Welcome to Week 6!  I hope everyone had an enjoyable Thanksgiving weekend with your family and friends. 

 

We welcomed a new addition to the Mary Ward community on October 8 with the safe arrival of Luka Daniel Vukman, 6 lbs, 14 oz.  Congratulations to Natasha and husband Joseph.  If you haven’t had a chance to see how beautiful Luka is, please see Paulette’s email.  He is truly adorable and we are happy to hear Natasha and Luka are doing well.

 

We also welcomed back Lisa Weathers to Mary Ward.  Lisa is a Ward grad and is filling in while Natasha is on maternity leave.  Aside from seeing Lisa in the English area, you can find her in the gym co-coaching the Junior Girls’ Basketball team with Patrick McAlpine. You are a most welcome addition, Lisa.

AY C DAY C / DAYS 1-10 & EXTENDED TA

Thank you to Cathy Schwan who accompanied selected students to the Me To We Day celebration at the Air Canada Centre last Monday.  I’m sure the entire group left the day feeling very inspired from the incredible individuals that spoke during the rally.CHEDULE/ DAYS 1-10 & EXTENDED TA

 

Thanks to all TAs who led their advisees in W.A.R.D. Unit 4.  Jen Hayes will be preparing packages for those students who missed Michael Consul’s presentation and were, therefore, unable to complete the Unit 4 assignment.  Please see Jen for further details. 

 

Derek, Violet, and I enjoyed meeting with all teachers involved in the TPA process this year and look forward to our future conversations.

 

Congratulations to the Golf Team who represented Mary Ward at the TDCAA Championships last Wednesday.  Thanks to Dave Emer and Mary Louise for offering their time and expertise to coaching the boys.

 

We received positive feedback from the students who participated in the Environmental Youth Forum last week.  Thank you to Christa, Karen Heisz, and Kathy Saran for their leadership with this event. 

 

Thanks also to Jen Wisniowski for allowing our Senior Extended French students to be represented at the Pathways to Bilingual Success Conference and Career Fair.

 

Thanks to the Student Success Team who led the Faculty Meeting on Friday.  We appreciate all the work you put into planning your presentations.  Thanks also to all teachers for your valuable input.  Department Heads are asked to return their SMART Goals strategies to Patricia by Oct. 16.  We are grateful to all IAs and EAs for keeping the resource areas open for students and for allowing this meeting to occur.

Thanks to Rick, Len, Maura, Vince, and Peter for the delicious treats and beautiful prayer that got the meeting off to a great start.

 

Congratulations to Mike Kennedy and Susanna Mak who will be travelling with Violet to the Canadian Coalition of Self-Directed Learning Conference on October 21 – 25.  Both Mike and Susanna will be presenting at the conference.  We were also permitted to send a fourth representative since Rosalinda’s plane ticket from last year was still valid.  Thanks to all who expressed interest in attending. We are hoping to send a larger contingent next year. 

 

Thanks to the Guidance Counsellors and all TAs who have met with Derek, Violet, and I for their SBAT review meetings.  Meetings will continue this week.

 

GreenQuest would like to thank all department staff for cooperating with our students who conducted "spot checks" over the past week.  Department audits have been completed and students will be working closely with departments over the school year to improve on energy and waste reduction.

 

GreenQuest will be selling Klean Kanteens once again beginning this week - Keep an eye out for posters around the school!  Sales will end on Wednesday October 21 and Klean Kanteens will be delivered to TA by October 23.

 

Tuesday, October 13, Nicole Powell travels to BCE Place and the ROM with her Grade 11 and 12 AWQ students.

We will have presentations from Queen’s University at 9 a.m. and the University of Ontario Institute of Technology at 2 p.m. 

Good luck to the Gr. 9 Girls Flag Football team and coaches, Heisz, Sersanti, and Ventura as they compete in the TDCAA finals at Vanier.

 

Patricia is out on the morning of Tuesday October 13th for a K – 12 Principal meeting.

 

Wednesday, October 14 is another busy trip/sport day with Susanna Mak and other English teachers taking the Grades 9 and 10 English students to Stratford to view West Side Story.

Lee will travel to the Kensington and St. Lawrence Markets with the Gr. 12 HFA students and Wendy Jones and P.C. Hussein will take the ESP students to Agincourt Theatre for the ESP Kick-off.

 

Seneca College will be presenting at 2 p.m.

 

Best of luck to Dave Simone and the Tennis team who will compete in the TDCAA finals and the Cross Country team who will travel to Boyd Conservation area for an invitational meet with coaches Anna Dalgarno, Jen Hayes, and Marion Poole.

You can catch the Senior Girls Basketball team in action as they play Bnei’s team in the Wolverine Den.

 

Thursday, October 15 is the scheduled date for all teachers to submit their Annual Learning Plan.  We have been advised by Kevin Malcolm in Human Resources that this day is flexible.  Please see your SBAT administrator if you would like to extend this date.

The Gr. 11 English students are off to Stratford to view Macbeth and we will have presentations from the University of Windsor at 9 a.m. and the University of Waterloo at 2 p.m.

 

Anticipate our first scheduled Fire Drill today.  Further details can be found in Derek’s email.

We will have a brief staff meeting at 3 p.m. in the library to review some safety issues.  Please refer to Derek’s email for a detailed agenda of items to be discussed.

 

Friday, October 16 may be a bit quiet in the building as we have the Gr. 12 English students going to Stratford to view The Importance of Being Ernest; the Gr. 9 Geography students travelling to Niagara Falls; Matt Candiotto’s World Religion students going to the ROM and Lee’s HNC students visiting Creatifestival. 

 

Seneca will be presenting at 11 a.m.

 

Come and cheer on the Girls Field Hockey team who host O’Connor.  Coaches MacIsaac, Peets, and Saran are always appreciative of a cheering section.  You can also support the Senior Girls Basketball team in their home game against Morrow Park.  Best of luck to the girls and coaches Dever and Rossi.

Marissa Largo and a group of students will be hosting Raise the Roof to raise money for the flood victims in the Philippines.  The event begins at 6 p.m. and will show the talents of our Mary Ward students.  You will also be able to enjoy some fine Filipino cuisine.

 

The Ministry of Education is once again supporting the SpeakUp! Project to encourage student engagement in schools.  Grants of up to $1500 are available to support student initiatives aimed at making a difference in their school or community.  Last year, GreenQuest was awarded a grant.  Please consider this opportunity with events that you are currently involved with or are considering to pursue with students.  Further information is available in the email I will forward to all staff.  The deadline for applications is November 10 at 5 p.m.

 

ShareLife is interested in having a staff representative at every school.  The time commitment is not extensive and primarily focuses on sharing ShareLife literature with staff.  If you are interested in this role, please see Patricia.  The ShareLife Launch is October 19, 4:30 – 5:30 at the CEC.

 

Finally, I wanted to share a quote from our director, Ann Peron’s Thanksgiving message that was emailed to everyone last week.  I invite you to share this quote with your advisees and encourage them to keep this view in mind as we journey together throughout the year:

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“Make it a habit to tell people thank you.  To express your appreciation, sincerely and without the expectation of anything in return.  Truly appreciate those around you, and you'll soon find many others around you.  Truly appreciate life, and you'll find that you have more of it."

Ralph Marston

 

That’s all folks, have a great week!