24 braesyde avenue, london, ontario n5w 1v3...

WINTER201824 BRAESYDE AVENUE, LONDON, ONTARIO N5W 1V3

COVER STORY

Urban Roots Project p6 Authentic Learning

with Sustainable Impact.

CONNECTED

LONDONCHRISTIANHIGH.CA

PRINCIPALREFLECTIONS

CONNECTED WINTER2018

2018 - 2019

UPCOMING EVENTSPrincipal Reflections p2

Upcoming Events p3

Some New Faces p4

p6

The Butterfly Effect p8

Art Room Reno p9

Learning to Love our p10 Muslim Neighbour

Boys Volleyball p11

Word on the Street Back Cover

24 Braesyde Avenue,

London, Ontario N5W 1V3

Phone 519-455-4360 | Fax 519-455-4364

Email [email protected]

londonchristianhigh.ca

CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERSCorrina Cameron, Ena Weverink,

Svenja Christina Photography,

Mikaelee MacDouell, David Verbeek

As we head into the winter season at London Christian High, there are many exciting things going on around our building and in our wider community.

In particular, we are excited about learning that takes our

students on a journey of discovering their purpose in Christ.

This is not an easy thing to measure, but we do know that

learning opportunities that connect God’s Word to needs in

our broken world are a good place to start. Through rigorous

academic learning and skill development, through faith

formation and Christian guidance and through real-world

learning experiences, our students are equipped to face the

future that God is calling them towards.

In this issue of ConnectED, you will read stories about our

students hard at work developing a deeper sense of purpose

in their lives, for Christ. Our Gr. 9 Tech class is hard at work in

a really meaningful partnership with Urban Roots, a non-profit

focused on sustainable food sources for underprivileged

people. Our Gr. 12 Resource Management class is busy

implementing small changes in their local communities that can

lead to a large change across our region. Our World Religions

and English block class is developing relationships with our

neighbours, including a trip to a local Islamic high school.

Finally, you will read about our Construction Tech. class leading

an overhaul of our art room including design, project proposals,

revisions, estimates and the actual construction work.

We hope you enjoy reading these stories of our students

using their gifts, talents and abilities for the glory of God and

for His purpose. Happy reading!

Tim Bentum, Principal

Urban Roots Project

CURLING BONSPIELFebruary 16, 2019

SEUSSICALShows March 25-30, 2019 Dinner & Show March 30, 2019

MAKING CONNECTIONS NIGHTNew Grade 9 Students May 24, 2019 - 5:00 PM

CELEBRATION OF LEARNINGJune 6, 2019

GRADUATIONJune 21, 2019 at North Park

WINTER2018 ISSUE | LONDONCHRISTIANHIGH.CA // 32 // WINTER2018 ISSUE | LONDONCHRISTIANHIGH.CA

Ashley BerkelmansAshley Berkelmans joins the staff team at London Christian

High this year to teach our Drama classes and one Math

course. She loves using both sides of the brain each day,

encouraging students to think outside the box and ask a

lot of questions! She is also directing this year’s musical

Seussical and has been enjoying getting to work with such

a talented group of students during rehearsals. Ashley is

so excited to be working in a Christian school again as

she began her career teaching at Mount Salem Christian

Secondary School before working for a year as a supply

teacher for the Thames Valley District School Board. She

loves having the privilege of praying with her students

each day, reading the Word aloud and discussing faith

matters during devotions and even in class.

Nicole DavidsonNicole Davidson is a recent graduate from Western

University where she studied Disability and Mental

Health studies. Nicole is passionate about assisting all

students in finding success in their academic work and

social relationships. Nicole serves as an Educational

Assistant at London Christian High and is excited to

join the staff team at LCH and work alongside students

and teachers in a supportive capacity.

Christy Groot NibbelinkChristy Groot Nibbelink has taken over all things music

at London Christian High this year. She works with the

choir, praise team, and musical, and will be teaching

the music side of our grade 9 integrated arts credit

in second semester. After two years of studying and

teaching in the US, Christy is very happy to be back

on Canadian soil and teaching in an environment that

allows her to openly integrate music and faith. In her

first few months, Christy’s biggest joy has been getting

to know the students and their unique personalities

and giftings as well as watching students of all grades

come together by creating music as a team.

