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:) 

The psychology of music.

Hey guys,

Today, I have chosen to talk about how music can have many deeper effects on us then just being nice to hear...

 First of all, music has many effects on our perception:

- It can influence our perception of effort and lead us to forget the state of fatigue thanks to the dopamine it releases in the brain.

- It can help improve deep sleep because of its hypnotic qualities.

- It can aid creativity, give us a helping hand to find ideas because of its memory boosting effect.

- It can improve concentration, by giving us something stable to focus on.

 Next, music can help with our performance at school by:

- Helping with self-confidence

- Helping us learn new languages in the future

- Increasing the duration and intensity of concentration.

Many tests were done to prove these ideas.

For example, one test was done with multiple pupils divided into three groups. One listening to rather fast-tempo Mozart, one listening to relaxing music, and one in silence.

The results showed that the group that had been listening to Mozart scored two times higher than the other groups.

Now, let's focus on the physical side of the matter. When listening to music we can immediately detect the rhythm, we can reproduce it. Also, often if we listen to music that we like, we move on the rhythm, maybe even without noticing. But this is indeed more than just memory. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans on people that were told to lay still and listen show that music activates not only the lobe responsible for interpretation, but also the lobe responsible for commanding movement.

 After finding this, many researchers deducted that music could possibly be used to help people with neuromuscular deceases. It has very positive effects on certain people and none for others.  Finally it has been found that music-therapy has changed the lives of some for whom it works, for example people with Parkinson’s disease.

- Hope you enjoyed, and thanks for reading! -

Talking is good, Acting is better

Hello everyone ! 

 

The school year has been a very productive year for all of us !

prESenTAtions, LaughS, EmbARRASsmeNT, EXhiLARATION (yesyesyesss), Reflection, dESPaIR (yesyesyess), dEbAtES but also a lot of ACTION!

As OIB students  we tend to  talk and write  a lot, to think deeply and to ask ourselves existential questions. 

But this year was not only nice words and big hopes, We*implemented concrete actions in order to get a little bit involved at our scale in our School but also in our society . 

Ideals are good but we should always think concrete and realize that there is a lot to do and we can or even HAVE to get involved.

 Who is going to act if we, students between 15 and 18 years old, only stay watching the world as if it was a sort of movie where you can get angry, be horrified but still be seated on your couch doing nothing ?

 

So here is a small recap on everything we did with the MDL, the Awareness Club, the Collectif du 29 avril in order to do even more next year !

December 2017, World Aids Day :

• training on HIV/AIDS prevention and protection strategies with CRIPS PACA
• prevention activities (stand, posters,...)
• condom distribution
• fund raising for the NGO Sidaction

January 2018, creation of the Awareness club :

• Helping those in need next to us. Raising awareness on the frequent invisibility and loneliness of those suffering from poverty, sickness or old age.
• Donation drive for the Restos du Coeur (MDL) + leaflets distribution

February 2018:

• Promoting education and literacy in third world countries
• READATHON, promoting literacy and equal education with Room to Read =we've raised more than 2,300 € !
• Symbolic event to promote the Readathon in the school library

March 2018 :

• Celebrating gender equality, diversity and multiculturalism.
• Women's day (women's right in the world, sexism at school, consent) + screening of two documentary films (Feminism, Consent) + intervention Planning Familial

April- May 2018 :

• Eco-citizenship, photographic mosaic 1 Piece of Rubbish

Added to all these events some of the OIB students got involved during the year  in the Collectif du 29 avril , a collective of students and professors supporting undocumented students:

• bake sales
• petitions
• food drive
  
  
  Can't wait to see all of you very active in September :p 
  
  
   WE* is a mix of  committed students (including some OIB students but not only) and teachers from different classes at the Lycée Saint Charles .

The house of the high school students or the so-called MDL !

You are a young woman or a young man full of energy and new ideas  ...
You really want to act for your community but you don't really know how to do that...
You think that your school deserves more ...

Welcome at the MDL ! 

The MDL is a group of  motivated students hoping and acting for a better future at the Lycée Saint Charles ! We are the ones responsible for the small interruptions [ such as the SoS Mediterannée debate, HIV day, Valentine's day,Carnaval,  Prom...] in this gigantic calm that is our amazing school!
We are full of ideas but there is never enough new ideas and new visions !
So please please please please join us !

Contact and Follow us on Instagram : mdl_saintcharles
and even Facebook : @MDLSaint.Charles

I know it looks as if I was using our lovely Charlie's OIB only to promote the MDL (and even if it is a little bit the case) This blog is a great place to talk about organizations such as the MDL that some of us probably don't know and since we are all very invested teenagers and teachers it would be a shame if some of us did not want to join the MDL :)

PS: Congratulations if you've noticed the accumulation of the word "MDL"  , how strange...

 Here are some evidences stressing  the greatness of the ... MDL !

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

Welcome back!

Hello Charlie,

I guess, we're back for one more round. I imagine you and the OIB crowd are delighted, aren't you?

 

See you soon in class ;)

Mrs. C.

My thoughts about school

Hello dear Charlie!

As you certainly know, this blog is full of students, and teachers.

So, as students, we obviously go to school, and I want to share on this blog what I think about school. I may not talk for all the students in the world but I know some will recognize themselves, maybe even teachers remembering their school time (which was not so long ago).

You may think all the students think like “omg I hate school it’s so boring”, “when are the next holidays?”, “ugh I have 2 hours of geography, I’m not gonna make it”. But actually I don’t think like that. It’s obvious that at one point, we all want school to be over and holidays to come, especially the summer break, but I like school because I can learn new things, which are interesting (generally). I love English and school is the only place where I can hear and talk this language, with my teachers and friends, and as we are in an international section we must speak english all the time, and I find that really great.

I have to admit sometimes I don’t want to wake up from my bed and go to class, because I’m tired, like everyone. You see, today I’m sick. I decided not to go to school this morning because I was feeling really bad, but now that I’m feeling better, I’m going to school this afternoon and I’m not going to stay home like some people would do. Not because school is my passion but because I like learning and also because I know if don’t go to class I’ll be lost the next lesson even if I catch up, and it is really annoying to feel that.

I kind of told you my life on this article but I really wanted to tell you what I thought, and try to erase clichés people have about students’ relationship with school. That’d be fun if some of you, people frequenting school 5 days a week, would comment and tell us what school is for you; a boring place? Heaven? (I doubt that haha)

Write to you soon, Alicia xx