Changing TimesSpring 2019

The Mabin School

Changing Times - Spring 2019The Changing Times is published once or twice a year by The Mabin School to

highlight stories from school life and to share news about our community.

Editor Michelle Barchuk

DesignFuria Design & Branding

ContributorsMichelle Barchuk

Julie BinmoreDillon Browning-Rodriguez (’19)

Joanne ChmaraPaola Cohen

Joanne FlemingJane GlasscoLisa Grassa

Gerry MabinMadeline Roitman (’10)

Olivia Roland (’15)Elena Soni

Nancy SteinhauerSiobhan Stevenson (’01)

We Want to Hear from You!

In each issue, we aim to feature a variety of voices from the Mabin community. We welcome contributions from students, staff members, parents, alumni and friends of The Mabin School. If you have an idea for an article, please contact Michelle Barchuk, Director of Admissions and Communications, at

michellebarchuk@mabin.com or 416-964-9594 ext. 247.

The Mabin School — 50 Poplar Plains Road, Toronto, ON, M4V 2M8 T 416.964.9594 mabin.com

The Mabin School

The World Needs More

Mabin!

F or many years now, The Mabin School has been planning a building proj-ect that would improve the learn-

ing spaces in our beautiful old building. Reading in the fireplace is quaint, but it should be a choice, not a necessity! The Mabin School is truly a home away from home, and we have no wish to lose the “house-y” feeling of the place, but we are getting ready to improve the school by adding much-needed space and refresh-ing our classrooms.

Our plan is to add space on the north side of our campus to house learning for all ages. Moving beyond just the small num-ber of students who benefit from attending The Mabin School, we are ready to amplify our impact by hosting a variety of services which will engage our local, provincial, national, and global community.

The new addition, which will house a Community Learning Lab, will improve the experience of current Mabin students, while allowing us to invite the larger com-munity to participate in the best that Mabin has to offer. In this new, modern, fully- accessible space, we will:

• Create a learning space big enough to hold essential learning resources for students, educators, parents, and community members alike, a meeting space where people of all ages can collaborate across disciplines.

• Provide opportunities for Mabin parents and others to learn about best practices in parenting and new research in child development.

• House educator institutes on stu-dent-led inquiry and relation-ship-based learning.

• Bring seniors and students together for intergenerational programming, an evidence-based practice that improves outcomes for both.

• Invite Mabin and other children to extend their learning through after-school and weekend Enrichment Programs, like Saturday morning classes.

We’re halfway there!

Our goal is $4 million by the end of 2019

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• Engage alumni in networking events that are meaningful and deepen their connection to the Mabin community.

• Host a Saturday morning Parent-ing Centre for the larger com-munity, where parents of young children can meet and learn about the power of play in nurturing young learners.

• Share our resources with like-minded organizations and com-munity members where such part-nerships are mutually beneficial.

The addition will contain a spa-cious learning commons, as well as break-out rooms for service providers (e.g. Occupational Thera-pists, Speech-Language Pathologists), and a new art studio. It will also include increased space for our Kindergarten

classes, custom-designed to incorpo-rate natural light and provoke learning through play. Our plan is also to create a more welcoming and functional main office, reestablish a dedicated French room, and relocate our Grade 1 class-room to the ground level. Additionally, the parking lot will be replaced with green space that will enlarge the students’ play area. The main building will be refreshed so that the spirit of the original school is maintained, while the learning spaces are improved.

The addition will increase the over-all space of the school by 25%, giving Mabin more room to share its knowl-edge and resources with a much

broader audience, without increasing our student population. Mabin will be learning from the larger educational community while contributing to the body of knowledge that currently exists in a significant and meaningful way. For anyone who has ever been a part of the Mabin community, the conclusion is clear: the world needs more Mabin.

The World Needs More Mabin Cam-paign will also have a very positive impact on the day-to-day operations of The Mabin School. It has been many years since a major redevelopment and refreshing has been done to the facility. Every corner and spot in the existing building is utilized to its full potential. The redevelopment will provide us with a reformatted footprint and additional space to operate the school. The impact on students and faculty will be dramatic.

Ger

ry M

abin

& S

usan

Per

ren CONSTRUCTION

AHEAD

To build the Community Learn-ing Lab, The Mabin School is in a $4 million campaign to raise the funds to build the Community Learning Lab and redevelop the existing facil-ities. The goals of the campaign are to increase the awareness of The Mabin School to key constituents and donors, and to secure $4 million. There will be no government funding, and all funds will be secured from the private sector. Since The Mabin School has charitable status, all dona-tions are eligible for a tax receipt.

The Mabin School does not, his-torically, have a culture of philan-thropy, but we have been working on this! For the past two years, at least 98% of current families have donated to the Annual Campaign, which allows us to provide students

with enriching experiences like field trips, guest artists and storytellers, and other special events. Before launching the campaign officially in January, 2019, we raised almost $2 million from generous alumni, staff, Board members, and parents. We are

now working hard to raise the sec-ond $2 million by the end of this calendar year.

In preparation for this cam-paign, we created policies to guide

our practices in accepting gifts and in recognizing them. There will be naming opportunities for donors as we build the new building, and we are keen to recognize everyone who contributes, no matter how much.

This campaign is critical for The Mabin School to continue to provide our current students with exemplary progressive education experiences; equally important, it will allow us to take the best of what we are doing and share it more effectively with our local community and the world.

If you are interested in helping us with this quest to make a larger impact, please contact our Cam-paign Director, David Prendergast, at davidprendergast@mabin.com. Any-one who has ever spent time at The Mabin School knows that the world needs more Mabin. Please help us make it so.

Nancy Steinhauer is the principal at The Mabin School.

