CAMP OLYMPIA

Many students have begun to ask about Camp Olympia. This video should answer some of your questions!

http://stream.tcdsb.org/academicit/CampOlympia.wmv

Krakow, Poland

Glasgow

Asuncion, Paraguay

Toronto, Ontario

Brisbane Australia

Kyoto, Japan

02/09/2012

I.L.I.T.E

        The best way to describe I.L.I.T.E is it was amazing and educational at the same time, it was amazingly educational. My day at school started when we came to school and sat in the atrium.  After almost ten minutes we were loaded up on the school bus and then we headed down to Blessed Mother Theresa. After we got to the high school we sat down in the hallway square. About half an hour later we went and got our name tags and went to sit down in the cafeteria/stage area. That's where we started our day at I.L.I.I.T.E.

        I walked in to the dark room hearing blaring music from the large sound system. As everyone knows, Cardinal Leger is THE BEST! So obviously we got front row seats (okay not front row but close to it, you know what I mean). We sat there chatting, listening to the ear-corrupting loudness of the music. Then after sometime we were greeted by a guy (I don't know his name) and then we said a prayer to start our day as good Catholics. After we said the Hail Mary, we were greeted by another nice guy named Stu Saunders. He told us the story of how his parents divorced and then what gave him the drive to become a good leader. After this we got dispersed to our activities for the day. Mine in the morning was The Angel Foundation Group, and in the afternoon was Big up Your Voice.

        The Angel Foundation Group activity wasn't actually called that but that was what they told us about and I couldn't remember what it was actually called. When I got to the room, most eyes were on me because almost everybody else was there. I looked around for a seat then sat down in a seat closer to the back because that was one of the only ones available. We were told stories of single parents struggling to support their kids and how they feed lunch. The Angel Foundation would like to make everybody more equal in the world and not have people struggling in life while learning or getting an education. Then we had this activity. The activity was: if we had one penny and we could change something for the better with that penny, what would we do with it. I stated, I would send that penny to Africa and tell them to keep that penny circulating. It would give people some joy.

When this activity was over we headed down to the hall to get our lunch passes to get our yummy pizza man, um I mean pizza. Then we headed to the stage/cafeteria area where we sat down and ate our pizza. When we were done we went down to the stage area to watch some performances by a dance group, StarchildX (I got a pin!), a guy and his band (the guy's name was Diego and I was told he performed on The Next Star, or something). All the performances were spectacular! I got it all recorded on my phone.

When we were done here, we went back to the hallway where we would head down to our next workshop. My next workshop was Big up Your Voice. In this activity I walked in the room and sat down near my cool friend, Helena. Then later my other friend Christopher came in. We were talking to the people behind us. Their names were Samantha and Gabriella. Turns out I did make some friends! So when we were here we talked for almost half the time because the projector wasn't working. Then the boys helping our teacher brought in a 46-inch T.V. We started talking about Canada's history and the teacher asked everyone if we notice a gap in it. Everyone said no. Then he asked if we were all Canadian and everyone said yes except for one girl, she decided to be sarcastic and say NOOOOOOO. Then the teacher talked about when Canada was discovered. He said the people who discovered Canada told everyone back home of the "dark" people they found here. Then we looked back at the pictures. Not to be racist or anything, but the picture frames only held photographs of white people. We even watched a video on it. Turns out it was true. So we were told that we can make a difference and fill in disrespected people.

I.L.I.T.E was a great experience for me. If I had the choice I would go back again to do more activities. We were leaders and now improved leaders. I always like to build on my leadership skills so I could lead people by setting a good example. Anyone can be a leader if they tried. I was told at a workshop; we are leaders, so we should get up and make a difference now!

                                By Nick Y

Crete

HOMEWORK

GEOGRAPHY: Prepare to present project in class. Some students have not completed their project yet!

ART: Work on project

LANGUAGE: Post your ILITE writing to blog

Reminders
- Pancake money and dance workshop monies due

ILITE

ILITE: Intermediate, leaders, in training, Event.

