Catholic Education and Mental Health Week 2023
#SNCDSB celebrated both Mental Health Week and Catholic Education Week from May 1 to 7, 2023, by prioritizing our mental and emotional well-being. We recognize the importance of caring for our mental health while nurturing our spiritual growth.
#MentalHealthWeek #CatholicEducationWeek
Maria Vasanelli, Director of Education, visited the French as a Second Language Classroom at Our Lady of Fatima Catholic School. Students were practicing their French speaking skills with their French Teacher Bob Watford, through an interactive and engaging activity. It was amazing to see our student's language skills in action!
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The second half of our Reflex Challenge finished! Since March, we have been promoting the use of our digital subscription to Reflex Math to encourage students' automaticity with their math fact fluency. We have seen enormous growth with our students individually, attaining 100% Fact Fluency, and Board-wide improvement in Fact Fluency. Staff and students have worked so hard, persevered, and showed determination in using Reflex to achieve more automaticity with their math facts.
Board-Wide Highlights
- On average our students now know over 50% of their recall facts on the given assignment while starting at 14% known facts.
- On average, Board-wide we went from 0.6 Days per Week Usage to 1.9 Days per Week
- We have 56 students who have reached 95% or higher in their math facts
- We had 58 hardworking students reach the 100s Club
The Math and Technology Enabled Learning Teacher (TELT) Team was proud to send five educators and one vice-principal to The Ontario Association for Mathematics Education: OAME conference in Toronto on April 27 and 28, 2023. The theme of the conference was Empowering Me in 2023, which focuses on a culture of empowerment for math leaders, educators, and students to become stronger and more confident in mathematics learning and teaching. Our representatives from SNCDSB had the opportunity to participate, network and learn from strong Mathematical Leaders, educators, and publishers from around North America. Every session, from deeper fractional understanding to Creating Balance Math Programs, included a wealth of knowledge to help improve how we approach Mathematics.
Mental Health Week was May 1-7, 2023. SNCDSB celebrated Children’s Mental Health Week and works to continue to break down the barriers and stigma attached to mental health and shed light on why universal mental health care is needed now.
During Mental Health Week, our #SNCDSB students and staff were encouraged to participate in Spirit Week, developed by the Mental Health and Well-being Team. On “Tye Dye Tuesday,” students and staff wore their brightest colours and talked about how colours represent a wide range of emotions and how it is okay to show them all!
During Mental Health Week, students participated in activities that had them identify what it looks like when they are in a particular colour zone – how their face and body clues are and how they feel and how others feel when they are in that zone.
Check out the Zones of Regulation website for information, activities, and resources.
The Superior North Catholic District School Board (SNCDSB) would like to thank Dilico Anishinabek Family Care, Red Rock Indian Band, and the Township of Nipigon for planning and hosting a Mental Health Fair for the entire community and all the local schools to enjoy on May 4, 2023. As this year's Children’s Mental Health Week theme was My Story we are so grateful to Dilico, Red Rock Indian Band and the Township of Nipigon for joining forces and highlighting universal mental health care during such an important week.
SNCDSB students from St. Edward Catholic School and St. Hilary Catholic School had a wonderful time and learned lots along the way.
During the event, SNCDSB Positive Behaviour Support Worker, Ophelia Amponsah, had a table set up and had lots of engaging and fun activities ready for the students and community to enjoy.
An offering provided to our students by our Mental Health and Well-being team during Children’s Mental Health Awareness Week was a board-wide read-aloud. We had a local author, Nicole Thomson, join us virtually to read her book “The Little Things.” This book focuses on the importance of being grateful for life's little things. She also did various activities with the students to demonstrate the importance of being thankful for the little things in life. They did some yoga together as well as a journal entry!
On June 9, 2023 the SNCDSB Educational Assistants, Positive Behaviour Support Workers, Child and Youth Workers, Principals and Vice Principals, members of the System Support Team (Attendance Counsellor, Math Lead, Mental Health Lead), and the Superintendent responsible for Mental Health, Special Education and Early Years attended a professional development session focussing on Trauma.
Paige Shaw & Susan Shipston of the Children's Aid Society facilitated a session titled, Trauma and the Beautiful Brain. Paige and Susan highlighted messages, evidence, and research from various experts in the field of trauma & resilience (e.g., Dr. Dan Siegel and Dr. Bruce Perry), and self regulation (Zones of Regulation, Dr. Stuart Shanker and the iceburg). Language is important and the messages were consistent with what we have been hearing and learning about over the years at the SNCDSB.
We wish to express our gratitude to Susan, Paige and the Children's Aid Society, District of Thunder Bay, for providing our staff with such an incredible day of learning alongside each other. Thank you for your time and all you do to better the lives of children and youth.
The Math Team was excited to resume the Experiential Learning Woodworking Project for the 2022-2023 school year with Holy Saviour Catholic School Gr 6-8, Holy Angels Catholic School Gr 5-8, St. Edward Catholic School Gr 6-8 and St. Hilary Catholic School Gr 7-8. The classes worked on three projects; Planter Box, Funky Birdhouse, and Storage Box.
