dinner we made a list of essential ingredients before the trip and went grocery shopping it was nice to take initiative and decide what would go into our meals it turned out wonderfully because our meals were nutritious and delicious the team dinners also helped our class dynamics because through these dinners we had to learn to work together in order to eat well this helped bond our class together not only did these team dinners nourish our bodies but they also nourished our friendships overall making dinner together was supper fun on games so it turns out that allison and kat are not only really good teachers ­ they both are very skilled at board and card games like monopoly things in a box apples to apples poker crazy 8s and president on leaving tech behind sometimes you don t realize how much you use and rely on technology in your day-to-day life it felt so nice to be unplugged and enjoy life without having to worry about cell service or internet connections it allowed us to notice the small yet memorable things around us without being distracted by technology on being off the grid though alternative energy sources are something that we study in science class at linden seeing an actual operating system and living in a lodge fuelled solely by micro-hydro power is a totally different learning experience we thought we would often forget to turn off lights and water faucets but knowing that keeping the lodge heated depends on energy conservation is pretty good motivation the linden letter spring 2011 · 5

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spirit week mardi gras comes to linden by alannah and sinead grade 12 for spirit week 2011 we the grade 12 class decided to make the theme mardi gras in response to our fantastic service trip to new orleans there we went to mardi gras world where we learned about the history of mardi gras in new orleans and how the floats are made afterwards we thought it would be an amazing idea to make this our theme for spirit week we were the krewe of regina or the krewe of queens a krewe is a group that puts on a parade or a ball for the carnival season each of us represented a different queen including the queen of mardi gras the drama queen the dairy queen and the beauty queen these two were also villains on the first day of spirit week the krewe of queens was introduced to linden here is how sinead describes that first day the joy of the young members of our community radiated from their glowing faces in the front row as the grade 12s made their dramatic entrances as each grade 12 waltzed trod or in some cases danced into the gymnasium the room resounded with the delighted laughter of children then to the entire room s dismay the queen of mardi gras was whisked away by bandits in a sudden flash of darkness it was up to the eager students to find the lost queen thus depriving the bandits of their innocent hostage 6 · the linden letter spring 2011 the kidnapping left the rest of the queens with no float plans no costumes no spirit and no king cake for the celebration of mardi gras we needed the students of linden to help find our queen during the first day each class was required to create a krewe name and cheer which helped us to find our spirit once again on the second day we made human floats which helped us to re-create our float designs on the third day we made masks to help create our costumes and on the fourth day we had our annual lip sync contest which helped with both spirit and music selection for friday s festivities on the final and fifth day the day of mardi gras we held the masquerade ball where we found our queen ­ and the dairy queen and the beauty queen were sent to jail thanks to officer lyden we also saw some amazing costumes on our sub theme days which included circus and fairy tale characters it was a fun five days and all of the queens would like to thank linden for helping us find our queen and for the spirit that they displayed over the last week of term two!

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spirit week mardi gras comes to linden what did our students like most about this year s spirit week read on to find out i loved the make your own human float a lot -sophie grade 5 i loved the creativity and theme this year of all the different queens it was fun to see the different types and interpretations of all the queens -mahal grade 8 my favourite activity was making up the group cheer -zoë grade 9 my favourite costume was our own because i loooooove togas -sara grade 3 my favourite part of spirit week was the lip sync i love seeing what songs people choose and i find the costumes and dancing very entertaining -hannah i.k grade 8 at the carnival kate mieko and i made a cupcake then serena and i played throw a bean bag then we went to the throw a sponge with whipped cream when it was our turn serena got allison in the face and i got it on the wall then they announced the cake contest winners and serena won for most refreshing cake alex grade 2 i liked when the grade 12 s found the missing queen of mardi gras and they also found the bandits -serena grade 1 the linden letter spring 2011 · 7

