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There’s a real sense of community amongst the faculty and staff at KCS. Even though we spend over forty hours a week together, we still love to hang out with each other once the school day is done!

That’s why the wonderfully creative minds at the KCS Faculty & Staff Social Committee regularly put together fun evening activities for their co-workers. Every month they organize at least one event designed to get us out on the town as a group.

So if you want to nurture a passionate community at your own workplace, why not take a page out of the KCS Social Committee playbook? After all, there’s no better way to build team spirit than by meeting up after work to share a few laughs and adventures! With that in mind, here are our top five after-work events that are guaranteed to wow your co-workers…

CASA LOMA ESCAPE SERIES
With an emphasis on teamwork, puzzle solving and imagination, escape rooms are a natural fit for any large group outing. But why go to an industrial park in Scarborough when you can spend an evening figuring out how to escape from Toronto’s very own gothic castle? Casa Loma offers a rotating selection of themed experiences, meaning you could end up doing anything from cracking WW2 secret codes to evading the law as a Prohibition-era bootlegger. History has never been so exciting.

We didn’t quite make it out in time, but we had fun trying

AXE THROWING
Get in touch with your inner lumberjack/jane by bringing your officemates to one of Toronto’s many axe throwing venues. You’ll start off laughing at the surreal nature of it all, but it won’t take long before it turns into a spirited competition to see whose axe skills reign supreme. Just remember – it’s more about skill and timing than simple brute force, so anyone can win the bragging rights of a champion!

The science teacher won, showing physics has an edge!

PAINT/PLANT NITE
If your work crowd is more of a bohemian bunch, take them out for an evening of guided artistic creation. There are a slew of places in the West End that offer group lessons in painting or flower arranging. Afterwards, feel free to offer your colleagues some feedback on their creations while you bond over pub grub and beverages.

This group created their own gorgeous succulents

VIP MOVIE SCREENINGS
Sometimes after a long day of work all you really want to do is shut your brain off and enjoy some popcorn-fuelled entertainment. But bring along a bunch of your co-workers to one of Cineplex’s snazzy VIP screening rooms, and you veg out together in style. Best of all, nobody will feel left out during the next day’s watercooler movie talk.

Nothing beats a movie night with friends

THE GOOD OLD LOCAL PUB
Sometimes you’ve just got to go with a classic. Pick a nearby pub (preferably one with good burgers and wings), choose a night (preferably a Thursday or Friday) and just sit back and wait. Before you know it, you’ll have a crowd of happy colleagues swapping stories, telling jokes and talking about something other than this quarter’s targets.

So there you have it. Five simple ways to get your work family to turn off the email, ignore the office politics and just spend some quality time together. Because just like any friendship, passionate communities don’t just happen on their own – they take a little effort. So be the one to put out the call and organize a night out. You’ll be amazed at the difference it makes!

“I am learning how to deal with frustration, time management, and learning to work without pressure.”

“I am learning to be really creative, and to problem solve.”

“I have learned that being independent is more responsibility than I thought it would be.”

One student spent our last period launching and adjusting his prototype rocket on the school yard, to the delight of those watching from inside. Another retreated behind a tree, where the wind conditions were just right, to spray paint the sneakers that she was turning into roller skates. Writing books, assembling robots, creating works of art, and building a wind-powered, name-bearing wagon round out the array of projects underway in the new Go Ahead elective. These were the projects chosen by the students who selected this elective, and this is the responsible risk that Mrs. Drummond and I chose to take this year. While neither she nor I have experience in any of these things, we do have experience in learning from scratch. We vowed to figure it out.

About half of our students were ready to go before the elective even started. For the other half, dreaming hit reality. The student wishing to build a rocket had his heart set for three weeks on using chemicals that were too dangerous. Another student spent multiple weeks hoping to build a metal-framed, motor-powered go-kart, only to be disappointed at the cost and complication of it all. These students had taken the biggest leaps, and had the farthest to fall to reach a project they could make. Did they regret their choice of elective? Were they wasting their time? We didn’t think so, but it’s what they think that matters. So we asked.

We started the reflection by stating the obvious – school is about learning. Then we asked what they usually learn (as they should) in their regular classes. The essentials, foundational knowledge and skills, learning skills, subjects you need for the future, and new things you otherwise wouldn’t choose to learn were among their responses. Then we admitted that they likely weren’t learning many of those things in our elective. So what did they think they were learning? Hands shot up. Here’s what they shared:

Trying to figure out a problem on your own
Wide-open creativity
Learning to deal with choice and freedom
Experience with personalised learning
Learning to work without pressure (this is my favourite)
Learning to deal with frustration
Time management
Independent work
Doing everything yourself

They also shared that it’s exciting and interesting. Choice and freedom made the frustration worthwhile. Because the projects are entirely their own, the lessons learned, however difficult, are theirs to own as well.

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There is a lot else they’re learning. They’re learning to ask for help. They are learning to find what they need. Some are learning to figure out exceptionally complicated diagrams; some are learning about character development in writing fiction; one is learning woodworking and two are learning to solder resistors onto printed circuit boards. They’re all learning to turn ideas into reality, and they’re learning that this includes the sometimes tedious effort of figuring out the details and communicating them clearly and convincingly to others (especially if THIS other needs to go buy resources).

There’s a lot that students should learn at school, and certainly much of that must cover the essentials. But developing students to be lifelong learners requires more. At times, it can be frustrating. It’s also deeply exciting and interesting for all involved. You just need to go ahead and figure it out.

“Sometimes you have to just believe in yourself and go for it. For example, I didn’t think this project would work out at first, but it’s going very well.”

*All quotes are from grade 6 students in the Go Ahead elective.

Andrea Fanjoy,
Assistant Head, Academics
You can follow Andrea on Twitter @afanjoy.