Art Petahtegoose, former Chief and an Elder from Atikameksheng Anishnawbek, shared the teachings of the pipe to a captivated Grade 12 Native Studies class at St. Charles College.
The Elder also spoke of forgiveness and of coming together as a community to build a better, more respectful future for our next generation. The students prepared a feast to celebrate the season of Thanksgiving with Mr. Petahtegoose.
The Ontario Federation of School Athletic Association (OFSAA), with the financial support of the Ontario Trillium Foundation, an agency of the Ontario Government, is again providing funding for 260 high schools across the Province to initiate a new sport or physical activity program into their school – St. Charles College is one of these lucky schools.
The “Try Day” programs are intended to introduce high school students to non-traditional sports or physical activities that may attract students who previously have not participated. This is the second year of a three-year grant program in which the Ontario Trillium foundation has provided up to $800 per school to assist schools with promoting these goals.
The funds will assist St. Charles College to help introduce “Floorball” to the Grade 9 to Grade 12 Physical Education Classes. “Floorball” is a non-contact team sport, the premise of the game is to direct the ball into the opposing team’s goal using a composite-fibre stick fitted with a plastic blade.
On October 1, 2008 the students of St. Charles College were provided with an opportunity to experience the “Floorball” sport at the school. Not many students were familiar with the sport at first but being a combination of the two most popular sports in Canada (hockey and soccer), many students showed excellent skills and the game quickly caught on.
“Floorball is an excellent alternative to Floor Hockey,” says St. Charles College, Physical Education Program Leader, Chantal Dagastino. “The big difference between the two is that the rules of floorball do not allow for any high sticking, stick contact or body contact, so the game tends to be less physical than Floor Hockey and more skill oriented and fast paced.
The Try Day event offered the St. Charles College students the opportunity to try a new sport and to see if it can be integrated into their physical education program. The sport was met with a great success as students were very active during their gym time and it helped promote a healtheir lifestyle.
“One Life…Many Gifts” is a senior secondary school pilot curriculum program aimed at raising the level of understanding about organ and tissue donation in secondary school classrooms across the province.
Dr. Frank Markel, President and CEO of Trillium Gift of Life Network and Joan Green, Education Consultant and Program Advisor will present “One Life…Many Gifts” to Sudbury Catholic District School Board trustees, senior administration, elementary and secondary school principals, school chaplains and the entire CEC office staff.
“It is vital to begin the conversation around organ and tissue donation with students in our high schools,” said Markel. “Our hope is that every student will start talking about the importance of organ and tissue donation and will talk to their loved ones about their wishes.”
This curriculum will be delivered in approximately 240 schools in 20 school boards across Ontario in the 2008/09 academic year, including the Sudbury Catholic District School Board.
“The focus of the presentation is not the science of transplants, but how to help individuals become civically engaged enough to want to become their brother’s keeper,” said veteran educator Green.
Immediately following the presentation, Mrs. Green will be meeting with the Board’s secondary principals with regard to Education, Quality, and Accountability Office (EQAO) data and the importance of this data analysis at the secondary level.
Grand Council Chief of the Anishinabek Nation, John Beaucage will be visiting St. Charles College on Tuesday, October 21, 2008 from to speak to the students re the “Anishinabek Manifesto.”
The Sudbury Catholic District School Board is very much appreciative of the fact that Grand Chief Beaucage is taking time from his busy schedule (as he has 42 Anishinabek bands under his leadership) to address the students on this very important topic. The Anishinabek Political Manifesto as part of its mandate states that the “Anishinabek Nation, under the authority of the Creator through the Grand Council Chiefs-in-Assembly and the Office of the Grand Council Chief have endeavoured to assert the inherent rights and reestablish the jurisdiction of the Anishinabek Nation.”
In October 2004, Grand Council Chief John Beaucage was elected to serve the 42-member First Nations of the Anishinabek Nation. Prior to his election as Grand Council Chief, Beaucage was the elected Chief of Wasauksing First Nation and has served in that capacity for the past eight years.
Chief Beaucage is a graduate of the University of Western Ontario with degrees in English and economics, and he has done post-graduate work in First Nation planning at the University of British Columbia. Grand Council Chief Beaucage also played an instrumental role in the First Ministers’ Meeting in Kelowna, BC in November of 2005. Leading up to the First Ministers’ Meeting, Beaucage served as the Co-chair for First Ministers’ Working Groups for both Housing and Relationships.
In addition to his role as Grand Council Chief, Beaucage is also the President of the Anishinabek Nation Management Group Inc. and the Anishinabek Nation Seventh Generation Charities.
Canadian Author, Eric Walters will visit St. Francis Catholic School on Wednesday, October 8, 2008 to speak to students and staff about his books as well as the writing process in general. Eric Walters is a former intermediate division elementary teacher who began writing books in order to encourage his students to read.
The Grade 7 and 8 students at St. Francis Catholic School enjoy reading Mr. Walters’ novels in class as they find them quite relevant and they encourage a love of reading in all students.
In addition, Mr. Walters will be making a stop at Marymount Academy (165 D’Youville Street) on the same day from 12:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m to present to the Grade 7 and 8 girls. The presentations will take place in the gym. In similar fashion to the St. Francis students, the Marymount students have been studying his novels for the past month to prepare for this presentation.
Pius XII Catholic School presents “Meet the Candidates” on Tuesday, October 7 (9:30 a.m.), at Pius XII Catholic School, 44 Third Avenue, Sudbury.
