Board office staff of the Sudbury Catholic District School Board brought in donations this past month to support Community Access Programming. This organization collects warm clothing for families in need during the winter months. The board office staff brought in socks, hats, mitts and scarves to donate to these families.
Month: December 2009
Bishop Simard Celebrates Christmas with St. Ben’s
The staff and students of St. Benedict Catholic Secondary School were treated to a mass with Bishop Simard this past week. In the spirit of Christmas, Bishop Simard was invited to speak to the St. Benedict community and extol Christmas blessings upon them. As well, the Grade 8 students of St. James were also invited to share in their celebration.
Sudbury Regional Police Supports St. David’s
The Greater Sudbury Police Services Admin. Chief, Deputy Chief and Inspectors went to St. David’s recently to spread the gift of the Love of Reading with the students and staff of St. David Catholic Elementary School. Each school day for one week, a member of the Greater Sudbury Police Services senior team took time out in the classrooms and read Christmas tales of peace, joy an giving. Students were inspired and enthused after the police services visits and were looking forward to sharing a good book with their mentors in the new year!
St. John Catholic Elementary School Supports St. John the Evangelist Parish
Father Mathieu, Parish Priest of St. John the Evangelist in Garson accepted a cheque from Toni Kritz-Roque, the grade 2 teacher from St. John Catholic Elementary School last week. The school raised the money through gift donations from staff and students that were used to make baskets and then raffled off. As well, local business donated gift certificates for the school’s gift tree. Tickets were sold and a total of $1500 was raised to support the parish. The parish is using the money to purchase malaria nets for children in third world countries. Each net costs ten dollars and can potentially protect a small family or groups of children from malaria.
St. Andrew School Community Proudly Supports Student Success
The parents from St. Andrew Catholic Elementary School generously dedicated their evening hours once every two months to work at Bingo One and earned extra funds to support student success for their children. Some of the wonderful things they have done are to support an amazing up to date library, stock the classroom libraries, grassed the soccer field, supplied trees for the field, purchased a summer shade structure and funded many extra curricular field trips to support the arts and athletics in the school. A warm thank you goes out to the parents on behalf of the St. Andrew Catholic School community!
Sudbury Catholic District School Board Staff Take Part in Teacher Learning And Leadership Program (TLLP)
The Teacher Learning and Leadership Program (TLLP)is an opportunity for experienced teachers to engage in self-directed action research with funding from the Ministry of Education. Teachers submit project proposals to their Principal, who then sends the proposal on to the Superintendent of Program. The Superintendent then selects one or two projects to send on to the Ministry for consideration. This project was initiated in 2007, with the first two cohorts of projects reaching completion in July 2009. The Sudbury Catholic District School Board has had a project in each of the three cohorts so far (two have been completed, and one in ongoing).
In November, all of the project leaders from the first two cohorts across the province came together in Toronto to celebrate and share their findings. This “Sharing the Learning Summit” was a powerful and positive experience. Marlene Lee, a teacher from St. Paul School, shared her project entitled Cameras, Camcorders and Computers: Intermediate Students Sharing their Visual Insights”. Krista Sarmatiuk, Kathy McDowell and Kevin Krystia, from St. Raphael School, shared their project entitled “Problem-Solving: Math, Literacy and Logic”.
Thanks to Ministry funding, both teams have developed valuable resources for teachers to use which will help to promote student success by creating engaging and differentiated learning opportunities.
All of the TLLP participants were sent an invitation to submit a proposal to present at the 5th Annual Ontario Education Research Symposium. Marlene Lee’s presentation was one of thirty-five proposals accepted to mount a display from February 17 -19, 2010. She will now have the opportunity to share what she has learned during her TLLP and also to see what other educational research is taking place in the province.
Glenn Thibeault Supports Community and SCDSB
Our Member of Parliament, Glenn Thibeault is well known for supporting our community and once again he has stepped up to the plate and is aiming the spotlight on the importance of Autism awareness. The calendar that he distributes has a personal message that details his tabling of a bill – bill C-360, an Act to Amend the Canadian Health Act (Autism Spectrum Disorder). If passed, this bill would ensure that the cost of Applied Behavioural Analysis (ABA) and Intensive Behavioural Intervention (IBI) are covered by the health care insurance plan of every province. To support this, his calendar provides facts about autism to dispel myths and has also included artwork on each page that was created by the students of the Sudbury Catholic District School Board.
Thank you Mr. Thibeault for championing such a great cause and for once again supporting our board!
SCDSB Staff Published Authors in National Magazine
Dawn Wemigwans, Aboriginal Lead and Christina Raso, Special Education Consultant are both Sudbury Catholic District School Board staff who go above and beyond in their roles on a regular basis. Even though their daily workloads allow them little time for anything else, they both realized the importance of sharing best practices with other boards across Canada. Theresa Harris, Executive Director for the Ontario Catholic supervisory Officer’s Association asked all of the Catholic school boards across the province to submit their ideas and initiatives that engage young children in schools. The two women decided to write an article highlighting the value of providing authentic aboriginal learning experiences to students and how this already is taking place at our board. The selected articles were them submitted to a national magazine entitled “Leaders and Learners” which is the official magazine of the Canadian Association of School Administrators The article written by Wemigwans and Raso was one of seven from the entire province selected for the magazine.
St. Mary’s Students Hit the Bigtime!
The music was blaring as the students practiced for the last time before their big performance at St. Mary Catholic Elementary School last week. Ms. O’Reilly, a teacher at the school organized a lip synch contest for those daring students who wanted to participate in the big show. With costumes covered in “bling” and musical instrument props at the ready, the kids rehearsed their choreography anxious to wow the audience. “It is a nice event for the students just before Christmas.” said Gen Waszczylo, principal of the school. “The kids really work hard to prepare and the rest of the students enjoy the different acts. It is fun for everybody!” As predicted, the performance went off without a hitch and was a huge hit for all of the students and staff!