                              ILITE is a great  learning experience for anyone. ILITE is an event where schools all around the Toronto district school board come together to express and share how we can be leaders. This year ILITE was held at Mother Theresa high school. Our school was at ILITE because it was training for us to become leaders. There were a little over ten schools that came and there was an amazing amount of volunteers/speakers. There was one speaker in particular that I tremendously enjoyed. His name was
Stu Sanders. Stu Sanders gave an inspiring and hilarious speech that I will never forget. I forgot to mention the other performances there was dancers, a band called star child, and the winner of the next star Diego. For sure ILITE would be on my top ten lists of favourite school trips.
                                One of the most important things about ILITE was the workshops. Everyone went to two workshops. The two workshops I went to was breathe easy and Cadence. At breathe easy we learned how to relax and mingle. During our first game we had to get a partner and our leader would give us a problem and we had to explain how we would react in this situation. Our next activity was learning about stress. Duringthe last game we got into groups and we had to decide which of the scenarios on the papers we got goes under which stress column. At the end of the workshop we did some Yoga which was hard yet stress reliving.
                      I'm not very coordinated in dance but I got the hang of it after a while. The dance style we did was either Maringa or Salsa, I can't really remember. We learned five different dance steps. At first everyone was stepping on each other's feet and messing up but our leader broke it down for us. At the end of the class we did a dance off using our five different dance steps. It was funny because everyone messed up but we had such a great time.

Huge congrats to our girls' basketball team for an amazing showing at today's tournament. They won every game decisively. More importantly they had fun and displayed great sportsmanlike behaviour.


Congrats to Anita, Katrina and MJ for a great showing!!!

Tokyo Japan

Terrain Park All the Way     By: Duckboy

   Sparks flew as my Liquid snowboard scraped across the rail, screeching with the sound of composite against the rusty iron rail. My board was sliding, but only horizontal to the rail, so that both sides of it hung off the ends of the rails. It was a 50/50 rail boardslide. I maneuvered my board, just as I slid off the end of the rail, and smacked down on the snowy hill surface.

   "That… was… AWESOME!" I called out, and a lame little skier stared at me, his eyes bulging with obvious amazement.  

   Yeah, you probably have no clue what I'm talking about, so let me clear it up for you. Last Friday, when most of you people were at ILAME, I mean… ILITE, My family and I took a stupendous trip to Snow Valley- an amazingly huge ski/snowboard resort in Barrie. Though, I didn't spend any time checking out the rest of the resort- only a fragment of it, the Terrain Park. A Terrain Park is, ultimately, a park where you can perform tricks on. It contains regular ramps, as well as boxes (plastic 3-dimensional shapes, mainly rectangles, laid on the hill that tricks can be done on), and awesome rails, though mostly rails. Altogether, the Terrain Park isn't something to miss.

   My snowboard flew 5 feet into the air with a sudden jolt, and I looked down at the ramp that had just hoisted me up. I swung my board around, the back facing forward, and landed, with a large thud, onto the ground, snowy mist flooding the air. YES! AN 180˚! But that wasn't a great achievement- I had already done an 180˚ about a thousand times before. But on the trip I finally jibbed my first rail- quite an amazing boardslide, indeed. Yeah, I'm just naturally that awesome. What am I talking about? I guess you're wondering that, unless you're secretly some professional boarder. Okay, well, jibs are anything that is meant for doing tricks on, made of anything other than snow. An 180˚ is a trick in which you twist your board 180˚ around in mid air. With that in mind, it doesn't take a genius to discover what a 360˚ is. Anyway, the snow was amazing, and when you're a pro like me, it's not difficult to learn some new tricks. And I did. From 50/50s to 180˚s, my time at the Terrain Park was like two days in heaven.