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social justice linden la marche des guidounes on january 24th 2011 a representative of the toronto police service speaking at osgoode law school said that women can avoid becoming victims of sexual assault by not dressing like sluts the comment caused uproar but it also shed light on a larger issue the belief still exists that if a woman is sexually assaulted she is to blame though all members of the toronto police service may not share this view it is harmful if girls and women believe they do sexual assault is already under-reported due to the stigma attached to being victimized in this way if women who are sexually assaulted feel that the police will blame them they are even less likely to report the crime out of this comment has emerged a protest event slutwalk toronto slutwalk is a movement demanding that the voices of women be heard in opposition to victim-blaming one of slutwalk s goals is to reclaim the term used by the officer and to take control of a word used in hate as has been done previously by black and gay communities another goal is to shift the blame back to the victimizer from the victim and to challenge the toronto police service to do the same at linden we felt it was important to discuss this event briefly with our high school students we wanted to help them be informed about this issue and to give them the tools to articulately discuss this difficult but crucial subject high school faculty also reviewed information about the protest event prior to the discussion so they could follow up sensitively with students in our grade 9 french class students discussed significant points of the debate about reclaiming hateful language they applied their advanced french speaking and writing skills to articulate their thoughts and explore their feelings about the subject the projects they created after this discussion illustrate student exploration of this topical debate of language in french projects created by grade 9 students jamie sammy and taslima want to learn more visit www.slutwalktoronto.com 8 · the linden letter spring 2011

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social justice linden happy international women s day an international women s day board game linden s gym was transformed into a human board game during all-school on march 9th for our celebration of the 100th annual international women s day iwd in addition to marking this important day our yearly iwd event also helps a rwandan student named sylvie attend school for the past several years linden has raised money to help pay for sylvie s school fees without which she would not be able to continue her studies she is currently attending high school and we were delighted to meet her in person during her first visit to canada in december and january to read more about sylvie s visit check out our winter 2011 newsletter our grade 9 students traditionally organize the iwd event this year they planned a largescale version of scene it but instead of answering pop culture questions they asked students to tap into their knowledge of influential and famous women from the past 100 years students divided into their school families and each family was matched to a grade 9 student the grade 9 students acted as game pieces for the board game consulting their families for each question giving an answer on behalf of the group and moving on a thought-provoking sermon that was very pleasant to hear one of the highlights of the visit to the unitarian church was hearing one of the women in the congregation talk about the challenges faced by women in modern times she related an incident in which she saw a poster that said that alcohol is more important than women the female minister also delivered a good sermon outlining the challenges faced by women today and in our own backyards women have come far they are taking on more challenges in the fields of academics science engineering business and medicine however the barriers they face are by no means overcome day in and day out women around the world face tyranny by harsh non-democratic governments and their tattered systems which consider women to be second-class citizens one of the best moments for us came when we performed the song and we got a resounding round of applause from the congregation and some wonderful compliments from the ministers i am indeed proud to be a woman and also proud to belong to a group of women like indira gandhi rosa parks golda meir hilary clinton jane jacobs and many more together we can all conquer the injustices levelled against women in modern society the linden letter spring 2011 · 9 the board if they answered correctly throughout the all-school students shared their knowledge collaborated to come up with answers and added to their understanding of women s contributions to society and by donating $2 on their way into the gym they also helped guarantee that sylvie will be able to continue her education and ultimately go on to university closer to fine by taslima grade 9 this year for international women s day the senior choir performed closer to fine by the indigo girls at the first unitarian church on st clair avenue west the event was an eye opener the unitarian ministers delivered

