From all of us at SOLE Alternative, we wish you a restful, healthy, and happy summer break! Congratulations to all of our graduates! For those returning in September, we look forward to seeing you again soon.
Interested in joining us as a new student in September? Start by filling out our online application form for the 2022-3 school year.
The Literacy Course students are pleased to present a series of interviews with SOLE students about their cool projects, experiences, and adventures outside of school.
Click the audio player to hear Michael interview Huxley about his experience in the Dual Credit flight attendant course.
Caitlin’s Grades 11 and 12 Social Science classes hosted a Social Science Fair on June 22. Students from other classes came by to learn about landmark experiments, case studies, and key concepts in the Social Sciences, and did a bit of peer evaluation! Thanks to everyone for your participation. The following awards were handed out at the end of the day:
Cleanest and Most Minimalist Display: Miku, Brown Eyes/ Blue Eyes
Best Researched Display: Charlotte, Cognitive Dissonance
Most Stimulating Display: Echo, The Clark Doll Experiment
Most Creative Display: Calen, The Stanford Prison Experiment
Most Enthusiastic Presenter: Georgia, McDonaldization
Caitlin and Rachel’s classes spent the afternoon exploring the history of the Danforth with a guided ROM tour. We learned about the architecture and the influential families in this vibrant, changing neighbourhood—all while enjoying the beautiful sunshine!
SOLE students and teachers wore their most colourful outfits for Pride Month. This month, and every month, we celebrate and affirm the 2SLGBTQIA+ community.
The Literacy Course students are pleased to present a series of interviews with SOLE students about their cool projects, experiences, and adventures outside of school.
Andrew Jun 7, 2022
After doing some research on Sugar Shelter, a non-profit organization that raises money for homeless shelters, I wanted to learn more. So I went straight to the source. Here’s my interview with SOLE student Georgia who runs Sugar Shelter.
Andrew Russell (AR): Who or what inspired your desire to help people?
Georgia (G): As a little kid, I always wanted to go into social work. I felt a really strong connection with homeless people especially. I just feel they deserve more and a lot of people overlook them, and so I’ve always wanted to help them because I think people need to realize it’s not always their fault or their doing for being homeless. So I wanted to spread awareness towards homeless people and that’s why I started Sugar Shelter.
AR: Who came up with the name “Sugar Shelter” and who designed the logo?
G: The idea behind Sugar Shelter is basically, like I said, I always wanted to be a social worker but I’ve also been baking since I was really young and so I put them together and I started to bake and sell those baked goods to raise money for homeless shelters and people in need. It kinda just came to mind one day, Sugar Shelter, and then my sister helped me design the logo.
AR: Do you have a favourite thing that you bake?
G: I’ve always really liked baking pies but I like to try out new things. I really like making wedding cakes; you get to be super creative.
AR: How often do you get outside help? And from who?
G: So often I’m doing it all alone, it takes a few days to do the baking and planning, but if anyone it would be my parents. They help me plan or they give me space to bake, they share my (online) posts so their friends can see so yeah.
AR: You also work with Sandwich Sisters, what’s that like?
G: Oh, Sandwich Sisters is the best. It’s this little organization run by some old ladies who are really cool. Basically they get students or volunteers to make sandwiches and then they have these pods around the city. You drop the sandwiches off and they all go to shelters. I started to make sandwiches with them last summer and it’s just a really good opportunity because you can do it on your own time, and you can be creative. In my experience I’ve never dropped them off at the pods. I’ve always gone to the shelter. Just meeting everyone at the shelter and getting to know people is really cool.
AR: What are some of your long term goals you have for Sugar Shelter?
G: I definitely want to grow Sugar Shelter. In the past I really wanted to be a social worker and still it’s in the back of my head but to be more realistic I think Sugar Shelter will be more of a side project and I’ll do something else in the future.
AR: Is there anything else you’d like to say or add?
