On January 27, the students from St. Francis Catholic Elementary School celebrated Literacy Day. Students in kindergarten to grade six were asked to donate gently used books from their home and trade them in for“new” books. The event was organized by Special Education Resource Teacher, Ms. Graziella Visentin who encourages the use of technology to assist with reading as well as the use of traditional hardcopy books to practice reading skills. The school cafeteria and gathering room had a wide variety of book titles on display for students to choose from. Students also donated English and French books. The book swap originally began between two primary classrooms and eventually grew to involve the whole school over the last few years due to its success. The book swap provided an excellent opportunity for students to exchange books within their school community, encourage the love of reading and recycle books. Students enjoyed selecting free books to take home for Literacy Day.
Category: Programs
Sharing Indigenous Arts and Culture at MMA
On Friday January 18, 2016, Marymount Academy had the pleasure of spending some of their afternoon with special guest Lisa Marie Naponse. Their guest was introduced by two very confident young women, students Tyanna Soucy and Hailey Organ. These two ladies are currently representatives of the Aniisinaabe Cultural group here at Marymount Academy which is organized in collaboration with Carla Petahtegoose, the SCDSB Indigenous Education Support Worker. Lisa Marie is a self-taught singer and songwriter from Atikameksheng Anishinawbek. She shared her art and music which is a blend of blues, folk, and country. During her visit with Marymount she engaged the students in song and rhythm. Lisa shared with the students that as she was growing up, she was surrounded by music and creativity her mother and father played music and her sisters were pow wow dancers and craftswomen. Lisa speaks to people through music on indigenous life and her experiences as an Anishnawbe Kwe(Woman). Lisa quickly embraced the microphone community; which lead her to eventually co-founding an Indigenous Arts Collective that showcased Indigenous performances and art throughout the city of Ottawa. Today Lisa Marie has returned to her community and is working on new music and art. Finally, to finish off our assembly Hailey Organ kindly presented a gift on behalf of the Marymount staff and students.
SCDSB Trustee Deni Among the First Cohort of Trustees to Successfully Complete OCSTA Course
In 2015 eight universities in Ontario collaborated with the Ontario Catholic School Trustee Association (OCSTA) to create the OCSTA Certificate Course in Leadership & Good Governance. This is a 12-week online course that is provincial in scope but also includes local Catholic issues specific to a trustee’s own regional district. The course provides a trustee with many benefits such as developing a greater understanding and appreciation of the history of Catholic education in Ontario along with a greater understanding of the role of Catholic social teaching in our modern society. The leadership lessons of Pope Francis are also explored in the course. Topics include youth engagement in Catholic education, the role of the trustee as a public advocate for Catholic education, our support for Ontario First Nations, Metis and Inuit education and an examination of trends in Catholic education throughout Canada and the rest of the world.
Sudbury Catholic Trustee, Nancy Deni took part in this program. As part of the program, trustees are required to work on a practicum project that ideally could benefit their school board. Deni chose to focus on the home-school-parish triad relationship and ways that this triad can be strengthened. As part of her project, she sought and received feedback from parents, principals, priests and laypersons in the Church as she feels very strongly that the strength of this relationship is the key to keeping Catholic education alive and well in Ontario.
“I feel very privileged to be amongst the first cohort of trustees to complete the program,” Deni stated. “It was an eye-opening experience and I recommend the course to all trustees who want to be strong advocates for Catholic education in this province. This course really strengthened my belief that a Catholic education provides students with a really special and unique educational experience. We really do educate the mind, the body and the spirit in our schools.”
Holy Cross Students Enjoying the Sun and Snow
Taking advantage of the sunny day, students in Holy Cross Catholic Elementary School’s grade 3/4 class had the opportunity to go for a snowshoeing adventure recently. Teacher Christina Lucciantonio said it was “a great way for the students to get some fresh air and enjoy the fresh powdery snow!”