James Aitken, Jeremy Creed & Ian HawkinsN

ancy Steinhauer & D

avid Prendergast

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#screenfreekindergarten

T he Mabin School has a strong history as a progressive research-based school. Over the past few years, the Kindergar-

ten teachers have been reading articles and resources about the use of technology in early childhood, including research done by The Canadian Paediatric Society and various child development resources. It’s not a surprise to us that some of the first to speak out about the ubiquitous use of screens are those at the fore-front of the development of this technology. There has been a lot of buzz about a movement among Silicon Valley parents to raise their children tech-free. This move-ment definitely got the attention of Mabin parents and made Mabin educators want to learn more! What we found is that the research is ongoing and there is not sufficient evidence to sup-port the benefit of screen-time before the age of 6. In fact, most of the research points to the harmful effects of screens for young children in the areas of reg-ulation, attention span, ocular development and social skills.

Kindergarten has always used a limited amount of technology. As a team, we exper-imented with digital portfolios and deter-mined that learning was superior with real photos, handwritten reflections and tangible folders. We experimented with the use of a Smartboard to show videos or play interactive academic games. What we found challenged

these teaching methods and brought us to the conclusion that looking up research in a book and interacting with others, instead of a screen, during academic games, provided our students with more valuable learning.

In September, 2018, we decided to take the leap and go 100% screen-free across all sub-ject areas, including specialist classes, for a one year pilot. We removed our Smartboard and started a rich discussion with our col-leagues about how to make this work. One Mabin teacher shared, ‘I have been very pas-sionate about the idea of going tech-free in

Kindergarten for a long time. I feel it is a strong pro-gressive stance.” Another teacher said that she was “open to the idea” and had “lots of questions and some reserva-tions.” It was an important part of the process to address concerns as they came up and share solu-tions. Throughout

the pilot, teachers discussed how to problem solve when we might typically use screens. For example, when the Kindergarten team partici-pated in The Week of Inspirational Math, we summarized the videos and shared their mes-sages through discussion and role-play rather than actually showing the video to students. We found this technique was more effective as we tailored the lesson to our students’ specific needs. Another example in a specialist class was when Michelle Li, our science teacher, used games to teach coding instead of screens.

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We communicated about our initiative with parents because we consider them our part-ners in teaching and learning. Over the years, many parents have come to us for advice about an appropriate amount of screen time for 5 and 6 year olds. Parent interest, the benefit to chil-dren, and Mabin’s commitment to experiential learning, all led us to launch our screen-free pilot. We shared information at our curriculum night and in the parent handbook. Parents were enthusiastic about the pilot and, in fact, par-ents shared that they and their children needed help managing the use of screens in their lives. One parent shared, “I did not expect screens in Kindie, so it sounded like the right thing to do.” While another said, “I was thrilled. I think they are already far too exposed everywhere else.” While the rest of Mabin continues to use technol-ogy when it is the best tool, not the only tool, we found that open-ing this dialogue allowed parents and teachers to be more mindful in their approach with technology.

An increased use of technology has been a trend in education for a number of years as schools have been trying to respond to the ever changing world our students are growing up in. A lot of money has been spent buying and maintaining the latest technology and, while many would argue that this is a neces-sity for our students, in more recent years, Mabin has taken a more measured approach. In discussion with teachers from other inde-pendent schools, we discovered that screens continue to be used in all Kindergarten pro-grams. With the exception of Waldorf, Mabin is the only school using a screen-free approach in Toronto in Kindergarten. A google search

further surprised us when we could not find a screen-free Kindergarten anywhere! We started sharing research and articles on Twit-ter and quickly realized that this is a new and exciting topic for other educators. How excit-ing to be at the forefront of this discussion! #screenfreekindergarten

As changemakers, it is our responsibility to reflect about the responsible risk we took this year. We believe that the child-centred and experiential approach in Mabin’s Kindergar-ten continues to be the very best way to engage children, help build social and academic com-petencies and create a learning community that creates the next generation of original thinkers, adaptive leaders and caring citizens.

With this pilot, our hope is to lead the way for a more intentional approach to tech-nology in educa-tion. An approach that encourages students to build critical thinking skills about their own use of tech-nology and of social media. We want to partner with parents to

co-create guidelines around an appropriate amount of screen time and how to determine developmental readiness. We want to share the information we have about how screen time influences a child’s ability to self-regu-late and focus. We hope to inspire educators and parents alike to examine their use of tech-nology in the classroom and to put student well-being and learning first!

Julie Binmore teaches Senior Kindergarten and Lisa Grassa teaches Junior Kindergarten at The Mabin School.

“I absolutely love the idea of not having screens in Kindergarten. As a society we are inundated with technology, it is a gift to give our children the opportunity to learn and explore without technology.”

- A Mabin Kindergarten parent

“I do not think technology is at all necessary in Kindergarten. I think children need to focus on how to work with their own bodies, minds and imagination at such a young age.”

- A Mabin Kindergarten parent

Articles for further reading:

Screen time predicts delays in child development, says new research: https://nationalpost.com/pmn/news-pmn/screen-time-predicts-delays-in-child-development-says-new-research

The Backlash Against Screen Time at School: Combining education and technology is great - until it’s not: https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2018/11/screen-time-backlash/567934/

The Dangers of Distracted Parenting: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/07/the-dangers-of-distracted-parenting/561752/

98

A Mabin Reunion in Brooklyn

Who’d have thought that a bunch of young trendy adults living and working in New York

would be excited to get together in a pizza bar in Brooklyn to reconnect with their

peers from elementary school? Well, that’s exactly what happened on July 19, 2018.

What was the common bond? The Mabin School of course! Yes, eleven very

impressive and distinctive personalities gathered around a long wooden table

at Roberta’s, successfully tuned out the noisy surroundings and took a trip

down Memory Lane together.

