Grade 9 girls’ career day and cell phones in classroom

Principal’s Page
By Jeff Reaburn

Girls in Grade 9 are reminded to return the consent form for the Girls Unlimited Career Day, scheduled for May 23. The consent forms were sent home with the recent Interim Report Card, and while the event is several weeks away, we do need to confirm our attendance numbers shortly. We need to have the consent forms by April 14 for all girls who are planning to attend this event.
In a recent column I indicated that I would be writing some columns on technology and its role in education, and I thought that I would start with perhaps the most controversial piece of technology in schools today - the cell phone. Until about three years ago, we had very few problems with cell phone use in schools because very few students had them. However, in the last couple of years there has been an explosion in the number of students who have their own cell phones, and we have struggled with how to respond to the situation.
The problems at school caused by cell phone use are fairly obvious, with the most common complaint being that students are distracted by cell phones ringing or vibrating during class, along with the accompanying need to answer the call. Increasingly, however, students are being caught text messaging one another during class time, and some students are being accused of paying more attention to the cell phone than to the classroom teacher. Many young people today spend so much time text messaging one another that they find it a real challenge to turn their phones off or ignore them, no matter where they are or what they are doing - attending class, driving, watching a movie, or eating in a restaurant.
The most common response to the concerns at school has been to impose a ban - either a total ban of all cell phones and electronic devices from school, or a ban on using them while in class. Schools and boards that have tried the total ban have not had much success for a couple of obvious reasons. The biggest problem is that cell phones have become so small that it is virtually impossible to determine who has one. In fact, in many cases, total bans actually encourage students to bring cell phones to school, just to see if they can do so without being caught. Since in most cases it is parents who have purchased the cell phones for their kids, having them confiscated by the school administration is generally not well received.
Our approach at South Huron has been to allow students to have cell phones at school but to expect them to be turned off during class time so that they do not become a distraction. If a student is caught using the phone during class time, the teacher has been authorized to take it away for the remainder of the period or for the rest of the day. Repeat offenders have had their phones turned over to the vice-principal, and our policy for continual offenders is that the phone will be confiscated and held until a parent can come to pick it up. Naturally, we have faced some challenges with this policy, and because cell phone use continues to be a concern, we are continually reviewing our response to this situation.
Recently, there has been considerable discussion in education circles about using cell phones as educational tools, rather than trying to stop the use of them. Cell phones can now be used for much more than making phone calls, and they are becoming more and more like hand-held computers. Cell phones now have calculators built into them, digital cameras, dictionaries, text messaging, and, increasingly, students can access the Internet on their phones. Educators are now exploring ways to incorporate cell phone use into their lessons. In fact, I have heard that some university professors even encourage students in large lecture hall classes to text message them during class with questions they may have about the lecture.
Personally, as a classroom teacher, I would prefer to have my students put their cell phones out on their desks where I can see them, rather than try to prevent them from using them surreptitiously during class. Some students are so adept at text messaging that they can send messages without even looking at the phone itself. As they become more and more skilled at doing so, it will become almost impossible to prevent them from doing so secretly. Maybe if we turn cell phones into an educational tool, it will become less attractive for students to use them during class time.
It seems pretty likely that within a few years virtually every student will have a cell phone. And since they are using them so much outside of school, they will want to do so at school as well. Clearly, we will have to develop a more effective response to this issue, as it is not likely to go away.
Perhaps a good place to start would be cell phone etiquette - teaching students when it is appropriate and when not to take or make a call on a cell phone. At virtually every meeting I attend, the first order of business is to tell the audience members to turn off their cell phones. Despite this request, someone invariably has a phone ring or rushes out to respond to a cell phone vibrating in a pocket or purse. Maybe if we can convince students that there are times and places that are inappropriate for cell phone use, they will become responsible by the time they are adults.

Tundra Swans spotted March 25

Tundra Swans have been sighted near Grand Bend. Visit the Lambton Heritage Museum, which is the home base for sighting information, to find out more details about their progress.

