Sudbury Catholic District School Board

Category: Schools

Community Inspired by Equity Advocate

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On Thursday, March 24, staff from both the Sudbury Catholic District School Board and the Rainbow District School Board were given the opportunity to attend a workshop with Chris D’Souza on Building Inclusive Schools and Communities. Approximately 300 teachers, administrators, Education Assistants and community members attended the presentation at the Holiday Inn to listen to D’Souza’s important message about the eradication of discrimination in our communities.

Christopher D’Souza is a passionate advocate on this topic and has presented over 2500 lectures and workshops with a focus on human rights and inclusion to educators, law enforcement officials and health care professionals across Canada.

D’Souza has taught at the elementary, secondary and university levels and is currently teaching at the Faculty of Education, York University. D’Souza is the author of “Empowerism: A lifestyle Guide to Environmental Ethics” and a children’s book entitled “Why are all the Taxi Drivers…?”

Through his own experiences, D’Souza was able to illustrate his powerful message with stories about racism and dealing with stereotypes. He challenged the audience to look at situations that are unfair and determine what they could do to make a difference and bring about change. “I want children to grow up in a world where there is no discrimination, a world that realizes that there is just one race – the human race,” D’Souza said.

During his presentation in Sudbury, numerous case studies were provided to demonstrate how trustees, administrators and educators, parents/guardians and community members can continue to build on good current practices to make schools more inclusive. Other factors impacting school boards were also explored, such as immigration trends and poverty as well as closing the achievement gap by creating inclusive curriculum.

D’Souza prompted the audience to “Rage againstt inequity, and to foster self esteem with their students.” And encouraged the audience to “highlight what we have in common, and showcase what we have that is unique.”
Rossella Bagnato, Sudbury Catholic Superintendent closed the event by thanking D’Souza for sharing his expertise with the group as he is “not only an expert on equity and inclusive education, he is a role model that all leaders can aspire to.” Bagnato asked all to take back to their school communities D’Souza’s belief that all children “should be protected and valued, and above all, children should be loved.”

Both the Sudbury Catholic District School Board and the Rainbow District School Board are implementing Equity and Inclusive Education policies in accordance with Ministry of Education guidelines.

VIVA ITALIA at St. David’s !

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Students from St. David’s Catholic Elementary School joined together on Friday, March 25 to celebrate their community’s cultural diversity by holding their first Italian Day.
To begin the day, students listened to “Canto Degli Italiani” which is the national anthem of Italy. Festivities that followed included mask making, a parade and a tarantella dance competition, in honour of Italy’s annual Carnevale. Students had the opportunity to buy pasta and meatballs prepared by the Caruso Club and staff’s family members (mothers, aunts, grandmothers etc.) also baked homemade Italian cookies for the entire student body. Diana Colilli, professor at Laurentian University and President of the Caruso Club attended the school’s celebration and donated a book she authored entitled “Italian Faces” to the school. School Vice-Principal, Tina Timpano helped coordinate the day’s events and spoke of the importance of embracing the community and its diverse culture. “ At St. David’s we encourage our students to learn about each other’s cultures and family histories,” Timpano said. “Through these types of celebrations, we are encouraging equity and inclusivity in our school and in our community – and we are thankful for community partners like Diana Colilli who help us make our celebrations so special for our students.” Students and staff embraced their Italian theme by dressing in green red and white, painting Italian flags on their cheeks, showing slideshows of Italian images and listening to Italian music. Teacher Maria Cimino also helped in the coordination of the day’s event and was thrilled by the students’ enthusiasm. “At St. David’s we really embrace cultural diversity, and our community partners – like the Caruso Club, have really supported our efforts and for that we are very thankful.” Seeing as the entire school enjoyed the day’s events so immensely, the staff has already begun brainstorming for the next culture day at St. David’s.

Marymount Academy Girls Hockey Division Two Champions!