The group included: 2 Campions (Thobey and Chloe), 4 Davids (Blue,

McCallum, Rosen and Tichauer), 2 Greens (Sophie and Deeva) and

3 Loebs (Jordana, Alex and Jacqui). Can you recognize them?

There was a constant buzz as conversations whirled around

the table. Common theme? The love of learning that was

nurtured at Mabin. “It was fun and didn’t feel like we

were learning!” Interesting! (And that comes up reg-

ularly when grads are reflecting on their time at

Mabin.) They also commented on how they attri-

bute their continued openness to learning, and

ability to collaborate and explore new ideas,

to their time at The Mabin School.

The group wants to meet again and

get more New York grads to come

next time. There is a genuine feel

of belonging to The Mabin

School family! What a won-

derful evening!

Gerry Mabin is the

founder of The

Mabin School.

Jacqui Loeb (‘98)

Thobey Campion (’93), Gerry Mabin & David Blue (’93)

David Tichauer (’93), David Blue (’93) & Gerry MabinJordana Loeb (’9

1) & Chloe Campion (’0

0)

The whole group!

4 Davids & 2 Campions!

Jordana Loeb (’91), Gerry Mabin & Alex Loeb (’95)

Sophie Green (’96)

Deeva Green (’01)

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A lways keeping the unique philosophy of The Mabin School in mind, the Archives Committee is active again this school year, meeting every Wednesday morning. Our team continues the

work of Mabin parent volunteers, Sandy Posluns, Renee Smith, and Jacquie Dale, who established the Archives back in the early 2000’s.

Today we are a 4-person team: Joanne Chmara (a parent of two alumni who attended the school between 1994 and 2007), Paola Cohen (who taught art to the junior grades from 1980 to 2006), Joanne Flem-ing (who taught SK and Grade 1 from 1980 to 2003) and Jane Glassco (who set up and ran the school library from 2004 to 2012).

Archives in Action!

Our current activities include filing photos and other classroom work by “Graduating Year” going right back to the first graduating class in 1983.

Randall Brown, Mabin’s teacher-li-brarian who is responsible for oversee-ing the Archives, also works with the committee each week. While she was away on maternity leave, Heather Pet-tigrew supported the team and helped organize hundreds of photos that have been sent to us digitally by teachers, both current and past.

This fall, we’ve seen a number of graduates returning to visit, which indicates their continuing enthusi-asm for our school. Whenever pos-sible, we provide our visitors with photos and other school memories of their time at Mabin.

If you have artifacts you’d like to donate to the Archives or if you’d be interested in volunteering, please email Michelle Barchuk, Director of Admissions and Communications, at michellebarchuk@mabin.com .

Joanne Chmara, Joanne Fleming, Paola Cohen, and Jane Glassco dedicate their time every week to maintain and develop Mabin’s Archives.

Zoe Arden, Philip Graf, Bianca Perren, Sean McGarragle, Alison Marshall (all ’85)

Henry Perren (’91) and Josh Aaronson (’91) playing at the Kindergarten sand table beside the Stego-saurus the JK/SK students made in art.

Students still enjoy playing with the milk crates at recess!

Tess Calder (’97) and Megan Cheng (’97) playing as mice in the blocks in Kindergarten.

Grade 3 class ('15) with giant Picasso head made in art. Left to right: Olivia Roland, Amanda Knowles, Dylan Cape, Ira Puri, Olivia Mammoliti, Maia Ross, Gabriel Browning-Roriguez, Sam Chapnik, & Logan Thompson (in front)

Emily Burnett (’94) and Rie Miyauchi (’94) in Senior Kindergarten

The Senior Kindergarten class ('00) was investigating snakes in the classroom and they made this beautiful snake in art.

Joanne Fleming, Jane Glassco, Paola Cohen & Joanne Chmara

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Meeting Max Meighen

O n a blustery November morning, I had the chance to catch up with Max (’01) and learn about some of

his Mabin memories as well as his jour-ney since attending The Mabin School after his brother Ted (’92) graduated.

Max fondly recalls conversations about what he was learning in class spilling over into recess as he and his peers engaged in everything from building snow forts to playing in the sand pit and digging until they found clay. “Hands-on and interactive” is how Max describes his learning experiences at Mabin (and we’re proud to say that hasn’t changed).

From Kindergarten onwards, Max and his classmates eagerly looked for-

ward to participating in the infamous duckling project – a chance for stu-dents to hatch and raise ducklings right at school. It was a memorable expe-rience for the whole family! In fact, Max’s mother Kelly, former Chair of Mabin’s Board of Directors, still has a photo of her son tending to one of those adorable tiny ducklings.

Inquiry has always been at the heart of learning at Mabin so it’s no sur-prise that a particular study of marine life stands out to Max all these years later. Students in Grade 2 were eagerly learning about a variety of ocean crea-tures and Max was particularly curious about squids. He remembers begging his mother to buy him a real squid so

he could bring it to school to share with his class. She finally relented and, after a trip to a local seafood shop, Max was thrilled to bring in a “live dead squid”, as he referred to it, for everyone to see. (His Mabin friends STILL talk about that squid to this day!)

After Mabin, Max graduated from UCC and went on to McGill University where he studied History and Russian Literature. While living in Montreal, he developed an interest in food, and, in particular, the concept of eating local as well as the idea of food as a catalyst for change. Fast forward to 2019 and Max’s new venture, Avling Brewery and Restaurant, is set to open for busi-ness in Toronto’s Leslieville neighbour-

hood. There are plans for a rooftop farm (where adults and children alike will be able to explore urban food systems in a more tangible way) and for opportu-nities to partner with local schools in order to make a concrete difference in the Toronto food community.

