A different school system experience

 Hi everyone! 

 Today I will be writing about the main facts of the Canadian school system from my experience. I finished my exchange and there is so much to talk about as it is very different from our French school system. 

       

Small intro: 

In my Canadian high school, we start school at 8 a.m which is similar to St.Charles, and either the students take the yellow school bus or drive to school (people drive earlier than we do because they can have their driver's license at 16). In the Ontario school system, there are four years of high school unlike in France where we have three and you have the choice (for the last two years of high school) to choose between 3 or 4 classes, most students take 4 as it is more beneficial for universities. However, in grades 9, 10, and 12 there are some classes that are obligatory. 

How does the courses work? 

You have the choice between many different classes such as : visual art, drama, photography, foods and culture (basically cooking), yoga, outdoors sports, fitness, technology, French (as a second language), English, history, geo, Canadian and world studies, guidance and career education, co-operative education, healthy and active and lifestyle education, maths, physics, biology, business, international language certificate, and many more classes !! (you also have the choice to take a "spare hour" where you basically have 1h in your school schedule to do your homework. 

So, as I said, they get to choose 3 or 4 courses every semester (there are 2 semesters). For one semester they choose 3 or 4 classes (ex: maths, bio, physics and art) and for the second semester they change and take  new classes (ex: yoga, anthropology sociology psychology, fitness, French). This also means that they finish earlier, in my high school we finish at 2:15 p.m compared to France where we can finish at 6 p.m. 

I chose anthropology sociology psychology, yoga, cooking and English for my classes. In my anthropology sociology psychology class we are studying psychology and how the brain works, in yoga we are talking about well-being, and breathing and we did some postures, in my cooking class we cooked some Canadian and Indian specialties. Every week in cooking we choose a country and we cook its specialties and  we talk a lot about culture. Finally, in English we are studying different books by indigenous writers and we concentrate on Contemporary First Nations, Metis, and Inuit Voices and Perspectives literature and we analyze it.  I really enjoy my classes because I don't get the opportunity to have them in France. 

How does a normal school day take place? 

- I wake up in the morning at 5:50 a.m and then take the yellow school bus, I arrive at the high school around 7:40 and start class at 8 o'clock. 

- At 8 o'clock there are the morning announcements: they start with the national anthem (you have to stand up), then they talk about any important information happening during the day or if there is any sports team who won a game. 

- On day one my classes are anthropology, sociology, and psychology (it is one class), yoga, foods and culture (cooking), and English, and on day two I have: yoga, anthropology, sociology and psychology, English and cooking. 

-  Every of my classes last 1h15min, after each course we have a 10min break to switch classes or buy something at the cafeteria or at the vending machines to eat. 

- Our lunch break starts at 10:40 and ends at 11:35 (which is very early for lunch!!!).  

- During class, we can have our phones, listen to music, eat, drink, and depending on the teacher we can go to the washrooms without asking. 

- the bell rings at 2:15 and students either stay later if they have a sport training or extra help for homework or a course or they take the school bus or drive back home. 

- After school, a lot of students have jobs or they have activities such as a sport training. 

• On some school days, there will be some dodgeball matches between the students and the teachers, they can also be contests in the cafeteria such as a pie contest! Also, sometimes we will have to go to school dressed as something depending on a theme. For example, there is Twin day (you come dressed the same as someone else), celebrity day (you come dressed as someone famous), Halloween day (you come to school with your Halloween costume) and there is also pyjama day (you come to class in your pjs) and a lot more fun days like that! 

Is there a dress code? 

There is no particular dress code, everybody can wear what they want except inappropriate, racist, homophobic slang or words on their clothes.  You can also wear religious clothing such as a hijab which is different from French high schools that are secular. 

• At the high school there are two main offices: the guidance office and the administration office. The guidance office is similar to the CPE and "conseillère d'orientation" office for us. and the administration office is like a mix of "la vie scolaire" and the CPE aswell. 

What I like about this system is that students have more time for them after school even though they don't have a lot of holidays or even if they sometimes have to work after school or go to trainings. They still have time to advance in their homework. Also, there is a vast option of different classes that we can take which I find interesting and they study these classes for a whole semester so teachers can go in-depth with the courses. Students can also use their phones, listen to music, eat and drink in class and they also work with computers which is for me better.  I feel like the schools are more understanding of students' mental health and that there are more activities organized by the school. 

