Going to the Dogs!

My First Bark Break by Janna Abdelaziz

On Thursday, June 18th,  I saw a dog and I didn’t run away screaming! I even pet it. I am usually really scared of dogs because mostly… they can bite me and they nearly always chase me.

My first encounter ever with a dog was a horrible one. The dog started barking at me and running after me. It was terrifying! I didn’t know what to do, so I started running, screaming and crying. If the dog was a small one maybe I would have not have reacted this way however, this one was huge! Although I admit I was not that comfortable with dogs even before that incident, from that moment forward my fear resurfaced every time I saw or heard another dog.

However, that all changed when on Thursday my friend convinced me to go see the St. John’s therapy dogs in the Hayden Library! In the beginning I was not convinced I wanted to be there.  In fact,  I was really scared because there were too many dogs in one place for me.

With great hesitation, I entered the library and approached the dogs. The first dog I saw was Bella, a golden retriever.  She became the first dog I ever pet in my life or even came that close to. The most surprising thing for me was that she did not lunge at me or even bark.  She was still and quiet. I was expecting a lot of movement but she was so calm and I was surprised at how soft she was. Just as I was starting to breathe and let the nerves out, one of my friends intentionally jumped out at me! I jumped and screamed but Bella… laid there.  She was perfectly fine! Unaffected by our antics, she didn’t even bark!

On Friday, I went again and this time, I was willing to approach the great dane named Leto.  On the first day, I was so scared just because of her majestic size.  She weighs 120 lbs, the size of many Hayden students!  I almost let my fear get the best of me but then, I mustered up all the courage that I had and when up to her. I soon realized she was big but not scary. She even seemed to like me. Her ears felt like velvet.  She laid down on her back exposing her belly so I gave her a belly rub and she just laid there… doing nothing. I could feel my fear melt away.

Honestly, Bella, Leto, all the St. John’s dogs are so different. It is obvious that they are trained to be nice, quiet and calm. If you are scared of dogs, you need to go see them when they return during exams next year!  Surprising to me, I am looking forward to seeing them again! A special thanks to the each of the gracious owners who got up early to share their pets with us and of course, to our guests of honour: Leto, Chica, Denver, Charlie, Bella, Demi, Lexie and Dudley. Much appreciation goes to Cory for helping our Hayden staff organize this event.

The dogs joined our little library patrons for Baby Rhyme Time!

Hayden Cricketer Makes All-Star Team

Shaheer Izhar Is Making Hayden Proud!

On June 19th, 2015 Toronto Mayor John Tory announced the 12 member All Star GTHA school cricket team at a City Hall press conference in Toronto. Making the the 12 member GTHA All Star cricket team is Hayden’s own, Shaheer Izhar.

Hayden was recently informed by Michael Lam, Chair of CIMA (Chartered Institute of Management Accountants), that cricketers representing School Boards from Hamilton to Durham will be traveling to Sri Lanka under the CIMA Cricket Across the Pond (CAP) Program this summer. Mr Lam tells us that, “CAP provides young cricketers with opportunities for social cohesion, interaction and cross cultural learning and the program has won international awards for youth engagement.”

With the help of his teammates and Coach Sutherland, Shaheer has also helped to raise the awareness of the game as one of the founding members of Hayden’s first ever cricket team. Mrs. MacRae, teacher-librarian at the school, said that “Shaheer is a conscientious and diligent person.  We are all very proud of this accomplishment and know he will represent our school and our country with dedication and pride!”

Congratulations and best of luck, Shaheer.

Ramadan

Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic lunar calendar. Every day of this month Muslims fast (no eating or drinking) from sunrise till sunset. Ramadan to muslims is a time to purify the soul, refocus on god and practice/ learn self-sacrifice. It isn’t just about not eating or drinking. It is about making peace with those who have wronged us, clean up our feelings, thoughts and quit bad habits. The Arabic word for “fasting” is Sawm which literally means “ to refrain” not only from food and drink but from evil action, thoughts and words.

Ramadan in the streets creates an incredible feeling of warmth and happiness that is undeniable. When you see the streets decorated with special lantern called “Fanous”,you feel like everything just lightens up literally and figuratively. The Fanous can be lit by candles that are put inside it or just electric ons with a plug or batteries, The Fanous comes in different sizes and shapes from cartoon characters to just shapes that light up.Then paper cut outs in the shapes of crescents, triangles and other shapes that get hung up on the streets. Light bulbs in different colours and arrangements light up the streets. Before muslims start fasting, they usually eat to fuel up and people might be asleep before the sunrise so there is person who is called the “drummer”. That person is just someone who volunteers to get a drum from somewhere and go make noise in the streets an hour before sunrise so people can wake up. It is really fun because sometimes people go down and start singing songs that sound really good. Ramadan this year starts on the 18th of June and every year it moves up on the calendar by approximately ten days. Ramadan karim!