We’re looking forward to seeing what the future holds for this talented entrepreneur!

Michelle Barchuk is the Director of Admis-sions and Communications at The Mabin School.

W hen I was eight, my family moved from Toronto to California, a change that might have been outer

space as far as I was concerned at that time. My new school, though it shared the same “The ____ School” moniker, couldn’t have been less like the home I’d known at Mabin. Calling teachers Mr. and Mrs.? Uniforms? And so many stu-dents! What was I doing there?

Now, of course, we adjust and adapt and I happily graduated from that school ten years later. But through-out the rest of my childhood and ado-lescence in California, I remembered fondly my early years at Mabin and stayed in contact with friends I’d made at that time. For eight years, in fact, I

Siobhan Stevenson Comes Home

made it back to Toronto every summer and lived vicariously through the sto-ries of my classmates’ time at Mabin and later their respective secondary schools.

In some of those earlier summer vis-its, I’m sure I made it back to see the school, but this past November, finally back in Toronto for the first time in thirteen years, visiting Mabin was on my must-do list.

Even much older and much bigger, Mabin still retains as much magic to me as it did when I was eight. It is honestly a special school and the sense of commu-nity it fosters is one of a kind. I figured I would walk in, say I’d been a Mabin student once upon a time, and hope-fully be allowed to peek around a bit.

The reception was warm and welcom-ing and beyond what I could have ever expected, though as I say this, why wouldn’t I have? That is the Mabin I remember and the one that has fos-tered such an amazing community for all these years.

On our way out, a Senior Kinder-garten student asked who my dad was. Michelle Barchuk explained that he was my father and that I had been a student a long time ago (before this boy was born, certainly, I realize now – and feel old!) and I was back to look at Mabin. He looked incredulous – this OLD person once went here? No way! But for thirty minutes, it was as magical to walk in those shoes 21 years later as

it was my last days at Mabin in 1997.Some of my greatest memories of my

classroom experience at Mabin are of how much creative pursuits and indi-vidual thinking were encouraged and there’s no doubt in my mind I carry that with me today. While I never graduated from Mabin, there is no doubt in my mind that my time there had an impact on who I grew up to be. And indeed, I left that afternoon and met a classmate from Mabin for a coffee – a friend for life, 20 and some years later.

Siobhan Stevenson (’01) surprised us with a visit to Mabin in November, 2018 with her parents. We were thrilled to show them around!

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Madeline Roitman (’10) volunteered to speak at one of our fall Open House ses-sions for prospective families interested in sending their children to The Mabin School. Here is what she shared with our visitors that day.

M y name is Madeline Roitman and I am a Mabin school graduate. I’m a 3rd year Queen’s University

student studying History and English in the Concurrent Education program. I graduated from The Mabin school in 2010. My younger brother graduated in 2012 and is now studying Engineering at Queen’s University and my younger sister graduated in 2017 and is now in Grade 8 at Greenwood College School. Between the three of us, our family was involved at the Mabin school for 15 consecutive years. We love Mabin. After graduating from Mabin, I also went to Greenwood, where, with each passing year, I began to realize more and more why my parents chose to send me to Mabin.

Mabin is not a regular school. And I will tell you why by giving you a list of a few of my favourite memories (though, between my two other siblings and I, we have thousands!).

When I was in Grade 5, my class participated in a competitive robotics competition. Each year, the competi-tion has a research component as well as a technical component and the topic

of research for that year was climate change. We had to look at sustainable initiatives for our robotics and com-plete research on how to do so with a knowledge of climate change. Our class took to this research with great depth and understanding. When the compe-tition was over, our questions didn’t stop. Our teacher set up an online forum where we could ask questions about climate change and then other classmates could answer them. We spent hours learning and researching. Each student in the class had a par-ticular aspect of climate change that piqued their own individual interests and could tailor their research to such subjects. I was particularly interested

in rising sea levels and how natural disasters were affecting the popula-tion. I spent hours reading books and formulating questions which my class-mates would then find the answers to. The most interesting part about this integrated learning was that it was completely student directed. Our questions fed off of each other and by the end of the year we had a signifi-cant body of knowledge surrounding an important current topic. Five years later I was sitting in my Grade 10 sci-ence class, next to another Mabin graduate, when our teacher introduced the subject of our next unit: climate change. We both looked at each other and started to laugh. We spent the next

M A D E L I N E ’ Smonth explaining everything we knew about climate change from five years earlier to our peers. I remember being completely surprised, as the informa-tion I was learning in Grade 10 was at the same level as what I had learned five years earlier in elementary school.

In Grade 6, my class put on Shake-speare’s “Twelfth Night”, where I had the honour of playing the role of the drunken Sir Andrew Aguecheek. When you mention Shakespeare to most pre-teens, the response you would get is likely not enthusiastic. However, in my classroom this was not the case. I see this as a real testament to my Grade 6 teacher. To get a room full of school age children, regardless of their interests, passionate about Shakespeare and able to perform a play at full length to the entire school is really quite something. We loved Shakespeare. Our whole class knew every line of the entire play and we would even practice over our recess breaks. We replaced lyrics to top forty hits with Shakespearean sayings. Ever since Grade 6, I have had a passion for Shakespeare. In my first-year English class, we studied Richard III, and that was the first paper I was able to get an A on at university. I really think this passion can be traced back to my Grade 6 teacher who sparked my interest in English literature.