I really enjoyed this exchange and discovering a new way of lifestyle and will definitely try to visit Canada again to see my friends:))

Thanks! 

- zeinab:) 

Safe journey to and wonderful stay in Canada

We wish our Famous 5 (thanks Enid Blyton) all the best for their 6-week individual exchange in Ottawa.
Have the time of your life but do not entirely forget us and drop a line from time to time.  As tempting as staying on will be, do come back to us. We shall miss you and are quite glad to be getting Rochelle back soon.

Just love the pic they sent me from the airport. Thanks again.

My Canadian experience (so far)

- Everything is so. far. away. you can’t go anywhere without the car 

 

- The taxes. They often don’t include the taxes when they write the price of things so you get a little surprise when you get the receipt 

 

- In class they often don’t do anything but have a huge amount of homework when they get home (it depends on the class) 
 

- They have next to no holidays because their school days are so short 
 

- The teachers are honestly the best 
 

- Their school system is on point 

 
- They eat lunch at 10-11 am and dinner around 5pm 
 

- Everyone has a job (as in the students I’m not talking about unemployment rates) like proper jobs 
 

- Someone asked me if in France we speak more English or French
 

- Their maths are different I am confusion 
 

- They are incredibly nationalist. The Canadian flag is literally everywhere 
 

- Colonel By is the best guys 
 

- Honestly I want to move here 

 

- Also the river started to freeze today;))

Canadians 'à marseille'

Well, you saw them...

Every single one,

Lovely people really.

Over a month ago.

Vacations for them,

Entertainment for us,

Canadians stepped out of a plane

And enjoyed the city of Marseille(s).

No rest was allowed 

As they discovered our city,

During ten full days.

A memorable time it was.

Here are some pictures of the foreign partners in diverse situations.

 

Everyone had fun during a breakfast, a picnic, a treasure hunt, a second treasure hunt and a Lovely walk concluded by the discovery of a local wonder, PIZZA CHARLY.

Ps: be ready for the yearbook article

Pps: what a good montage you're thinking, well yes I know, montage IS my forte after all.

Ppps: yes.

Joseph Boyden.

Hey everyone ! It's been a while ! I think ?

Well here's me talking to you about one of my best experiences in the OIB: meeting Joseph Boyden. Him talking about his books' major themes had made me want to read all of his works, and more particularly his newest, Seven Matches. Certainly, I think that all his bibliography could be a summer reading list. I also remember the discussion being really interesting, depending on the person's point of view and what book the person read, I saw the links between the books that followed a chronological order, from the 17th century to today, without forgetting World War I, which I thought was amazing, to have him describe radically different eras.
The thing he said that most got to me was when he told about how he got into writing, finishing by saying "Trust your gut" which was the phrase that instantly got stuck in my mind. It hit really close to home because, working with what I love, music and languages, makes me one of the happiest girl, I wouldn't say happiest girl alive, but you get the point. And this day also made me discover how I could love translating. First, I was surprisingly comfortable and easy about instant translation, something that I had never done before. I was also surprised because I'm usually not that easy about speaking in public. But here, yea, I felt good. Moreover, it was about translating literature, and I thought that nothing could be better.


So, coming back to the "trust your gut" bit, you all deserve to cling to a passion and do everything you can to fulfill it, just like he said. That's what I tell myself everyday. I'll never forget this day, and I think that is a good occasion for me to sincerely thank Mr Leah for introducing us to this amazing person and author that Joseph Boyden is.




Good luck to the terminales for the bac !!
And have a good week-end (:
Marilyn

Hillcrest Highschool

Hey Charlie! Here is an article written by Lisa, Adrien and Eléa about our school in canada: Hillcrest HighSchool.

We wanted to talk to you about our canadian school experience!!!

Indeed, our school was Hillcrest and was SO COOOOL!!!

                    

Here it is! Great, right? It is actually huge!!! You have a music hall and a gymnasium that looks like the one in High School Musical. You also have a cafeteria, and two others music rooms( filled with dozenses of instruments ! and you are totally free to play them when there is a break at noon , I (Lisa) got the chance to play some xylophone and  piano and I ( Eléa) got the chance to play some piano and guitar.

