Dawn Wemigwans, Aboriginal Lead and Christina Raso, Special Education Consultant are both Sudbury Catholic District School Board staff who go above and beyond in their roles on a regular basis. Even though their daily workloads allow them little time for anything else, they both realized the importance of sharing best practices with other boards across Canada. Theresa Harris, Executive Director for the Ontario Catholic supervisory Officer’s Association asked all of the Catholic school boards across the province to submit their ideas and initiatives that engage young children in schools. The two women decided to write an article highlighting the value of providing authentic aboriginal learning experiences to students and how this already is taking place at our board. The selected articles were them submitted to a national magazine entitled “Leaders and Learners” which is the official magazine of the Canadian Association of School Administrators The article written by Wemigwans and Raso was one of seven from the entire province selected for the magazine.
Category: Topic
Sudbury Catholic District School Board Staff Take Part in Teacher Learning And Leadership Program (TLLP)
The Teacher Learning and Leadership Program (TLLP)is an opportunity for experienced teachers to engage in self-directed action research with funding from the Ministry of Education. Teachers submit project proposals to their Principal, who then sends the proposal on to the Superintendent of Program. The Superintendent then selects one or two projects to send on to the Ministry for consideration. This project was initiated in 2007, with the first two cohorts of projects reaching completion in July 2009. The Sudbury Catholic District School Board has had a project in each of the three cohorts so far (two have been completed, and one in ongoing).
In November, all of the project leaders from the first two cohorts across the province came together in Toronto to celebrate and share their findings. This “Sharing the Learning Summit” was a powerful and positive experience. Marlene Lee, a teacher from St. Paul School, shared her project entitled Cameras, Camcorders and Computers: Intermediate Students Sharing their Visual Insights”. Krista Sarmatiuk, Kathy McDowell and Kevin Krystia, from St. Raphael School, shared their project entitled “Problem-Solving: Math, Literacy and Logic”.
Thanks to Ministry funding, both teams have developed valuable resources for teachers to use which will help to promote student success by creating engaging and differentiated learning opportunities.
All of the TLLP participants were sent an invitation to submit a proposal to present at the 5th Annual Ontario Education Research Symposium. Marlene Lee’s presentation was one of thirty-five proposals accepted to mount a display from February 17 -19, 2010. She will now have the opportunity to share what she has learned during her TLLP and also to see what other educational research is taking place in the province.
St. John Catholic Elementary School Supports St. John the Evangelist Parish
Father Mathieu, Parish Priest of St. John the Evangelist in Garson accepted a cheque from Toni Kritz-Roque, the grade 2 teacher from St. John Catholic Elementary School last week. The school raised the money through gift donations from staff and students that were used to make baskets and then raffled off. As well, local business donated gift certificates for the school’s gift tree. Tickets were sold and a total of $1500 was raised to support the parish. The parish is using the money to purchase malaria nets for children in third world countries. Each net costs ten dollars and can potentially protect a small family or groups of children from malaria.
Glenn Thibeault Supports Community and SCDSB
Our Member of Parliament, Glenn Thibeault is well known for supporting our community and once again he has stepped up to the plate and is aiming the spotlight on the importance of Autism awareness. The calendar that he distributes has a personal message that details his tabling of a bill – bill C-360, an Act to Amend the Canadian Health Act (Autism Spectrum Disorder). If passed, this bill would ensure that the cost of Applied Behavioural Analysis (ABA) and Intensive Behavioural Intervention (IBI) are covered by the health care insurance plan of every province. To support this, his calendar provides facts about autism to dispel myths and has also included artwork on each page that was created by the students of the Sudbury Catholic District School Board.
Thank you Mr. Thibeault for championing such a great cause and for once again supporting our board!
Bishop Simard Celebrates Christmas with St. Ben’s
The staff and students of St. Benedict Catholic Secondary School were treated to a mass with Bishop Simard this past week. In the spirit of Christmas, Bishop Simard was invited to speak to the St. Benedict community and extol Christmas blessings upon them. As well, the Grade 8 students of St. James were also invited to share in their celebration.
St. Raphael Students’ Voices Ring Out on the Radio
As in years past, this Christmas many of our elementary school students were invited to sing Christmas carols on Easy Rock with Rich and Gary. It is an event that the students work very hard preparing for and are very excited knowing that their voices will be broadcast all around the City of Greater Sudbury. This morning the Grades 1 and 2 classes from St. Raphael Catholic Elementary School had the honour of singing two songs for the station. The boys and girls were on their best behaviour and sang clear as a bell when they performed their two songs. Rich and Gary took time to ask some of the kids what they wanted for Christmas and then after their performance were treated to a tour of the station as well as Timbits and hot chocolate courtesy of Tim Horton’s. Definitely a nice treat for the classes and a great start to their day! Thank you to Mrs. Low, their teacher and skilled Choir Director and congratulations to the Grade 1 and 2 students for a job well done!
Students of Corpus Christi Set a Joyous Tone for Christmas
The students and staff of Corpus Christi Catholic Elementary School have been working very hard and it showed as they performed their Christmas concert yesterday at Glad Tidings Tabernacle. Families and friends were invited to attend their concert and listen to the sounds of Christmas. There is a picture in today’s Sudbury Star (page 4) of the Senior Kindergarten class performing.
St. Mary’s Students Hit the Bigtime!
The music was blaring as the students practiced for the last time before their big performance at St. Mary Catholic Elementary School last week. Ms. O’Reilly, a teacher at the school organized a lip synch contest for those daring students who wanted to participate in the big show. With costumes covered in “bling” and musical instrument props at the ready, the kids rehearsed their choreography anxious to wow the audience. “It is a nice event for the students just before Christmas.” said Gen Waszczylo, principal of the school. “The kids really work hard to prepare and the rest of the students enjoy the different acts. It is fun for everybody!” As predicted, the performance went off without a hitch and was a huge hit for all of the students and staff!
A Sharing of Culture and Support for St. Joseph and St. David
Students from St. Joseph and St. David’s Catholic Elementary Schools joined together for the day at St. David’s schools to build links between the two communities. The students’ teachers, Irene Dembek from St. Joseph and Christina Kilby from St. David’s brought their classes together as part of their multi-school project to build knowledge and understanding of the history and traditions found in Aboriginal culture. It is their hope that their project would begin building supportive relationships for Aboriginal students and illicit parent involvement in order to assist students in their embracing of their cultural background. Will Morin, a local artist and story teller was invited in to the school to share his stories and his expertise in Aboriginal culture with both the Aboriginal students as well as the general student population.