Halloween @ MacNeill

Halloween is always a fun time to celebrate in schools because there are many events that occur. 

Our student council organized a very successful Halloween Dance on Oct. 20th from 6:30-9:30pm.  This was our first dance of the year and over 270 tickets were sold. Students filled the small gym, many dressed in costumes, and danced all night long.  In typically MacNeill fashion, all the students that attended were exceptionally well behaved.

The student council also worked hard to host the "Haunted House."  They transformed
part of the school theatre and guided students through their haunted maze. 








The entire haunted house was a student led event.  The students planned all the details, built and designed the sets and costumes, and coordinated the visitors.  As you can see from the pictures, they did a great job!



Many of our elementary feeder schools brought their classes through the haunted house, and we could tell that the kids were scared by the frequent screams that came from the theatre and could be heard inside the office.





Entrance into the haunted house was by a 50 cent donation or 2 cans of non-perishable food which was all donated to the food bank.
They were all smiling in these pictures, but they could quickly resume their scary characters to spook the next group of visitors.

Collaboration Time

MacNeill Secondary was founded on the guiding principles of effective practice, flexibility, and choice.  When MacNeill originally opened in 2003, it was a small school with only 277 students (Gr. 7 & 8 plus Incentive program).  As a small school, the staff worked hard to find time to work, learn and plan together.  MacNeill has grown over the years and now has around 940 students and 83 staff members.  However, the staff remain committed to maintaining the founding principles of the school, and continue to reflect on systemic structures that will allow us to best support the diverse learners in our school.

This is our first year participating in structured collaboration time.  Collaboration Time is when two or more staff members come together over time with the goal to increase student engagement, achievement and learning.  Eight days have been set throughout the year for collaboration time, where staff members come together for 75 minutes to discuss effective practice, instructional strategies, curriculum, cross-curricular learning or assessment.

Collaboration Time Dates (Tuesdays):

• September 27
• October 25
• November 29
• January 24
• February 21
• March 27
• April 17
• May 22

Collaboration Day Schedule:
8:30-9:40am        Staff Collaboration - Students are not expected to be at school

9:45-10:48am      Period 1

10:48-11:06am     Nutrition Break

11:06-12:09pm     Period 2

12:12-1:16pm        Period 3

1:16-1:56pm          Lunch

1:56-2:59pm         Period 4

**  To ensure collaboration time does not take away from student learning in their academic classes, we have eliminated our advisory class on collaboration day as well as the following day to allow for increased time in the academic classes.

On Collaboration Time Days, students may choose to catch-up on their sleep as the first period start time is not until 9:45am, or they may choose to study at home.  The school will remain open for students who choose to come to school early for the purpose of quiet self-directed study, and they will be supervised by the administration.



Ms. Watson & Ms. Walh-Hoy co-planning
and sharing resources for Humanities 9





Staff developing new dance unit for PE



English Teachers planning for senior
graphic novel studies





Students studying quietly in the lounge during CT Day



Looking for a job? Consider a trade program.

On October 20, 2011, Global TV News did a feature report on "Generation How" on their 6pm news about Apprenticeship Programs and how students are graduating from college programs and walking directly into jobs.  Global announced that a recent labour report predicts that within the next decade, 1,000,000 jobs will become available in BC, and the largest portion, 42% of these jobs, will require a college or trade certificate.  I found this to be a shocking stat, and it has inspired me to share this article.  (sorry about the 30 second advertising clip at the start of the article - I can't get rid of it.)

If you would like to find out more information about post-secondary career programs, please see your Counsellor or our Career Information Advisory (Ms. M. Mayer) for more information, or view the post-secondary institutions website.

MacNeill students participate in 'We Day'

12 MacNeill students from our Senior Leadership Class, along with their teacher, Mr. T. Irani, had the privilege of attending the 2011 We Day on Oct. 13th.  They joined over 18,000 other youth and educators inside Rogers Arena to celebrate the positive impact young people are making on global change.



