Sick of Missing School

Can you afford the time off to be sick? Can you afford to not stay home?

You are sick. Everyone tells you to stay home and rest, and you happily oblige. Then, you come back to school to discover the amount of missed work you still have to do.

Don’t be surprised, because the world still spins when you are in your sickbed.

The school policy explicitly states, “when you are absent from school, you are required to discuss missed work with your teachers and get caught up.” But catching up is not as easy as it sounds.

Stop, drop and roll Thornlea

Ashley Lee screams in mock pain during fire fighter training exercise.

Car accidents, fires, and stabbings; lucky for the fire fighters at Markham’s firefighting training center, this day’s victims are just actors.

On Tuesday, November 17th, six of Thornlea’s senior drama students made their way to the local York Region fire training centre to act as victims for different casualty situations. “I’m so excited to be a part of the training day,” said Laura Koczerginski, “I hope we can really help these trainees.”

Among the group of drama students on the excursion were: Josh Nezon, 17, Carly and Hayley Eidelman, 16, Ashley Lee, 17, Bram Koch, 16, and of course Laura, who is 17.

Thornlea at the ACC!

On Tuesday, November 24th, Thornlea students made their way down to the Air Canada Centre to participate in the Maple Leaf Sports Careers Forum followed by an exciting Raptors game.

The 33 students listened and learned about different career opportunities in the sports industry. “I felt that the guest speakers were very inspiring and provided useful information regarding possible fields in their line of work,” explained Zach Marmurek, 17.

After the presentation, one student from every school was invited to participate in a game of Bump. Mustafa Dahir represented Thornlea and made it to the top 6. He was awesome!

The night ended with students enjoying a basketball game where the Raptors defeated the Pacers 123 to 112. Overall, spirits were high and everyone had a great time!

DriveTest Update! Some Services Open

Good news! As of yesterday, seven DriveTest centres have been re-opened and are providing some services. Written tests for all classes of licenses, road tests for commercial classified licences, and Out-of-Province or Out-of-Country licence exchanges.

G2 and G road tests are still not available, but you may make appointments in anticipation of the strike ending.

The DriveTest centres in Barrie, Brampton, Kitchener, North Bay, Ottawa, Toronto, Port Union and Thunder Bay are offering the services. Customers will be served on a first come, first serve basis. Due to the lack of staff, customers should expect very long wait times.

Basketball: More Than Just Play

Showing up for practice at 6:30am three or four times every week; now that’s commitment.

While most of us are still in bed, Thornlea’s basketball team is up and learning.

“It is through basketball that I learned how hard work always pays off,” says Farzad Niroui, who has been a part of the team for two years. Coach Niles simply states, “I learn from them and they learn from me.”

Parenting: Can you Handle it?

If you walk into Thornlea and happen to hear a baby crying, don’t be alarmed. It isn’t a student with a baby, well at least not a REAL one. Ms. Cluderay’s Grade 11 parenting class students have started their “Baby Think It Over” assignment where they care for BABY over 2-3 days, depending on when they have BABY.

So what is BABY?

BABY is a baby simulator that looks pretty much like a regular baby doll. What is unique about this one is it has special sensors and a computer chip inside of it. BABY’s head moves backward, forward and side to side, which means students have to be extra careful and support it at all times – just like a real baby. Why does it have of this? The point of BABY is to teach teens about the difficulties of teen parenting.

The Toys Are Back!

Its true, Disney Pixar has made a third Toy Story movie to add to its blockbuster sequence.    

“No way!” screamed Fatiema Syed when she learnt about the upcoming Toy Story movie.

Most of us, if not all, have watched and loved Toy Story. After many years, why are they bringing it back into theatres? Since the third movie is going to be released 11 years later, Pixar says it is important to refresh people’s minds. More importantly, the majority of people who watched Toy Story 1 and 2 are much older now, so they might need a push to see the movie. “The toys are back in town,” and this time in 3D.

Never Really Gone: Memorialized on Facebook

When you die, you could have an elaborate funeral, you could be created into a LifeGem, or you could be cryogenically frozen. There are many beautiful ways to be remembered.

Or, you could be memorialized on Facebook.

When a best friend of Facebook employee Mark Kelly died in a bicycle accident, he needed an outlet to cope with his grief. Many friends and family would write on the his friend’s wall to keep his memory alive and to share their experiences with him.   “We wanted to be able to model people’s relationships on Facebook, but how do you deal with an interaction with someone who is no longer able to ‘log on’?” Kelly blogged. When someone leaves us, they don’t leave our memories or, our social network. To reflect that reality, we created the idea of “memorialized” profiles as a place where people can save and share their memories of those who’ve passed.”

Drive Test Strike. Is it ever going to end?

DriveTest instructor's will continue to be on stike.

On November 3, 2009, truck driver training schools held a rally at Queen’s Park to send a message to all DriveTest employees. It’s time for the strike to come to an end.

Organizers are hoping that the protest will force the Ministry Of Transportation to re-open DriveTest centres and get back on track. “We just want this situation fixed because, as driving schools, what’s happening right now is we are essentially going out of business because we’ve got students backlogged on our system that can’t finish the programs,” Gordon Brown of the Truck Training Schools Association said.

It’s That Time Of The Year!

Flu season has arrived and its time to start thinking about getting the flu shot.

The public is strongly encouraged to get the new vaccine but are people really listening? “I have considered the H1N1 shot and I have read and watched a lot of news about it, but I am undecided at this point,” said Lisa Goodman, mother of two. She continues, “The vaccine is pretty new and I am not generally the type of person who panics and then runs to a promised quick fix.” It will be interesting to see who follows through with this safety precaution.