Edmonton Oilers ICE School

I’ve tromped all over downtown Edmonton with kids. For our magic carpet ride from the Legislature to Rogers Place I want to glide past Historic McKay Avenue School Archives & Museum again, then head north down the middle of 104 St., the 4^th Street Promenade. By flying low, just 3 floors off the ground, we’ll clear the traffic lights but stay surrounded by the history. I love the feeling here. For sentimental reasons, my favorite building is the Birks Building. My wedding band was custom made in it and the diamonds checked, every so often, until Birks moved to Manulife Place. There is a sideways, hockey time-trip that connects Manulife Place to the Legislature. Manulife sits on the site of Edmonton’s first indoor hockey rink, the Thistle Rink, which was the meeting place of the opening session of the Alberta Legislature. I LOVE telling the story of the Thistle’s spectacular disappearance to anyone who will listen. Back on 104 St. we pass the wonderfully nostalgic and enchanting-to-look-at Neon Sign Museum. We’ve reached our destination, the south-west corner of Rogers Place, home of the Edmonton Oilers ICE School.

The program was the first initiative of the Edmonton Oilers Community Foundation, dedicated to building strong, vibrant and safe communities by demonstrating philanthropic leadership with a focus on education, health and wellness and hockey programming for youth in Northern Alberta. And it goes without saying (but I will) that this program was my personal introduction to everything awesome about week-long, site-based, inquiry back in 2002.

With Rogers Place Covid-19 dark, I caught up to Cheryl McLeod, Coordinator, at home. Cheryl is an EPSB teacher seconded to facilitate ICE School. Her first encounter with Inquiring Minds was ICE School. Although she had taken classes to the Strathcona Science Centre and Bennett Centre for overnight educational experiences and understood the power, she had not heard of the Inquiring Minds programs. In the spring 2013, her principal at Riverdale School, Dave Bennell, an alumni of ICE School himself, suggested Cheryl apply. She had hockey playing sons and an extensive collection of hockey books in her classroom library. She took his advice and the rest as we say is history. Over the next few years, she attended City Hall School and U School. When it came time for Diane Gurnham, the program facilitator from 2011 to 2018, to retire Cheryl threw her hat in the ring.

Cheryl wants teachers to know that ICE School is not only focused on hockey. The whole building, the science, the history, the arts, career pathways, Cam Tait, marketing and horses (yes horses) all have connections. She invites students to be explorers during their week, see interesting things and make connections.

She has many favorite gems to share with students but one of the magical moments that never gets old occurs when a class steps into the ICE School classroom for the first time. That lovely classroom was part of the design of Rogers Place from the beginning because the program existed years before Rogers Place. This speaks on many levels to the place of the program in the Oilers' world, and that is a wonderful place indeed.

The Inquiring Minds website has this to say about Edmonton Oilers ICE School:

At ICE School teachers are given the opportunity to move their classroom into the world of Rogers Place and the new Edmonton Ice District. ICE School incorporates site facilities and the provincial curriculum to develop a week of hands on learning to fit the needs of each class.  At ICE School we believe learning occurs when experiences are concrete, real and meaningful, when connections are made between topics, concepts and skills and when time is provided for observation and reflections using journals.

Look at the ICE School webpage. https://www.nhl.com/oilers/eocf/ice-school

Do you want to know more? Contact Cheryl at cmcleod@edmontonoilers.com

You can start your application process at the Inquiring Minds website. https://ourinquiringminds.wordpress.com/application/