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Recently the Marymount Academy Girls Hockey Team won the Division Two championship series in two straight games over Lasalle.  The first game was all Regals as Maddy Pos scored all six goals in a 6 -1 win.  The second game was much closer due to Marymount missing a key player, Lindsey Castonguay.  The final game had a scoreless first period and then Lasalle scored two goals in the second period to lead by two heading into the third.  With 5 minutes left in the game the Regals got on the board when Maddy Pos found the back of the net making it 2 -1.  Then Emily Herbert tied the game up with just over a minute left in the third to send the game into sudden-death overtime and save the day.  Overtime only lasted a few minutes when Maddy Pos became the hero and does what she does best by rushing end-to-end and sc oring the winning goal. Congratulations Regals!!

Pius XII Early Learning Students Loving New iPads

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With the recent addition of ipad centres in the ELK classrooms at Pius XII school, many students are opting for time with technology during play! The kindergarten classrooms received 4 ipads each loaded with interactive games focused on the development of students’ fine motor, literacy and numeracy skills. The classroom teachers and early childhood educators also each received an ipad to help facilitate the documentation of student learning. A welcomed tool to help in the recording and organization of student observations! “We are fortunate to be at a school in a board that recognizes the importance of introducing technology to students at an early age. The ipads provide the ideal environment for a 21st century learner!” explained classroom teacher, Camille Heaton. “Almost all of my students got the ipad in hand and began navigating it and its application with ease.” she added.

Poet and Pizza Day at St. Mark

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Recently the children and parents of St. Mark School, had an opportunity to write poetry with their parents and guardians. All groups were introduced to the different types of poetry as children read some examples of well-know poems.
The group was taught what a cinquain poem is and then everyone was given an opportunity to write a cinquain.
Rebecca Reimer helped us with our understanding of free verse poetry and she gave everyone a chance to write a free verse poem.
Students and parents were given poetry packs to work with.
Pizza was also served to help nourish the minds and bodies of our authors.

Here is an example of a cinquain poem written by grade 4 student, Madison Reimer Roy and her mom:

Baby
Happy, small.
Kicking, small, waiting, sleeping.
Excited to come out.
Youngling.

Here’s some free verse written by kindergartener Zoey Cryderman and her dad:

Flowers,
From the garden,
They dance with me,
They wear rainbow dresses.

This poem was written by Haley Cornthwaite and her dad:
Water,
The flowing water,
It looks so peaceful,
It looks so blue.

Mrs. Kennedy (parents) remarked, she had a pleasant afternoon with her son and appreciated the uniqueness of the event.

The poets ended the afternoon by sharing some of their new pieces of writing in front of the group.

Students from St. Anne Take on the World in a Unique Math Competition

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On March 1, 2011, the grade seven students at St. Anne Catholic Elementary School participated in World Math Day. The event involved students from all over the world playing againstt each other in real-time battles of mental arithmetic using the newly updated Live Mathletics game engine, their laptop computers, and accessing the internet in the classroom. Students were also able to access the site at home to practice. Students learned more about world time zones and discovered that at a certain times during the day they are more likely to play students from particular countries. This was a truly unique world event and a fantastic way to promote numeracy within the school and the students learned that Math is fun!

St. Anne Students Learn About Their Past

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Learning about the past can be amazing, especially when you can relate to the people and events. That’s what the St. Anne Grade 5 students did by participating in the 2011 Historica Fair. The primary focus of the Fair was to encourage students to research their past and present the results of their efforts to the community at large.

There were 4 winning entries that will move on to the city wide judging taking place at Laurentian University. This year’s local historica theme winners dealt with heroic grandparents who were veterans of the Korean and Second World Wars, an uncle and local hockey hero, Andrew Brunette, and the history of Sudbury Secondary Highschool. Winners were judged on their research and presentation skills, as well as their oral and written reports. Congratulations to all Gr.5 students for their great efforts and participation in such a worthwhile fair. You have truly uncovered your history!

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