Interested in a local workshop with SelfDesign High?
Stay tuned! We’ll be announcing our line up of Fall/Winter workshops next week.
A minimum of 6 learners must register for a workshop course to run. Join a scheduled workshop, or if you have a group of friends interested in doing a course together, contact us about creating a new workshop.
info@selfdesignhigh.org | 250 354- 1310
with special guest facilitator LUCAS MYERS Oct 4th to Dec 9, Tues/Thurs 4-6pm
Creation and Collaboration:
The Actor as Creator
This workshop will focus on the performer as a creator, with students creating a devised work at the end of each term. The first term will focus on a collaborative performance based on a specific social issue. The second term will conclude with a roving, site specific performance in which the audience will move through downtown Nelson and encounter performers as they travel. Throughout the year, each class will include exercises to promote physical awareness and cultivate connectivity between performers onstage, leading to a more present and available performance style. Focus will be placed on working as an ensemble, both in devising material and in performance. This will empower students to have a clarified presence on stage and to feel confident about discovering their artistic voice. There will also be a yearlong Shakespeare Monologue study and audition training, as well as solo projects and character studies.
Creative Collaboration Drama 10
Introduction to techniques used in a collaborative process including generating material and focussing ideas. Students will also start to work on intuitive performance, with exercises that promote being in the moment on stage and following impulses.
Creative Collaboration Drama 11
Focus will be placed on working collectively to create a production, choosing a theme and creating material based on the theme. Play building, monologues and implementing various methods of expression including song, puppetry, and video will be explored.
Creative Collaboration Drama 12
The students will create a production based on a theme and implementing a variety of dramatic tools. Exercises will focus on stage awareness and self expression as well as building character and finding a unique “voice”. All aspects of the production will be created by the students.
Space is limited! Register by Sept 27th - info@selfdesignhigh.org | 250 354 1310
The Y-U-M Initiative head out on the road to connect with local communities to ask among other questions, “WHAT IS YOUR PASSION?”
Check out the video here and learn more on the Y-U-M Initiative Blog:
As a BC Online High School, like every other High School, we try and do the best for our students. The only way to be sure that we’re doing this is to listen to our students and take onboard what they say. The video below is not from one of our students, but what she says is very true. Here is part of it:
“I am now accomplishing that goal. I am graduating. I should look at this as a positive experience, especially being at the top of my class. However, in retrospect, I cannot say that I am any more intelligent than my peers. I can attest that I am only the best at doing what I am told and working the system. Yet, here I stand, and I am supposed to be proud that I have completed this period of indoctrination. I will leave in the fall to go on to the next phase expected of me, in order to receive a paper document that certifies that I am capable of work. But I contest that I am a human being, a thinker, an adventurer – not a worker. A worker is someone who is trapped within repetition – a slave of the system set up before him. But now, I have successfully shown that I was the best slave. I did what I was told to the extreme. While others sat in class and doodled to later become great artists, I sat in class to take notes and become a great test-taker. While others would come to class without their homework done because they were reading about an interest of theirs, I never missed an assignment. While others were creating music and writing lyrics, I decided to do extra credit, even though I never needed it. So, I wonder, why did I even want this position? Sure, I earned it, but what will come of it? When I leave educational institutionalism, will I be successful or forever lost? I have no clue about what I want to do with my life; I have no interests because I saw every subject of study as work, and I excelled at every subject just for the purpose of excelling, not learning. And quite frankly, now I’m scared.”
She goes on to talk about how there are some teachers that help students break out of the grade based system and actually encourage learning. I agree. That’s what we try and do at SelfDesign High. We negotiate, we listen, we learn. We encourage students to follow their passion, be it math or mountain biking. Online courses have traditionally been boring and just an extension of your local High School; we try to do it differently. We give you the chance to design your own education, wherever it leads you.
