Crowns of Glory Project

March 26, 2018 We're just shy of a week away from our first visit to Village Manor! The class recognized that the initial awkwardness of meeting people for the first time can cause some anxiety. We brainstormed ways to make the first visit more pleasant for everyone, and we decided it would be fun for the students to create giant scrapbook pages about themselves to introduce themselves to our new friends at Village Manor. Since the students will be asking the residents all about their lives, we thought it might be fun for us to share a bit about their own lives first.  It was a fun morning of sharing baby pictures, photos of favorite pets, and family vacations.  I rummaged through my cupboards at home to retrieve (way too many) piles of colourful scrapbook papers, stencils, stickers, etc. to add to our posters. As we worked, the anxiety decreased and the excitement built in anticipation of meeting the people whose lives we'll be honouring over the next mo

March 22, 2018 Who is important? Whose story should be written? How might writing someone's life story be an act of service? These are a few of the questions that we began to consider together, as we begin to prepare to write the stories of the elderly in our community this spring.  Today, at the beginning of our Composition class, we spent a few minutes at the whiteboard, writing down the things that society believes about the elderly.  Words like "weak", "useless", "boring", and "no longer beautiful' were painfully accurate descriptions of what they have heard and read.  When we'd made our list of what society believes, students closed their eyes and listened as I read the first chapter of Genesis to them.  We talked about the value and uniqueness of each human life. We also read several Proverbs that describe the elderly. Then we made a second list on the whiteboard, sharing the things we'd heard and read in s

March 15, 2018 During the March break, I was thrilled to have the chance to meet with Michelle, the activities director at Village Manor, to talk about the possibility of partnering together on a project that included residents from her workplace and the seventeen grade 7 students in my Composition/Literature class.  Village Manor is a charming retirement community in the heart of Waterdown - about a 20 minute bus ride from Providence Christian School. The building is beautifully decorated, and the staff are warm and inviting. I knew immediately that it was a perfect fit for the project that my students have been preparing for.  We discussed project details - how many residents would be sharing their stories, how many times the students would come to interview them, etc. As we ironed out the nitty gritty details, I had the chance to meet a few of the residents who happened to be passing by, and when they heard about the project their eyes lit up at the thought of sharing t