Grade 10 Computer Science Students Work Hard and Play Hard

Thanks to Ms. Bokhari for submitting this write up and these photos!

Grade 10’s Celebrate the end of their Final Performance task by playing computer games! For their final performance task, they were to create a game using one of the software programs/languages that we used in class. For them that would have been either Scratch or Turing. As you can see they created a range of games from complicated “Solitair”, to an all hand drawn “jelly fish” game where the mother jelly fish is protecting her young, two versions of pong, “War” card game, space invaders, quest based games, rapping, jeopardy, simon says, car racing, frogger and the list goes on… check out their games in the photos below!

Hayden’s Senior Athletes of the Year

Hard work pays off. This is a philosophy that grade 11 students Abby Berendt and Sean Whalley embody. Both students are dedicated athletes, each playing three sports at Hayden this year (basketball, soccer, and volleyball for Abby and football, hockey, and lacrosse for Sean). Abby and Sean’s leadership, positive attitudes, and work ethic paid off on the field, ice, and court, and led them to become Hayden’s Senior Athletes of the Year!

“I’m very honoured to win it,” Abby says of the award. “I just really love playing sports.”

“It’s a great feeling to be recognized,” Sean adds.

Managing sports, academics, and other commitments isn’t easy, but both student athletes have found ways to make it work by handing in work on time, and taking advantage of in class time to work on assignments. These time management skills have allowed Abby and Sean to dedicate more of their time to being on the court and field.

These student athletes love donning their Hayden jerseys. “I love representing my school,” Abby says, and Sean adds that spirit days and days when people come out to the games are a lot of fun. One such spirit day occurred in fall 2013, when the Hayden junior boys football team made it to the Halton championship – an incredible accomplishment for the school’s first football team.

With no grade 12s to help out, “I was a little skeptical going into it,” admits Sean, who played on the team. “But we had a really good program, and we had committed players who worked hard.” The team’s efforts paid off, as they won the championship!

Both Abby and Sean encourage Hayden students to get involved in athletics next year. “Any athletic program that you could join at Hayden is gonna be well run, and well coached,” Sean enthuses. “The school supports all of its sports teams; you’re gonna have a lot of fun.”

“You’ll regret it if you don’t join the team you wanted to,” he adds.

“If you’re scared about missing class because of joining a course, don’t be!” Abby says. “All of the teachers are understanding, and they give you extra time to work on things so that you can be successful.”

Abby and Sean will represent Hayden on Tuesday, June 16th at Burlington Sport Alliance’s recognition dinner. On behalf of all Hayden students and staff, congratulations to Abby and Sean for being Hayden’s Senior Athletes of the Year, and congratulations to everyone who participated in Hayden’s athletics programs this year. Go Huskies!

ALL YOU NEED IS…CINNAMON!

What do Gordon Ramsay, Jamie Oliver and Hayden Huskies have in common? They can all fire it up when it comes to great food!

Food and Nutrition is no cookie-cutter of a program. In fact, Foods has become a popular course at Hayden covering topics that appeal to today’s teens like body image and fad diets. The actual course heats up with the Iron Chef Performance Task with cooking teams facing off in a tantalizing and in some cases, searing competition. Students in the Foods program have also contributed by baking goods for school-wide events like Multicultural Day. Earlier this year, the Bake Club, a spin-off of the Foods course, provided students with homemade gingerbread houses for decorating at one of the Library’s Twisted Tuesday events.

Now you have probably tasted cinnamon toast at some time or even topped your latte with it but have you used cinnamon with pork or chicken? For the Iron Chef competition, student teams plan, shop and make their own dishes. Nearly everything is from scratch, including the ice cream. Students work in teams and are given one secret ingredient; this time the feature item was cinnamon. Each team of foodies had to prepare a full menu incorporating the secret ingredient into one savoury and one sweet dish.

Meals were then presented to a panel of hungry judges from Hayden’s staff. Meals are evaluated on their complexity, originality, display techniques known as plating and of course, taste! Judge Beltran commented that “the students found innovative ways to use cinnamon on dishes I would’ve never imagined, and made it work!” Ms. Ciccotelli reports that her students were exhausted but “loved the competition.”