   A surge of blinding light spewed from the most fantastic item in the world as I approached it- the Burton Blunt Restricted. Regularly, I hate shopping- in fact, I completely despise it. But when I enter a store containing snowboards, well, that changes things. When I was in Barrie, I dropped by Gates and Boards, an extreme snowboarding warehouse. It was packed chock-full of anything and everything snowboard-based, from goggles to hand warmers. It was two-story, and the second story was all snowboards and bindings (straps that secure the foot into the snowboard), so you can easily imagine that I spent all of my time on the second story. But I spotted an amazing artifact that I will never in my life forget: the Burton Blunt Restricted. This snowboard is the most awesome snowboard ever (well, to me, anyway), and it's definitely worth writing an entire paragraph based on it. On the front, it showed a cacophony of different images (though in a good way), like a superhero with blood dripping from his mouth, a psycho drummer, and a variety of different monsters, while the back showed an epic Burton logo wit ha jaguar around it. Yeah, you can imagine it was pretty nice, and I'm going to get that snowboard if it kills me!

   The trip was amazing- an experience I will… keep experiencing throughout my life, since I snowboard pretty much every weekend, though it was still a blizzard of awesomeness- literally. 

I.L.i.t.e: Intermediate Leaders in Training Event

Name: Anita

Teacher: Ms. Babb

Date: Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Not long ago, there was a trip for the grade 7's and 8's of Cardinal Léger. For what I thought, was that it would probably be boring and I'd get tired. But, it wasn't anything like that. I.L.i.t.e changed my life forever. I wasn't just an ordinary seventh grader going to school, I now am a leader. I am now showing different examples to everyone around me, in different ways.

Many schools were at the i.L.i.t.e event. Also, there were some high school students volunteering to speak, different teachers for each workshop, the nice staff from the high school setting up, and a funny comedian and speaker Stu Saunders. I.L.i.t.e was at mother Teresa catholic high school. Mother Teresa is by the looks of it, a very great school. The school is partially big with lovely classrooms and nice teachers. It was a great school to do the presentations and the workshops. I think i.L.i.t.e took place because it gave intermediate students a chance to make a difference in the world. One of my favourite quotes is, 'one million starts with one.' Which basically means that being a leader doesn't really mean that you have to do something big. Every big accomplishment just starts with a simple plan that you vision in your head.

I.L.i.t.e stands for intermediate leaders in training event. What this basically is, is that the organization takes a bunch of 7's and 8's from different catholic schools in the district, and also some 6's, and shows them how each of them can be leader. Not a leader by bossing people around but by doing small quiet examples. Some more recognized people that told us about it were Diego, the winner from the next star season 3. Also, Starchildx, a rising band that's song superstar, appeared on 99.9 virgin radio. Before we got to meet all these wonderful talents we needed transportation. Our school arrived at i.L.i.t.e at about 8:30 a.m.by bus. We were to be at school by 7:45 because the buses were to leave at around 8:00 in the morning. The bus trip took about 20 minutes because the buses were kind of delayed. We left from i.L.i.t.e at about 2:30 -3:00 in the afternoon, Arriving back safely at Cardinal Leger at about 3:15 p.m.

Some things I learned from this experience were to love who you are inside and out. For my first workshop went to a station called, if I were a boy. This station was basically talking about how the media portrays the ideal girls and boys. We had talked about how we thought how the media showed us about an ideal person through listening to the media and other sources. There turned out to be more ideas and suggestions for the ideal of a girl than a boy. We talked about why there was more, and shared our ideas. Next we did an un ideal boy and girl. Lots of comments were said about it. Once we finished the teacher asked if anyone actually fitted into the ideal girl or boy. There was no one close to it. This showed me that everyone is perfectly imperfect, it was a fantastic workshop.

My second workshop was teens and social justice. This workshop was basically about how we as growing teens can make a change in the world. Our instructor was from India and showed us about his country and how it needs change. He used a recognizable example, Russell Peters, to show us about the Indian culture. Russell peters basically showed us funny yet true ways on how Indians act. Behind all the laughing that came out of our workshop was the truth. The truth that we finally all understand that each and every one of us can all go off and make a big difference in the world. Now, I'm starting to think that this trip is just the starting of a new leader coming in the next few years

HOMEWORK

MATH: Complete handout

LANGUAGE: Complete handout

GEOGRAPHY: Complete project. Due tomorrow

ART: Work on self-portrait

I.L.I.T.E. ASSIGNMENT

I.L.I.T.E.

