Category Archives: Arts

Get Involved…You Only Live Once

Leave a reply

There was a fad a year or two ago where people were encouraged to write a letter to “16-Year-Old Me”. I am not sure what the purpose of this was but the positive spin from it was that young people had the chance to see what older people (eg: over 20!) would have changed about their teenage years.

For me, I would have gone back further and written a letter to the 14-year-old me. At 14 and in Grade 8, sports was everything. My life revolved around the community sports seasons (hockey, fastball, soccer) but once I hit high school, I moved from volleyball to basketball to badminton to track without a day off between. I was so focussed on athletics that I did not give myself the chance to get involved in anything else. I would have told the 14-year-old me to take courses in music and drama, to play in the school ensembles and audition for a role on stage. Now that I am over 20(!!), I wish I had taken advantage of those opportunities.

So whenever I have the chance to speak with students about their future years in education, I always tell them to add one new extra-curricular activity each year (even if it means they need to drop one). Every year, I see students who play on a sports team or perform on stage for the first time and think to myself “Why didn’t they do this sooner?”. Even more frustrating is seeing students who are very active in the TEAM/Mentor clubs, teams, ensembles and activities from JK to Grade 8 but then don’t get involved in anything in high school! What happened to YOLO (You Only Live Once)?

In a few weeks, it will be New Year’s Eve and many of us will be making resolutions for 2015. Students…make this the year that you tryout for a new sports team, audition for a role in the musical, join the cooking club or sign up to participate in an Outreach project. Parents…if your child needs a bit of encouragement to get involved, let us know and we can perhaps subtly give them a nudge. You could even write that letter to the “14-Year-Old Me” (or choose the age your child is) to start the conversation. The only question is…would you have listened to an “ancient” person like you when you were 14?

Chris Starkey
Administrative Principal
Mentor College/TEAM School

Memories To Music: Seniors Learning From Seniors

Leave a reply

10259769_707457759350017_6367664688648605383_nIt is a very high school-specific event but I really want to highlight the amazing job that Mentor’s senior music students did at last night’s “Memories to Music” concert.

For the uninitiated, this is a pilot project with the Alzheimer’s Society where students are matched up with a senior partner in the early stages of dementia, interview them over the course of a few weeks and then compose a song about their senior partner. The song is performed for the senior partner and their family at the concert but more importantly, it is recorded so the senior partner can have a copy of their own. Numerous studies show that even after other aspects of a person’s memory have faded, music seems to “stick” in our minds longer so having a song that chronicles your life story can help you remember those details.

As faculty advisor Mr. Hoare told the crowd, his favourite part of the process is that very first meeting. He and his counterpart at the Alzheimer’s Day Centre (just across the street from the Main Campus) watch as both the students and seniors are SO nervous to meet each other…both groups wondering “Am I going to get a cool person?” and “Will they like me?” and within 5 minutes, they are chatting back and forth like old friends. Mr. Hoare’s theory is that teenagers and seniors have that one special bond of “neither one of them care what middle-aged people think about them” and that is why the programme works so well.

As with most events like this, the tendency is to focus in on how much “we” are doing for “them” but in this case, I think the students might even get more out of the experience than their senior partners. Case in point? The final number of the concert was, unfortunately, dedicated posthumously to Joan Linklater by her student friends Mirabella Chan and Vanessa Kabu-Asante. Joan passed away in October but her husband Jim was gracious enough to allow Vanessa and Mia to sing the song in her memory. The song started with a poem Jim gave them:

When I come to the end of the road, and the sun has set for me
I want no rites in a gloom filled room, why cry for a soul set free?

The tissues came out around the room and I told myself that if the girls started to cry, I knew I would be joining them. They did a gorgeous job of the song and were able to keep it together until they got off the stage and got a big hug from Jim and then their classmates and the audience joined me in a sad/happy cry. I am sure Vanessa and Mia will be recounting that story to generations of their own families…their own version of “Memories to Music”.

Chris Starkey
Administrative Principal
Mentor College/TEAM School

It Takes A Village: Mentor/TEAM Theatre Productions

Leave a reply

It was “Opening Night” for the Mentor/TEAM spring theatre season yesterday as the Primary Campus presented the first of two sold-out shows of “The Jungle Book”. Next Monday, TEAM School will transport audience members to the land of Oz and on Tuesday and Wednesday, Mentor’s Intermediate Division presents “The Music Man”.

While I was holding the doors open for the chorus members last night, it was clear that there was a great deal of excitement and enthusiasm on the faces of the kindergarten to Grade 4 students and I thought to myself that we need to have more large-scale drama and musical productions in our lives. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to have everyone in your neighbourhood get together once a week and put on “Shakespeare-in-the-Park” during the summertime? Can you imagine how much more fun work might be if you got to win a big fight scene with the CEO and then sing the finale over his/her trembling body (my apologies if you are a CEO…you can re-write the script or fire that employee as soon as the curtain falls, of course)?

The thing I enjoy most about our musicals is that it truly does “take a village”. It takes students with acting, singing, set designing, instrumental, graphic arts and organizational skills to make a large-scale production work and since most of us have only one or two of these gifts, everyone gets their chance to shine. The same can be said for the teachers involved; they each bring a talent to the show whether they are either behind-the-scenes or up in front. “Break a leg” everyone!

Chris Starkey
Administrative Principal
Mentor College / TEAM School

Celebrating The Arts

Leave a reply

The past two weeks has seen a focus on the arts at our schools. Mentor’s Grade 5 to 10 visual arts’ students have displayed their work all around the Main Campus, senior art students from TSS/Mentor held their show “Meraki” last Wednesday and Thursday and Mentor students from Grade 1 to Grade 12 showcased their vocal and instrumental talents at two concerts.

Tonight, our high school students will celebrate the arts with the 3rd Annual “Sunnies” Awards. The categories are wide-ranging and cover visual arts, video, fashion show, drama, music and technical support over this past Mentor/TSS school year. Over 100 students are nominated (and we all know from awards show speeches that it is an honour just to be nominated!) and perhaps more impressive is the fact that over half of our student body is somehow involved in the arts.

Some students pursue careers in the arts (like alumnus Joseph Rumi of Rumi Galleries that many of you drive past on Queen Street every day) but as Mentor music teacher Mr. Hoare often says, the ultimate goal of our arts’ programme is to create a lifelong interest/passion in the arts. In other words, even if you never pick up a paintbrush or play a trumpet ever again, we will consider your time with the arts beneficial as long as you visit galleries and museums, buy something musically-inspired on iTunes or purchase a subscription to the local community theatre. If you don’t perform the arts, at the very least continue to “consume” them.

Chris Starkey
Administrative Principal
Mentor College/TEAM School