Semaine 1 à St. Vincent (France) : remarquable

Posted on January 24, 2011 by admin

Cette semaine était ma première fois en Europe, et ce n’était rien d’autre que remarquable. Le matin, quand je suis arrivé, il faisait tellement chaud! Les champs que nous avons vus en passant la campagne de la France étaient magnifiques. La famille ici est vraiment agréable et gentille. Pierre m’aide tout le temps quand j’ai des problèmes à comprendre ce que les professeurs disent. Ses sœurs sont vraiment polies avec moi et me traitent comme une partie de la famille. Je n’ai pas encore rencontré les parents de Pierre, mais ses grands-parents sont gentils aussi. J’apprécie leur patience avec moi et mes problèmes avec la langue. St-Vincent est aussi une école excellente. Les amis de Pierre me font me sentir comme si j’avais toujours fait partie du lycée. J’étais chanceux d’être mis avec Pierre. Lui et son groupe d’amis sont des personnes amusantes. Les classes sont toutes des matières que j’ai déjà étudiées sauf certaines exceptions, alors la transition entre les écoles n’est pas trop difficile. La visite à Paris était incroyable et une des meilleures expériences de ma vie. La professeure qui nous a surveillés était très amusante. Ma famille a beaucoup d’idées de visites à faire pendant les fins de semaine. Cette première semaine était incroyable et j’ai hâte pour la prochaine. —Samuel Ergina ’12

The Tragic Loss of Jason Peagram ’05

Posted on January 18, 2011 by admin

Monday in the USA was, Martin Luther King Day, a national holiday. It was a day for reflection and an opportunity to celebrate the great black Civil rights leader who did so much on behalf of all African Americans. In fact, Reverend Martin Luther King Junior dedicated his life to building bridges between peoples of all different backgrounds in the great American melting pot. So essentially, the national holiday was a day to celebrate diversity, racial equity, peace and compassion. It was well timed on the heels of the traumatic shooting only days ago in Tucson Arizona that killed or injured more than a dozen people, including a member of the House of Representatives who has miraculously survived a bullet to the brain.

So as America reflected and searched for avenues toward a more peaceful society, here at LCC we are also reminded of the callous impact of violence. Sadly, Jason Peagram, 22-years old and an LCC graduate from the Class of 2005, was killed late last week in a shooting here in our fair city – Montreal’s first homicide for 2011.

Monday, as America celebrated Doctor King’s important message of peace, I joined colleagues from LCC and attended Jason Peagram’s funeral. It is always tragic and somewhat unnatural to watch a mother bury her son. The fact that he was a victim of such a violent act only made it more difficult.

As the presiding priest shared with the congregation, this untimely and violent death of a 22 year-old with his future before him, reminds us that there is indeed evil in the world. That the grace and sanctity of life was taken from Jason in the street in a violent manner was shocking and brutal. We were advised to be cautious of violence that is creeping onto Canadian streets and into our households. Indeed, we should all be alarmed. We were also asked to consider what we have done for others recently. You see, Jason was a regular volunteer. A love of service was an attribute he picked up while at LCC–most recently as a volunteer with kids involved in basketball programs at the Trevor Williams Kids Foundation. The priest at the funeral also asserted that we should all be wary of selfishness, narcissism, and a tendency for all of us to be too self-absorbed. So how can we counter reckless, illogical violence? It is only through love, sharing and community outreach that we will defeat brash violence. Together we have to smother it. It begins in our daily lives at school and in our homes.

A young LCC brother was buried on Monday. He was a victim of a willful act of violence and we should all feel a sort of inner personal outrage. However, we cannot allow violence to triumph. Stop and reflect how you can respond through a personal gesture or act of compassion or empathy. However small or large, let’s each dedicate an individual private act of kindness to the memory of Jason Peagram, Class of ’05.

Jason’s Irish roots were evident at his funeral and the final words of the following traditional Irish prayer provided a fitting farewell.

