The Answer May Be “Blowin’ In The Wind!”

Congratulations to the following leadership students: Adrian Davies, Sir McMullen, Jenny Vuong and Oliver Whitfield-Smith. They’re part of a special group of Western students who took part in a video montage that will highlight the social, economic and environmental benefits of wind energy in Canada.  The group was filmed and directed by an Ottawa crew from the Canadian Wind Energy Association (CWEA).  The CWAE wanted to get students’ input on why young people think wind energy should be a part of our future energy mix and what the environmental benefits of wind energy might be.  Each of these students participated in the Kids World Youth Energy Festival, hosted at the Brick Works last spring. The video is just another example of Western trying to care for Mother Earth.  The answer may just be,  “Blowin’ In The Wind.”

Leadership News - It's A New Day On "Moving On Up Day"

Graduating from elementary school to high school is often filled with excitement, happiness, and sometimes fear. On August 28th, incoming grade nine students had their first experience as grade nines on our “Moving on Up Day” at Western Technical Commercial School.  After receiving their timetables, new grade nine students were paired up with senior leaders and student council members who took the students on tours of the school, walked them through their timetables, showed them their lockers and finally led them on an exciting school scavenger hunt.

The morning ended with a pizza lunch that grade nine students shared with their senior mentors, some of their teachers and guidance counselors. It was an exciting way to begin the year. “This is just the type of day I needed,” commented one newly-minted grade nine student. “This school is so huge, that I would have been totally confused.  At least I found out where my classes are going to be on the first day.”

A New Sherwood Forest?

Just exactly where is Sherwood Forest? For Western Tech’s incoming grade nine students it was at “Camp Robin Hood” in Markham, Ontario. This was an all day event held on September 14, 2012 to encourage team building and interactions among grade nine students - basically, to make new friends and have fun. Over 175 grade nine students participated. Students from the Leadership class and eight members from the staff and school leadership team led many of the activities and joined in the exercises. Thanks to all those who helped out with the organization of the day and a special thanks to our grade nine students for their cooperation and enthusiasm. We are all looking forward to a great year at Western Tech. Now, back to the forest...

Peter Cram - thinking of him

On September 7^th, 2012 Mr. Cram had a tragic accident while riding his bicycle. He sustained serious head injuries and was rushed to St Michael’s Hospital’s Intensive Care Trauma Unit

Over the past two weeks he received the best medical care possible and despite all efforts of the doctors and nurses he succumbed to his injuries.

Mr. Cram passed away this past Friday afternoon September 21^st surrounded by his loving family.

As you know Mr. Cram was a well-loved teacher, librarian and coach here at Western.  

During the past two weeks, students, friends and family posted many get well messages on a Facebook page. His family appreciated all of the sentiments expressed by students and staff and were deeply touched by the amount of support offered by Western.

Mr. Cram was an important part of the Western Tech family and will be greatly missed by the Western Tech community. His passing will have a tremendous effect on the school.

On Monday, the auditorium will be opened as a place for students to go to remember Mr. Cram and to support each other and share their feelings with their peers and teachers. Students wishing to attend the auditorium may do so with their teacher’s permission, and will sign the Remembrance Book in the auditorium.  For the rest of the week, students may come to Room 151 to share their thoughts.

Over the coming days and weeks the school community will develop ways to keep Mr. Cram’s legacy alive at Western.  Students will be asked for their input and ideas about how this can be done.

Many of you will be very upset by this news and experience a sense of loss and sadness. The school has brought in extra help to support students, including social workers with experience in supporting students through difficult times like these. Please do not hesitate to make use of this counselling if needed. They will be available in the guidance office and the auditorium for as long as they are needed.

             

TDSB Caring and Safe Schools Week - Sept. 10th to 14th

Western Technical-Commercial School is a safe, nurturing, positive and respectful learning environment that enables all students to succeed and reach their full potential. Our school is a place that promotes peaceful problem solving, academic excellence and a sense of belonging for all students. Students are expected to demonstrate respect for human rights and social justice and promote the values they need to become responsible members of society.

Our mission is to enable all students to reach high levels of achievement and to acquire the knowledge, skills and values they need to become responsible members of a democratic society.

We value each and every student; a strong public education system; a partnership of students, schools, family and community; the uniqueness and diversity of our students and our community; the commitment and skills of our staff; equity, innovation, accountability and accessibility; and learning environments that are safe, nurturing, positive and respectful.

