The “Last Post” – the week of April 19th – 23rd, 2021
YOU ARE HERE – OR ALMOST HERE – CONGRATS!
Three more days of class to go and what a ride it has been! Roller coaster meets Bungie jump meets The Zipper. For those who are starting their practicum on April 26th, we wish you all the best and hope you know you have a 3150 H/HH community behind you.
We will see you on Friday, April 23rd. We will open up the class at 8:30 for chats and questions and then formally start at 9:00 a.m.. We will finish at 10:00 and at 10:30, you have an Orientation for Second Year.
The meeting link will be sent out just before 8:30 on Friday.
We will take time to say hello, trade some highpoints and maybe some lowpoints, get into smaller groups and maybe play a KAHOOT!
TIDYING UP
Paul and Heather do not exactly approach Marie Kondo’s level of neatness and organization but we do want all of you to finish the year with all assignments completed, attendance forms and final reports in etc.. To avoid being repetitive, to avoid being repetitive (;), all is laid out in last week’s blog, e-mails to you from Tracy and us, and on BrightSpace.
MESSAGE FROM LINDA
So this is it! We are coming to the end of year one. You have been teaching and learning during a time of record-breaking challenges, and the UCC team of professors have all been inspired by your commitment to making a difference in education.
In PED 3150, we have begun to inquire into some of the big social justice issues through our reading together of DiAngelo’s and Sensoy’s Is Everyone Really Equal and discussing how we can respond to the problems of inequity through our work in education. As we struggled through unpacking the concept of social justice, we became more literate and gained further awareness that the issues of oppression are complex, political, and often emotionally charged.
In the second book we have read together, Ayers’s To Teach concludes by naming his chapter “Commencement: Beginning Again.” He leaves us with an important message that above all else teaching is about “the irreducible and incalculable value of every human being.” Such ideas are the stuff the UCC is made from, and we hope you will continue to embrace what we have read and considered together this year.
ON A PERSONAL NOTE – STEP UP FOR KIDS
Perhaps we mentioned this but maybe not, we two oldsters are climbers (not social climbers) but trekkers. We are also people who have been involved in community work for a long time. Combining these two loves is our community, fundraising project called Climb for Kids. Since 2018, we have raised money for an organization called Christie Lake Kids (CLK) which provides incredible year-round programming and support, and usually a beautiful summer camp experience for Ottawa kids who do not have a lot of financial resources, and often not a lot of social supports.
With Climb for Kids, we recruit a group of trekkers to train for a big, long hike and climb and raise money for Christie Lake Kids programming. So far, we have travelled to the Ausangate Range (Rainbow Mountains)in Peru (2018) for an incredible trek, typically at 4800 metres (gasp), and in 2019, we did the Tour du Mont Blanc, a 170 km trek through the Alps in France, Switzerland and Italy. We were slated to climb Mount Kilimanjaro, the Roof of Africa, in 2020 but were grounded by the pandemic then and again in 2021. But that is not stopping us! We have raised over $100,000 so far.
On Saturday, April 24th, CLK is sponsoring our second STEP UP FOR KIDS. We are committed to climbing stairs for a total of an hour. So far we have raised close to $1000.00. If you would like to participate through your own activity or by sponsoring us, just go to the link. Many OCDSB and OCSB students are Christie Lake participants and alumni.
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