Phil HosmarPhil Hosmar is in his 20th year of teaching, but his first year

at London Christian High. He comes from a Middle School

elementary background where he taught mostly grade seven

and eight. At LCH, Phil is currently teaching grade 9 Science

and is co-teaching the Integrated Technology block. It has

been a pretty smooth transition to high school so far for Phil,

and he has enjoyed getting to know all the grade 9 students

right away. As he comes to LCH with expertise in IT, Phil will

also be assisting Mark Sumner with various technology needs

around LCH. In addition to his teaching and IT duties, Phil will

also be helping coach the Junior Girls Volleyball team. He is

enjoying the different pace that high school has to offer and

is very excited about the new and challenging opportunities

ahead with London Christian High.

Stephanie BarkerStephanie Barker is covering for a maternity leave

position this year and she is teaching grade 9 Geography,

grade 10 History, and grade 12 Families in Canada.

Stephanie comes to us with eight years of teaching

experience in the public system. She has a passion for

building community and fostering positive relationships in

her classroom. Over the past year, Stephanie also worked

as Frontline Ministries Director for Forest City Community

Church during the start up of their East Campus. She is

excited to be at LCH and for the opportunity to teach in a

school that recognizes and values the spiritual dimension

of her students.

Sarah SeitzSarah Seitz is an Educational Assistant at London

Christian High. She is a graduate from the Child and

Youth Worker program at Fanshawe College. Sarah is

grateful for the opportunity to combine her faith with

her desire to support students and use them both to

the fullest potential at LCH. She takes great pleasure in

being involved in various classes throughout the day

as well as offers support to many students in a variety

of different ways and settings. She enjoys learning

alongside the students and assisting in shaping their

young minds both academically and in their faith journey.

Sarah looks forward to continuing to be blessed here

at LCH and in return she strives to be a blessing to the

school and its community.

Hannah ParkHannah Park is a new addition to London Christian High,

teaching ESL, Math, and Marketing. She completed her

Bachelor of Management and Organizational Studies at

Western University, where she also completed her teaching

degree. Hannah has spent the last few years working

at London Life and Western University. She attends the

London First Presbyterian Church and is involved with

mentoring young women in the congregation. She grew up

attending Christian school in Toronto and is thrilled to return

to Christian education as a teacher. In addition to teaching

at LCH, Hannah also coaches cross country and helps out

with our rental and international student administration.

Her greatest joy in teaching is building relationships with

students and watching them learn and grow.

Chris ChadwickChris Chadwick comes to London Christian High having

worked in Human Resources, running his own business

and ministering with Youth for Christ for 15 years. He

has an M.Div. in Youth and Family Ministry and serves

in two roles here at the school. Just prior to joining LCH

as Food Services Coordinator, Chris helped launch

Café Connect at the YFC Building on Adelaide St. here

in London where he provided fresh, made in-house

options whenever possible and continues to do so at

our school. Also in his work at YFC, he recruited, trained

and led Project Serve teams into cross-cultural ministry

opportunities. As Homestay Coordinator, Chris is taking

his cross-cultural training and experience and applying it

to our Homestay Program for International Students.

NEW FACES @ LCH


URBAN ROOTS PROJECTAuthentic Learning with Sustainable Impact

All the grade 9 students, along with their course teachers,

educational assistants, and leadership students, meet in the

Performing Arts Room to start each day together. This time

together is developing a wonderful community within the Grade

9 class, and a great start to their high school experience.

COVERSTORY

Sixty plus people meeting in the same room

to start a class seems like a lot of energy in

one place at one time - and that’s exactly

what we’re after with our Grade 9 Integrated

Technology Block.

After morning devotions, students rotate through three

design courses: Technical Design, Communication

Design, and Construction Design. Each course focuses on

a different aspect of the Grade 9 class project. Students

remain in one of the three design courses for about two

weeks before rotating to another, where they take the

skills from that one course and apply them in the next

design section.

One of the goals of the Integrated Tech Block is to make

learning authentic and purposeful by partnering with

local organizations and causes. Our hope in developing

these partnerships is to have students understand that

their work has potential beyond achieving a certain grade

or a finished project - their work has the ability to bless

other people. As a Christian school, we believe we are

called to love, serve and support our neighbours. The

grade 9 class is currently exploring how partnering with

a local organization and learning about their work can

help students fill an organization’s need with a product

or service. This fall, we are partnering with Urban Roots

(urbanrootslondon.ca), a grassroots organization focused

on revitalizing underused land in London. After harvest,

produce is distributed equally between restaurants and

markets, local social service organizations, and is also

made available to the local community. Our students

are using their newly-developed knowledge and skills

to design and create harvest boxes that will help Urban

Roots live out their mission more fully. Our students

will also develop and build countertop compost boxes

that will sustainably promote Urban Roots’ work by

encouraging and supporting all community members

in making choices that will benefit the environment.

