There Is Music All Around Our School

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One of the best parts of having responsibilities that extend to all of our campuses is that I get to see every age of student from Grade 12s to Pre School. When I do see the students “in action” it is almost always outside of the classroom and there were three vignettes in the past 24 hours that made me smile.

At the “Memories to Music” concert last night, I saw 21 of our senior HS students perform a song that they had composed for their senior partner from the Alzheimer’s Society. Of those students who sang, there were at least five who have never been singing on stage before…but 99% of the audience wouldn’t have known it from how they performed! This morning, I saw three girls from the Intermediate Division at a hydration station. One of them was filling up her “Astra” bottle (from last week’s Fashion Show) and as she opened it she told her friends in a musical voice, “I am awesome at unscrewing water bottles!” Later in the morning, I was lucky enough to be the bus driver for the junior kindergarten trip to the library. After visiting the library and the ducks on the Credit River, they had me smiling as they searched for robins on the trip back to school and sang out “I found a robin!” when they did.

Whether it is coming from a wonder-filled 4-year-old, an excitable 10-year-old or a nervous 18-year-old, there is music all around us. When Alzheimer’s patient Irene lost her husband a year ago, she stopped playing the piano. The interview sessions that she did with her junior partners at Mentor rekindled her memories of music and her daughter wrote a nice note to the students saying that her Mom has started playing again!

Listen. Can you hear it? The music. I can hear it everywhere. In the wind… in the air… in the light. It’s all around us. All you have to do is open yourself up. All you have to do… is listen. – opening voice-over in August Rush (2007)

Chris Starkey
Administrative Principal
Mentor College / TEAM School

Wear it With Pride

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As the administrator of the Mentor/TEAM alumni page on Facebook, I get to connect with former students who are anywhere in their life journey from 1st year university to parents with kids already old enough to be in high school. One post this week caught my eye.

The former student started by talking about the difference between university and working full-time and said “university is not a substitute for real-world working experience”. I was intrigued and started messaging with her. After university, marriage and her first child, she decided that she would find a job that would not tax her brain too much but still benefit from her psychology degree. Her job? She is a parking control officer in a major city! When I asked her how she deals with her “clients”, she says that she knows that even when she is not actively ticketing vehicles, she is a target because of her uniform. “Every move of a uniformed person is scrutinized because we are so visible.”

When I think about it, this quote applies to our school as well. The black watch tie lets everyone in the neighbourhood know the return location of our high school students when they go off-campus for lunch. The interpretive guide at Fort York and the Port Credit branch librarian know who we are from the crest on our blazers. This “brand-recognition” actually works to our detriment at times; our students stopped wearing their uniforms during judging at the Peel Region Science Fair many years ago because (reportedly) the judges had been told to “let other schools win some awards as well” after a few years of Mentor-dominated podiums.

Our school uniform brings with it a sense of responsibility but more importantly, it is a source of pride. So tuck in that shirt, do up that top button and show the world how you “lead by example” and “inspire excellence”!

Chris Starkey
Administrative Principal
Mentor College / TEAM School

Being The New Kid

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Being “the new kid” at a school is both scary and exciting but starting a new school in the middle of the year can multiply those feelings even more. When I was in Grade 6, my family moved from the city of Windsor to the townships surrounding Goderich. To make matters worse, there were almost never any new kids at this school and I was starting at Thanksgiving after all the classroom routines had been set. It was clear from my first day that this “city boy” was not welcome.

Fast forward to this week at TEAM School when principal Mrs. Sawtschuk told me that five new students have joined since March Break. I visited their classrooms on Tuesday and when I asked them the biggest difference between TEAM and their old school, they said (predictably) “the uniform” but they also mentioned things like:

  • “I have a homework book now instead of a bunch of pieces of paper that had my homework on them.”
  • “My old teacher gave us homework but she never checked if we did it.”
  • “This is the first time I have a grammar and a spelling book.”

I visited with Mrs. Sawtschuk and vice-principal Ms. McDonald afterwards and told them that in each class, I couldn’t tell who the new students were until I was introduced to them! When I asked why, they smiled and said that TEAM teachers are accustomed to having students joining during the school year because of the individualized academic programmes. They then got very serious and whispered to me that their real secret weapons when it came to welcoming students are the classmates of the new pupils. These students all remember their first day at TEAM…both how nervous they were and then how amazing they felt at the end of the day. They want to make that same experience come true for others. Case in point? During gym class, one of the new students was the first to do an activity in front of the rest of the class. When the student finished, there was an unrehearsed “high five” from the next student (and very quietly after the drill began, phys. ed. teacher Ms. Sweeney went over and gave the student a congratulatory hand slap as well!). The smile on the new student’s face continued for the rest of the class! It’s just too bad that TEAM School wasn’t around back when I was in Grade 6…

Chris Starkey
Administrative Principal
Mentor College / TEAM School

What It Is Like Traveling Internationally With A Group Of Mentor/TEAM Students

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I have three rules of thumb when it comes to travelling internationally with our HS students and yet again this March Break, they each came to fruition while I was with the music and art trip to Italy.

Rule #1: I will be asked for directions in the airport.
Even with my nametag prominently announcing that I am the administrative principal of Mentor College and TEAM School, at least one traveller will ask me an airport-related question like “where is the Qantas counter?” I guess we do not own a monopoly on navy blazers, ties and grey pants…

Rule #2: I will see more than one school family during the trip.
One family was in the Air Canada line when we left Pearson and when we got to the security check, a Grade 9 boy and his family let me cut in front of them to allow me to stay with the group. Mr. Hoare met a man who had just organized a music educator’s conference and had worked with a former student of ours (Julian Lam) in one of the seminars. And when we were making our connection in Frankfurt on the way home, we were approached by a Grade 8 grad from the early 90s named Michael Lista. Michael was “Aladdin” in the Intermediate musical way back when and is now a professional poet!

Rule #3: I will get many compliments about our students.
From airline employees to tour guides to bus drivers to members of the public, the teachers and I never tired of hearing how nice/smart/well-behaved/clean/respectful our students were. Whether we are travelling halfway across the globe or just up the street to the Living Arts Centre, our students always represent Mentor College and TEAM School very well. They are just wonderful people to be around…so wonderful that the chaperones actually start thinking about the NEXT trip to take while the current trip is taking place!

Chris Starkey
Administrative Principal
Mentor College / TEAM School

Make the Most of Your Holidays

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This past winter was a very nice one compared to last year when, at March Break, we had not seen a temperature on the humane side of zero since November! Still though, I imagine most students and teachers are looking forward to March Break 2016.

Our school breaks are a chance for teachers and students alike to finally vanquish the cold they have been fighting, to get caught up on some reading, to binge-watch a season or two of a favourite show or to get away for a vacation full of activity. Getting relaxed and refreshed is really important this year in particular because with the Easter holidays falling within the March Break, it will seem like a LONG time until our next holiday. Yes, we get an extra day for March Break but starting Tuesday, March 29, we have 38 straight weekdays until the Victoria Day long weekend!

So whether you are doing vacation or “stay”cation in the next two weeks, I hope that you and your family enjoy yourselves before the final term of academic and extra-curricular activity begins.

Chris Starkey
Administrative Principal
Mentor College / TEAM School