Family Literacy Day in Mme Wright’s Grade 2/3 Class at St. Paul School
St. Paul Catholic Elementary School Grade 2/3 students along with their parents or grandparents took part in Family Literacy Day activities inside the classroom recently. The parent turnout at the event was incredible! The students and parents rotated through three centres. The first station involved a read aloud of the amusing book entitled “The Book With No Pictures” and creating their own fancy bookmark. The second station had the students searching through non-fiction books for a fabulous fact about something of interest to them and then using the Pages app on the iPad to write about what they learned and to include an image. The third was a poetry centre where they worked together to create beautiful Cinquain poems. Parents and students had a great time reading and writing together.
B.E.S.T. Program Winter Olympics
On Friday, January 22nd Bishop Carter hosted a Winter Olympics for the grade nine and ten students in the B.E.S.T. program. This day was perfectly placed after E.Q.A.O. and before exams, to provide a much needed day of fun with no stress. The Senior Leadership class was in charge of planning, and running the event for as their culminating task.
The morning started off with a walk to the Church for the first two events. Here countries competed againstt each other in Boot Hockey and various Sliding Races. The teams then returned to the school for an Olympic Banquet (lunch). The delicious lunch included hotdogs, various salads and Olympic Ring cupcakes. The afternoon competition included Sticks and various Racing events like the snowshoe relay. After the events teams went to the awards ceremony. Nine specialty medals were given for individual recognition. Ribbons were handed out for the first, second and third place team for the various events. When all was said and done Russia received bronze, Canada received silver and Finland walked away with the gold. Job well done to the Senior Leadership class, and thank you to the B.E.S.T. program for participating. Fun was had by all.
SCC Teacher Mike Fabiilli to be inducted into the University of Ottawa Football Hall of Fame
St. Charles College teacher Mike Fabiilli has one more reason to celebrate this year. In addition to winning a Senior Boys’ City Football Championship this past fall, he is also going to be inducted into the University of Ottawa Football Hall of Fame April 30th in Ottawa.
Fabiilli was a student at St. Charles College from 1977-1982. He played five years of football for the school winning three City Championships.
In 1982 he went to the University of Ottawa to play for the Gee Gees. As a freshman linebacker he won the Peter Gorman Trophy for outstanding CIS freshman football player in Canada. He was a conference all-star linebacker for two seasons.
After graduation, Fabiilli returned to Sudbury to start his teaching career at St. Charles College. He has been a math teacher and football coach at SCC for the past twenty-nine years. He has helped guide the Cards to ten City Championships in football.
Fabiilli has also served as a Defensive Co-ordinator for the Sudbury Spartans for eight seasons and the Sudbury Gladiators for five. He also co-founded the Joe MacDonald Youth Football League in Sudbury.
Mike continues to coach with passion and conviction and imparts in his players a love for the game and all of life’s lessons that can be gained from playing it.
Satisfying the BACCSS Sweet Tooth to Support Refugees
Bishop Alexander Carter CSS Grade 10 students held a food bank and awareness campaign recently to support the Syrian refugees staying in our community. Students took the opportunity to inform students about the harsh conditions faced by refugees staying in Syria. The campaign to support the refugee family started in December with the sale of water bottles. It continued with this bake sale which raised close to $300. Fundraising efforts will continue throughout the school year.
Celebrating A Saint Who Believes the St. Charles College Motto of GOODNESS
Students at St. Charles College celebrated St. Anthony of Egypt this week at their monthly Saint service celebration.
Deacon Steve Callaghan says it is a fitting Saint for students at SCC to celebrate him because he believed in serving the Lord to be one as a Christian community and this is the week of Christian unity. It is also timely because SCC does serve and give back through their Christmas campaign, Chalice collection and the canned food drive just to name a few of the initiatives.
Teacher Carlo Pastre who helps organize the saint days says “Saint Anthony lead a solemn lifestyle by himself and prayed about praising God.
His call was to serve the Lord by retreating.”
The monthly Saint celebrations at SCC offer students a service complete with communion, as well as treats for the students afterwards.