Together, our Grade 9 students are engaged in

meaningful, beautiful work that will have a long-lasting

impact on others and our community.

Phil Hosmar, Matt Rock, Mark Sumner, Teachers


Making a Meaningful Impact on the Local Environment

Students in the grade 12 Environment and Resource

Management course have been working on a large scale

project which will culminate in a presentation at the Celebration

of Learning in December. Students are working on how young

people can make a meaningful difference in environmental

sustainability within their own communities. The title of the project

is The Butterfly Effect, taken from the iconic metaphor created

by Edward Lorenz in the 1960s, which describes how seemingly

small actions can create meaningful change.

In this project, students are grappling with the Christian

responsibility of stewardship by discovering what sustainability

issue is present in one of their own local spaces. Each student

is working on finding an actionable way to create sustainable

change and build connection and partnership with someone

in their local community in order to have ownership of their

personal impact on the environment.

For inspiration, we began by visiting people and places around

London that are also implementing meaningful change in their

own spaces: Urban Roots (an urban farm that shares its produce

with local businesses and community members), a local recycling

facility, Growing Chefs (a local charity that connects food,

growing, and education), and Reimagine Co. (a pop-up shop that

runs zero-waste workshops).

Students have researched and developed a plan of action

and presented their projects to local community members

at a collaborative working space called Innovation Works.

Students are now working on the implementation phase of their

assignments and look forward to sharing more of their work soon!

ART ROOMRENO

Matthew Ypma, Student

Every year in Senior Construction Technologies, students

are given a big project to do for a real client. This year the

Senior Construction Technologies class was tasked with

renovating the art room for our clients, Ms. Cameron and Ms.

MacDouell, the art teachers at LCH. The art room renovation

project was chosen as this year’s project for two reasons:

the first being that the old fixtures (tables, chairs, cupboards,

faucets, and plumbing) were worn and needed replacing

or a facelight; the second being that the needs of the room

have changed significantly since it was last updated in the

1970s. In the postmodern era, exploration of diverse art

media require flexible spaces as well as independent work

areas for Senior Art students. The art room reno addresses

both the need to update what is worn out and create an

environment conducive to teaching art in this new era.

Throughout the design phase of the renovation, we were

faced with different challenges that we needed to problem-

solve. After brainstorming various ideas on how to tackle

these challenges, we presented our ideas to our clients.

We received feedback and then went to work on refining

our ideas. When we finished design revisions, we then

worked on creating our final design drafts, blueprints, and

cost estimates. Once we received final approval from Ms.

Cameron and Ms. MacDouell, we began the building phase

of the project.

When the building phase is complete, the grade 12 art

students will get their own workspaces, all of the desks

will be convenient to move and work from, the cabinets,

countertops, and plumbing will have had an update, and

there will be a new teacher’s desk. This renovation will give

the teachers and students a place where they can learn and

create art in a flexible environment for years to come.

BUTTERFLYTHE BUTTERFLY EFFECT Mikaelee MacDouell, Teacher


LEARNING TO LOVE OUR MUSLIM NEIGHBOURKeira Wiersema, Emma Veenstra, Janelle Hamstra, Lyric Huygen, Brooke Boelens, Tamara VanderHeide, Students

Over the past several weeks,

our grade 11 World Religions

and English combined class

has been learning what it

means to love our Muslim

neighbours by gaining an

understanding of Islam.

We learned through studying Islam in class, reading

The Kite Runner, and visiting the Al-Mahdi Mosque

and Al-Taqwa Academy.

In class, we learned that in Islam there are five primary

beliefs and five ”pillars” that are essential in a Muslim’s

faith life. These beliefs and rituals came from Prophet

Muhammad, who is the founder of Islam because of the

messages and visions he received from Allah (God). We

discovered that Muslims believe the atonement of their

sins comes from their own good works.

The Junior Boys Volleyball team

ended an excellent season by defeating

Monsignor Bruyere 3-1 in the TVRAA

semi-finals, and then defeating Gabrielle

Dumont 3-2 in the TVRA finals.