Jason: “May the road rise to meet you. May the wind be always at your back. May the sun shine warm upon your face. May the rains fall soft upon your fields and until we meet again, May the Lord hold you in the palm of His hand.”
—Chris Shannon, Headmaster

Life After High School: Plan Ahead

Posted on January 18, 2011 by admin

Come grades 10 and 11, students begin to think about their future. What is the next step? Well, the first decision is Pre-University or CEGEP. For those who know that going away is not for them, their decision is quite easy. But for those who have even the slightest interest in a different kind of experience, the range of options is even greater.

Pre-U is the option if you want to go away for university. It’s a program that fully prepares you in terms of the workload and background you need to fully succeed when you get to university. The classes are small and I find this extremely helpful because unlike CEGEP, I get to know my teachers well as most of LCC students are used too. It’s true that at university you won’t have a class size of six students (depending on the type of school you choose) but you will have a much stronger academic background and skills that prove to be a great advantage. I’ve sat through the most boring of English classes where I had to analyze sentence structure and write a 100-word paragraph where word choice was of the utmost importance. I’ve spent time writing different kinds of sentences (by this I mean the use of a comma or semi colon) and yes I thought this was completely irrelevant because a sentence is a sentence. However, when it came time to write my college essay–a very important part of your application–I found that my writing had changed. I did care about structure, and I made sure I had used a variety of sentences to make my writing even more proficient. The point is, you may not realize it until you have to apply it, but the skills (like sentence structure) will save you many headaches in the future.

Now if you’re thinking that you want to do a year of CEGEP and then leave the province that’s fine. But let me warn you that you will not get the support system that Pre-U has. You won’t have a college advisor making sure your application is perfect. You won’t have teachers with flexible office hours and you certainly won’t have a community of peers that are going through the exact same thing you are. Never in my life have I been so stressed. I have to study for my SATs, keep up my grades, and write six different essays on top of my sports. It’s a crazy balancing act but the best thing about it is that I have 26 other friends who know exactly what I’m going through. You also don’t have an assortment of candy available to you all day. What I’m saying is that if you know after a year that you want to go away you might as well do Pre-U because it will make your application experience that much easier.

Lastly, I’d like to offer some advice to all potential Pre-U students. If there is more than an 80% chance that you will be enrolling in the program next year, prepare for your SATs this year. My biggest mistake was waiting to do the majority of my SAT studying at the beginning of my Pre-U year and believe me, I regret it. I only have two chances to get the score I need, but if you write at the end of this year you have three or four chances. This also saves you a lot of stress because you are not dealing with it on top of the lengthy US application process. Also, time management is key. Use your spares, go grab some lunch and then head to the library. This will keep your workload more manageable. Lastly, just know that you will get into university no matter what. Don’t let the stress get the best of you, if something’s wrong talk to Mrs. Tulloch or Ms. Levy, that’s what they are there for. In Pre-U you have ample amounts of resources available to you; use them to your advantage. Nonetheless, whatever road you choose to take, make sure it’s the right one for you.–Samantha Elefant ’10 (Pre-U ’11)

Happy Reading!

Posted on January 17, 2011 by admin

Now that the excitement of the holidays has abated and we settle back into our normal routines, we have an opportunity to re-establish the daily reading practices we might have cast aside during the pressure-packed social season.

Parents ask me about creating a reading climate in the home—an invaluable asset for personal and intellectual growth. Although there is not one tried and true approach, I can offer some suggestions that will assist you in fostering and, in some cases, re-kindling (pardon the pun) your child’s interest in reading.

I have mentioned in previous posts that it is imperative to begin by focusing on your child’s passions. If your son or daughter is an avid hockey fan, for example, you can start with the Sports section of The Gazette. You can share with your child articles that you find interesting, whether they be Red Fisher’s “Red Line” on Saturdays or Stephanie Myles’ daily column that gleans entertaining items from other sources. You may want to give your child a subscription to Sports Illustrated for Kids, Sports Illustrated or Hockey News. Sports biographies and autobiographies are also excellent resources for stimulating young fans’ interest in reading. Of course, I am referring only to the world of hockey. However, you can find print material and online resources for any hobby or activity your child finds fascinating.

