The TEMS Theme for November was Resilience. To kick off our theme, TEMS Guardian classes had a workshop about resilience on November 10th.

During the workshop, students discussed their definitions and examples of resilience. We also watched some videos about examples of resilience such as the story of a 1-legged tap dancer, and another story about a surfer who was the victim of the shark attack. We also learned about who Terry Fox was, and how his was a story of resilience too.

The common theme in the resilience stories is taking a bad situation and turning it into something positive. For example, the shark attach survivor began creating prosthetic legs for surfers, and Terry Fox started the Marathon of Hope and his legacy is the Terry Fox Foundation. 

During the workshop, we talked about how to make our own stories of resilience. How can we take bad situations in our own lives and turn them into something positive?

Every November 11, we celebrate remembrance day. Remembrance Day is a day we remember what happened in World War 1 and to memorize all those soldiers who died there and also fought there. Lots of countries, for example, Canada, USA, France, etc are celebrating this day. Remembrance day was first observed in 1919 throughout the British Commonwealth. It was originally called “Armistice Day”. Also the symbol for Remembrance day is “Poppy”. During November 11, we pause in a moment of silence to honour and remember the men and women who have served, and continue to serve their country during times of war. It is important to celebrate Remembrance day, because to not repeat our mistakes again.

On November 12th, 2021, TEMS students and teachers participated in the Terry Fox Run by walking about 1 hours and 40minutes around the neighbourhood. You might be wondering, what exactly is the ‘Terry Fox Run’? To know this, we first have to know who Terry Fox is. Terry Fox was a long-distance runner and a basketball player when he was in high school. However, he was diagnosed with osteogenic sarcoma (bone cancer) in his right leg at the age of eighteen and had his leg amputated 15cm above his knee. Terry Fox showed remarkable resilience afterwards, deciding to run across Canada to raise money for cancer research. This was the Marathon of Hope. Terry Fox completed an average of 42km per day for 143 days, and he walked a total of 5373km. Terry Fox said, “I’ve said to people before that I’m going to do my very best to make it, I’m not going to give up. But I might not make it… if I don’t, the Marathon of Hope better continue.” It is up to us as the members of the next generation to continue and pursue Terry Fox’s run, his hope, and his dream. I was deeply inspired by Terry Fox’s actions, and I hope someday I can accomplish something that will make our community a better place as well.

Part of being resilient means putting more leverage on the positive events and aspects on your life than the negative ones. TEMS wanted students to have some positive experiences to give leverage to and exercise their resilience, so students spent an afternoon doing fun activities with their friends.