Catholic S. S.
Feb. 9 - Feb. 13, 2009
| Mary Ward Catholic S. S. |
V A R I A Feb. 9 - Feb. 13, 2009 |
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Volume 24--Issue 22 |
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Hello All: This is Even Week 22. Time is just flying by. If only the snow could melt as quickly.
Last week’s big activities were the Lock Down drill and our annual Winter Activity Day. Thank you to all staff and students for your tremendous cooperation during Thursday’s Lock Down drill. Carm, Mike, Jen King and I walked throughout the school listening, rattling doors, banging on windows and in some cases, asking to come into the room. For the most part, things seem very organized and efficient. Most departments have already hung nails for tea towels to be hung over the door windows. Other departments had cut out shapes that completely blocked out our ability to look into the department windows. Thanks for being so self-directed!
In some cases however, lights were on, music was playing from radios, doors were found to be unlocked and due to the arrangements of some areas, kids were visible. We are in the process of ordering blinds for these obvious areas. In several rooms, we will need to re-organize adult presence. We thank you for your discussions in TA and we are taking all suggestions very seriously.
One of the issues that occurred to us was the issue of trust. Perhaps this was a little unfair but when several Admin/police identified themselves to students through a door, our students and staff kindly opened their doors. Talk about polite! In reality we can never open a door as there might be a hostage situation and we cannot risk the safety of staff and students. This brought up to us, the importance of having a CODE PHRASE that Admin will use to let all adults in the building know that the danger is over and it is safe to come out. We will discuss this further at our next staff meeting. Once again, our most sincere thanks!
Last Friday, the weather gods were smiling on us for our annual Winter Activity Day. This annual community-building day has been going on since at least 1987 that I can remember, but perhaps even before that. We were so thankful of staff support in garnering student buy-in so that the day’s activities did not have to be cancelled. Tony D’Agostino and team put in a great deal of work organizing, planning, booking, collecting paperwork, etc… Between the adults and Tony’s student team of helpers, this was quite a large committee of volunteers. We offer our thanks for a wonderful day, for great weather, for students and staff that were injury and incident free (1 ski boo-boo only), and for the opportunity to have fun and bond as a community.
And now, news for this upcoming week….
If your advisees have not yet comprehended, the Religion and PHE departments have flipped-flopped their courses for this “2nd semester”. Grade 10 students will now be in Religion and Grade 9’s will now be starting the PHE courses. Please ensure all your advisees have at least met with their new subject teachers and picked up all relevant materials.
Bonjour et soyez bienvenus au Canada et à Mary Ward C.S.S. (Thank you French translations.com) The French Department’s exchange visitors have arrived to Toronto on Saturday from Versailles, France and they will be here until Feb. 21st. All Versailles students will be billeted with a Mary Ward student participant in our French program. There will also be two teachers accompanying the students as well. Versailles students will be shadowing their Mary Ward partners to classes and seminars. Please be sure to welcome them to our school. Our participating French students will be returning on their portion of the French exchange experience later in April along with Mme Morgan and Ms. McAndrew. Thanks to Mme. Newman, Mme. Wisniowski, Mlle. Morgan and Ms. McAndrew and the French Department for their efforts in organizing this trip. Bonne chance!
Tuesday and Wednesday are days in which Canadian & World Studies will be participating in the CWS Fair and the Co-Op Department will be taking part in their own Co-Op Fair. More news to follow.
IPRC Reviews will be taking place in the Office Conference room Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday of this week. The Special Education, Guidance, and Admin Team will be involved throughout those days.
Tuesday the Ski and Snowboard Team will compete at the TDCAA Ski & Snowboard Meet at Mt. St. Louis/Moonstone. Mike Kennedy, Kathy Saran, and Pierre Cuschieri will all be lending a hand with the team and marshalling the event. Best of luck to the team and coaches!
Wednesday is the Department Heads’ meeting in the Library Conference Room beginning at 2 p.m. Please forward any agenda items you may wish to include to Carm by Tuesday at the latest. If you are unable to attend, please speak with Carm and arrange an alternate from your department to attend. Thanks.
Wednesday is also the day Matt Candiotto, Michelle Albert and our Mary Ward swim team compete in the TDCAA Swim Meet at Etobicoke Olympium. We wish the team the best of luck.
Wednesday is the Target Date for Unit 10. Please remind all your advisees of this date. As subject teachers, please continue to implement all your strategies for success with your students that are at risk, are behind, or who have stalled in your courses. Academic Alert letters were mailed home last week so there should be a flurry of activity in the next couple of days. Thank your for all your assistance with this.
This Thursday is our Valentine’s Day Dance (Jam for Justice) sponsored by the United Social Justice and ESP groups. The dance will take place in the cafeteria from 6 – 9 p.m. and we are inviting “guests”. The groups have been doing a lot of work to make this dance a success. If you haven’t been invited to help chaperone this dance, let me extend an invitation to you. We will have police presence as our security and we could use some more Mary Ward staff to help out. It should be a fun event and we hope to see you there!
Friday the 13th is a P.A. day. Our activities will be held at Mary Ward. We have several parts to the day including differentiated instruction and some Special Education information to share. A more detailed memo to staff will be sent out later in the week.
I cannot possibly list all the events, trips, and activities offered each and every day at Mary Ward. I would encourage all of you to please read Varia carefully and to check the www.tcdsb.org/marywardtools website for the latest Mary Ward activities.
As a plug for the Music Department’s ongoing fundraiser for Australia 2009, Rick once again, has chocolates in for Valentine’s Day. There are also quite a few other goodies in as well. Be sure to swing by the Music Department and get your treats as they will be going quickly.
Lastly, Jenny Balm at the L’Am Community Centre has asked us if the gyms will be available during March Break. We are not aware of any programs Mary Ward will be offering. If there is anything going on in the gym or in the school during March Break, could you please let Admin know right away? I’d like to get back to the Community Centre as soon as possible.
Have a great week everyone.
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| This Week At Ward (Week 22, Even Week) | |||