Congratulations to boys’ hockey and musicians

Principal’s Page
By Jeff Reaburn

Congratulations to Mr. Soldan, Mr. Dougall, and the Panther boys’ hockey team, who won the WOSSAA championship last week and are now bound for Ottawa next week to compete at OFSAA, the provincial championships. The Panthers defeated Glencoe Secondary 5-2 and F E Madill 1-0 to advance to the provincial championship tournament. The coaches reported that the boys represented us very well both on and off the ice, and I know that the students and staff will be wishing them well and following their progress closely at OFSAA.
Congratulations also to Mr. Moore, Mr. Weston, Ms. Milner, and the bands for their excellent performances at the Musicfest Regionals in London. The Wind Ensemble, Intermediate Concert Band and Senior Concert Band all achieved a Silver standard, while the Percussion Ensemble achieved Gold. The Wind Ensemble, Senior Concert Band, and Percussion Ensemble have all been invited to participate in Musicfest Nationals in May. The Jazz Band will compete this week as their opportunity was postponed by a snowstorm.
I would like to especially recognize the achievement of Carly Schroeder, who has been selected to perform with the National Concert Band, which has students from all across Canada who are chosen by audition. Carly was chosen from a pool of hundreds of applicants to fill one of only two available spots in her section of the band. This is indeed a great honour and we should all be very proud of Carly. Congratulations Carly on this tremendous achievement.
This week we have two significant events: the Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test and Parent-Teacher Interviews, both of which happen on Thursday. The OSSLT is a huge logistical challenge and requires the use of many staff members and numerous rooms in the school. As a result, we will be altering our schedule on Thursday. Students in Grade 10 and those who are re-writing the literacy test will do so on Thursday morning in classrooms on the second floor. While they are writing the test, Grade 9 students will be engaged in a practice literacy test in classrooms on the first floor.
Students in Grade 11 and 12 have been given the opportunity to take one of several certification courses for the morning. They signed up for these previously and we have spent considerable time and money organizing these courses on a variety of topics.
This certification program is costing us several thousand dollars and so it is critical that students who signed up for certification show up for the course.
Because of all these activities, we will not be running any regular classes on Thursday morning; however, we will be running the two regular afternoon classes, which will be shortened by only five minutes each in order to give us time to set up for parent-teacher interviews. All students are expected to attend the two afternoon classes on Thursday.
Parent-Teacher interviews will be held in the cafeteria and small gym from 3:30 to 5:00 and 6:30 to 8:00 p.m. Interim reports were mailed out last Wednesday and Thursday and hopefully parents will have received them in time to have students set up interviews.
A short newsletter accompanied the report and on the bottom was a brief form for arranging interviews. Parents are asked to have their son or daughter take this form to school and arrange interview times with the teachers. Interviews can be arranged on Thursday as well: we will have student secretaries in the front hall and they will have the teachers’ interview schedules to assist parents in finding available interview times.

Romantic Comedy about Selling the House

Real Estate
By Allana Harkin
Performed by Scott Robert Fink, Keira Loughran, Carly Street, Brendan Wall.
Directed by D. Michael Dobbin
Grand Theatre Production
Grand Theatre, London
March 11 to March 29, 2008