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women the art world when we draw where do we draw the line by bahar grade 12 art we all have different definitions of this three-letter word from the drawings we draw to the paintings we paint our performance art and our music art has revolutionized changed influenced and has even been neglected by our culture and society many of you at some point in your life may have heard someone saying that something `is not art where do we draw this line can it even be drawn so many say that art and i mean true art is what caravaggio picasso and van gogh have produced in the past that is where you can paint like van gogh paint-bynumber kits come in what people tend to forget is that these acceptable artists were all radicals in their time when someone looks at a modern piece made of scrap metal glued together and says it is not art what do they really mean are they saying that this cannot possibly speak to someone or that it cannot be a result of someone s emotion and expression isn t that what art is about revolutionary art such as pieces created by american painter mark rothko is usually not understood and is almost always questioned when i was initially exposed to rothko s work i myself didn t quite understand the appeal as a ten year old staring at big canvases of splattered paint for hours made me ask one question why why is rothko getting so much attention when i can do the same thing why should a yellow box have any sort of significance whatsoever crawled over in order to draw a cube or a single line on a canvas in fact art does not have to be anything at all the reason why it has such an influence on people and has managed to revolutionize whole cultures is because of artists realization of art s boundless possibilities the only walls that are built around these pieces are the ones people manage to mold over time our art does not have to be understood by everyone but that is prewho sees hears cisely the point the guerrilla girls most well feels or tastes it that people seem known piece fist to miss it may not now as i menbe a representation of the civil tioned before our art is a veswar slavery or any other histori sel for change and has impacted cal event but the piece itself is movements such as the feminist a historical event turn-of-theart movement how can artists century art has done exactly what reflect on a movement such as many people neglect to see it the feminist movement do they has changed the way we perceive have to depict certain aspects one of the most prevalent yet of our history for their art to fall ignored subjects in our society under that specific category we can look at feminist artists such showcasing such work in galleries as georgia o keefe or the guerin the 21st century may seem irrilla girls and with one glance relevant because we have passed we know their pieces are feminist the dada and radically modern art in the guerrilla girls piece era however i believe that art fist we clearly see the politidoes not have to be around only cal statement they are trying to if it is relevant to our times ­ it make with a woman in a gorilla can be a reflection of our hismask holding her arm up as her tory a visual representation of biceps bulge up and her femithe social boundaries we have nine dress glitters fist is clearly mark rothko s magenta black green on orange 1949 10 · the linden letter spring 2011

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around linden when we draw where do we draw the line cont d saying i am woman hear me growl there is nothing wrong with this in fact i admire art where women can not only shine but can be crass and vulgar the question is does art have to follow certain guidelines to be classified as feminist art why does any of our art have to be that way does all feminist art have to seem as though it was made during the second-wave feminist movement i believe that in order to make a feminist statement you do not have to incorporate a direct representation of women s struggles in the past or draw marches or paint judith beheading holofernes in this biblical story judith is chosen by god to kill holofernes an assyrian general attempting to destroy her town the story has been interpreted by many artists throughout history including botticelli rembrandt and klimt women can make a feminist statement by painting yellow squares and becoming their own rothko understanding the unlimited possibilities of art can be a statement and a woman creating something that does not appear to be a feminist art piece at first glance can be a testimony of its own the beauty of art is not just what we experience in the end but it is those decisions we make to surprise and break down barriers so i d say that art really is what you can get away with slumber party at school by maud and samantha grade 6 every year the grade sixes have a sleepover during their space unit in science this year our sleepover occurred on february 11th and we came to school dressed up maud came as a mad scientist with a glowing suit it s quite uncommon for a student to stay overnight at her own school but when you re at linden you actually get to sleep here it was so much fun we will never ever forget it after we unloaded all of our bed things we ate dinner with tang to drink and then did many fun activities that taught us some interesting facts about space our favourite was an egg drop where you had to protect the egg as it returned to earth from space when it was dark we went upstairs to the roof where we usually have recess it was so dark there much darker than we expected it was so cool we tried to see the stars but unfortunately it was too cloudy then our teacher beth brought out sparklers and we had a great time after being on the roof we changed into our pajamas watched a space movie and went to sleep the next morning we woke up and had a pancake breakfast beth had made some pretty cool pancakes there were pancakes shaped as the number 6 and even planets after that we got dressed and did a few arts and crafts then it was time to go it was cool to be at school so late in the night we had loads of fun the linden letter spring 2011 · 11