MacNeill Leadership Students in Rogers Arena for We Day



This year's conference had an impressive list of speakers who delivered stories to inspire, motivate and celebrate the amazing potential that today's youth have to lead local and global change.

• Mikhail Gorbachev
• Mia Farrow
• Shaquille O'Neil
• Hedley
• Shawn Desman
• Down with Webster

We Day has developed from a movement that has energized youth from across the globe to make a difference for others.  The following excerpt has come out of the book "Me to We", written by Craig and Marc Kielburger.

"Me to We is a life philosophy, a way of living that feeds the positive in the world - one action, one act of faith, one small step at a time.  Living Me to We has the potential to revolutionize kindness, redefine happiness and success, and rekindle community bonds powerful enough to change your life and the lives of everyone around you."

Craig Kielburger, when just 12 years old,  became intrigued by a newspaper article about child labour in Islamabad, Pakistan.  Impacted by this article, he shared the story with this class and asked other students to volunteer to help fight for children's rights.  Eleven other students in his class put up their hands to volunteer, and this was the start of what is now a world wide organization called "Free the Children".  Free the Children is now the world's largest network of children helping children through education, and millions of young people have been involved in innovative programs in more than forty-five countries.


Today's youth have the ability, energy and passion to be change-makers for a better tomorrow.  The MacNeill students who attended the We Day celebration left inspired and have been challenged to find ways to make a positive difference in the lives of others.  I look forward to seeing how our students will build upon this day as the year progresses.


MacNeill coined the term "We not Me" as part of our POWER matrix (the W in POWER is for We not Me) to remind our students that we must be considerate of others within the school setting in order to build a positive school community.  We have over 1000 students and staff in our school on a daily basis, and we all need to work together so that our school is a safe place to learn and where all students and staff feel a sense of belonging.  It is evident that our students understand this concept and it is great to see them looking out for each other and supporting each other on a daily basis.

Here is a short video clip about We Day:



Here are some reflections from a grade 12 student, Denzil Muncherji, who attended WE Day:

WE day by Free the Children - Can you picture 18,000 people doing the wave in an arena? Well, a few lucky grade 12s from our school got to be a part of the wave! WE day consisted of the few most inspirational hours of our lives. Within these hours, some of the speakers we had are as follows: Spencer West, Mikhail Gorbachev, Mia Farrow, Liz Murray, Waneek Horn-Miller, Michel Chikwanine, Robin Wiszowaty and Noah Kaplan. The main message every single speaker was trying to get across to us in their own way along with their own story was that there is such a thing as ‘the Power of One’ – one person really can change the world.


Other performers included Shaquille O’Neal, Shawn Desman (who did the WE day dance with us), Hedley, Down with Webster and Classified. These performers have taken their time in their own way to help with Free the Children. They inspire us to help others who deserve to have what we do, to live in good weather conditions under a roof with clothes and a strong immunity system. They show us that even the simple things we do like donate or raise a few dollars help people in need.

The highlight of my day was when Marc and Craig Kielburger spoke. Craig being the very reason Free the Children started – when a 12 year old boy stood up in front of his class and said “I want to do something about it, who’s with me?” The passion those two have till this day for this organization is tremendous and very inspiring. They speak with heart and you just know they will do anything to help someone, go the distance to see a smile on a child’s face and that is motivation - motivation to help us reach our potential. WE day has touched a lot of hearts and one day, I know a lot of people that were there will “be the change [they] want to see.”
- Denzil Muncherji - Grade 12

Club Day Promotion

I have now been at MacNeill for one month and am settling in to my new 'home'.  There are a few things that have really stood out to me over the past month.  Firstly, I am impressed by the dedication and involvement of the MacNeill staff and the time they devote to extra-curricular clubs and teams.  There is a strong connection between staff and students and a culture of mutual respect; I wonder if the strong sense of community has been built, in part, by the dedication of teachers who spend time with students outside the walls of the classroom.  

All school clubs and teams must have a staff sponsor in order to run.  This is all 'volunteer' work that our teachers do outside of regular instructional time and, in many cases, teachers invest hundreds of hours supporting, mentoring and facilitating students clubs.  Based on district statistics from last year, MacNeill had more staff involved in extra-curricular activities than any other Richmond school. This is a statistic that we are very proud of!  Thank you to our staff for all of the extra things you do to make MacNeill such a great place!  