By: Alexandra

        I.L.I.T.E. Intermediate Leaders In Training Event. This experience was very educational and fun. I,L,I,T,E. is a leadership program with workshops, talent shows, and performances. It took place at Mother Theresa's high school. I.L.I.T.E. is supposed to teach students to take a stand, don't be afraid to try something new, and to get back up when you fall. I.L.I.T.E. changed me in a good way because it taught me to never give up and to lead by example. I am going to use the skills I learned in I.L.I.T.E. in my daily life.  

            As I entered the high school I was very excited and curios about what was going to happen today. When we all gathered together in the theatre this guy names Stu Saunders talked us and other schools that attended to I.L.I.T.E about what it takes to be a leader. My first workshop was called Extending the Circle of Hope. It was about how this girl named Meagan who was in kindergarten and had a brain tumor. Meagan's friends and family all worked together made 1000 paper cranes, and made her a paper cranes ceremony.  They did this because Meagan read this book called 1000 paper cranes and the book says that if you make 1000 paper cranes you get one wish. So they did the ceremony and they all wished for Meagan's health. Unfortunately God wanted Meagan up with him in Heaven so Meagan did die. What I learned in this workshop is that one person can make a difference.     

ILITE
                          The Intermediate Leaders In Training Event, also known as ILITE, it was the most inspirational conference I've ever been to! It was on Friday, February 3 at Mother Theresa High School. At the conference, I learned that anyone can be a leader and that you don't have to be a superhero to make a change. The motivational speaker was the funniest guy ever! Everything he said was hilarious, but at the same time he talked about serious things and how we can all become leaders. What was the purpose of this? It was held so that all of us can realize that it takes one small step at a time to become true role models to everyone.
                      My first workshop was called 'Breathe Easy,' they taught us some ways to handle stress. I met so many people from different schools, we introduced ourselves and we played games to know more about each other. When it was over, we had lunch in the cafeteria, and there were many performances to watch during the lunch break. The performers were Starchild X, Diego, and many dancers! Every single performance was incredible! It was like a concert during a school day! I enjoyed Diego's performance the most because I was really looking forward to it, and he was the only one I heard of before. Workshop #2 was called 'Who are you?', the people handling the workshop are from an organization called '1Focus.' They told us about their journeys and their purpose. Their purpose is to help a specific place to lead them to a brighter future. This year, they are focusing on education somewhere in India. Many people can look up to them and follow what they did to achieve their goals in life.

                   To end off the day, everyone who attended ILITE joined in prayer and worship to thank God for everything, for all the blessings and to help us all in our journey to become great leaders. I'm sure that everyone who attended walked out with a smile and carried with them everything they learned to be a successful person/role model. There are no words to describe how much fun I had that day, and I will always remember the things Stu Sanders told us about how he became a leader. We should all make a change to make the world a better place for ourselves and
others.

I.L.I.T.E

I.L.I.T.E
Name: Kimberley
Teacher: Ms. Babb
Date: Tuesday February 7, 2012


                                    I.L.I.T.E stands for intermediate leaders in training event. On Friday February 3rd 2012 some of the grade 7 and 8 students of Cardinal Leger got to go to I.l.i.t.e. this event is held at the high
school, Mother Teresa, every year. It is held to tell and show the students how they can be leaders. During this event we were first spoken to about why we should be leaders and how we can be leaders.
After that we went to workshops about leadership. There was one workshop held in the morning and one in the afternoon. During lunch we all got 2 slices of pizza and a juice box. While we had lunch there
was also a talent show with dancers and singers.
                          My first workshop was called "Big up your voice" in room 220. This workshop was about how to work with and communicate with others. During the workshop we played games that involved communication with others. The second workshop was called the thanks of giving in room 110. This was about the Angel Foundation. The Angel Foundation is what  runs the charities throughout the school board. They also help students and their families with financial problems. Since there were so many schools at I.L.I.T.E I knew no one in my workshops. These workshops were fun ad it let me meet new people.
                       I.L.I.T.E was a great experience even though I am not the typeof person who likes things like that. We got to meet new people learnabout leadership and experience new things. I.L.I.T.E was interesting
and it was nice to be able to experience it.