36.3 Teaching at Ambassador School, Semesters 1 and 2
36.3.1 Introduction
Click here to see my public records page at the Ontario College of Teachers
36.3.2 Ambassador School
I was hired on to become the AMBASSADOR Program teacher by a committee of agency heads, principal David Gracie, fellow teachers, and students. I started teaching in September, 1994. I taught on the main floor of the old Laidlaw (school bus company) family mansion, on _______ near St. Clair and Yonge. (see map and photo below).
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36.3.3 Contact Alternative School
The AMBASSADOR Program was run through Contact Alternative School. And so to do the AMBASSADOR program I technically transferred to the Contact staff, and attended Contact staff meetings. For all intents and purposes, however, I was on my own.
Contact is a full-time academic alternative secondary school. Its description reads as follows:
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Contact serves youth who have dropped out of high school and now want to return; it also serves students who feel they that they are different and feel that they would benefit from a different kind of program. What makes Contact an alternative school are features such as small classes; free breakfast and lunch; continuous intake throughout the school year; partial credit accumulation, and the presence on site of Youth Counsellors who provide support to students such as counseling, referrals, attendance support, and advocacy.
There is a three week trial period for new students during which daily attendance is required, and work habits and behaviour are evaluated. Students participate in the life of the school through a weekly general meeting and are encouraged to participate in planning field trips and special events. Student representatives and one parent representative may attend staff meetings with voting priviledges.
Afternoon courses are offered in three-week units and cover a wide range of interests. Topics in our courses include: computer literacy, digital photography, first-aid, gy/lesbian history, male socialization, music, Native history, philosophy, print-making, psychology, sculpture, street law, video production, women and media, and many more.
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Courses Taught
at AMBASSADOR
School |
| Date: | Course: | Description: |
| September, 1994 | . | . |
| October, 1994 | Society, Challenge and Change | . |
| November, 1994 | . | . |
| December, 1994 | History | . |
| January, 1995 | . | . |
| February, 1995 | . | . |
| March, 1995 | . | . |
| April, 1995 | . | . |
| May, 1995 | . | . |
| June, 1995 | . | . |
| Fall, 1994, and Spring, 1995 | Co-op | Placements in the various social service agencies. |
For the period September, 1994, to July, 1995, I ran a special program. This was a joint project of the Toronto Board and seven private youth social service agencies. This program helped troubled street youth get back into school. Having overcome some of their problems, the program includes sending them to speak with young people. The idea being that young people are most likely to listen to a teenager who has been through a lot. In this sense they are "ambassadors". For this reason it is called the "Ambassador" program. The ambassadors would study with me each morning, earning academic credits, and work in one of the seven agencies, earning co-op credits. Working in these safe environments under the close supervision of a councellor helped ensure that the ambassador did not relapse back into their earlier behaviour.
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TDSB
From my perspective, the program was first and foremost, a school. The ambassadors were students of the TDSB and they received credits. I was a teacher, an employee of the TDSB.
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36.3.4 Reasons for the Ambassadors Being in the Program
Each of the young people in the program had a story to tell. A very sad story. Child abuse, substance abuse, run-ins with the law, homelessness, street life, etc. But ultimately each had a happy and optimistic ending because they had overcome these and were, as they would say "clean". Each wanted to give something back, and each wanted to ensure that the young people in their audiences did not fall victim to the same problems.
East student was "hosted" by a social service agency. There they worked in the afternoons as a co-op placement.
36.3.5 Social Service "Host" Agencies
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Covenant House
The second shareholder in the project was a youth recovery program of the Catholic Church called "Covenant House". From their perspective, the young people in the Ambassador school were their clients. They employed the councellors who worked with the young people.
2.
Beat the Street
Beat the Street (BTS) is a literacy program of Frontier College for street-involved youth, at-risk youth and homeless youth in downtown Toronto. The program was started in 1985 by two men who had been involved in the streets.
This non-profit organization works primarily with street youth and adults who are homeless. They provide one on one tutoring, a state of the art computer lab, writing group, tutor training, women's group, men's group, and were one of the seven agencies which provided co-op work for one ambassador.
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36.3.7 Mission and Principles
36.3.8 AA Tradition: the Twelve Steps
Everyone in the program was very familiar with the various twelve step programs out there to help people recover from substance abuse dependencies. The best known of these is the Alcohol Anonymous Twelve Steps.
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"We admitted we were powerless over alcohol - that our lives had become unmanageable"
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"Came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity"
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"Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him."
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"Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves."
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"Admitted to God, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs. We must be entirely honest with somebody if we expect to live long or happily in this world"
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"Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character. Nothing short of continuous action upon these (remaining steps) as a way of life can bring the much-desired result"
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"Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings."
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"Made a list of those we harmed."
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"Made direct amends to such people wherever possible."
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"Take inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it."
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"Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God, as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out. Resolutely turn our thoughts to someone we can help."
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"Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to other alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs. Practical experience shows that nothing will so much insure
immunity from drinking as intensive work with other alcoholics."
36.3.9 The Serenity Prayer
"God, grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change,
Courage to change the things I can, and
Wisdom to know the difference."
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36.3.10 Weeks in the Forest
36.3.10 Other Field Trips
We went on many field trips. Pictured below are trips to the CN tower, the Toronto Zoo, and _________.
36.3.12 Lessons I Learned
This year I learned much from the psychologist with whom I worked about the nature of addiction and how to fight it. I learned that much of what the students did and said was understandable in terms of these psychologists standard jargon:
- victim fascilitator;
- self-medication;
- projecting;
Research Writing on the AMBASSADOR Program
I would later write about the Ambassador Program, and this can be found at:
AMBASSADOR RESEARCH
36.3.13 "Computers in the Classroom" A.Q. Course, Spring, 1995
In the Spring of 1995, I completed the "Computers in the Classroom" additional qualification course, which entitled me to teach computer courses.
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