St. Benedict grade 7 student Joshua Kroll looks on as author Allan Stratton personally signs his book Borderline after his presentation. Stratton begins by introducing his work by reading from one of his prize-winning novels. Stratton’s writings are youth-oriented which contain themes of “courage” and “facing your fears”. Stratton’s message was when things are not going well in life, always remember that “this too shall pass” and things will get better.
Category: Topic
St. Charles Elementary Takes Part in Bullying Awareness Week
Today marks the beginning of Ontario Bullying Awareness Week (Nov.14-18). Students at St. Charles Catholic Elementary School kicked off the week with an assembly where they gathered and pledged “to stand up againstt bullying”. Although bullying activities are on-going, teachers will take time to speak up on this important issue that affects too many of Ontario’s students. Many classroom activities have been planned to heighten the awareness. Principal Sandra Hiebert St. Denis stated: “Bullying Awareness Week is a valuable opportunity to raise awareness of bullying-related issues with parents, staff, students, and the local community”.
St. Anne English Kindergarten Students Choose Not To “Leaf” Fall Outdoors
The smell of fresh fallen leaves is one of the joys of fall. But why “leaf” it outside? During the last month, the English Early Learning Kindergarten Students at St. Anne School in Hanmer decided to bring fall inside so they could enjoy it right up until the snow came. They used a freshly raked bag of leaves and placed it within their housekeeping center. Armed with rakes and a wading pool, the Sudbury Catholic Board students practiced all the activities that their parents were doing outside. Raking, jumping, and burying each other in leaves mimicked the activities that the students were experiencing within their own yards. How about fun? Well, just ask students Jenna Deveau Peddie and Olivia Dunbabin. Their smiling faces say it all. Fall is a great time of the year, especially when you can enjoy it with friends!
Immaculate Conception Students “Remember”
The students at Immaculate Conception School honoured and remembered
all of the men and women who served and continue to serve our country
during times of war, conflict and peace. Members of the Royal Canadian Legion
and the Knights of Columbus in full uniform helped our young Canadian students
understand and appreciate all those who have served our community and
died for our country so that they could leave us with the gift of peace, freedom,
community and democracy. Students understand that we all have a responsibility
to spread the Word of God, love, compassion, justice and forgiveness so that never again
do we allow violence and war be the means to solving our differences.
Newcap Radio Gives Generously to Sudbury Catholic Schools Once Again
Newcap Radio Director of Programming Rick Tompkins visited the Sudbury Catholic District School Board recently to present them with a significant cheque. For the third year in a row, Newcap gifted Sudbury Catholic with a generous donation of over $7,500. The cheque is a result of their commitment to supporting music programs and education in Sudbury as part of an agreement between Newcap Radio and the CRTC. Through this agreement, the radio station promised to help foster musicianship among area youth, particularly through providing support of local school board music programming – including the purchase of instruments.
Catherine McCullough, Director of Education for the Catholic Board expressed her gratitude for the donation. “ We are so pleased to have such a supportive partner in Newcap radio,” McCullough stated. “Our music programs are an important part of our board, and through this type of monetary support, we are able to further enhance and build this programming. We are very thankful to Newcap as they continue to show their commitment to our community partnership.” Over the past three years, the radio station has donated close to $20,00 to the Sudbury Catholic Board’s music programs.
Safety First at St. Bernadette
St. Bernadette Catholic School students Emma Larcher and Kimberley Bonhomme practice the skills they acquired during the Bus Evacuation Safety Presentation at their school by assisting Gabrielle Goudreau to safely exit the back of a school bus. Recently, the students were taught the proper procedures required should the bus need to be evacuated for any reason. All Sudbury Catholic Schools will be receiving this training along with a Bus Safety presentation that reviews rules and guidelines to assure a comfortable and secure ride home for all students.
St. Benedict Hosts Award-Winning Author
St. Benedict Catholic Secondary School hosted an author event featuring Canadian award-winning, and internationally-published author Allan Stratton. Grades 9 to 12 students listened to Mr. Stratton do readings from one of his novels, and then had the opportunity to ask questions about his work and the writing process. Stratton writes for teens and books reflect his commitment to humanitarian and social justice issues. His novel Chanda’s Secrets, was later made into a movie which opened the Cannes Film Festival.
Who is Teaching Whom?
Students and teachers might know each other, they see each other each day in their classrooms. But what happens when a visitor arrives?
Every visitor brings with him something to be offered, something to enrich, something new to be learned. But those lessons will only be learned if they are presented in a way that is interesting and attractive to the audience. Students at St. David Catholic Elementary School had the unique opportunity to share in their learning with a familiar guest to the school. Father Tony Man-Son-Hing from Christ the King Parish, who is a regular guest to St. David, had a chance to interact with the students and, along with the students is also learning how to be comfortable with technology.
Every Wednesday, Father Tony Man-Son-Hing shares breakfast with one of the classes at St. David Catholic School. On Wednesday, November 2, coffee cup in hand, he arrived in Ms. Gran’s grade 4/5 class to share raisin toast and grapes almost the size of clementines. Almost immediately students were willing to engage. They were excited about challenging the priest to “Find Jesus” in the iPad app by the same name. They also wanted to know how well he would do with the “Catholic Quiz”. At level 1, Father Tony scored 10 out 11 questions right and the computer said he was “genius”.
Firing up the smart board, the children then were eager to demonstrate to this newcomer their expertise in naming and locating all the provinces and territories of this vast land. They did well. Much better than the computer did. Somewhere between Saskatchewan and British Columbia there was a crash. Was the computer de-railed or was it challenged? We will never know. Thinking fast, Ms. Gran chose another alternative and thus the students were introduced to Father Tony’s blog (www.aaog.blogspot.com). After a brief tour of the site, the students then helped Father Tony to compose his post — all about his visit to their classroom (http://aaog.blogspot.com/2011/10/technology-in-classroom.html).
Father Tony left the students of Ms. Gran’s class with the message, “ipads and blogs are tools for today to find Jesus, to find faith, to find something to inspire and to feed the heart and soul”.
St. Charles College Student Hoping his Music Goes Viral
Two years ago, Brandon Langella found his niche. He started high school and when he wasn’t doing school work, he began making music on his home computer. Brandon discovered he had a knack for drumming up beats and writing the lyrics to go along with them. Next week (Nov. 7), the grade 11 student at St. Charles College is unveiling his latest song, “Video Star” in video format on YouTube. The audio file is already available on ITunes, along with two of his previous releases. He collaborated with Toronto artist Dreams Brown for the video and song. Brandon is known as DJ Gella in music circles. He’s also recently joined forces with another Toronto artist named Rebecca Nazz – to form a group called The Futuristics. DJ Gella says his parents have been very supportive of his musical aspirations and for that he plans on giving back to his community. “I want to open a local recording studio in collaboration with my parents to make it easier for people my age to produce music.” His musical prospects have also forced Langella to explore music as a career option after high school. For now, he is focused on AAA hockey and looks forward to hearing himself on one of the local radio stations.