Happy Thanksgiving to all of our American family, friends and neighbours. The American version of Thanksgiving marks the unofficial start to the “Holiday Season.” We look forward to a time of holiday cheer over the coming weeks. Be sure to visit us in your school library to find out more, especially in December when our theme is “Holidays and Holy Days.”
Happy Thanksgiving to all of our American friends, family and neighbours! Along with Turkey and football games, another staple of American Thanksgiving for many is listening to the 18 minute classic, “Alice’s Restaurant.”
November has been Peace month in the School Library, with an emphasis on understanding peace education, the antiwar movements, civil disobedience and other non-violent means of social change. Such themes overlap with American Thanksgiving in “Alice’s Restaurant.”
Originally released in 1967, Arlo Guthrie’s 18 minute long recording of “Alice’s Restaurant” has become on of the most famous protest songs against the Vietnam War. The events described in the song, beginning with a Thanksgiving celebration amongst friends during the sixties, were the inspiration for a film which was released in 1969.
More than 50 years later Guthrie’s signature song is a staple of classic rock radio stations on and around American Thanksgiving.
Find out more:
November is Peace Month at your School Library. Other “Songs of Peace” in this series:
Other “Songs of Peace” in this series:
We are in the middle of one of the best weeks of the year as we fill the library with students to play board games! Classes from across the curriculum have come in to experience the joy of board games and to celebrate International Games Month @ Your Library.
Bob Dylan has written many songs that are prominent in lists of the greatest protest songs of all time. One of his greatest is “Blowin’ in the Wind” from 1962.
How many roads must a man walk down
Before you call him a man?
Yes, ’n’ how many seas must a white dove sail
Before she sleeps in the sand?
Yes, ’n’ how many times must the cannonballs fly
Before they’re forever banned?
The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind
The answer is blowin’ in the wind
How many years can a mountain exist
Before it’s washed to the sea?
Yes, ’n’ how many years can some people exist
Before they’re allowed to be free?
Yes, ’n’ how many times can a man turn his head
Pretending he just doesn’t see?
The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind
The answer is blowin’ in the wind
How many times must a man look up
Before he can see the sky?
Yes, ’n’ how many ears must one man have
Before he can hear people cry?
Yes, ’n’ how many deaths will it take till he knows
That too many people have died?
The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind
The answer is blowin’ in the wind
Over the years song has been performed with some iconic covers. In fact, just weeks after Dylan’s version debuted, Peter, Paul and Mary released their cover.
Other great cover versions include those from Stevie Wonder, Sam Cooke, and Joan Baez, who has performed and recorded solo versions and duets with Bob Dylan.
Other “Songs of Peace” in this series:
November is Peace Month at your School Library
Here are a few of the titles in the games collection at your School Library. We have some classic favourites as well as some newer games that you may not have heard of. Come on in to give them a try.
November is International Games Month @ Your Library
We are pleased to host the First Peoples in Residence program at Lord Tweedsmuir this week. We welcome District Indigenous Cultural Facilitators to our school who will be helping our students and staff to learn more about First Peoples culture, history, art, music, worldviews, ways of being, and more.
Find out more:
Indigenous Learning in Surrey Schools.
Find out more about why we should be using games in the classrooms– and the libraries– of our schools.
November is International Games Month @ Your Library.
Fans of metal and hard rock know that some of the most overt anti-war songs have come from bands such as Metallica, Megadeth and Iron Maiden. Going way back to the roots of metal, in 1970 Black Sabbath gave us “War Pigs,” a scathing indictment of war.
Generals gathered in their masses
Just like witches at black masses
Evil minds that plot destruction
Sorcerer of death’s constructionIn the fields, the bodies burning
As the war machine keeps turning
Death and hatred to mankind
Poisoning their brainwashed minds
Oh lord, yeah!
Other “Songs of Peace” in this series:
November is Peace Month at your School Library
Here are some novels which explore themes of war and the horrors faced by those who fight them.
November is Peace Month in your School Library
Remembrance Day is November 11. Today at LTSS we will observe Remembrance Day Assemblies.
Armistice Day was established to honour the fallen of the First World War, which formally ended at “the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month.” Later, the name of the day was changed to Remembrance Day. Canadians served and died in yet another World War, as well as other wars and peacekeeping missions around the globe. Remembrance Day is a national holiday to honour the memory of those Canadians who have fallen in war.
On Remembrance Day we pay our respect to those that have paid the terrible costs of war. Remembrance Day is not meant to celebrate war or glorify war. War has brought untold suffering and pain to the world. Those who has experienced war, especially those that have lost loved ones in war, know that war is not something to celebrate.
It is also important to remember that Remembrance Day is not one of the those holidays that is just a chance for rest and recreation. Please take some time to reflect on what Remembrance Day is all about. On November 11th at 11:00 AM, plan to take some time to honour those that have died and all those who lived through the horrors of war. Whether you attend a ceremony in person, or check out the television coverage of the ceremony in Ottawa or other parts of Canada, take some time for Remembrance.
Many of Bob Marley’s Songs show up on lists of the greatest songs about peace and critiques of war. We previously featured “One Love.” In 1971 Bob Marley and the Wailers gave us “Fussing and Fighting.” The lyrics are simple but the message combined with the music is deeply compelling.
We should really love each other
In peace and harmony, ooh
Instead, we’re fussing and fighting
And them workin’ iniquity
Other “Songs of Peace” in this series:
November is Peace Month at your School Library
November is International Games Month @ Your School Library. All month long we will be celebrating the joy of games and learning more about the tremendous educational power of games.
Be sure to ask your teacher about when your class is heading down to the school library for games!
Lord Tweedsmuir Secondary School Library 