G: Yeah, just keep an open mind. I know people understand but there are people that come in contact with that just don’t understand how it is to be homeless. I’m not homeless but there’s just so much more to it then people see, and I guess just keep an open mind.
The climate crisis can feel overwhelming, but we can make a difference. This afternoon, SOLE students participated in a workshop on climate action and the City of Toronto’s plan to reduce carbon emissions with Crystal from TransformTO. Students brainstormed ways that they could personally reduce their carbon footprint while working towards broader social change.
We followed that up with a trash cleanup in Monarch Park. It’s a gross job, but there was payoff: homemade SOLE cookies by Georgia!
Student Council held a slime workshop during tutorial period. Slime experts Georgia and Echo taught everyone how to create your own slime from common household products. The results were completely gross and completely fun!
For Dress Extra Day, students and staff were encouraged to: Go Big! Dress Up! Wear That Thing! Congratulations to our winners, Georgia, Echo, and Charlotte, for their truly extra effort.
Tomorrow is Slime Day! Join us during tutorial period for a slime-making workshop.
The Literacy Course students are pleased to present a series of interviews with SOLE students about their cool projects, experiences, and adventures outside of school.
Andrew Russell
May 24, 2022
We have a star here at SOLE! SOLE student Miku starred in a ballet performance of Sleeping Beauty. Last week I interviewed Miku about her experience. Here’s what we talked about.
Andrew Russell (AR): What were some of the struggles that came with doing this?
Miku (M): I’d say there weren’t really that many struggles. I’ve been on stage before so it wasn’t really that much of an issue, really. I would say that some of the struggles would be like finding time to do it, because sometimes, like rehearsals, they come up on short notice and you can’t really change anything. It’s either you go or you miss it.
AR: What was something you learned from this experience and how could you apply that to future ballets?
M: One thing I learned is that if something happens when you’re on stage, you typically just wanna keep on doing what your part is. You can’t really just stop in the middle so you kinda just have to deal with it, own up to it, and depending on what it is you might get laughs from the audience but yeah. So really I’d say that the lesson you kind of learn from that is if a mistake happens, let it happen and try not to do it next time.
AR: What was one of your favorite memories from doing this experience?
M: Well there’s a lot, but I’d say one of the greater ones was just all the people there. Not only the dancers but your fellow supers, which are basically actors not dancers. And also the staff there are really nice, really talkative.
AR: Do you remember what your reaction was when you found out you got the part?
M: I guess I was kind of surprised. It was the same ballet that my dad was going to be doing and he is well known in the opera and somewhat in the ballet industry as an actor so when they reached out to him, they asked if I wanted to- no actually he asked if there was a part for me. So then they looked into it and said yeah; I was kind of surprised.
AR: So you kind of had those expectations, since this is something that your father did?
M: Yeah!
AR: Can you describe how it felt on the first day of the show? Do you remember what you were feeling that day?
M: I was kind of excited; I mean a little bit scared, like I had the stage fright. Well, not really stage fright, but I had butterflies in my chest, but it was pretty exciting. The part I had, I was right next to the dancers for the most part so I could see all of them up close, and yeah. It was a really good experience.
AR: I just have one more question for you. After this experience and the ones that came before, do you want to continue doing ballet? Is that a career path you want to set out for yourself?
M: Honestly? Yeah. The first ballet I did was five or six years ago, it was Sleeping Beauty. And then I just recently did Sleeping Beauty a few months back and now I’m doing rehearsals for Swan Lake. So yeah, I think it’s something that I want to do and you also get paid for doing it so yeah.
AR: That’s all the questions I had. Is there anything else you want to say?
M: I will say though, this came up a few questions ago. For struggles I’d say like one of the struggles you might get is the costumes. Cause I know the first time I did Sleeping Beauty, two of my costumes had a lot of buttons and if you missed one you’d have to redo it all over again. They are also just really hard buttons to do up, in general.