We went a lot to the band and orchestra. What is fantastic is that the school lends you an instrument for 3 years and then take it back. It is cool! Everybody learns to play and it sounds actually very good!

Here is their symbol. Their mascotte is an eagle also.
The three of us have a mug with this symbol. I (Lisa) am so proud to drink with it. I feel more… canadian ;) And I (Eléa) never have the chance to drink with it because my brother always takes it before I do... :/

Also there is a reverse OIBlick program ovethere , because I (Lisa) was in changing classes on the afternoon to go with the lower level and they took a french course which was all lesson ( actually biologie and gym) in french ( more quebecois) and I( Adrien) thought it was funny to have this kind of french in such a far place of our home. 

For me (Eléa) I took an art class that was great. The whole room was decorated with big posters and paintings and during the lessons, we had different subjects and then we were completely free to do whatever we wanted to do. It wasn't that different from art in France but it was less about technics I think. Anyway, the teacher was passionated! 

Also, it wasn't just the art class that was decorated but the whole highschool, with photos of the students and paintings on the wall. I think this is much better because the students feel  more at home, it is more personal, and the school becomes their place.

I (Adrien) also wanted to talk about an association that we met called "Me to We" . The three of us participated for the movement  “walk for water” which was pretty fun , we carried out some big empty bottle of water and went to the nearby river , played some games with a lot of people participating and took pictures , after the games we went back to the high school with the bottle filled up with some water and we poured the water in the garden of the school. .

 Finally, on the last day in school, I (Eléa) went to the linkcrew meeting. They explained the project, which is to have linkleaders who can help the new students that are younger on their first day of school. They can talk to them, make them feel less stressed, introduce them to new people and help them in the school. It adds an idea of equality between the different classes and ages, and the new students are less lost. It is an interesting project that we would like to do in our school in France.

To conclude, Hillcrest is a great highschool that is involved with many associations, and that is careful about the students and their well-being. More than a school it becomes a place where you can work, practise your passion and create projects. It is a place where there is a lot of diversity and where you can be yourself.

Byeeee!

Eléa, Lisa and Adrien

Colonel By

Hi there Charlie.

So as you probably know, most of the premières this year went to Canada for 2 weeks, but it wasn't only tourism and eating poutine. We actually had to go to school!

Well actually it wasn't that terrible honestly, we had the opportunity to discover a completely different system from ours. So here I'll speak for (probably) more than my own experience at the Secondary School Colonel By.

So! We were all assigned to different schools but most of us were at Colonel By Secondary School. Here is a quick view of the place:

By the way, this is the logo of the cougars, the sports teams were all named this way. So as you can see the school was quite beautiful, a lot of nature, and the inside was even more beautiful: students (from what I remember) painted different walls with beautiful paintings, I mean look at this, it looks almost unreal!

But the school is not only about art, it holds since 2008 (if I remember well) the title of best seconday school in Ontario. But if some could see it as a good thing, honestly it was one of the main bad points: the competition. At first when my pen pal told me that there was a lot of competition I thought it was just a joke or something that was exagerated; boy was I wrong. So this applies probably only to me, but the atmosphere I felt was too stressful, people seemed under pressure. But aside from that, the school was really good, the teachers were awesome (special thanks to my science teacher there, Mrs Pall (I think this is how you write it) who was just incredible), the cafeteria is 1000 times better than the one here, no offense but the cookies were twice as cheap, twice as big (no joke), and twice as good. 

Also, I think this is important to mention that aside from that, it almost felt like in the movies, lots of clubs, athletics, etc... and this has an explanation: In fact they have a certain amount of mandatory courses (in English, in Math, etc...) but then they are free to take whatever courses they want and to participate in different clubs or athletics (well this is mandatory). So during the day we could see American football players going around, tennis players, hockey players, etc... And talking about those "extra courses", I wasn't expecting such a big diversity. For example they had a course named "World Religion", but they also had Tech courses (where they did some works on Photoshop). If we continue on the education side, something actually struck me: even though I was in grade 10 (so the equivalent of Seconde here), they were doing sciences that I do at my level, but everything else (English) included seemed easier.  But Mrs. Choffrut thought that the IB literature courses of the seniors were actually closer from what we do in the OIB.