In Grades 4 and 5, Coldplay released a new hit single, “Viva la Vida”. My class loved this song. As a result, our music teacher allowed us to sing it in class. We spent each class adding more and more elements to our perfor-mance of “Viva la Vida”. We added new instruments, learned how to play it on the xylophone, piano, and percussion instruments. We all knew every single part to the song on every single instru-ment in the room. The grade above us also became a part of the performance and by the end of the year we per-formed it to all our parents, who were

M E M O R I E Sin shock. What I have come to take away from that performance is the abil-ity for something so small to become something so big. It was empowering. We just really liked a pop song, and by the end of the year, forty students had learned it on several different instru-ments and performed it as a cohesive group to our parents.

My final story has become coined a Mabin classic. This story seems silly but I believe it captures the true essence of The Mabin School. My brother was in gym class in Junior Kindergarten, when he tripped and fell and his pants fell down. He immediately started cry-ing because he was so embarrassed, but within the next few seconds almost every student in the class had pulled their pants down, just to make my brother feel more comfortable. In my education classes at Queen’s, profes-sors have told me that it is quite com-mon to either be a bully or be bullied in elementary school. This is not the case at Mabin. There is an unspoken respect for others that is ingrained in the stu-dents as early as four years old, and this respect never goes away.

Mabin shaped my childhood and continues to shape me today. From Mabin, I learned how to ask questions and how to ask for help when I need it. I learned how to be a good friend and how to respect and value my teachers. At Queen’s, I am a successful student because of this. I am able to advocate for myself and speak to professors when I need help. I truly enjoy the con-tent I am learning, and I have spent the last three years volunteering for chil-dren facing adversity in low socio-eco-nomic communities. The curiosity that started at Mabin for me has never ended. I plan to study abroad at Cardiff University in Wales for a semester this year. I look forward to learning more about the world and feeling like I can be a part of something bigger than myself. I am so grateful to my family for having the foresight to send me to a school like Mabin, and to this school for helping me develop into the person I have become.

Wherever I go, if I run into someone from my Mabin school days, whether they were in my grade, five years younger or five years older, there is a different kind of acknowledgement because there is a special connection we all have. I walked into the library last week in Kingston and received a huge hug from a Mabin student one year younger than me. My brother walked into his Greenwood school tour in 2012 and almost immediately a boy six years older approached him and asked if he recognized him from Mabin. This com-munity is really like no other, and for that I will always be grateful.

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T heir rooms, showers, and belongings are gone. 1,500 people at 650 Parliament St. in Toronto have been displaced from their apartments since August, 2018, and still haven’t been able to return. The fire

affected a spectrum of different people from kids to the elderly. With such a big problem, we at Mabin wanted to help out, and give them a helping hand.

Our Grade 6 class wanted to cook for the people who had been affected by the fire, but we couldn't do it alone. We teamed up with Rose Avenue Public School, which is another school in Toronto that has students who were affected by the fire. We also got support from Mabin parents, Chris Trussell and Lesley Stoyan (parents of Luke ’22), who had brought fresh ingredients and helped with cooking. We had a plan and we needed to put it into action!

We headed over to Rose Avenue Public School one afternoon in Decem-ber, and were split into different groups. Some people were working on salad, some were working on chicken, and others were working on soup or bread. It was amazing, having two different schools, all collaborating for a good cause, in a fun and creative way! When finished, we prepared the tables and were ready to serve! As each person took a bite, you could see the delight in each and everyone’s eyes. It was a grand feast. We were able to serve about 170 people that night, which wasn’t as big as the 1,500 people in total who were affected by the fire, but we’re hoping that our small act of kindness can make a bigger difference.

Dillon Browning-Rodriguez (‘19) is a Grade 6 student who will be graduating from The Mabin School in June.

A Helping

Hand

1918

S itting with Sama in the Mabin art studio, it’s easy to see why stopping by this room is a highlight for prospective families and returning visitors alike. From the abundance of natural light to the creative student work on display to the array of

art materials available for exploration, a calm sense of discovery, possibility and, yes, even magic pervades the space.

It is not surprising then to discover that the tradition of the Art Fairies, an inven-tion of a previous Mabin art teacher many years ago, continues today as an integral component of our visual art program in the early years. Junior Kindergarten students are introduced to the Art Fairies, through handwritten notes in tiny script, fairy dust trails and more, and students continue to interact with them into Grade 2 and some-times beyond. Through personalized notes from the Art Fairies, Sama Dudin, one of our talented art teachers, is able to offer feedback to students on their work, along with requests to go deeper, which is especially effective when students find them-selves creating items for the Art Fairies themselves.

The Grade 1 class is currently in the process of designing with the Art Fairies in mind as their customers. Earlier in the year, for example, students focused their efforts on creating tiny amusement parks for them to enjoy. Through the lens of empathy, the class was keen to think creatively about what would appeal to their tiny clientele. Now that the Grade 1’s are delving into an inquiry about trees, discussions around enchanted forests and mythical trees have naturally begun.

The Magic…

Michelle Barchuk is the Director of Admissions and Communications at The Mabin School.

…ContinuesStudents expressed interest in creating an indoor shelter for their Art Fairy friends and Sama provided a sustainable framework for this creative collaboration. The deci-sion to use a recycled material like cardboard made sense in terms of the purpose of the project. An architect was also invited in to share her knowledge around cre-ating models without the use of any adhesives (glue, tape, staples etc.) in order to create less waste. Construction began enthusiastically as students added bedrooms, kitchens, bathrooms and even a garden to their creation. The possibilities within their design are endless: adding branches to contain essential services for the Fairies (a hospital, a school, perhaps even a sports arena), creating a piping system for water to flow through the space, and the issue of accessibility has also come up (how will a Fairy unable to fly access the various elements of the space?). Sama continues to work closely with other members of the Grade 1 team to incorporate students’ knowledge as their learning progresses. There’s no doubt the Mabin Art Fairies would approve!