Our Club Day was organized by Student Council with the purpose of showcasing the clubs that are available for students in Gr. 8-12.  The students involved in each club set up a booth in the lounge to advertise what the club is about.  Some clubs had signs, some had music, others had information posters or handouts, and a few had videos from last year.  They all had students behind their booth to meet with and talk to other interested students.  Students were called out of advisory class by grade to walk around the lounge and peruse all the offerings.  There were Student Council members using a microphone to explain and facilitate the event.  

MacNeill Club Day

It was especially great to see the peer relationships as students were collaborating to promote their club. They had sign-up sheets available at each booth, and the number of names that were being collected of interested students impressed me.  Many clubs had multiple pages of names of students who were interested in joining the club.  Some clubs meet before school, at break or lunch, or after school, and all students are welcome and encouraged to join.

Here are some of the clubs available for students:

     -Student Council               

     -Animal Rescue Club

     -First Responders (First Aid) Club

     -Grad Committee

     -Art Club

     -Home Economics Culinary Club

     -Heart Circle

     -Ski Club

     -Amica Club (Friendship, Multicultural Diversity, Promote Tolerance)

     -The Green Team

     -Yearbook DVD Club

     -AZNEC (Asian Entertainment Club)

     -Raven Review (newspaper) Club
     -Raven Readers
     -30 Hour Famine

How Education is Changing

Research shows that the landscape of education has changed more dramatically in the past 10 years than in the past century.  Today's students learn in different ways than students of past generations.  I believe this is one of the greatest challenges facing education, as we can no longer teach our students the same way that we were taught in school.  Education has changed! Teachers are no longer the expert in the classroom responsible for transmitting their subject knowledge to their students.  With the influence of technology, students have access to endless amounts of information.  The role of the teacher is being redefined to that of a mentor and facilitator of student learning.  Effective teachers are finding new ways to connect with students and personalize learning experiences.  The Richmond School District motto, "Our Focus is on the Learner",  is more true in present day than ever; we need to focus our teaching on guiding students to take ownership of their own learning, to be self-reflective, analytical learners who can find, filter and synthesize information in meaningful ways.   

This video, created in 2008, provides some 'food for thought' on the influence of technology.  Although the stats are probably even more overwhelming today (2011), I think this video does a good job of highlighting changes over time.

Terry Fox Run

Terry Fox, A Canadian hero, set out to change the world, one step at a time. Terry ran a marathon a day (26.2 miles) for 143 days in his Marathon of Hope. He raised money and awareness for cancer research. He was not able to complete his journey, but his example and the legacy he left has inspired us to continue the journey in his memory. Over $500 million dollars have been raised in his name.

All students and staff at MacNeill participated in the Terry Fox Run on September 29th, 2011. Students were encouraged to donate a toonie for Terry, and then walk, jog or run along a 3.2km route in his honour.

The Recreational Leadership 11/12 Class, under the guidance of Mr.Chatha, took the lead in planning, organizing, and marshalling the run. The route was well marked, the students were organized, and over 1000 students and staff participated in the event. We were fortunate that the weather was beautiful, and it was great to hear the students support and cheer for each other as they approached the finish line.

I visited the Recreational Leadership Class and asked the students to reflect on their experience of organizing the run. I also inquired about the ways in which Terry Fox has inspired them. Here are some of their responses:

• "His unwavering determination and long-lasting perseverance encourages me to always strive for excellence in whatever I do..." J. Huang
• "Terry Fox has inspired me on how an ordinary boy can make a huge difference" J. Dy
• "Terry Fox has made me aspire to be someone who can change the way people see or think about the world" J. Wong
• "Terry Fox showed me that no matter what holds you back, you can always push through and succeed" I. Foord
• "He has inspired me to persevere in everthing I do; no matter the adversities you have to face, face it with confidence and a strong will." J. Rivera