Throughout the course, Ms. Ciccotelli says she tries to instill a love for food and its presence in her students’ lives: “Practicing to cook makes permanent, not perfect! The more practice you put into the kitchen, the better your results will be each time. Try new recipes, taste new foods and explore options on restaurant menus. Food is awesome!” Judge Kanis would agree that Ms. Ciccotelli’s classes have the right instructional recipe. In a note of gratitude, she noted, that “your passion and talent made its way into all of your dishes and eventually into our bellies.”

Some would say,“All you need is love. But [the judges would agree] a little cinnamon now and then doesn’t hurt.”

Hayden Staff Shows Heart!

Did you know that 80% of heart disease is preventable? 1.6 million Canadians live with the effects of heart disease and stroke and that as a result, 70 000 people die each year- that’s one person every seven minutes! Well Hayden staff did their part in helping to support the Heart & Stroke Foundation.

Under dark skies and threatening clouds, an enthusiastic Hayden staff showed they can “RIDE BIG. LIVE BIG” when all 29 riders laced up their running shoes and took to the road to raise funds for the Heart and Stroke Foundation. After limbering up at East Side Mario’s who sponsored the event, riders took their big seats on the BIG BIKE.

Listening to old-school tunes and decked out in their Hayden gear, staff peddled down Appleby Line circling up through to Corporate Drive. Motivated by honking cars, cheering spectators and Hayden’s own students, staff rode to raise over $3000.

A BIG THANK YOU to Hayden’s own business manager, Mrs. Sue Lamarre for organizing the fun and to all the participants and sponsors for their support.

Learn more about the Big Bike at: http://goo.gl/idcGfP.

Unveiling Shteen

Hayden students may know him as a singer, songwriter, rapper, musician or maybe even a rugby player. His friends will tell you that he’s easy-going and talkative but did you know Reshteen Weera is the inventor and producer of a clothing line called Shteen? Reshteen’s first project is inspired by the Toronto Raptors’s slogan We The North.

Being “north” has proud connotations. It has come to mean being clean, beautiful, growing, and free – being in the north is where everyone wants to be. Reshteen was looking for a slogan that represented his hometown. In street terms, North End Freedom represents Burlington, a clean, beautiful city that embraces its citizens and allows them to enjoy a free and easy life.

Reshteen created his first design by developing the lettering and art work using his home computer. This idea sprouted from his love of music and his desire to share with his friends at Hayden. “I always wanted to make t-shirts but this is the time to get going because I want to promote my music. It’s a crucial time.”

So far, he has made 15 t-shirts and sold 8 in his first day of sales. Additionally, some customers have asked for some custom orders. Looking ahead, Reshteen hopes his awareness of today’s teen will help him build a side business that has staying power. “It’s what kids today want especially in the urban hiphop market- comfortable shirts with positive messages.”

Currently, Reshteen is working on developing a new slogan for Got Swag, Hayden’s school store. “We need to update the language. Something that represents kids now.”

Our Very Own Entrepreneur at Hayden

The powerful path being forged by grade 11 Bryanna Samayoa founder of Limitless Apparel begs a crucial question for any young entrepreneur: “What can’t I do?”

“It was originally wanting to just make art and take photos,” Bryanna confessed. “I didn’t know how to share it with people yet but then I realized I love clothes and fashion! So combining the two would be perfect and it has worked really well so far.” And it has worked really well so far! With multiple sales from her peers, Bryanna’s influential accomplishments are sweeping the school.

It all began when Valentine’s Day was around the corner and Bryanna wanted to do something personal for her boyfriend. She came up with a drawing: the next question was how she was going to present it. She decided to put it on a sweater for him. After she made his she made a couple for herself, and when she got compliments and questions about them in the hall she got inspired.

Bryanna gives credit to her family and friends for helping her get to where she is now. Bryanna knows she will always have the support of her family. “They made me believe what I was doing was possible and not a goal too far to reach” Bryanna also strongly believes that having the right friends in your life is plenty of motivation to make your dreams become bigger and bigger. “Anybody who has ever told me that what I’m doing is cool or anyone who has given me even the slightest positive feedback has helped give me that little bit of motivation and has helped me continue doing it,” she says, proving what a huge impact a small compliment can have on another person.

“I guess I’ve always wanted to be good at singing or dancing and to be able to go on stage so I can show everyone my talent and I discovered that seeing people wear my designs is kinda like being on stage,” Bryanna expressed how positively she feels when she sees people wearing her shirts, “It’s an uplifting feeling to have my art be seen.”

When asked what she likes about being an entrepreneur Bryanna revealed her love for being in charge of her own decisions and being able to chose what direction she wants to go in. “I like being in charge of my own successes and/or failures.”

Bryanna Samayoa is just another #HaydenInspiration showing that you should never give up on what you really want to do. Where there is love and family – and there is at Hayden – you can do anything.