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around linden linden s great debaters by michelle munk the linden debate team made its debut at the york university high school debate tournament on a weekend in february the debaters grade 12 students ayesha and julia did remarkably well for a first-time team while julia had some prior experience this was ayesha s first time participating in a formal debate on friday there was a briefing and a mock debate to introduce the british parliamentary style participants were then read the first resolution on the subject of freedom of association and received their position in the debate they had 15 minutes to prepare ayesha and julia were first government and presented strong articulate arguments although they had strong opponents they came second out of four teams after the debate we reconvened with the other debaters and participants got their second resolution that students and teachers should not be allowed to be friends on social media sites and position it was a long and intense evening on saturday we resumed with three more debates interspersed with two public speaking competitions the other teams were varied in their skill and experience and the linden team faced some challenging opponents over the course of the tournament ayesha s confidence and composure increased tremendously and julia s role fulfillment improved as well ­ in addition their ability to work effectively as a team really progressed over the course of the weekend saturday afternoon future debater and grade 6 student samantha joined us to watch and learn she was inspired by what she saw and hopes to continue the legacy of linden s debate team michelle munk s collaboration with oise by michelle munk over the past several years i have had an ongoing relationship with oise/ut which has been mutually beneficial in many ways i have presented annual workshops about social justice math to teacher candidates in intermediate/senior math at oise s teacher s college i have also integrated a component on teaching math to girls using research and my experiences at linden the teacher candidates posed thoughtful and challenging questions and i enjoyed offering my experiences at linden as an alternative to their practicum experiences for the past two years i have also been part of a participatory 12 · the linden letter spring 2011 action research project on math for social justice with indigo esmonde each year i have developed a research question and conducted investigations in my classroom with the purpose of improving my teaching practice last year my question was how does `teaching math for social justice affect students consideration of math as important in understanding social/environmental issues outside the classroom do students generalize their classroom experience and select math as a tool for understanding social issues over the course of the year i used several social justice math projects and solicited feedback from students on their experience this year i worked with linden alumna and board member kaya tache-green who teaches math at central technical school to compare two ways of teaching some of the more theoretical elements of the grade 11 functions course we are analyzing the data she collected and will present our findings at the ontario association of mathematics educators conference working with faculty and students at oise has given me the opportunity to enrich my teaching practice at linden i have been introduced to new ideas and i have been given access to tools and resources to help me reflect on and improve my pedagogy.

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around linden a welcome wellness week by kate mcevenue last may saw the first ever wellness day fair at the linden school the addition to the school calendar was a welcome one allowing students to focus on physical mental and emotional health through a variety of approaches to wellness we know girls learn best when they feel they have the tools and confidence to balance their emotional and physical well-being wellness day introduced them to some of the many ways in which they can keep well for years to come this year s wellness day was held in february as an opportune time to regroup after the whirlwind of our annual science and technology fair and the various bouts of flu and grey weather based on the success of our first wellness day we decided to centre this year s event on emotional health as such students from every grade participated in individualized workshops we also expanded wellness day to become a wellness week taking place from february 2nd to february 4th this encouraged our students to more thoroughly explore issues surrounding wellness and also allowed us to offer students more targeted in-depth sessions we planned and held several separate sessions based on age and stage appropriateness · our students in grades one to five explored emotions and selfperceptions through a hands-on art-based workshop led by art therapist susy fonseca a welcomed returning presenter from last year · grade six students explored the theme of identity through a workshop led by kim tanzer psychotherapist and workshop facilitator of girls group dare2b great kim also worked with the grade seven students in a session including some yoga and activities and discussion around the topics of boundaries and voice in friendships · the national eating disorders information clinic nedic led a session with grade eight students addressing issues of body image media messages and media literacy and healthy eating unfortunately the winter storm on february 2nd meant we were unable to hold our planned session for grades 9-12 we are working hard on rescheduling this session in which students will participate in two workshops delivered by planned parenthood on the topic of sexual health the presenters will focus on a number of themes including healthy relationships aids prevention myths and stereotypes about teens sex and sexualities and any topics raised by the participants watch for an update about this session in our summer 2011 edition of the linden letter grade 1/2 reflections on wellness week i liked doing the box of feelings i put things like a monkey a sunflower and candy on my box i also cut out bread and fruit pictures from a magazine i picked those pictures because i like fruits candy and monkeys and i like to smell sunflowers my box is at home and i put orange peels in it to make it smell good but i will not eat them serena grade 1 it was really fun to make the box because i liked decorating it it was interesting when we shared our thoughts with everyone i shared some of the things on the outside of my box but not the inside because some of it was a little private i put a picture of a monkey inside the box because my dad calls me monkey right now i have a picture of my family inside it alex grade 2 i liked putting things on the box but i found it a little bit hard because you could only use a magazine to find pictures i could not really find what i wanted to represent myself i found it nice when people were explaining why they put things on their boxes now my box is on my bedside table i put a picture of my family in the philippines inside it mieko grade 2 we got to learn lots of things like stuff that is connected to being healthy we got to make a box i put dogs animals and flowers on my box they are all pictures of things i like we listened to lots of people and what they said about their boxes sarah grade 2 the linden letter spring 2011 · 13