But let's stop throwing roses at ourselves for a second. To conclude, I would say that colonel By was really an interesting experience, and even if I'm glad I'm studying in France, I had the opportunity to discover a complete different education system, so totally worth it. And I think we should take some lessons from them, for example the community activies and work was so divisified compared to ehre, they even had a TV club (named "Cougar Vision") that wrote, filmed and broadcasted an emission for the whole day!

That's all for me, take care Charlie!

Kellian (and the other students that went to Colonel By).

Hello Charlie!!!

I wanted to talk to you about link crew. I don't know if Mrs Choffrut already talked to you about that but it is actually a great thing our Canadian buddies (as we like to call them) do.

SO! It is actually pretty simple. The goal is to integrate the new students into school (and in our case) in the OIB and its long journey through drama, poetry and short stories (specially for the 30 pages ones)!!! To help them you do:

1) Tutoring

You help the students with their homework. For instance you explain to him what you understood was a hook and a thesis statement. You also give this person some ideas tombera the sudden amount of work. It can be very helpful!

2) Socialisation

If you see the person alone or, not fit in his or her class, you stay with him/her and introduce this person to your friends or students you know to make him/her feel better, and accepted in this community!

3) Events 

For instance, you do a special picnic for new comers (as we already do). The goal is having fun and  seeing the lycée in a different way as a place you can feel confortable!!! YAY!

I hope I convinced you Link crew is a good thing for new comers. I think it can also help dealing with stress like the IGCSE mock exam or any kind of stress because you know people support you! :)

Well, thanks for reading until here and bye!

Lisa C.P

Taking advantage of the summer holidays to discover other cultures

Dear Charlie,
What are your plans for the holidays?
I imagine you'll be travelling the English-speaking world like many of our students.

To start with the international fun, here are a few multicultural acts by Australian comedian, Simon Taylor and Indian/Canadian  comedian, Russell Peters on language and identity

Partnership with Hillcrest, Ottawa

Dear Charlie,

First of all here is the link to our partners' school:
http://www.hillcresths.ocdsb.ca/

I'm sorry you could make it to the videochat with our Canadian partners.
 Amina, Judith , Julia, Lisa, Nathan, Quentin, Salomé and Tiphaine did.
Thank you guys for taking the time to interact with our partners from school (Sorry I could not make the video work on my cell phone ;) or from home even though class was over.

The interaction on Edmodo was great.  The students were definitely up to the challenges.
I was really impressed by their creative writing.
Below are the works selected by the students  to represent the creative writing challenge:

The place I was in was packed with people. We could not make any movement. Everybody was pushing each other to come quicker in this special place. Everybody was rushing to give his ticket the fastest. I was smothering. I gave my ticket as I was told to go on the left. I was trying to walk to reach the place I was told. As I did, I took a deep breath closing my eyes. Almost everybody had already given their ticket. The exaltation was increasing. Every second seemed to be hours. We were all waiting. People were shaking of excitement. Some men were trying to calm the crazy crowd, in vain.

That is when names started to be announced. Impatient, I watched them come forward. Terribly tall, they were showing their tight faces with horrid additions. It is with abhorrence that I was watching this freak show that was progressing in front of my astonished eyes. Spotlights were on them for people to only look at them. With their frozen faces, vivid and piercing eyes, they were watching the audience that had gone insane. The audience was crazy of excitement. People were shouting and yelling at these monsters some inaudible words. They were wagging, stretching their arms in a disarticulated way, hoping to touch the unattainable.

In my head, incomprehension was growing. I was completely lost. How could it be possible, to make such monsters? Horrified, I just ran away the further I could. If frightened me, making me wonder how people could like watching that. I had stupidly thought that pictures I had seen were fake, or that they were accentuating these awful characteristics. In horror I had ran away from somewhere everybody wanted to be…So that was it, the Red Carpet…

Who’s right?

I was so lost in many different ways.

I was somewhere and nowhere in the same time.

I was me and then I was nobody.

Every time I closed my eyes, I was gone and

suddenly I came back.

You probably think that I’m crazy, am I?

You’ll never know.

I was flying, I was invisible, I had power, I had

nothing and I had just my tears.

But what’s now? I was trying to fight but against

what? Against you? Love? Hate? People? Myself?

Why I’m still asking about stupid things when even

the simple questions are so complicated to answer.