This long-term project took part in over five lessons and used about 10 math or science blocks. The learning included: Idea Selection and Research, Blueprint, Templating and Budgeting, Safety Presentation and Build Day.
Aaron Stephens and Karly Baker from the Superior North Catholic District School Board Math Team directly supported all lessons with Zoom presentations and in-class support. They also encouraged the homeroom teacher to further expand from this project through cross-strand lessons (ex., journal writing, media literacy, visual arts and more). Classrooms could also connect to careers within their Xello profile or by viewing skilled trades using VR headsets. There are many great opportunities to document student learning within their digital portfolio, thus making connections and integration with our Brightspace program and creating collaboration with our Technology Enabled Learning Teacher (TELT) team. This Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) project correlates to the Creating Pathways to Success (2013) Ministry document with respect to the K-6 “All About Me” and 7-12 “Individual Pathways Plan” policy and framework. This project focuses on the following three areas of learning in the Conceptual Framework: Knowledge and Skills in the Four Areas of Learning in Education and Career/Life Planning (pg 15. Creating Pathways to Success, 2013): Knowing yourself, Exploring Opportunities, Making Decisions and Setting Goals.
Lastly, students explored and experimented with different aspects of the engineering process and created connections to their preferred learning styles. Our students made mistakes, grew and learned as they put together their final builds. This project allows all students to demonstrate their own unique strengths, whether it’s drawing a blueprint, building their product, or developing their budget.
What a wonderful learning experience enjoyed by many!
Catholic Parent Involvement Committee
The purpose of the Catholic Parent Involvement Committee is to support, encourage and enhance parent engagement at the Board level to improve student achievement and well-being. Ontario Regulation 612/00 requires all Ontario school boards to establish a Parent Involvement Committee and outlines its composition, function and mandate.
Special Education Advisory Committee (SEAC)
Each Board in the Province of Ontario is required to establish a Special Education Advisory Committee (SEAC) as defined in Ontario Regulation 464/97 made under the Education Act, Special Education Advisory Committees. SEACs help school boards understand the special needs of exceptional children as well as formulate and implement favourable policies, programs, and services.
Indigenous Education Advisory Committee
Your voice can help shape the delivery of Indigenous educational programs and services. In 2014, through the Ontario First Nation, Métis, and Inuit Education Policy Framework Implementation Plan, the Ministry of Education indicated that all school boards would establish formalized processes, such as establishing IEACs to support local implementation of the framework. IEACs provide guidance to school boards and schools in building stronger relationships with their communities, sharing information, identifying promising practices, and enhancing collaborative work to support First Nation, Métis, and Inuit student achievement and well-being.
Audit Committee
The primary role of the Audit Committee is to provide assurance to the Board of Trustees that the school board has the appropriate culture, personnel, policies, systems and controls in place to safeguard the school board's assets and to accurately report financial information to internal and external users.
Judy Wawia, Chair of the Board and Paul Tsekouras, Superintendent of Education, attended a wonderful gathering of Catholic School Boards’ Indigenous Leads from across Ontario for the OCSTA Indigenous Leads Seminar to discuss and examine issues and opportunities in Indigenous Education and TruthandReconciliation.
The month of June is National Indigenous History Month (NIHM) and June 21st, is National Indigenous Peoples Day (NIPD). Throughout the school year, our educators helped students learn and understand Canadian history and the invaluable contributions from Indigenous peoples, heroes, writers, athletes and activists. We are also tasked to teach the harder parts to Canadian history regarding Residential Schools, broken promises with Treaties, the Indian Act, Sixties Scoop and specific injustices from the past and present (i.e. the pass system, reserve system, lack of clean water, third-world living conditions etc).
To support learning and engagement on National Indigenous History Month & National Indigenous Peoples Day, the Superior North Catholic District School Board was very fortunate to be able to offer and take part in many different activities and programs from local community Elders, Knowledge Keepers and community members during the month of June to celebrate and recognize National Indigenous History Month (NIHM) and National Indigenous Peoples Day (NIPD)!
Our #SNCDSB Board of Trustees recently attended a retreat on Catholicity and Board governance. During their time together, they engaged in insightful discussions, received inspiring teachings, and participated in meaningful reflections. It was a fantastic opportunity to deepen our understanding of our faith and discuss ways to improve our organization's leadership. Thank you to Father Terry and Racheal Paquette for the guidance and leadership in our sessions.
2023-2024 School Year Calendar.
Another successful school year has come to an end! As we say goodbye to the academic year, we wish all our staff, students and families a safe, relaxing and fun summer vacation! We hope you all take this time to recharge, spend quality time with loved ones and explore new experiences. We look forward to seeing everyone back in the classrooms in the Fall!
Credits:
Apple Wagon Films, #SNCDSB Schools