On Friday, February 5th, 2010, students and staff at St. Benedict Catholic Secondary School donned pink to show their support in the fight againstt breast cancer. The students were encouraged to replace some or all of their uniform with a pink item. Those who participated paid a toonie for the opportunity to shed the uniform for the day in support of breast cancer research. All money raised will be donated to the Janis Foligno Foundation. Janis is the mother of two former St. Ben’s students – Lisa and Marcus. The proceeds will be presented to Marcus when he speaks at St. Benedict’s Open House on February 16th. It was a fun day to replace the uniform and raised money and awareness to support research for breast cancer.
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Synthesizing in the Classroom
Grade three teachers met at St. Albert Adult Learning Centre on February 1, 2010 to learn about Synthesizing in the classroom. Lianne Perreault-Raymond, Curriculum Consultant for SCDSB inserviced the teachers looking at different reading strategies and comprehending in action. Synthesizing allows students to make meaning out of what they read so the teachers who attended the workshop learned different ways to use this strategy in their classrooms. This inservice helped the teachers examine the different ways to improve higher order thinking with their students.
St. James Student Council and Custodian Unite to Create Hopes and Dreams for Haiti
Five hundred dollars was collected during a recent theme day hosted by the St. James student council for Haitian relief. The student council has forwarded the donations to Mr. Sunny Fournier, staff custodian and accomplished musician. Mr. Fournier, who hopes to raise $10,000 will be hosting a benefit concert for Haiti relief later this month and monies will be forwarded to aid Haitian Children.
Pius XII Catholic Elementary School Holds Second Annual Health Fair
Pius XII Catholic Elementary School held it’s second annual Health Fair on February 4, 2010. Approximately 45 second year nursing students from Laurentian University visited the school and held different sessions for the J.K. to Grade 8 students including Winter Safety, Benefits of Physical Activity, Teeth and Oral Hygiene, Handwashing and Bullying. The sessions were in various classrooms throughout the school and the students rotated between presentations. The nursing students are required to do community involvement hours and this Health fair allowed them to fulfill this requirement as well as teach the students about really important health issues. Megan Murphy, Vice-Principal of the school said that the students found the day to be really engaging and educational. “The students expressed excitement about the day.” said Murphy. “They were thrilled to have learned about so many different health issues and couldn’t wait to share their newfound knowledge with their families!’
Six Bishop Alexander Students Now Published Poets
Six students from Bishop Alexander Carter teacher Lori Roy’s Grade 11 English class didn’t realize that by submitting their poetry assignment, they would end up as published poets in a national anthology. Ms. Roy had asked her students to write a poem based on their independent study novels. The students had 5 different books to choose from that all had to do with “us versus society”. They were asked to write a comparative poem and were given the option at the end of the assignment to submit their work to Creative Communications which is a website dedicated to a “celebration of today’s writers.” Thousands of poems were submitted and only the best are picked to put into their yearly publication entitled “A Celebration of Poets”. Poems submitted by Amanda Phillips, Austin Seguin, Evan Spurrell, Brittany Marmen, Stephanie Thorne and Kaitlyn Charette were all selected to be published in the book. “We were really surprised to be picked.” said Marmen. “I would say that I am definitely inspired to start submitting more of my work to different publications in the future.”
Marymount Launches Their 2010 Heart and Stroke Campaign – “Strokes for Stroke”
Students at Marymount Academy launched the official kick off to their 2010 Heart and Stroke Campaign on February 3, 2010. The theme for the school’s campaign is “Strokes for Stroke” as the main fundraiser will involve the girls paying for a dress-down day and will be going to the Laurentian University swimming pool to enjoy an Olympic themed pool party. This theme was chosen for several reasons. Firstly, the girls wanted to promote exercise and a healthy lifestyle and swimming fits the bill. Secondly, they wanted to tie the event to the Olympics so the pool party will include several Olympic themed games and events with the several prizes to be won. On hand for the launch were several community partners including Mayor John Rodriquez and Police Chief Frank Elsner. Mayor Rodriquez spoke to the girls about the importance of community involvement and physical fitness. Rodriquez said that he was always delighted to visit Marymount as it is a school of heart and spirit. As February is Heart month, he stressed the importance of giving from the heart to support this mementous campaign and their involvement “says a lot about who you are as a individual, as a school and as citizens of Sudbury.” Chief Elsner also spoke to the girls about how he his family has been personally affected by heart disease and stroke and stressed that one of the main initiatives of the Greater Sudbury Police Service was getting involved with youth initiatives. Elner told the girls that he loved visiting Marymount because it is the school with the most spirit and he knows that with the students getting involved in this campaign, it shows that “our future is in good hands.”
Several other business were on hand as they have already begun to donate to the campaign. Lise Callahan, a teacher from Marymount who organized this event spoke to the girls about the importance of what they were undertaking. “We need to make the community aware that this is a problem for people of all ages. It does not just affect older adults, in fact, heart disease and stroke causes one in every three deaths in Canada every year.” The students will also be raising funds through raffles and other school events to support this significant campaign
St. Andrew’s Grade Three Class Raise Funds for Haitian Relief
The grade 3 students of St. Andrew School and their teacher Mr. Laurin held a bake sale on February 2nd in support of the Red Cross efforts to help the people in Haiti. To make this a learning experience for the children the teacher had each child be their own salesperson and several grade 6 students helped with the money counting. The students brought in tasty treats and also had a snowman cake to raffle. They raised $298.42 in their one day project.
Teachers Getting Even “Smarter” with the Smartboard
The Sudbury Catholic District School Board Technology Integration Mentors (T.I.M.’s) have been very busy the last few months inservicing our teachers in Smartboard training. Every elementary teacher who currently has a Smartboard in their classroom has been receiving Smartboard inservicing to help them better use this unique technology. Jennifer Connelly, one of the SCDSB T.I.M’s teachers said that by February 12, 2010, all of these elementary teachers at our board who have a Smartboard will be Level 1 certified trained.
Traditional Elders in the Classroom at St. Andrew
The St. Andrew School grade six class welcomed Vince Pawis and Thecla Neganegijig, both traditional Elders who work with the board at the Outdoor Education Centre in Killarney, to their school. Vince started the presentation with a traditional Smudging ceremony to elliminate all the bad energy in the room. He spoke to the students and their teacher about the Medicine Wheel and traditional medicines of tobacco, sage, sweetgrass and cedar. Mr. Pawis also tied in the 7 Grandfather Good Life Teachings of wisdom, respect, love, bravery, humility, honesty and truth. The students and their teacher, Mr. Gautheir, were very interested to learn more about First Nation culture and tradition.