The Caring and Safe Schools team of administrators, advisors, child and youth counsellors and court liaison workers provides direction support to administrators, staff, parents, students and communities. Caring and Safe Schools are enabled through:

1.Strong school leadership, with consistent discipline policies and procedures;
2.School-wide safe and caring schools programs and instructional components focused on inclusive contributions;
3.Evolving and expanded prevention based knowledge and skills;
4.Ongoing support and professional growth in emotional intelligence, conduct management, prevention oriented strategies,  mediation and violence prevention
5.Inclusive and developmentally appropriate materials, activities and programs are championed and utilized;
6.Strong efforts to develop relationships and partnerships within the entire school community;
7.Clear assessment, evaluation and monitoring of student performance, combined with differentiated programming.

Board policies and procedures have been developed in accordance with provincial legislation and Ministry directives to ensure that  our schools are safe and caring communities.

The Magnificent 7s - Battle of the Bands

Artwork by Paul Geldart

Hey all you rockers and singers out there, Western's 9th Annual Battle of the Bands will be held Thursday June 7th from 6 to 10:30pm in the Auditorium. Seven dollars for seven bands. Get your tickets from a band member or from Mr.Esquivel.

Thank You Employers

It has been another successful year in co-op education with a vast array of employers providing rich experiences for all students.  We would like to thank all our employers for their hard work and dedication.  We couldn't do it without them. 

Western Tech raises more than $4,700 for wells in Africa

It was May 10 and the day was warm, but windy – a perfect day for a hike.  Hike we did!  200 students and staff walked from WTCS to Yonge and Bloor to meet some people from the Free the Children organization.  It was a great time with “Let’s go Western” chants, horn honking and lots of noise.  Eight kilometres seemed like a daunting task, but in just one and a half hours we were at our destination with energy left over.  

It might have been different if we had been carrying a couple litres of water that whole way.  Eight kilometres is how far many young people in Africa have to travel one way for water.  We walked to raise money for  a clean water system so that they would not have to make that trek every day.  Raise money we did!!!  We were able to present a cheque for $4700 to the Free the Children people so that they can build a water system at a girl’s secondary school in Kenya.  The girls will be able to get an education instead of fetching water every day.  Next year will be an even bigger event and raise even more money.  Plan to join us!

For more information regarding this event please see the article posted at the The Town Crier's website or the coverage provided by www.insidetoronto.com.

Pokemon – A discussion with Dr. Ken Perlin

Some background for those less experienced: The concept of the Pokémon universe, in both the video games and the general fictional world of Pokémon, stems from the hobby of insect collecting, a popular pastime which Pokémon executive director Satoshi Tajiri-Oniwa enjoyed as a child. Players of the games are designated as Pokémon Trainers, and the two general goals (in most Pokémon games) for such Trainers are: to complete the Pokédex by collecting all of the available Pokémon species found in the fictional region where that game takes place; and to train a team of powerful Pokémon from those they have caught to compete against teams owned by other Trainers, and eventually become the strongest Trainer: the Pokémon Master. - Wikipedia.org

Today, Friday May 25th, we are fortunate to have a distinguished guest at Western for the morning through lunch. Dr. Ken Perlin is an internationally recognized game development expert and university professor who has won an Academy Award for his accomplishments (see below). 

He'll be spending Friday morning working with a group of students on an inventive Pokemon tournament in the IDEA Space.  During lunch, Ken will be available to meet with interested staff and students in Room 387, so feel free to drop by if you would like.

And thanks to Kaelan Myerscough for helping to organize this.

Play on!

                

Dr. Ken Perlin is a Professor at New York University, an Academy Award-winning inventor (for Tron), a SIGGRAPH Lifetime Achievement Award winner for computer animation, and was the Keynote Speaker at SIGGRAPH Asia this year. He is also Director of the Games for Learning Institute at NYU. Ken is widely recognized for his many achievements, and a sought-after international speaker.  He agreed to volunteer at Western because of his great respect for WTCS student Kaelan Myerscough’s contribution to the Games for Learning Institute.   Check out the following links.

http://mrl.nyu.edu/~perlin/

http://blog.kenperlin.com/

Newton, Cavendish, ... now Quach

As part of the grade 11 Dynamics Unit, Steven Quach created a replica of the Cavendish experiment for determining the universal gravitational constant in which Henry Cavendish (1731-1810), an English physicist, experimentally determined the constant, G, more than a century after Newton predicted it mathematically. This individual student project was not part of the culminating activity or the final exam (worth 30% of their overall mark).