The following speech was delivered by top of the class student Erica Goldson during the graduation ceremony at Coxsackie-Athens High School on June 25, 2010
The Capitol Theatre presents:
An Evening with Alex Neve
Amnesty International & Selkirk College
Friday September 10th, 2010 - 7:30pm
Selkirk College and Amnesty International will be launching the fall Mir Centre for Peace Lecture Series with a passionate and important talk by Alex Neve, Secretary-General of Amnesty International Canada.His lecture, Protecting Human Rights: What’s Happening to Canada’sVoice, will focus on the concerns surrounding Canada’s fading human rights leadership and will put a powerful call out for renewal and revitalization to Canada’s policies and reputation as a human rights leader…
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SelfDesign High announces the second year of PeaceCamps!
9-13 yr old youth 14-19 yr old youth
Contact SelfDesign High at peacecamps@selfdesignhigh.org 
YUM Initiative E-Zine
If you still haven’t checked this out, do it! It’s worth a visit. This is our online, student fueled E-Zine showcasing the diverse talents of our learners far and wide. Please let your learners know about this – if you have someone in particular who’s work you would like to showcase, get them to sent it to us at yuminitiative@gmail.com
SelfDesign and SelfDesign High
co-created an outreach booth at EPIC 2010 Sustainable Living Show in Vancouver  From Friday to Sunday we spoke with hundreds of interested people who attended the show and were curious to learn about SelfDesign. As a way to attract interest, we posted blank sheets of paper asking the Question: "What are you MOST Passionate about in Your Life?" and asked people to respond. The answers came in by the dozen! and we filled many sheets with inspiring answers, ranging from Dance to Sustainable farming to travel to… well, just about you can think of. At that point it was our delight to tell them that supporting one's passion lies at the core of SelfDesign, which sparked much enthusiastic conversation and lead to many requests for additional information for themselves or to pass on to someone they know would be interested. 
Michael Maser, TEDx SelfDesign High
Co-inspiring the Future
Inspired by the SelfDesign High youth group ‘YUM’, our multigenerational TEDx event was live streamed across the globe by our own SelfDesign video team.
If you missed it, you can still have a genuine TEDx experience - The 2010 SelfDesign High Yearbook is ready!
cover design by Clara Foulds
If you haven't ordered your MentorshipHigh Yearbook
Mentorship at SelfDesign High
We are growing our community of mentors at about ourgn High – particularly in the areas of Math & Science. If you or someone you know are interested in joining our community, please visit our website and submit a letter of interest and resume to: hr@selfdesignhigh.org We'll feature ongoing spotlights aboutour Mentors in our SD High BLOG. Visit regularly or subscribe to our Blog for updates on  artwork by, Anita Levesque |
First, I'm glad this graduation wasn't an end… I've been to a few grad ceremonies and I've never really been too impressed. They take too long, people you don't know talk 'about you', advice is easily given without much thought… stark lights and uncomfortable shoes kinda thing. And then, one Saturday afternoon the SelfDesign High grads walked into our graduation through a cloud of bubbles flying around the doors. The room was small, sunlight came through the bright windows and there wasn't a tuxedo in sight. I didn't know everyone, but it didn't feel like they were strangers. Everyone was a part of the celebration and it helped me realize how much each community really does raise it's children.
Speaking to older siblings and friends, they've told me not to worry about these past three years. "High School's not important once you graduate, and no one takes your marks that seriously. Friends will change and you'll forget most of it anyways. Don't worry," they said, "Real Life comes later." I disagree. My schooling has been odd, to say the least, and I've loved it all. I'll always appreciate how relevant the courses at SDH were to My Real Life. Even after grad, with courses over and a dip(loma) on my wall, I feel like this school is still very much a part of all the graduates lives. The people we've met, the things we've learned and the projects that continue to teach us won't just go away once exams are over. We might forget a few things that right now seem like the most important part of our lives, but it will only make room in our full heads for new memories. Yes, we might not be on moodle every week – we'll move away, go to University, travel the world by hot air balloon… or just simply walk down different streets. But I'll bet SelfDesign High hasn't seen the last of us.
- Clara Foulds
Media Savvy 11
Social Entrepreneurship 11  click on the image below to check out what was inspired from the fashion show! 
Readers!
We want to get to know you better. Tell us about your passions. We'll choose a few to publish in our next newsletter. Email us your PASSIONS here!
Did you know?
…you can ask for credits for activities you're doing outside of 'school' such as dance classes, etc?
…you can enroll and participate in courses all year? |