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around linden career day 2011 by the grade 10 career studies class on wednesday march 3rd linden s grade 10 career studies class hosted the school s annual career day this year the students in career studies created an introductory video to encourage students from grades 7 to grade 12 to make the most of the presentations from the twenty-five presenters who would be addressing them that morning we had representatives from a vast array of professions presenters included a surgeon a chef the president of a currency company a human rights lawyer a charity founder and an actress all of them were ready and willing to share their knowledge about their careers and the exciting and interesting experiences that they have had on the job we really enjoyed ourselves and learned a lot about the different careers that are out there this day was a real eye-opener for many of us because we had the chance to explore possible professions that we might be interested in overall it was a big success and even though planning the event was a big job it was all worth it in the end the hardest part for us as event planners was to coordinate the day s events with other people communicating with 25 presenters and almost 100 fellow students was not a simple task many times we were left without a response until just before our cutoff dates sometimes we had to disappoint some students as we were not able to give everyone their first choices in seeing specific presenters looking back we did a pretty good job ­ we learned to improvise move to plan b and pull it all together we d like to give a big thank you to all of our presenters who were wonderful informative and so generous with their time top martha applies a cast to amanda s arm as part of a presentation by orthopaedic surgeon jeremie larouche middle kate checks out an emmy won by actress joanne vannicola bottom rick flood tells students about his career as a building inspection manager 14 · the linden letter spring 2011

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sports linden volleyball roundup by kia and amanda grade 8 throughout the volleyball season our team had many ups and downs we grew together and learned to use each other s skills to the team s advantage during the season we had some very surprising wins and some disappointing losses but nothing compared to our awesome pep-talks and practice jokes after school with dives serves and volleys coming from all different directions there were some injuries but there was nothing that our great support system couldn t handle but most importantly we couldn t have made it without our great coaches tonja and elizabeth we don t know how but they managed to put up with everything from our laziness on days where we were moody to our overly energetic afternoons when they couldn t get us to stop moving in all we wouldn t have wanted the volleyball season to go any other way by ayesha grade 12 to sum up this past season of volleyball i d have to say that if it was not the most successful season it was certainly the most fun consistently from january to february we had a blast at practice and had a really fun energy at all times both on the court and off it took a couple of games to really get into the swing of things but once we did we played well as a team and had some really great moments we played a really great season winning 3 games out of 8 but unfortunately losing to toronto prep perhaps because a large portion of the team was absent on the grade 12 service trip i see a lot of potential for the junior members of the team and really look forward to cheering them on next year a clean sweep for grade 10 gym class by the grade 10 gym class on february 4th we went on a curling field trip to the richmond hill curling rink with many other schools toronto montessori school hosted this fun tournament which gave us a chance to learn the process and skill behind curling we spent the day slipping and sliding down the ice throwing curling rocks and laughing after many falls we got the hang of it and could throw the rocks successfully down the ice we all learned many useful techniques and we hope that we will get the opportunity to curl again we would like to thank those who gave their time to show us the ropes if it were not for their help and patience then we might not have been as successful as we were also we would like to thank our teacher allison for setting up this wonderful excursion the linden letter spring 2011 · 15

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