Live! On Stage!
By Mary Alderson

Joel is a writer, who has churned out a couple of mystery novels, but now life’s crises are getting in the way, and he’s suffering writer’s block. His wife left him for another man, and his widowed elderly father has moved into a seniors’ residence, so Joel is back living in his parents’ lakeside home. But the bills have piled up and he’s forced to sell the house, which his Dad built for his Mom when they were newlyweds. His flaky real estate agent is determined that this will be her first sale. Then things get worse – his ex-wife shows up with her pretentious boyfriend, and his Dad dies.
And somehow, this is a romantic comedy on stage at London’s Grand Theatre. The plot has all the components for laughter and the writing is fairly clever. The tale has some suspense: we know Joel will end up with a woman – but which? He would love to reconcile with his estranged wife, yet he’s interested in his real estate agent.
The cast of Real Estate is impressive – all have interesting and extensive theatre backgrounds. Yet somehow, they have missed the mark. They haven’t pulled together to create the chemistry for good romantic comedy.
Scott Robert Fink is excellent as Joel. We get comfortable with him right away. In fact, as the audience was coming into the theatre, Joel was on stage, stretching and scratching, looking in the mirror and checking out the food stuck in his teeth. Joel is just on the verge of being labelled a loser, yet we recognize some redeeming features. Fink makes Joel a likeable guy and soon we’re on his side.
But then, along comes Emma, the real estate agent. She, too, is on the edge of loser-dom, and unfortunately, Keira Loughran, in playing the part, isn’t able to save the character. I think the playwright intended that we like Emma – she’s quirky but still we’d enjoy her company. Loughran failed to bring us on side. Loughran has an impressive background at the Stratford Festival; in fact, she was outstanding as Valeria in Coriolanus. But she lacks the facial features and comedic timing to make Emma likeable. The part calls for a Lucille Ball type – slightly too chatty, a little annoying, but we still love her.
Similarly, the casting of Carly Street as ex-wife Estelle is questionable. Again, Street has a remarkable theatre background, having played in the Toronto’s Lord of the Rings. But Street was unable to make us understand why Joel would want her back, after she cheated on him. Even when they kissed, the chemistry wasn’t there.
Brendan Wall plays the pretentious boyfriend Ted. Again, the character’s comedy hasn’t been fully developed. When the city-boy snob carrying his man-purse shows up in the country, there is potential for more laughs. His manner of speaking didn’t sound like a city lawyer-turned-business-tycoon – he dropped his “ing” endings (doin’, comin’), which belied his background.
The set is very good – the lakefront home among the trees is complete. It looks like any elderly couple’s home with the tacky old couch and chair and an array of family portraits on the wall. The front of the cottage lifts up and we are invited inside, not just peeking through the windows.
Director Michael Dobbin did much better in finding the comedy a few years ago with the Black Bonspiel of Wullie McCrimmon, a delightful play about curling which the Grand presented. Real Estate, written by Canadian Allana Harkin, has the potential to be a touching story with plenty of laughs, but it requires a cast with strong comedic timing the ability to create chemistry.
This show was sponsored by the London – St. Thomas Association of Realtors and on opening night the audience was made up real estate agents (I know this, having moved twice in the last seven years and buying & selling a couple of houses. I recognized several of them….). And the real estate agents appeared to be enjoying themselves. The best laugh of the evening was when Emma said that real estate agents also have to be psychologists. Their clients are going though change and stress, and the agent has to know how to deal with it. In the audience, many heads were nodding as the chuckles rippled across.
Real Estate continues at the Grand Theatre in London until 29. Tickets are available at the Grand box office at 672-8800 or 1-800-265-1593.

Mary Alderson offers her view of area theatre in this column on a regular basis. As well as being a fan of live theatre, she is a former journalist who is currently employed with the Ontario Association of Community Futures Development Corporations.

Vol. 1 #18 - March 12, 2008 Grand Bend Strip

View this week’s edition of the Grand Bend Strip online

Babysitter position wanted

Mexican woman looking for a baby-sitting job in Grand Bend.

Please contact Grand Bend Strip at 519-614-3614 for contact information.

How will you be remembered?

View from the Strip
By Casey Lessard

It’s easy to take life for granted as we rush through our daily routine. My week includes driving back and forth to Humber College in Toronto, and often to London to spend the day at school with Anjhela. I’ve done a lot of traveling over the years and often had some very close calls.
The thing I fear most is the reality for the family of Mary Walker-Thiel, who was killed last month on her way home from Toronto. Her husband Hub survived, and he says that’s the way God wanted it. I don’t envy what he’s going through right now, but I do envy his strength in being able to trust that Mary is in a better place.
Someone I’ve known for many years died mysteriously last week after travelling to the Caribbean. Don Fahner is a good friend of my brother’s, and so far there’s been no explanation about why he died; he was sick since returning from his vacation, and died at work. Our thoughts are with his family.
We all take big chances when we travel, whether it be around the corner or around the world. We can’t predict what will happen along the way, good or bad.
The good does happen, and it has happened to Anabel Salas and Carmen Rivera, two young Mexican women who discovered they are both living in Grand Bend. Now they’re roommates and having an adventure together. That’s the way it should be.
We need to take advantage of the life we have and enjoy every minute. Spend time with the people you love and make sure they know you care. That’s how Mary Thiel will be remembered, and not just by her husband. It’s going to take many people a long time to forget the impact she has had on her community. How will you be remembered?