Meet Sama DudinSama teaches visual art at The Mabin School. She lived in Jordan until the age of 18 when she came to study at the University of Toronto and never left! Sama did a double major in Management and CCIT (Communication, Culture, Information & Technology). She worked as a graphic designer and systems analyst for a not-for-profit that promoted sustainable transporta-tion modes to employees at business parks in the GTA. Sama also went on to do her Masters in Child Study and she specialized in social justice topics.

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Reflections from Olivia

Olivia Roland (’15) joined us at an Open House in the fall and shared some thoughts about her Mabin journey with prospective families. A condensed version of her speech is captured here.

W hen I started thinking about this speech, I began brainstorming all the amazing things about Mabin,

and it wasn’t very hard for me to come up with all the ways it has helped pre-pare me for the future.

Stress-Free Environment

Another really great thing about Mabin was how stress-free it was. I may not have appreciated it as much then, but I am so glad I was able to spend elementary school playing with my friends and exploring everything around me rather than spending my nights filled with work.

Reflections

At Mabin, we always did reflections, so much so that I don’t think any of us even realized we were doing them anymore by the time we got to Grade 6. This has helped me so much at Havergal because we actually do a lot of reflec-tions there too! I remember sitting in art class in Grade 7 where my friends were very confused with the reflec-tion we were assigned, but I found it completely normal.

This skill was also very helpful during the application process to dif-ferent schools for Grade 7. Each school I applied to had a section where I had to reflect upon different aspects of myself. I was able to reflect well on myself and my goals and where I wanted to be for the next step of my education.

Student-Teacher Connection

Firstly, Mabin has made sure that the student-teacher connection is very open and so when I went on to Havergal I didn’t think anything of talking with my teachers. One example of this was when I was in Grade 7 (probably in the first 2 weeks of school) and I went into my French class. I had been placed in Advanced French. After our first class, I was terrified because everyone with me had been in French Immersion since elementary school. I went home feeling super upset and con-fused. When I went back to school I decided to talk to my French teacher about things. I met with her a few times, which helped me improve and become more confident in French. Overall this made me so much better and my French teacher really appreciated that I came in to her for help.

A lot of kids might be scared to talk to their teachers about anything to do with extra help, enrichment or even asking clarifying questions, but I never had diffi-culty with any of these because I came from a school where teachers were more your friends than a scary, unapproachable figure who doesn’t know who you are.

Inquiry-Based Learning

When I tell my friends stories of what I learned at Mabin, they often look at me with an expression of total shock. You did what?? Their jaws dropped when I told them that I helped to dissect a shark in Grade 2, or that we spent a unit in Grade 6 studying the assassination of JFK. These are just two examples of countless awesome learning experi-ences I had during my time at Mabin. Once I left, I retained the message of believing that anything was possi-ble and to always do the thing you are interested in.

When I look back now, I see that we were constantly presented problems at Mabin and we were always looking at different ways to solve those problems: our way! Teachers didn’t tell us how to solve the problems, we were encour-aged to figure it out ourselves by taking responsible risks and that is what we did. We did this individually, but impor-tantly we also did it in groups. All of this helped prepare me for the type of aca-demic qualities they were looking for at Havergal: a questioning mind which can look at a problem from different perspectives and persevere individually or connect with others to figure it out!

Academic Preparation

When I was younger, I was good at math and I liked math, but I never did any Spirit of Math or any other math outside of school. However, Mabin provided me with lots of opportunities for enrichment in math, including problems from the University of Waterloo. When I went to Havergal, Grade 7 math was a breeze and I applied for and got in to advanced math in Grade 8. Now I am a year ahead in math and have an opportunity to take an additional course which interests me in Grade 11 or 12. All my math abilities came from Mabin, and I was extremely prepared for the next steps beyond Mabin.

Leadership Opportunities

Another thing I learned from Mabin was how to be a leader. For example, during integration we were always given opportunities to be leaders and role models for younger students. Mabin has helped me discover what type of leader I am and I was able to recognize that I enjoy leadership. Since I have been at Havergal, I have made sure to act on this and have enjoyed many formal and informal leadership positions as a result.

In conclusion, I love Mabin and had such a great time here. Now that I’ve gone to another school I truly recog-nize all that Mabin did for me and how it has played a large role in shaping who I am today.

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O ur Grade 5 students have enjoyed tre-mendous success this year as partici-pants in the First Lego League (FLL)

Robotics competition. The Grade 5 class was divided into two teams in preparation for the competition and they were models of enthusiasm, teamwork, and creativity. While both teams distinguished them-selves, The Lonely Stars were awarded the Champions Award and progressed onto the regionals in January. Their performance was supported by weeks of feedback and collaboration with the rest of the students in the class, so the win was really a win for everyone in Grade 5. We were very proud of all of our students for their research, robot-ics, and communication skills.

In January, The Lonely Stars competed at the FLL Robotics Regionals at the Uni-versity of Ontario Institute of Technology. Competing against 39 other teams, mostly consisting of older kids, our group of 7 was unmatched in terms of their enthusiasm! Excelling under pressure, our students were articulate communicators, creative problem-solvers, and supportive team-mates. Even if they hadn’t won a prize, we would have been proud...

But they DID win a prize! In fact, our Lonely Stars got the Top Project Innovation Award AND we were 1 of 7 teams invited to the Ontario Innovation Celebration in Feb-ruary. From there 3 teams were selected to present at the Global Innovation Competi-tion, where top prize is $20,000 to develop their innovation into reality.

For the purpose of the competition, our students developed a special Advent Calendar for astronauts. Having learned about the effects of space travel on the brain, our students realized that loneliness is a real problem in space. They therefore adapted a conventional Advent Calen-dar and, instead of a chocolate a day, they incorporated a QR Code a day. When the astronauts scan the QR code of the day, a personalized video pops up using Aug-mented Reality software with a message from friends and/or family from home. Our students used empathy to imagine a way to improve the experience of space travelers and created a compelling inven-tion that applied their knowledge of tech-nology in an original, caring way. Parents Kathryn From and Jason Chapnik coached the team so that their final presentation was polished and professional.