Steven was the first one to present, setting the bar high!

Way to go Steven!

Western Greens

Our Green Industries course is in it's infancy but has made great strides this first year. The horticultural component has given us the opportunity to expand the vegetable garden and reap the bounty over the summer and fall.

"There are many areas on our property that could use beautification" declared Mr. Pegg (lead teacher for the new program). "There are enough flowers, plugs prepared by our students and ready for delivery next week, to make a significant impact."  Staff, students and the community will be encouraged to join us.

Student Success Tea

A ceremony was recently held in the library to celebrate students nominated by staff for outstanding growth in character and/or citizenship, enabling them to become role models and provide leadership within the school community. Congratulations to all those nominated.

Hot Off The Press

Our Design and Technology program has two new pieces of equipment with which the students experiment. A clam heat press is used to transfer original student designs onto T-shirts.

And we have integrated a 3-D printer into the program. It utilizes plastic filaments to fabricate student designs in 3-D. In the Exploring Technologies - Robotics program, students are printing their 3-D key chain designed using Creo Elements Pro Engineer 5.

Art Works - update

Annie Zeng's book cover won second place in the competition to design a cover for Art Works, a textbook for grades 9 and 10 students in Ontario, published by Emond Montgomery Publications. 

Each student in the second-place winner's class receives a gift card to a local art supply shop. In addition, Annie will receive a poster of her submission. And finally, her classroom teacher will receive a copy of the Art Works Teacher's Resource.

Yay Annie!!

On May 11 the Grade 12 Leadership class will be running a Grade 6 Leadership Conference for five of our elementary feeder schools.  Our students are preparing a series of interactive and reflective workshops and activities that elementary school student leaders will complete in the one day conference.  Participants will be encouraged to take what they learn back to their elementary student councils and leadership programs.  A big thank you to Andrew Cooper one of our grade 11 leadership/cyber arts students who designed the conference t-shirt. The two images below are other pieces of work that Andrew created for the school Agenda and our Halloween Carnival.

Art and the Environment

For the month of April students in grade 11 leadership, who have background in our various art and design programs, have been assisting with Artists in the Classroom at Annette Street Public School.  W.T.C.S. leaders worked with groups of grade 7 students to design various life forms for the schools Ghost River Project. 

On April 26^th  Students received Environmental Leadership Training from the TREC organization in preparation for the World Youth Environmental Conference held at the Brick Works Environmental Centre on May 16th for grade 6 students from across the T.D.S.B.  This is the fourth year our leadership students will be running workshops, activity centres and act ambassadors for over 700 grade 6 students and their teachers.

Leadership Program at Ryerson University

On March 1^th 2012 students in the grade 12 leadership class received training from the OFFSA Official Training Department to prepare for the hosting of the Ontario Girls Volleyball OFFSA Finals held at Ryerson University on March 5 and 6^th.  W.T.C.S. students acted as team assistants on court officials and  judges, score keepers and guides.  Students not only put their developing leadership skills into practice but had a taste of what university life is like.  Students met with university staff members and graduates of W.T.C.S.  The feedback from the hosting officials and visiting teams was overwhelmingly positive and the professional, focused friendly manner of our students was strongly noted.

Wise Law

Grade 11 Law students visited the Superior Court of Ontario and Osgoode Hall, with Ms. Brett, on April 24, 2012. We were able to observe courtroom procedures, meet with a judge, and hear testimony given in a murder trial. We took a short tour of Osgoode Hall and its impressive Law library

Holocaust Centre and the Art of Samuel Bak

Grade 10 History and Grade 11 Genocide Studies students visited the Columbus Centre and the Holocaust Centre on April 27 accompanied by Ms. Brett and Ms. Tager. The Columbus Centre hosted an exhibit of the art of Holocaust survivor Samuel Bak.  

At the Holocaust Centre students met with Simon Saks who shared with us his experiences during the Holocaust. Both Mr. Bak and Mr. Saks were eight-year-old boys when WWII started. Students were fortunate to be able to hear about this terrible time in history from an actual eye-witness.

Western Tech Participates in the Revue Movie Community Project

Two former Western Tech students are involved in making a Community Movie celebrating the 100^th anniversary of the Revue Cinema on Roncesvalles.  Mike Kolberg and Ross McAuley with the support of Western staff and a groundswell of the Roncesvalles community are making a short fictional film about the history of the Revue Cinema.  Look for it.  The film will premiere at Doors Open Toronto in May.