These achievements meant we qualified

for WOSSAA where the team defeated

Dorchester 25-19, 28-26, and 25-9 in

the semi-finals, and then went on to

win WOSSAA gold by defeating North

Middlesex 21 -25, 25-19, 25-23, and 25-12.

These results were a true testament of

a team effort as all players were able

to contribute and play in the WOSSAA

semi-final and finals. Congratulations

team on an excellent finish to the

volleyball season!

In addition to learning the facts of Islam, as a class,

we read The Kite Runner, a novel that brought our

knowledge of Islam from our heads to our hearts.

In The Kite Runner, we learned about the culture of

Afghanistan and we dealt with challenging topics

such as rape, death, and war-filled countries. We

really enjoyed reading this book. It was a great way

not only to learn about Islam, but also about the

struggles of the poor and homeless in Afghanistan,

as well as the internal struggles of the main

character. These struggles included a desperate

search for atonement, dealing with decades worth

of guilt, and a painful journey of self-discovery.

The final component in our adventure of learning

to love our Muslim neighbours was meeting them.

We visited the Al-Mahdi Mosque and listened to

Shahin and Ali, two people who are passionate

about their religion, talk about the similarities

and differences of Christianity and Islam. We

also interviewed high school aged students at

Al-Taqwa Academy about their religion. Out of

these interviews came a whole new empathy and

understanding for the Muslims in our community.

We learned that the students at Al-Taqwa are

people just like us, and they share the same

challenges in teenage life as we do, in areas such

as family, work, school, and friendships.

Our class has been privileged to learn exactly what

it means to be a friend and relate to our Muslim

neighbours through our interactions with them.

The stereotypes and prejudices we may have had

before have been replaced by a new perspective.

We now know that loving

our Muslim neighbour

means interaction,

empathy, communication,

and most importantly,

compassion.

JUNIOR BOYS VOLLEYBALL Steve Wassing, Coach

SPORTS


24 Braesyde Avenue,

London, Ontario

N5W 1V3

Phone + 519 - 455 - 4360

Fax + 519 - 455 - 4364

Email [email protected]

LONDONCHRISTIANHIGH.CA

WORD ON THE STREET DAVID VERBEEK

I began at London Christian High in 2003 as a 14-year-old not

particularly interested in school. Outside of the classroom there was

a lot going on - my mother had recently begun cancer treatment,

transitions were challenging, and I was in search of a place to feel

normal. After stepping off the bus from Woodstock, Ms. Janssens’

enthusiastic welcome to high school exemplified the community,

friendship and love shown by so many at LCH.

Highlights of my time at LCH include winning OFSAA Soccer in

2005 with Mr. Lise, attempts to form punk bands with friends, art and

photography trips with Mr. Boer, and geography class with Mr. Buma

where, beyond the initial “I’ll prove earth is flat” lesson, more influential

discussions on climate change and our responsibilities as stewards of

creation shaped my worldview beyond LCH.

Combining interests in design and the environment, I studied Urban

Planning and Environmental Studies at Dalhousie University and later

received my Master of Architecture at the University of Toronto, where

I was awarded the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada’s Gold

Medal. My thesis project speculated, through drawings and images, on

how Toronto’s constructed port lands — a unique place between the

city and Lake Ontario — will be redeveloped.

I now work in Rotterdam with Rem Koolhaas at OMA (Office for

Metropolitan Architecture), designing buildings, master plans, books,

films, and exhibitions across the world. Rotterdam is Europe’s largest

port city and was reconstructed after being obliterated in WWII,

resulting in space for more experimental urbanism and architecture. I

cycle everywhere, love being close to the North Sea, visit family in the

Netherlands, and haven’t learned enough Dutch. I’m also fortunate to

have been awarded Canada’s 2018 Prix de Rome in Architecture for

Emerging Practitioners - a prestigious national award presented by

the Canada Council for the Arts, intended to fund travel and research

projects in pursuit of a more outward-looking vision towards the world.

I plan to investigate constructed urban coastlines in transition through

research, work and travel across Asia, the Middle East, and Europe

over the next year.

Despite being further from home, I often think of Mr. Roukema’s reminder

before important away games — “don’t forget who you are or where

you came from”. I’m eternally grateful for my faith-centred education at

London Christian High and to be grounded in a community that strongly

influenced the development of my worldview, values, and work today.

To find out more about my work, the Prix de Rome, or to get in touch,

please visit www.davidverbeek.ca

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