Once again, our Grade 5’s proved that Mabin kids are original thinkers, adaptive leaders, and caring citizens. We may be small, but our impact is mighty!

“Having a team you can contribute different

ideas and bring them all together to make one

big idea which solves bigger problems.”

Elias

“FLL was a great learning experience for

me and really taught me to work as a team.”

Josephine

“I really loved the FLL tournament. I enjoyed

watching the robot game and cheering for

my friends.”

Hero

Nancy Steinhauer is the principal at The Mabin School.

“I think this is important to study because it could

help astronauts with mental health issues.”

Gabriel

“I am most proud of my contribution on team

challenges and teamwork because I controlled myself well, compromised when I needed to, and acted as a

good leader.”

Michelle

“I am most proud of my whole team because if it were not for them and the rest of the class I

would not have gotten to where I am.”

William

“I think it is important for students to study

because we need to learn lots to go to Mars.”

Noah

“I am so excited to participate because we

did so much work. I can’t wait to see how it goes.”

Ted

“I love FLL because it teaches kids teamwork

and also how to persist.”

Gray

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Kerri’s third novel, Floating City, tells the story of a fiercely ambitious boy who overcomes humble beginnings and hardship in British Columbia to become a wealthy property developer in Toronto, but cannot escape the ghosts of his past. While the novel’s early inspiration came from family history, its scope expanded dramatically when Kerri learned that visionary American architect Buckmin-ster Fuller had once designed a futuristic development that included floating housing pods in Toronto harbour. Fuller appears in the book as the protago-nist’s mentor, giving rise to one of its many conflicts—altruism versus ambition, modernity versus tradition, and clashing ideas about belonging and inclusion.

Excerpt from Penguin Random House Website

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/authors/26699/kerri-sakamoto

K erri Sakamoto, mom of Teo Tisch (’19), is a writer whose third novel, Floating City, was shortlisted for

the 2018 Toronto Book Awards. We met for coffee recently at a local café where Kerri often spends time writing. Our conversation ranged from how she dis-covered Mabin for her son to her most recent book and beyond.

Kerri’s niece, Isabella Slone (’14), attended Mabin and her brother- and sister-in-law raved about the school. Over the years, Kerri had the oppor-tunity to pick Isabella up from Mabin after school and she started to get a feel for the place. However, it wasn’t until she attended Isabella’s graduation, and heard visual arts teacher Elena Soni’s moving address to the graduating class, that Kerri realized just how well every child is known at The Mabin School. There was no question that that was what she wanted for her son.

Kerri credits Mabin’s amazing teach-ers and staff, under principal Nancy Steinhauer’s leadership, as the “nurtur-ing cheerleading team” whose patience and compassion have helped Teo blos-som here. It is also community-build-ing initiatives, like Moms of the World Unite dinners, where moms from Mabin and Rose Avenue P.S. gather to share food and conversation, that continue to help Mabin extend its reach and impact our parent population as well.

Born and raised in Toronto, it was a special honour for Kerri that her novel, Floating City, was nominated for the

Toronto Book Awards. This book was very much a product of her own fam-ily’s history and its various displace-ments from her grandparents in Japan to her family’s arrival on the west coast of Canada and, finally, to their settle-ment here in Toronto. In addition to being inspired by the brilliant Ameri-can visionary Buckminster Fuller, Kerri also found inspiration in architects looking at alternate ways of living and using resources in innovative ways.

Meanwhile, in the classroom, Kerri’s son Teo and his Mabin classmates also had a chance to be visionaries, in a way, through the Imagining My Sustainable City project recently. Over the course of a few days, students worked intensely with two architects to redesign an underused tract of land in Toronto. Using the framework of the nine pil-lars of design, the Grade 6’s went from the brainstorming stage to creating an actual large-scale model based on their collective ideas.

What’s next for Kerri and her fam-ily? She’s currently working on another book and hoping to collaborate with a filmmaker friend. Teo will graduate from Mabin in June, 2019 and a new chapter will begin for him and his fam-ily. We’ll have to wait for the whole story to unfold – and we’re looking for-ward to hearing about it already.

Michelle Barchuk is the Director of Admissions and Communications at The Mabin School.

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In Conversation with Kerri

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The overarching purpose of the Inter-generational Project is:

• to share stories• to interact with people who start

as strangers and, after the 4 to 6 weeks, are friends, and

• to come to the realization that the human condition is our common denominator and that building community is the underpinning of a healthy society.

Intergenerational Projects in Grades 2, 3 & 4

These projects give voice to the knowl-edge and experience honed by elders in an enjoyable environment and empower children to build self-confi-dence while interacting and collabo-rating with the elders to explore a con-cept creatively. We chose topics which the student group was grappling with. Together the children and the elders created a visual representation on the commonly agreed upon solution.

Intergenerational Projects by the Numbers – September to December 2018

• Total elders: 29

• Total students: 49

• Total grades: 3

Grade 2 – What was your favourite story growing up?

Elders were asked to bring in a book that they liked being read to as children if possible. The alternative was to bring in a book that they liked reading to their children and/or grandchildren. The elders shared the story book and what section they liked the best. Students and elders were grouped and facilitators asked each group to write and illustrate a story based loosely on the stories they had heard. The groups were asked to work on character development, setting, plot, and resolution. At the end of the four weeks, each group read their story to the rest of the groups.

