This week was definitely dance week! We participated in dance practice every day this week, which culminated in a dress rehearsal and final performance on Friday afternoon. The dress rehearsal was in front of the school and the performance was for an eager parent audience which was lined up outside the gym and almost to the street! I grabbed a recording of the dress rehearsal, but due to memory restraints on my phone (read: I have too many videos and pictures of playing with my kids), I ran out of memory with around 30 seconds or so left in the performance. As a result, I made my way into the gym and through the enormous crowd of eager parents and managed to record the end of the dance, which I have included below as well. Enjoy. Feel free to share the link with friends/family that you want to see the performance. I'm proud of the hard work that was put in all week and the final product we were able to produce! Great work Division 11!

Remember to wear a blue top and dark/black pants for the dance performance! I can't wait to see the finished [product and will definitely post a video here if I have the opportunity to record it. 

The Mackenzie Lunch Program has received an upgrade from the old Pizza Day system and now includes multiple lunch day options. The new system, run by the school PAC through MunchaLunch, is now live. Lunch for students can be ordered on your choice of days and paid for online. You can order weeks in advance, or at any time, where orders for a given week are due on the Sunday before that school week begins.

More information can be found on the PAC Website at:
http://mackenziepac.wixsite.com/mackenziepac/pac-lunches-1

The MunchaLunch order site for our school can be found here:
http://munchalunch.com/schools/mackenzie/

If you have any questions, you can post in the comments on this post and I can try to help (or can contact some PAC members to help answer questions if needed).

Happy New Year!

Business First: Only 5 of you have sent me in a picture from your winter break. Probably because you were doing awesome things right up until the end. That is fine, but with one more sleep until back to school, it is time to send that 1 picture to [email protected] - currently 5 are done...so only 21 left!

New Year's Wish Second: I post the same message every year for New Year's, mostly because I have yet to find a better one. Not from lack of trying mind you, it is just a very good message that I think really resonates with how we work in our school and in my classroom in particular. It comes from one of my favourite authors, Neil Gaiman, who you might know from books he wrote for people around your age such as Coraline (which is also a movie) or The Graveyard Book. He had this to say, and I find it quite fitting:

And for this year, my wish for each of us is small and very simple.

And it's this.

I hope that in this year to come, you make mistakes.

Because if you are making mistakes, then you are making new things, trying new things, learning, living, pushing yourself, changing yourself, changing your world. You're doing things you've never done before, and more importantly, you're Doing Something.

So that's my wish for you, and all of us, and my wish for myself. Make New Mistakes. Make glorious, amazing mistakes. Make mistakes nobody's ever made before. Don't freeze, don't stop, don't worry that it isn't good enough, or it isn't perfect, whatever it is: art, or love, or work or family or life.

Whatever it is you're scared of doing, Do it.

Make your mistakes, next year and forever.


I'm ready to make some new mistakes and to try to learn from them as I go. Hopfully you are too!

Happy New Year and see you tomorrow!

​Mr. Martin