For more information see the article www.insidetoronto.com: Anniversary film pays homage to the Revue's history 


Or the Toronto Star article Revue Cinema turns 100 and local filmmakers pay homage to its history

Job Fair and Returning Grads Assembly

Following the successful field trip to the Work Connections Job Fair on April 19, there was a Grads Return Assembly on April 23.  At the Job Fair there was a helpful presentation on how to use Facebook to help you get a job.  Flood your Facebook with all the good stuff that you are doing and erase all the information that shows you in a negative light because employers are now looking at Facebook to see what you are doing!

Returning grads gave great insights on what Western students should do to prepare themselves for post secondary school and the world of work.  Take advantage of your days at Western!  Take as many different courses as you can.  Investigate scholarship opportunities.  Work harder to get higher marks – higher marks give you more opportunities.  Manage your time so you don’t get overwhelmed.  Be grateful for the support you get from your teachers at Western because you have to be more independent at post secondary school.

Exploring @ Your Library

The Western Tech library is a busy place this Spring. A number of diverse events and contests are taking place, in addition to the great selection of books and media available to all students and staff. 

On Thursday, April 26, The Student School hosts a conference on water issues and activism. This full day conference will introduce participants to a host of issues that relate to the use, access, commodification and protection of water. The Student School's conferences aspire to educate students on current and controversial issues and offer models and avenues to become active on making positive change happen.

The Western Tech library is in the midst of its annual poetry contest. Students are invited to submit any kind of poetry  in English or in any other language with an English translation. Select Western poets will be given prizes and each student who enters receives a booklet of all the 2012 poetry entries. The last day for submissions is Friday, April 27! Get your poems in! 

Also on April 27 is Western Tech's Read-A-Thon. In support of Free the Children, students collect donations and get to read for the full school day in the comfy staff lounge. Refreshments, and of course, books are provided!

And on Monday, April 30 in the afternoon, the library is hosting an event called "Missing Pages of World History." The presenters will be discussing the history and culture of African people and their co-relation to other cultures, nations and peoples globally. There will be different interactive workshops including a drumming circle!! Students should sign up in the library starting on Tuesday, April 24.

Art Works Finalists

Annie Zeng

Four of our senior Cyber Arts Students: Annie Zeng, Karen Thai, Kevin Guan, and Ryo Taleporos have been shortlisted for the cover design contest for Art Works (a new online art textbook for grades 9 and 10 students in Ontario).

You can see their work here:

Ryo Taleporos

Karen Thai

Kevin Guan

Congratulations to Annie, Karen, Kevin and Ryo. They worked hard on this project!

On a similar note, the work of five of our artists is currently on display in an exhibition at Sherway Gardens. The show is on until next Friday (April 27). Please check it out. The students are: Viktor Madatyan; Ngo Dao; Evelyn Graham; Mairead Stewart; and Ana Zolotuho.

Mechanical Marvels

Congratulations to our young and energetic FIRST Robotics  team – WARP7. After a long, and sometimes grueling,  6 week build period our predominantly grade 9 and 10 robotics team emerged from the shops with a mechanical marvel loaded with wires and controls that was more than capable of taking on the competition from across Ontario, Quebec, Alberta, California and Michigan. In all, there were thousands of participants many of whom are destined to become our world’s future leaders.  Particular congratulations to grade 10 student WanQi Luo, not just for courageously volunteering to sing the American national anthem, not just for being a stabilizing co-captain of our team, but for being chosen from thousands of participants as Robotics “UL Safety Star of the Day” – the first such award won by a Western Technical-Commercial student. 


Beyond that, our team is emerging as a FIRST Robotics powerhouse winning an unparalleled 5th straight Gracious Professional Award. And as if that was not enough, the good safety habits instilled by the Coach/Mentors (Mr. Halling, Mr. Kroon, Mr. Schneider, Ryan Walker, and Craig Gray) along with the dedication and hard work by all team members resulted in our school being awarded the “Safest Pit Award” at both the University of Waterloo and UOIT competitions – more “firsts” for Western!

Although we have represented Canada and the T.D.S.B. twice at the world championships in robotics, this year’s team was our first to place in the top 8 heading into the playoffs giving them the special recognition of being a Alliance Captain before being ousted by the trio of perennial powerhouses that went on to win the Waterloo Regional Championships.

Congratulations WARP7 Robotics and all the Specialist High Skills Major- Robotics Engineering students that contributed to our schools success.