Learning Outcomes

Participants learned how to structure a story. They had to negotiate how to include all the members’ ideas to write a collaborative story. Participants nego-tiated which illustrations each had to draw. Elders had to become arbitrators. Participants had to negotiate the layout of the book. Elders and students built a community of trust over the four weeks they spent together.

Grade 3 – Community Building

Questions to start the conversation: What is a community? What are the responsibilities of a member of a com-munity? What are the rights of a com-munity member? What do we have to do to make our community work? How do you personally contribute to your community?

Learning Outcomes

Students learned that accepting differ-ences helps us know peoples’ strengths and pooling them helps the com-munity. The students and the elders became friendly after the first week and both groups felt they had created a great work of art together as a commu-nity. Elders were thrilled to share their knowledge and be surrounded by chil-dren who wanted to know about them. Students became very comfortable with elders they had not met before and enjoyed their company. Students realized that working together, instead of in competition, helped them achieve a common goal more successfully.

Grade 4 – From Exclusion to Inclusion

Each week, we read a story book that dealt with exclusion, feeling different or being seen as different. The group discussed the issues that arose from the story book. Elders shared experi-ences where they had been subject to, or witnessed, an instance of exclusion. Students shared situations where they had felt excluded. In each instance, we asked the group to discuss how to solve the situation in a positive manner. Facilitators asked each group to collab-orate on a story involving exclusion and inclusion. Each group divided the work amongst themselves to build charac-ters with plasticine, paint backdrops, and create props. Facilitators asked the groups to create storyboards of the sto-ries before filming. Using Stop Motion for iPad, students and elders created a stop motion film of their story. On the last day, the films were shared in the art room and participants were able to talk about how they overcame the technical and social challenges of the project.

Learning Outcomes

Participants faced their own expe-riences of exclusion and inclusion. Participants had to take ownership of instances where they had let their prejudice get the better of them. Partic-ipants had to negotiate how to include all the members’ ideas to write a collab-orative story. Participants had to nego-tiate roles so that everyone had equal participation. Participants honed their stop motion filming skills. Elders and students built a community of trust over the four weeks they spent together.

To see the films they created, click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-FX-SLNa8zE&feature=youtu.be

Elena Soni teaches visual art at The Mabin School and she coordinates our intergener-ational art program.

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T he phone rings, as evening settles in here in Toronto, and, in moments, I’m speaking with Lawrence Ho

(’88) on the line from Hong Kong where the next business day is already under-way. During our short conversation, it is very clear that, of all the schools Law-rence has attended, his short time at Mabin had the biggest impact on his life.

Within a few weeks of arriving in Canada in 1986, Lawrence found him-self at The Mabin School. Speaking barely any English, he was also the only Asian student in the entire school at the time. Despite these challenges, Lawrence’s memories of his two years at Mabin are positive. In particular, he credits Gerry Mabin and his class-

room teacher with “going out of their way to make me feel at home”. With his mother travelling back and forth to Hong Kong during their time in Toronto, Lawrence’s “entire life was all about Mabin” while he was here.

All these years later, Lawrence still recalls his first days at Mabin. Back in Hong Kong, he was used to having homework every day so he was not sur-prised to be bringing something home with him after the first day of classes. When he got home, however, and looked more closely at the questions on the page, he realized that he had abso-lutely no idea what was required of him. No wonder! It turned out, he was actually meant to use the OTHER side of the paper to draw something. His teacher had simply sent home paper that was still blank on one side in an effort to recycle well before recycling was popular! (We call it a GOOS page now – Good On One Side – and still do this at Mabin today.)

Before moving to Canada, Lawrence’s early experiences in education involved memorizing large quantities of informa-tion and he recalls not being encouraged to ask questions. His time at The Mabin

Hong Kong CallingSchool was completely different and it was critical in terms of broadening his perspective at a young age.

In addition to being a Mabin student, Lawrence also had the unique oppor-tunity to be a Mabin parent when his daughter Mia (’18) briefly attended the school. His experience as a Mabin par-ent was not all that different from his own experience here. Lawrence felt all the same things he had as a student: “the family atmosphere, everyone car-ing about each other, the importance of growing character, the whole person”. He refers to it as “the perfect way to teach a child”. According to Lawrence, Mabin “is able to make kids very happy and part of the community”.

As Chairman and CEO of Melco Resorts & Entertainment Limited as well as Melco International Devel-opment Limited, Lawrence believes strongly in the importance of look-ing after the community. It was very important to him that his recent gift of $500,000 to The World Needs More Mabin Capital Campaign – the largest gift Mabin has ever received in the history of the school – be used towards programming that contin-

ues to spread the “Mabin community feeling around”. One of our successful programs has been Saturday Morning Choosing Time sessions for parents/caregivers with children 0 to 5 years old which is open to both Mabin fam-ilies and the local community.

As our conversation comes to an end, Lawrence mentions the polariz-ing world we are living in today and the importance of caring for one another being more critical than ever. The Mabin experience could – and should – benefit more people and we couldn’t agree more.

Michelle Barchuk is the Director of Admissions and Communications at The Mabin School.

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Many of our students are here today because you were here yesterday.We feel privileged to be teaching the children of our alumni. We are thrilled each year when we realize that almost 100% of our applicants come to us through word of mouth.

We appreciate when you share your happy memories of your time at Mabin. Thanks for encouraging other wonderful families to visit us and learn what The Mabin School is all about.

While Kindergarten is our usual starting point, we occasionally have spots in other grades. For more information, and to find out if we have a spot for a student in your life, please contact Michelle Barchuk, Director of Admissions and Communications, at michellebarchuk@mabin.com or at 416-964-9594 ext. 247.

50 Poplar Plains Road, Toronto ON Canada M4V 2M8T 416.964.9594 F 416.964.3643 mabin.comThe Mabin School