On Wednesday, June 11 we went to the Accolade East Building to see an event made by the AGYU, York University, and a public school in Toronto, at Jane and Finch, called Brookview Middle School. At this event, we found out that there was a big project during the year at the middle school. A professor of drama, Kathy Lundy, and AGYU curators from York like Allyson Adley, teachers from the school, a poet (Michael St. George), an artist (Bruno Billio), a filmmaker (Sarah Sharkey Pearce) and a video editor (Aleesa Cohene) from Toronto helped a group of about 26 grade 8 students write and design and make their own movies. The title of the movie was "Architecture of the Imagination." We asked the drama professor what she did with the students, and she said she helped them learn how to act with their voices.
When we arrived, there was a big reception in the CIBC lobby, on the ground floor of the Building. Accolade East is on the York central common, where the buses come in, but on the opposite side from York Lanes and the York Bookstore. It’s next to the Schulich building. They had a lot of free food: sandwiches, fresh vegetables, water, pop, and coffee, and fresh fruit – but when the grade 8 kids arrived they went straight to the table with the fresh fruit and ate it all in about 10 minutes. At the reception there were the students and teachers, the York and Toronto artists and professors, and also the parents of the students. We noticed immediately that the students and their parents all come from different countries. Some of them looked like they were from Africa, some of them were muslims (a lot of the girls were wearing head coverings), and others were from Vietnam.
We also met there a bunch of students from a different program at YUELI. They were a group of 40 middle school teachers from China, from different cities in Jiangsu province. Their teacher at YUELI is Shira. They came to see the movies, too. We asked them if they would do a program like this at home, and they said, “we hope so.”
At 6:45 the whole crowd went into the Price Family Cinema, a movie theatre they have in Accolade East. It's also on the ground floor, just next to the CIBC lobby. It’s a full-sized movie theatre, with a full-sized screen, and the crowd almost filled it up. There must have been about 400 people there. But before we could see the movies, we had to listen to speeches by a lot of people, including the Dean of Education at York and the Principle of Brookview Middle School (who went to York for her degree). Everyone was proud of the students – especially their parents. Finally, two students gave the last speech, and we saw the movies.
There were eight movies, all of them animated, with students doing the voices. The stories were written by students, and they were about subjects like parents, bullying at school, stereotyping of students, and also pirates and voyages into space. They looked very professional.
It’s amazing, what they can do in Toronto to be really multicultural. Everyone there was different, but they all had pride and they all knew how to be successful. It was certainly something worth celebrating!
When we arrived, there was a big reception in the CIBC lobby, on the ground floor of the Building. Accolade East is on the York central common, where the buses come in, but on the opposite side from York Lanes and the York Bookstore. It’s next to the Schulich building. They had a lot of free food: sandwiches, fresh vegetables, water, pop, and coffee, and fresh fruit – but when the grade 8 kids arrived they went straight to the table with the fresh fruit and ate it all in about 10 minutes. At the reception there were the students and teachers, the York and Toronto artists and professors, and also the parents of the students. We noticed immediately that the students and their parents all come from different countries. Some of them looked like they were from Africa, some of them were muslims (a lot of the girls were wearing head coverings), and others were from Vietnam.
We also met there a bunch of students from a different program at YUELI. They were a group of 40 middle school teachers from China, from different cities in Jiangsu province. Their teacher at YUELI is Shira. They came to see the movies, too. We asked them if they would do a program like this at home, and they said, “we hope so.”
At 6:45 the whole crowd went into the Price Family Cinema, a movie theatre they have in Accolade East. It's also on the ground floor, just next to the CIBC lobby. It’s a full-sized movie theatre, with a full-sized screen, and the crowd almost filled it up. There must have been about 400 people there. But before we could see the movies, we had to listen to speeches by a lot of people, including the Dean of Education at York and the Principle of Brookview Middle School (who went to York for her degree). Everyone was proud of the students – especially their parents. Finally, two students gave the last speech, and we saw the movies.
There were eight movies, all of them animated, with students doing the voices. The stories were written by students, and they were about subjects like parents, bullying at school, stereotyping of students, and also pirates and voyages into space. They looked very professional.
It’s amazing, what they can do in Toronto to be really multicultural. Everyone there was different, but they all had pride and they all knew how to be successful. It was certainly something worth celebrating!
Yuri and Sina
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