PEERING IN ONTARIO

NEWSLETTER: NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2008

 

*** Coming in the new year workshop  for teachers on Restorative Practice

 

Twenty-seventh Ontario Secondary Peer Helping & Leadership Conference, 2009

‘The Amazing Race to Freedom: Let’s Build a Better World’

April  22, 23, 24th 2009

 

            OPHA NEWS!

 

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Congratulations to Tracy Berry & Joan Macklin for their workshop at the Ontario School Counsellors’ Association conference in November. Approximately 50 teachers attended this session on Restorative Practice. Tracy & Joan gave some very practical ideas on how the process could be applied at elementary and high school and also showed some user friendly resources including OPHA’s two workshops. Joan and other OPHA workshop presenters will continue to assist teachers in implementing restorative practices by offering a workshop/inservice. This will be available  in our local area (Oshawa, Peterborough, Belleville)in January  and from March onwards in other areas of the province.

 

Planning has already started for the April secondary leadership and peer support conference. Inspired by the work of the ‘Free the Children’ the conference will centre its workshops and activities about helping children through education. It will promote an awareness of the state of children especially in impoverished and war torn nations and explore ways to help. Some information can be found on page 4 of the newsletter and more detailed information will be available in January.

Be kind to your neighbour

He’ll pass on the favour

And before you know it everyone will too.

There’s no longer “me”

“I” becomes a “we”.

All together we can build community.

Soon the world is peaceful,

All the happy people

Living altogether in harmony!

( Song of Peace)

The October elementary conference was a resounding success with exciting activities and workshops. The organizing team was phenomenal in creating and running the conference on peace. The staff at the Ontario Educational Leadership Centre are to be commended for providing such a warm and friendly environment for our conferences. Join us there for the secondary conference in April.

 

Couch Express to Peace, Elementary Conference

21 schools sent teams to board the Couch express and experienced great peace activities and workshops. We were pleased to welcome a new school, Island Lake Public School, to the peer helping and leadership conference.  To help run the conference was an amazing group of senior student facilitators from Cobourg West, Cobourg East and Bowmanville high schools. Some of them had helped with the 2007 conference and others had helped with it and the previous secondary conference. Their enthusiasm, dedication and sense of responsibility helped the students and organizing team. What a great group of young people!

 

 D’Arcy Lichti and his students from Laurelwoods set the scene for this conference by performing their play on Martin Luther King . D’Arcy followed this up with a workshop based on activities from the Bully Free Week he runs in his schools. Students created banners which were used in the 1960’s style peace rally  which took place on our final morning. Fitting in with the 60’s Tracy Berry had everyone tye dyeing their Ontario Educational Leadership Centre t-shirts. 186 shirts were tye dyed – what a Herculean effort from Tracy!!

Michelle Robinson presented a fantastic activity called ‘Couch Soup’ Every house/family was responsible for a section of it. Some groups sang, others played musical instruments and others chanted,  After an hour of preparation the groups became part of an amazing production based on the story of  Stone Soup.

 

 Bert Gibson and Joan Macklin, presented a workshop on ‘Talking Peace.’  They ran activities from the OPHA workshop and introduced different ways of resolving conflicts, including using Restorative practice. Students were given the set of restorative practice questions they can use at school or at home.

 

 Heather Gibb ran a workshop on creating songs of peace. She gave them a simple tune and students wrote words to fit. Some of these songs are included in this newsletter. Heather also taught the students the song, ‘Don’t Laugh at Me’. This is taken from the book of the same name written by Steve Seskin and Allen Shamblin. This is a wonderful picture book  and comes with the cd. It’s also possible to get the teacher’s guide for Grades 6-8. ( OPHA has a few remaining copies of book, cd and teacher’s guide $15 + shipping)  Heather had the participants present the songs later in the day.

Philip Palmer joined the organizing team this year and inspired everyone with his power point presentation on ‘Free the Children’. Everyone was very impressed with the efforts of Dr Ross Tilley school which raised enough money in 2 years  to build a school in Kenya.  One hundred percent of the schools at the conference planned to fundraise for that organization. $158 was fundraised at the conference and sent in to Free the Children.

