A group of local students got an early taste of high school through a program organized by Twin Lakes Secondary School.
“It was really fun,” Curtis Topper, 14, said of the week-long camp held at Regent Park Public School, during which students played volleyball and incorporated math and writing into it. “I loved playing volleyball with everyone and then coming to the class and just preparing for high school. In general, it was a really good experience and I'm so sad it's ending today. I was playing my favourite sport with one of my best friends and I got to meet new people.”
The program, designed by Daryl O’Brien, vice-principal at Twin Lakes, focused on literacy, numeracy and wellness through the lens of volleyball.
“Twin Lakes is a changemaker school,” he said, adding the Orillia school is a certified Ashoka school, which means it’s part of a global network of schools looking at making change in education. “This was kind of looking at changemaking and revisiting curriculum and how we, as teachers, deliver it.”
The camp that ended Friday saw the 18 students from Orillia and area go from the classroom to the court and then back to the classroom.
“We're taking data that they develop on the court and we apply that to the Grade 9 applied math curriculum,” said O’Brien. “They'll learn the slope of the line, scatter diagrams, all using this data.”
Emma Langman thought combining math with volleyball was a good idea.
“I really like math and I was a little bit nervous about going from a Grade 8 level to completely new stuff,” said the Ramara resident. “It is new things but it's also some of the old stuff, so (it) makes me a little more confident about going into math.”
Topper was more nervous about English and the Grade 10 literacy test.
“I'm not really good at English,” he said. “(The camp) made me realize that English isn't that hard and that I can actually do it.”
O’Brien said the point of exposing the students to the Grade 10 literacy test through volleyball was to make it playful and fun.
“They'll write a news report about the camp itself,” he said. “Writing a news report is a standard question on the Grade 10 literacy test.”
Both Langman and Topper said their biggest fear about starting high school was meeting new people. That was done away with in this camp, which provided a neutral environment before they get started with a busy school year.
Additionally, Langman said, she felt more confident because she had learned about handling stress and anxiety.
“We had this whole session when we talked about dealing with stress,” she said. “They taught us about being open-minded, having a growth mindset and not putting yourself down, which is something I do a lot as I'm really into sports. When I play bad, I (get) down on myself. They started helping me turn it around, and it's really improving my game.”
That is a crucial part of the wellness section of the camp, said O’Brien.
“We apply the stress and anxiety of life to what you would feel on the court before that winning serve or before an exam,” he said. “We teach them how to develop strategies to overcome that stress and anxiety.”
After spending time on the court, the students came back to have a nutritious fruit smoothie that gave them an energy boost and helped them relax and mingle with each other, said O’Brien.
“Ultimately, they learn to enjoy education and focus on the process of learning rather than outcomes,” he said. “They're more at ease coming to high school.”
Langman said she was certainly looking forward to starting high school.
“I'm still nervous, but I'm a lot more confident than I was at the start,” she said. “I'm also really excited about going to Twin Lakes because it seems like a really nice school.”