Up Next Recordings

James Lyng CLC is an Urban Arts School in Montreal which has over the last 3 years developed exciting school-community partnerships with organizations led by members of Montreal’s vibrant hip hop scene, and students have recently launched their very own record label: Up Next Recordings.

“Between W.O.R.D. (an extra-curricular Hip Hop literacy program), a curated  multi-media art exhibit, a student-centered music program and school choir, there is an amazing amount of high quality music created at our school. The students saw a need to promote our school's music and decided to create a record label and release a mixtape entitled "Up Next Mixtape #1” comments James Lyng CLC teacher Nathan Gage.  

Nathan,the music and entrepreneurship teacher points out "Artists like Drake got their start by releasing mixtapes which fans could download for free.”

"Through community partners and our partnership with McGill's Department of Integrated Studies in Education, my students have developed working relationships with amazing and inspiring adults. I have seen my students benefit greatly from these interactions".

The CLC approach of school-community partnerships develops the supports and conditions for students to contribute to projects that have a life outside the confines of the school and helps provide authentic opportunities for students to engage with their school community.

Reflecting on the impact of the project, Nathan observed that  his students "have benefited by seeing their hard work come to fruition and be recognized.”

How did they do it?

The class was divided into 4 groups

1.     social media and website

2.     communications and media

3.     marketing and accounting

4.     art and advertising (poster, graphic design)

I asked Nathan how he managed the class and kept a record of student learning.  He used a different binder for each group, and students logged what they did each day.

Specific tasks included:

• Creating a budget
• Creating a website
• Setting up a social media presence
• Designing posters
• Designing a logo
• Designing cover art for the mixtape
• Helping a professional studio engineer record the James Lyng choir
• Assigning track order and song transitions for the mixtape
• Creating CD copies to give to students involved in the project
• Writing a press release
• Writing a one sheet
• Emailing radio stations across the country
• Contacting local media

You can hear more about the project from a great interview on CBC Montreal's Daybreak and the CBC radio program Cinq à Six.

Check out the Montreal Gazette article about James Lyng's Urban Arts Initiative here.

Student Voice in a Second Language

Student voice and meaningful student involvement are important elements of Community Service Learning projects.  Student voice happens when there is a process for engaging students as partners in school improvement for the sake of education, community, and democracy.   

Madame Desjardins, a French teacher at Laurier Macdonald CLC created a space for her secondary five students to address a community and school need.  Students worked out solutions to an authentic environmental problem, all the time communicating in their second language.

Students first became aware of the problem of the urban heat island or in French, « îlots de chaleur urbains » during a presentation by the local Écoquatier.

When the students understood that an under utilized asphalt section of their schoolyard was an example of an urban heat island, an idea developed to create a student initiated green space called “Eco-Laurier”.

Every 2-3 weeks, Madame Desjardins invited community partners from Écoquartier, a youth entrepreneurship counsellor from Horizon Carrière and a local landscape architect.

The students were split into 4 different committees – Marketing, Finance, Production and Human Resources.  The students had to communicate and coordinate with each other in French.   As the space came together, the students researched the appropriate flowers and vegetation to plant and built benches.  The space was promoted with the slogan – “chill in the back of LMAC to eat your snack and just relax”.

It is not always easy for teachers to make space for students to have voice.  I asked Madame Desjardins what she learned from the experience and she replied, “I learned to let go and work without a net”.

I applaud her attitude, especially when it results in young people having a chance to gain self-confidence and address an authentic need in their community, especially while using their second language.