Ontario’s budget woes won’t be helped by McGuinty budgeting

To the Editor:
Readers would not normally sift through the details of the provincial government budget. That’s a shame, because if they did, they’d discover why our province remains headed down a path of financial imprudence: our taxes are too high. They discourage investment at a time when we need all the investment we can get. Sadly this tax-and-spend habit was never debated much in the 2007 election, and the media gave it little attention.
During his first four-year term in office, Premier Dalton McGuinty had a couple of finance ministers, but the thrust was the same. Use tax dollars for all sorts of programmes, be they genuine needs or goofy whims. The sum total is that he ran a deficit budget in each of his first three years, and - what a surprise - a balanced budget with a good surplus for election year (2007).
The government’s recent economic statement for Ontario shows that the government’s budget is now set to have the smallest of surpluses (just barely in the black ink), despite healthy projected increases for its own revenues. And on top of that sad state of affairs, the provincial debt is projected to increase each year by $2-billion, even though 10 cents of every Ontario revenue dollar already goes towards paying the interest on that debt. The debt now stands at $142 billion, and by the time of the next election in 2011, will be about $150-billion, by Liberal projections. Imagine if those $9-billion could be pumped into health care and education each year.
Our debt could be retired in a disciplined way for the benefit of all Ontarians and all future governments. But that is not something that wins votes. So instead, McGuinty has committed $94.25 billion in new spending for the 2007/08 budget year, a substantial jump over the $88.12 billion of the year before (when he ran a $2.1 billion surplus). This seven per cent spending jump is not financially healthy.
The following year, Queen’s Park expects an economic slowdown, and the year after that, even more spending as things improve. Already, Ontario’s manufacturers are hurting, with 100,000 job losses over the past 12 months alone.
Government can’t afford to do everything for everyone. They must get used to doing things in a regular fashion (barring catastrophes, of course). Regular annual budget increases should be kept to the rate of inflation. Ministries will always be able to spend every penny they are given. Government must constrain spending to what is essential, plus a few promising initiatives which might improve and economize the way services are delivered. Only in this fashion can we reform our tax environment to generate jobs for Ontarians.
Reform’s draft budget for 2007/08 called for increases in line with inflation. Our 2.5 per cent increase is not only more reasonable, it is sustainable in the long-term, and allows ministries to plan for the future. We call for the bulk of the surplus (about $4 billion) to start paying off the province’s net debt. This two-pronged approach to budgeting will allow us to continue to deliver services without cutting out essential programmes. And it will allow us to grab the debt-tiger by the tail and wrestle it to the ground, lopping off $4 billion or so annually and then redirecting each year’s interest payment savings directly into health care, our biggest financial challenge.

Brad Harness
Leader, Reform Party of Ontario

If someone says “I love you,” what do you say back?

To the Editor:

We thoroughly enjoyed the article of Lloyd and Leona (Steinberg, January 23). Sending our congrats and God’s blessings on their 60 years together!
We wish to know: after Lloyd shares his “I love you” for nearly 40 times a day, how does Leona reply?
Signed, Michigan readers married 6 years!

Janet and John Ovcjak
Michigan

P.S. we truly look forward to reading your paper when we visit GB!!!
Ed.: The Strip wanted to know, too, so the call went out to Leona. Her response?
“I love you, too, Dad. That’s how I do it.”

God and family were everything to Mary

Hub Thiel reflects on Mary’s life, his luck, and their love

Mary Simmons Walker-Thiel was born in Woodstock in 1954. The Zurich resident lost two children in infancy, and her first husband Rick Walker and their son Evan were killed in a car crash in 1989. Mary later married Hub Thiel, soon after his first wife – also named Mary – died, forming a family with two children each, and adding two more together.
Mary Walker-Thiel died February 19 in a head-on crash with a transport truck on Thames Road east of Exeter. Hub was driving their 15-passenger van, and survived the crash.

As told to Casey Lessard

Hub Thiel: I’d hate to be alive if I didn’t know she was in heaven.
Mary had a heart of gold. I don’t know why she ever fell for a guy like me. I guess I talked her ear off and got lucky as heck. Only a fool wouldn’t have grabbed her hard and hung on.