To adapt Ernest Hemingway’s famous phrase, all one needs is a “clean, well-lighted place” to cozy up with a good book, magazine, newspaper or e-reader. In fact, you don’t even need light if you have an Apple iPad. Create attractive spaces in your home away from the television where you and your children can read either alone or together. As reading is usually a private act, reading nooks tend to be the most desirable areas for snuggling up on a cold winter’s evening to enjoy the pleasures of an alluring story. In any event, a comfortable chair or sofa and light are the bare necessities.

As e-readers become more popular, books and bookshelves may eventually disappear. Although this reality makes me sad, as I am an avowed bibliophile with a personal library of about two thousand books, I realize that technologies change. After all, we are no longer reading papyrus scrolls. However, creating a home library over time is a wonderful way to foster reading. Not only is a wall of books attractive, but it also contains millions of words and ideas that may be absorbed by your family. A library is a sanctuary, a physical space that cannot be replaced by an electronic screen.

Finally, show your children that reading is a worthwhile activity. Once they are beyond the age of bedtime stories, continue to model good reading habits. Read on a daily basis. Talk about the books you are reading. Leave good books lying around for your children to pick up in a casual way. Take your children to the local library and bookstore. Above all, show them that reading is a positive, fun activity. Readers tend not to be bored or lonely, as they can always find stimulation and companionship in the printed word. In the immortal words of Groucho Marx, “Outside of a dog, a book is man’s best friend. Inside of a dog it’s too dark to read.” — Brian Moore, Department Head: English Language Arts, Communications Studies and Literacy Programs

Guinness World Records® Achievement – A Success for LCC!

Posted on October 28, 2010 by admin

It started as a department brainstorm to promote Physical Education at LCC, and get students to think of fitness and health outside of classes. in the time that followed, several possibilities were considered, but the “cool” factor of a Guinness World Records® attempt won out. The process began about a year ago with an application to the Guinness Head Office in London.

The ensuing time seemed like forever, as we waited for the Guinness organization to research and consider what until then had never been attempted as a record. In the hope of a timely response, a date was pried into the LCC schedule for the spring of 2010. However, the answer came only after the scheduled date, and we had to push our date with history to the fall.

The response was not without its criteria. The Guinness World Records® people insisted on a number of standards in order to even consider the record. First and foremost, the actual feat was determined. A minimum of 250 individuals had to complete the Bleep (as they call it) test, to Level 5, or 41 bleeps. Secondary to that, there were specific methodologies prescribed for counting, coordinating and running the event, as well as rules for how our record attempt was to be witnessed.

As the event approached, the logistics questions reared their ugly heads. The LCC schedule again had its say, the media was invited (but as of the day before the event, only one group had shown interest), the media lab was mobilized for the sound and video evidence and the maintenance department put down lines at a distance of 20m on our fields. Finally, our teachers and students were given their marching orders for the day. And of course the variable weather of a Montreal autumn was always in the back of our minds.

Answering our logistical concerns were our department heads who supported the initiative without reservation from the start, complete cooperation from the students, faculty, staff, and administration, and finally the expert, gentle shepherding of our competent Physical Education department (with a nod to mother nature for the spectacular fall day we were given.).

And the day was spectacularly successful. On a cloudless, warm, fall day on our LCC fields 443 people began the test and 324 people completed the Level 5 (41 beeps). We had achieved the feat, and as we collate our evidence to send to the Guinness World Records(R) Organization, we know we achieved the most important thing of all. It was fun to exercise together and exciting to talk about the possibility of being in the Record Book. And if our record is beaten, we could go out again, and still have fun… doing the beep (or “bleep”) test! –Steeve Lee, Physical Education Department Head