You think I’m wrong? So can you tell why we are

here? In this strange world?

Is it true that you can love someone more than

yourself?

Tell me. Tell me the truth, tell me nothing or

everything.

People said it’s easy to love but harder to be

unloved.

I was there to love you, now you’re gone. Did you

love me back or not?

You may think that I was in love, that I’m writing

about my feelings. Are you sure?

Nothing is certain, life is unpredictable. Isn’t

it beautiful?

Complicated, this is how they called me.

Don’t believe what I say, what people say, we

always lie.

It’s rather die or live, am I right?

John was not different from the rest of his kind: He had an average size (for a mosquito), two wings, two eyes, six legs... His body was covered with microscopic scales and he also had two long antennae which looked very feathery, finally, he had a proboscis, the thing he used to feed himself... Pretty much the definition of every mosquitoes. Furthermore, John did not carry any kind of diseases, as a matter of fact, he almost never lived outside a house. Maybe you've seen him in your living room, he was the kind of mosquitoes that are active during daylight. John led his life as any other mosquitoes would have, he used to travel from the kitchen to the bathroom, hoping to catch a drop of water from a sink; or to fly around wherever he might had found light. But his troubles came when he had to eat, because our little friend feeds upon blood; and what was the main source of blood in the house? Yes, Humans. Sadly for him, John had one day the bad idea to bite one... He was not thinking of doing evil, he did that in order to survive, but it only led to his demise, as the Human simply crushed john, giving him a painful death.

The Human did not feel any kind of remorse taking this innocent life; but why would he? After all, it was only a mosquito..

From where I stood
I still not understood
The memories of my childhood.

As I fall
They looked so tall
But they were not at all

So I had to have my own back
As they seem to come to attack
But all I do is not to react.

The images began to feel heavy
The sounds were noisy
And I all do is to remain guilty.

To escape from this painful moment, I look outside my flat
And near the window where I sat
I came to the conclusion that

From where I stood
I still not understood
The memories of my childhood.

I scan the street in a glance. The streetlamps reveal the loneliness of the street. The pavement still wet from the afternoon's rain, is gleaming at their a yellowed light . I put on my respirator mask and my headphones, turn up the volume and as the guitar starts singing, I uncap one of my spray paint.  The first spray colors the bare wall, covering in bright red the dirt. As usual I feel my feet lift off the ground. It is like being thunderstruck. The lightnings are guiding my hand and I don't have to think too much about it, just to keep in mind the final result I want. Of course it would be slightly different but that also what I like. Drums are banging against my skull, I change color. My dark blue highlights the stars. I do not hear the caracteristic « psssht » of the spray because of the rythmic bass but I can feel it through my fingers, I get tireless, fearless, limitless. I like to imagine how many people will pass in front of my painting. I change once again of color for a pale orange. How many of them will pass by without seeing it. I follow the lines drawn in my mind with a matt grey. How many will feel something looking at it. I scatter light blue drifts of paint. And how many wil forget it. I finalize with a large black marker. How many ? I have lost the count. Now I may go. I do not sign. I never sign. I like to think that they could have been done by anybody, that they are not mine. I disappear in the night and I leave it behind me, for the others.

Black Love

I saw the stars in your eyes

You were looking at me with those two tiny universe

My hand touched yours as we were eating

Then I carried you to the nest of the little birds

You lied on me, your head on my belly

As if you were trying to catch the millions of butterflies

dancing in it

As I touched you, you closed your eyes and began

purring.

I fell asleep, my fingers running in your sweet

black hair

I woke up and you weren't there

I searched for you for what seemed eternity

and then stopped.

I accepted it all, your dominant nature

                          your evasive hypocrisy

                          your sadistic playfulness

                          your wicked self

                   and your complete disregard of my person.

You could probably come home (if you ever even

considered the house your home) in a few days

after staying n the red lights of the sheets at night,

visiting other men.

Then I will wait for you, my love, my woman, my CAT.

To finish, here are the recommendations (by both St Charles and Hillcrest students) for  best film,  best song and best artworks 

BEST FILM:

BEST SONG

La dernière danse by Indila

Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen

BEST WORK OF ART

Ceci est une pipe by Magritte

 Any work by Bansky

Starry Night, Van Gogh

 

In the Wild North by Ivan Shishkin