Salut Bonhomme Carnaval!! Celebrating Québec's French Canadian Tradition.

Orientation to the profession:

Learning Outcome #5 | Reflect on how the school structure impacts student learning

As we geared up for this week's festivities at Holy Spirit in Toronto, Ontario, all the tireless planning certainly paid off. The students enjoyed hours of outdoor winter activities despite the lack of snow on the ground. I was fortunate to partake in the event, and stay warm in the gymnasium. My job to was to provide hot chocolate to all participants.

Bonhomme de neige Québec (Image courtesy of Jumpstreet Educational Tours)

Before I share more about the festivities at school, allow me to share a bit of history around the world's largest winter celebration.

"This well loved tradition in Québec traces back to colonial New France in the 1700s where family and friends would gather in January to mid-February to break the boredom and deep freeze of winter. In classic French-Canadian tradition, the settlers of New-France would celebrate with a massive feast, live music, foot tapping and gigues (traditional French-Canadian dances). This annual celebration in the deepest and darkest of the winter months would eventually lead to Québec’s first large-scale snow festival in 1894 (Jumpstreet)."

The celebration was reintroduced in the 1950s to increase visitors and tourists from all over the world. It has since become the largest winter celebration in the world.

Left: Grade 8 Students set up equipment for the festivities

Centre: Students are gearing up for the day

Right: Classes play a game of Bingo in French over the PA system

My grade 8s, the most senior group of students, were given a number of responsibilities. They had to lead the younger groups from one activity to another. The games and fun activities truly demonstrated positive social interaction, and school spirit. Something they missed the last two and a half years throughout the pandemic.

As the the old saying goes "Families who pray together, stay together." I'd also like to call it "play together." What is just as important is the close interaction and positivity that keep families together. Much like a school community, school spirit and positive connections with one another show support in the school. According to the White Paper of Varsity Brands, students who show school spirit and demonstrates positive relationships with one another "perform better academically, are more socially and civically engaged, and are happier in general than their less-spirited peers. What’s more, the majority of principals (92%) feel that high school spirit is tied to high student achievement (White Paper, p. 1). School spirit is a reflection of pride, achievement, and determination. It helps nurture the school with positivity and is a benchmark of a school's holistic success (White Paper, p. 15) ."

But it takes more than the students to make the school successful. Other stakeholders include parents, teachers, administration, and the school's parish. When the members of the school community work together, the school culture is enriched and the of spirit in the school will further support students to achieve great things later in life (White Paper, p.15).

References

(2023). 5 Cool Facts About the Québec Winter Festival. Jumpstreet Educational

Tours by World Strides. https://www.jumpstreet.com/blog/5-cool-facts-about-carnaval-de-quebec.

School Spirit: the Connection between Student Achievement Involvement and

Confidence. (2014, September 4). The White Paper. varsitybrands.com.