The Pius XII Catholic School students are participating in the Student Vote Program and students will cast a vote ballot on October 10, 2008 in a mock election. The Student Vote Program offers students the opportunity to converse with peers and family about the upcoming federal election.
Students will explore different points of view, develop habits of informed citizenship and learn our rights and responsibilities. The following candidates have confirmed their attendance for the discussions on that day; Gerry Labelle, PC Party, Diane Marleau, Liberal Party, and Richard Eberhardt, representative for the NDP.
Trustees, senior administration, principals, vice-principals, teachers, students, and parents along with staff of the Sudbury Catholic District School Board joined special guests and stakeholders in launching the Board’s vision at Marymount Academy on September 16, 2008.
Catherine McCullough, the Board’s Director of Education unveiled the new vision to a capacity crowd of well-wishers who had gathered in the Marymount gymnasium with great anticipation. The unveiling ceremony included an honour guard procession by the Knights of Columbus followed by a special paraliturgy, a blessing of the banners by Deacon Steve Callaghan and a candle lighting ceremony by all of the Board’s representatives that helped create the vision.
In her opening remarks to the audience, the Director stated that the goal of arriving at a vision and a subsequent vision statement was a long and fruitful journey involving numerous individuals, groups, sectors, and partners in Catholic Education. “A vision statement is vital to any organization because it provides a sense of commonality,” stated McCullough. “A shared vision gives us a common language that binds us together. We are all connected when we share the same vision. The standards that define the individual and the entity must be clearly conveyed in this one simple message.”
Paula Peroni, Chair of the Board echoed McCullough’s comments and noted that the quest for the vision statement was an intricate and complex process due to the large number of stakeholders that this vision represented. The catalyst to develop a vision statement began by Catholic stakeholders and from the Institute for Catholic Education Symposium in March of 2007.
“It was agreed by all parties that we needed to celebrate the presence of Catholic Education in our community,” stated Peroni in her address to the crowd. “The preliminary discussions began amongst the governance of the Sudbury Catholic District School Board, including the six Trustees, two Student Trustees, and the Senior Administration team.” Throughout a series of consultations with principals, vice-principals, board office staff, teaching staff and education assistants, support staff, parents, parish partners, and students, the vision statement became increasingly refined. Each party was asked for their response to the working vision and this feedback was implemented until a consensus could be reached. The final vision statement, Sudbury Catholic Schools… Creating Hopes and Dreams Through Excellence is a culmination of insight and experience from all board representatives. “It is with excitement and optimism that we look forward to implementing our vision statement during the 2008-2009 academic year in each of our schools,” concluded Peroni.
The Sudbury Catholic District School Board is pleased to have three Cabinet Ministers in the McGuinty government visit St. David Catholic School on September 9, 2008. Minister of Education, Kathleen Wynne along with Minister of Aboriginal Affairs, Michael Bryant and Minister of Community Safety and Correctional Services, Rick Bartolucci were in the City of Greater Sudbury to meet the students and teachers at St. David Catholic School and to make a very special funding announcement in support of the Board’s Aboriginal students.
The Education Quality and Accountability Office (EQAO) has released the results of the Grades 3 and 6 reading, writing and mathematics tests, the Grade 9 academic and applied mathematics tests and the Grade 10 Ontario Secondary Schools Literacy Tests (OSSLT’s) written by Ontario students during the 2007–2008 school year.
Officials at the Sudbury Catholic District School Board are pleased with the results of their Grade 3 and 6 students with both grades demonstrating gains across the spectrum. With respect to Grade 3, student scores improved in reading (from 56 percent to 57 percent), writing (from 53 percent to 58 percent) and in mathematics (from 59 percent to 61 percent). The Board’s Grade 6 students demonstrated gains in the reading component (from 68 percent to 75 percent), from 58 percent to 69 percent in writing and improved in math (from 59 to 60 percent).
With respect to the Board’s secondary schools, the math component remained relatively unchanged in both the academic (74 percent) and applied programs (29 percent) while the Board’s Grade 10 OSSLT scores improved dramatically to an all time high of 90 percent.
Paula Peroni, Chair of the Sudbury Catholic District School Board is encouraged with the recent test results. “Our board continues to trend upward with respect to the number of our Grade 3 and 6 students who have met or surpassed the provincial standards in reading, writing and math thanks to the hard work and commitment of our teachers and staff,” states Peroni. “We firmly believe that the introduction of technology has played a major role in the success of Sudbury Catholic Schools’ students through improved learning which can be directly linked to an overall increase in our Board’s primary and junior EQAO scores. The recent release of EQAO data listed Sudbury Catholic District School Board’s Grade 6 reading achievement levels and Grade 10 OSSLT (English) scores as the highest in Northern Ontario.”
Catherine McCullough, Director of Education for the Sudbury Catholic District School Board is equally optimistic with the latest data. “This truly is a good news story for our Board,”says McCullough. “Not only are our test scores improving for our Grade 3 and 6 students from the pervious year but we have demonstrated significant gains in reading, writing and math since 2005. “This positive EQAO report coupled with the fact that our elementary and secondary enrolment is on the increase which translates into the Board hiring four new teachers is an excellent start to our new school year.”
For further information and a link to the complete results visit our EQAO section at http://www.scdsb.edu.on.ca/schools/eqao.php
