St. James students, staff, and community partners literally formed a human circle around their school and gave it a hug. The human circle symbolizes friendships, inclusiveness, respect, faith, and community. We are all in this building together and we need to always show in our actions that we are a St. James family. To show that we care and that we are a Safe Catholic School community we literally gave our school a St. James Bear Hug!
Month: November 2013
A ‘Different” Movember at Holy Cross
During the month of November, several of Holy Cross teacher Tania Fay’s grade 2 students asked why they were seeing so many men with moustaches, and what the term Movember meant. Fay thought this would be a great learning opportunity for her students to discuss the importance of community initiatives. As the school often has different fundraisers throughout the year, several for cancer organizations, the class talked about how important it is to makes those in their own community happy by always trying to be supportive however they can. This discussion led to their own Movember initiative. Fay asked students in the grade three class to help the grade two students write stories about how they all suddenly grew moustaches. On Thursday, November 28, the two classes got together and shared their stories with each other – all while touting their own Movember ‘staches. “It was a great teaching opportunity that I couldn’t pass up,” explained Fay. “Our students are so observant of the world around them – and when they began noticing many moustaches sprouting on their dads’ faces, we were able to turn that into a fun discussion, a peer-to peer learning moment and a great way to show them the important of giving back and supporting one’s own community!”
Celebrating Ste. Catherine at St. John
On Monday, November 25th, St. John Catholic Elementary School French Immersion students celebrated the tradition of Ste-Catherine. The students celebrated by making taffy with their families and teachers.
Sudbury Catholic Teacher Wins Teacher of the Year from the Learning Disabilities Association of Sudbury (LDAS)
It comes as no surprise to those who work with her, to find out that Sudbury Catholic teacher Jennifer Connelly is the recipient of this year’s Learning Disabilities Association of Sudbury (LDAS) teacher of the year award. As the Assistive Technology teacher, Connelly works with students from kindergarten to grade 12, along with their teachers and special education team. Connelly has been a teacher for 8 years, in her current role for 3 years and is often in high demand as a technology teacher. As well, as she is also an Apple Distinguished Educator and also sits on the Board of Apple Distinguished Educators and is also an Apple Certified Trainer. As a result of this position, she has travelled to many countries including the US and Ireland to take part in Apple’s international conferences.
As the Sudbury Catholic assistive technology teacher, Connelly sees technology as a tool that helps students be successful in their learning. When asked, Connelly is quick to recognize that “it is through the hard work and dedication of the entire special education team, that Sudbury Catholic has been able to meet the needs of their students.” With leadership from Superintendent Rossella Bagnato, Connelly has seen the positive changes assistive technology has instilled in the students.
Sudbury Catholic Special Education Consultant Christina Raso explains, “Jennifer is such a dedicated and passionate teacher, and her love of technology is quite evident in her constant pursuit of innovative and exciting programs and software/hardware to support the success of our students. We are very fortunate to have her be a part of the special education team at Sudbury Catholic and know that she is making a positive difference in the lives of our students every single day.”
As a result of her constant pursuit of new ways to support student learning, Connelly often is given the opportunity to be a beta-tester for new products and applications to see if they might work for the Sudbury Catholic students.
“I am honoured and humbled to receive this award,” Connelly said” “I see this more as an award for our entire special education team at Sudbury Catholic for all of our hard work and love for teaching.”
Peacemakers at St. Raphael
Students in the FDK class at St. Raphael Catholic Elementary School are learning what it means to be “peaceful.” Throughout the month of November students participated in a number of activities that promoted friendship, sharing, and teamwork. Their learning culminated during the SCDSB’s Bully Awareness Week, where they had a peace party! Students wore the colour pink, played co-operative games, participated in a Bingo game with some of our Gr.8 students, and had a ‘peace picnic.’ Although their Anti-Bullying Week has come to an end, they hope that their learning about what it means to be peaceful will stick with their students and that they will continue to be peacemakers in their lives.
Peace Rainbow at Holy Cross
Holy Cross Catholic Elementary School students created a Peace Rainbow during Bullying Prevention Week. At Holy Cross School, they focused on the positive and proactive strategies that students can use to prevent and to resolve conflict. For the Peasce Rainbow, students were asked to use their five senses to describe what Peace means to them. Then, each student was asked to indicate, either by drawing or writing, what Peace feels like to them on a coloured dove. Each dove corresponds to a colour of the rainbow and to one of the senses. The Peace Rainbow is displayed in the main foyer so that parents and visitors can easily see what peace means to students at Holy Cross School.
Learning About Setting Goals and Self-Esteem at Pius XII
Pius XII Catholic Elementary School was honoured to have Amber Konikow talk to the students about smart goals, self-esteem and motivation. The students learned about practice, being prepared, hard work, and dedication. Amber spoke about her difficult times in school and how she was picked on, however, having the support of close friends, family and teachers allowed her to make the right choices in her life. She reminded students that people will always remember you for your kindness, friendship and support – and that is what is important and how we should act with one another.
Amber Konikow is a registered nurse, endurance runner, Olympic style boxer, stunt actor,membero fhte Canadian Esteem Team and motivational speaker. She has been nominated for the Premier award under the Health and Sciences category for Ontario. Amber is also the 2011 winner of the 40 under 40 ward.
Pledging to be Bully-Free at BAC
At Bishop Alexander Carter Catholic Secondary School, teachers and students promoted anti-bullying week. This year’s theme was “Peace”. Students created the “Tree of Peace” where students pledged to be bully free by placing their palm print on the tree. Other events during the week included a presentation to grade 9 students on the effects of cyber-bullying and the role that bystanders can play in decreasing incidents of bullying. Students also posted myths and facts about bullying in each of the classrooms. A new group of students at BAC will soon be trained to become leaders within their school in developing programs and presentations for their fellow classmates.
St. Ben’s Robotics Team Mentor Rookie BAC Team
On November 14th, 2013, seven St. Benedict Catholic Secondary School students along with the teacher lead, Julianne Falconi, conducted grade level presentations to Bishop Alexander Carter students.
St. Benedict was the first school in the Catholic Board to participate in FIRST Robotics, an innovative competition that combines the excitement of sport with the rigors of science and technology. Under strict rules, limited resources, and time limits, teams are challenged to raise funds, hone teamwork skills, design, manufacture, and program robots to perform prescribed tasks againstt a field of competitors (www.usfirst.org). Last year, team ‘RoBenedicts’ attended a regional competition in Toronto as well as the World Championships in St. Louis, Missouri.
St. Benedict is excited to announce that there will be two new schools joining in on the robotics program: Bishop Alexander Carter and St. Charles College. St. Benedict will be mentoring and guiding these two teams throughout the off-season, robot build-season, and competitions. “We are happy to be mentoring other schools that are participating in FIRST Robotics. The experience is incredible and it’s exciting to see more people getting involved,” said Team Captain, Mark Abantao.
The goal of the presentation was to spark student interest and recruit members for the newly formed BAC team. Overall, it was very successful, and the St. Benedict students will be attending St. Charles on Monday November 25th.
In attendance from St. Benedict were Mark Abantao (Team Captain), Max Bennett and Brendan Sullivan (Engineering Leads), Elisa Basik and Francesco Modesto (Business Leads), Carter Bourette (Programming Lead), Owen Sarmatiuk (Strategy Lead), and Ms. Falconi (Teacher Lead).