 

Julie Dowling, Cameron Tattrie, Michelle Robinson and Sandy Philp organized fun activities for the students on the Thursday. These were activities on PROPS, a scavenger hunt, sound colouring and music.

At the same time the advisors shared these  resources:

‘Pittance of Time’ – a very moving dvd suitable for Remembrance Day www.terry-kelly.com

‘Character Counts– http://charactercounts.org  This gives ideas for a week of activities that Rob Potter of Cameron Street and Brenda MacNaughton of Dr Ross Tilley organize for their schools.

Another website mentioned was www.storyofstuff.com This is an interactive site by Annie Leonard which shows  global crisis of a materials economy and ways to deal with it. 

For more information on D’Arcy’s  Bully Free Week  or for copies of ‘Don’t Laugh at Me’ contact the OPHA office( peerhelping@hotmail.com)

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I am just myself.

Sorry, but it’s true

You can not change anything

That I might do.

I stand up for my friends

And everything they do

‘cause everybody knows that

Bullies are not COOL!

We all stick together

Friends are for ever.

‘Cause everybody knows that Bullies are not COOL!

 

OPHA Workshops

The OPHA workshop presenters have been kept very busy this Fall.  Up to this date they  have presented 5 workshops with 12 different schools being represented. They’ve enjoyed working with peer helpers and student leaders from St Paul’s Norwood, Port Credit Secondary School, Courtice Secondary School, Sacred Heart School, Wingham and Alcona Glen school, Innisfil.

 

The elementary schools have been getting great ideas from the ‘Making Peace ‘workshop which suggests many ways to deal with conflict. Restorative practice is one of the ways and this gives the workshop participants an introduction to it.  They receive the Restorative Practice questions and shown how to use them. With these  skills they can reduce conflict at home, in school or in the community.

 

The two secondary schools  requested different workshops to deal with conflict, harassment etc. Bert Gibson and Cynthia Zander presented the Restorative Practice workshop in Port Credit. This workshop explores the principles, the process and gives the workshop participants a chance to apply the skills thy have learned. Two leadership classes at Courtice Secondary school  spent the day learning peer mediation skills. Sandy Philp and Bert Gibson  led the students & teachers through a series of communication and mediation skills.

 

Let’s spread some kindness

Everyone together.

We can make a difference

If we all sing along.

Help include the new ones,

Don’t leave them alone.

We can make a difference

If we all sing along.

No discrimination.

Peace throughout the nation.

We can make a difference

If we all sing along.

 

Twenty-seventh Ontario Secondary Peer Helping & Leadership Conference, 2009

‘The Amazing Race to Freedom: Let’s Build a Better World’

 

Fundraiser: Free the Children

 

Where? Ontario Educational Leadership Centre, Longford Mills, near Orillia, Ontario

 

 When?  April 22, 23, 24, 2009

            Conference Registration Wednesday, April 22nd, 12:00-2:00pm

            Conference Closing: Friday, April 24th, 11:30am

            Lunch is not included on Wednesday or Friday.

 

 Why?  Opportunity to integrate & brainstorm with leaders- province wide

            Getting recharged through fun activities & workshops

            Collect valuable knowledge and resources to take back to school

           

Who?   High School Peer Helpers, Student Leaders, Advisors.

             Minimum of 1 advisor per 12 students. ( 1 free advisor for groups of over 15)

 

 Fee:     Early Bird Fee: $150 per student, $120 per advisor,  if registered & paid before March 27th, 2009

Registration Fee: $160 per student; $120 per advisor

Advisors’ fee includes 1 year’s free membership to OPHA

1 free advisor for 15+ registered and paid students

 

Organizing team: Laurie Stacey & Scott Field—O’Neill Secondary School, Oshawa

Rebecca Turner & Rhonda Story—Bowmanville High School

Tammy Polan– Elmvale District High School

Ryan Hawes– Bear Creek Secondary School, Barrie

OPHA directors—Sandy Philp, Joan Macklin & Maureen Weekes

More information coming in January

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT OPHA AT peerhelping@hotmail.com

" TOGETHER WE CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE"

For more information on this program contact O.P.H.A.

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