Mary was working at Merrymount Children’s Home in London when her roommate met a man from Zurich, and through them she met Rick Walker. I worked with Rick’s mother at General Coach, so I knew Mary a long time before I met her. I would see her at church, and we became friends. My wife and her were friends, too.
Rick and Evan and my first cousin’s son Samuel Thiel were killed on the May long weekend in 1989. It just totally rocked this community. He was a young guy with two little kids in the car, and Rick and Evan were killed instantly. Samuel lived for a few days until after his mother returned from a trip to Arizona.
Mary lived alone with her girls in Centralia until 1995. When my wife died that year, she was there and was a strong support. She was just this angel who would help everybody and anybody. I needed help and she had gone through things, so she was just like one of the thousand people who were helping.
We were both involved in youth council at church. We spent time planning a trip and a while after we returned we got closer.
It was easy being together. It just seemed like it was meant to be.
Family was the number one thing. Mary would drop anything for the kids. That’s the way she was. It wasn’t just grandkids; it didn’t matter who it was. She would be there.
She was always late. But that’s because she took the time. Then she’d realize she was supposed to be somewhere else and she was talking as she’s driving out the laneway. That was her heart.

Road warrior

We had a 15-passenger van, and we didn’t need a 15-passenger van here anymore than a hole in the head; the gas consumption’s kind of stupid. But I’d just drive it to work, which is just a couple of clicks. The price of the van was good and I’m really cheap. Mary liked the van because she could pile people in. If you needed a ride somewhere, Mary would take you. If your kid needed a ride somewhere, Mary would take you.
It was a perfect vehicle for her. She was a bus driver and I’m a truck driver, so we could both handle the big vehicle. It was important to her to be able to take as many people anywhere they needed to go. That was her heart.
Mary loved shopping. She’d take a couple women with her and go to Costco, filling the van up. She’d take the kids and push them in the carts, and love them right up. She had to go anyway, so why not take the van and take them, too?

The last day

Mary’s daughter Sarah is a world traveler. She’s a nurse and has been to Europe several times and she did a term in Africa. When she was in Europe, she met a group from Australia who said, Come to Australia. Sarah set up a trip for four months to go to Australia and we were taking Sarah to Toronto airport.
We went around by grandma Simmons’, we had a wonderful visit with Mary’s mother and took Sarah to the airport. We had a wonderful time saying goodbye to her, joking around and it was nice.
On the way home, we stopped at Milton and had a coffee. After leaving Milton, we had one of the nicest drives we ever had. Mary had to come home to be at the church council meeting and I had to come home to take the kids to figure skating.
We were late, but the road was snow-covered, so I wasn’t going very fast. All of a sudden, as we approached Exeter, the van veered over the centre line and into the opposite lane.
The last word I said to Mary was no, and the last word said to me was Hub. I don’t remember the impact at all. I woke up spitting this crap out from my mouth, which was from the airbag.
I turned to my right where Mary should have been sitting, and the wheel of the truck was within three inches of my right shoulder. Mary’s body was driven right back behind the seat behind me.
When I crawled out of the van, there was an Exeter firefighter there right away, and other people. The ambulance came and a police officer told me Mary had passed away.
I was devastated. Completely devastated. I was driving the van and it’s very hard on a guy because I thought, I should have maybe been able to do something. I’m not beating myself up. It’s not going to bring her back.
Being a truck driver, I know he had no chance of avoiding us. If we only had 10 or 20 seconds more either way, I could have been in the ditch in front of him or behind him.

Lean on me

The community support has been so unreal. I’ve never seen so many flowers in my life. I have dishes here I’m not even sure who owns them.
We have to go on. If the things like Heart-to-Heart and the Zurich Bible School, which were both very important to her, keep going, that’s going to be her legacy more than anything.
We live in the best community in the world and it’s because of people like Mary. Someone’s got to help carry on.
All six of my kids are level-headed people. We mourn at the times we mourn, but we are happy at the happy times. We have a good handle on mourning. People think we’re steady as a rock. You can be when you have faith and you have a good handle on what is going on.
I have to be strong for my kids, but I also have to be strong for the handicapped kids she worked with. She never saw their handicap; she always saw their potential. She made me, Katherine and Matthew see the same thing. It was a joy to have them in our house, and they brought a lot of love in.
I’m calling some of them to encourage them to come visit because it’s important for us to continue on together.
The most important thing was her faith in God. Right now, she’s in heaven, cooking, rocking Evan, she’s got my little son who was five weeks old when he died, and two children who were stillborn. Her father’s there playing harmonica and Mary’s doing a little dance. She’s taking care of everybody and having a good time.
Going to heaven’s going to be easier because we know she’s there.

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