Plenty of news this week:

  • Valentine’s Bake Sale
  • Winter Concert
  • Math Competitions
  • “Knowledge of China” Contest
  • Thank you
  • Outreach for Haiti
  • Book Fair Reminder
  • Gerri Gershon’s Ward Forum Summary


Valentine’s Bake Sale

Friday, February 12th

images.jpegJust a reminder that our popular Valentine’s Bake Sale is coming up this Friday, February 12th!

We are asking students to bring in nut-free baking that morning. We are also asking for nut-free candy donations so we can make up gift baskets for our raffle at the Bake Sale.

Please bring in all candy donations to the office by Monday, February 8th. Click here for details!

Winter Concert

201002051709.jpgThurs Feb 25 7:30

Come and enjoy the Grade 7 Band & Strings,Senior Band & Strings, Jazz Band, and Choir; the flyer is attached.

Tickets are now on sale from your music teacher for $5.00 each; children five and under are free. A limited number of tickets will be sold at the door on the night of the concert. Performers need to wear a dressy white shirt, black or dark pants, and dark shoes.

The cafeteria doors will open at 7:15 pm for general admission seating. Please plan to attend the entire one hour concert.

From the Math Department

images.jpeg

Contests, Contests!

At St. Andrew’s, we have many avid math students who participate in math contests whenever they are offered. Here are two contests sponsored by the University of Toronto:

  1. Tournament of Towns

    • Spring Round Level O:
      February 28, 2010 (Sunday) – 11:00 – 3:00 – rm. BA2175
    • Preparation Session:
      February 21, 2010 (Sunday) – 11:00 – 1:00 – rm. BA1200

    images.jpegTournament of Towns is an international and highly recommended mathematics contest. Most of the suggested problems are original. The problems are not technically difficult and usually do not require extra knowledge; however, the solution to each problem carries elements of discovery. Unlike Math Kangaroo, solutions to the Tournament’s problems consist not in providing a correct answer but require explanations written in logical steps.

    The tournament takes place twice a year, Fall and Spring, in two rounds. Each round offers two levels of difficulty; students can choose to attend either level, or both levels. O-level (Ordinary) is more suited to students who enjoy math in school but otherwise have not much experience.

    For more info: http://www.math.toronto.edu/oz/turgor/about1.php

  2. Math Kangaroo

    • March 28, 2010 (Sunday) 11:00 – 12:00 rm. BA2145

    images.jpegMath Kangaroo is a high quality, multiple choice speed competition. In Canada, the contest/game Math Kangaroo has been running for 10 years. It originated in Europe in 1991 and now it is the most popular mathematics contest in the world. The popularity of Kangaroo is based on the selection of problems, which are fun to solve, and also on the fact that any student can solve at least several problems. However, only a handful of students worldwide can get a perfect score given the limited time of the contest.

    For more info: http://www.math.toronto.edu/oz/turgor/kangaroo2.php

For information on Math Clubs (Basic – gr. 7/8) and Advanced (gr. 9 and up)
http://www.math.toronto.edu/oz/turgor/club.php

From the Toronto District School Board


Knowledge of China Contest

Click here for more information on this exciting contest.

Activity Day #2: February 4, 2010

images.jpegAt St. Andrew’s, students have the opportunity to be involved in many extra-curricular learning opportunities. Our two Activity Days were a huge success and students participated in many activities such as skiing, snowboarding, robotics, math at U of T, gym activities, cooking, art and museum excursions, alternate realities activities, animation and much more. These were well-received by students and staff alike who returned to the school buzzing with excitement about what they had seen and done.

Thank you

We would like to extend a warm thanks to parents and the community who have so generously support St. Andrew’s through various fundraising activities large and small this year. We very much appreciate the support and are working to make sure that the funds are used to provide enriched opportunities for as many different students as possible. Our fundraising committee consisting of parents, teachers and administration has allocated fundraising dollars to groups across the school, approving purchases of art supplies, science materials, supplies for clubs, musical instruments and technology. Your generous support contributes to St. Andrew’s rich learning environment with many opportunities for all. Thank you.

Outreach for Haiti

images.jpegOur students raised just over $900.00 in the past two weeks that will go to the Canadian Red Cross for the people of Haiti. Our students were very moved by the plight of the Haitian people and rushed to volunteer to organize and work on a variety of fund-raising activities which are detailed in our last blog entry. Thank you for your support! Awesome job, students!

Book Fair Reminder

images.jpegOur Book Fair begins on Monday, February 8th at lunch and continues until Tuesday, February 16th in the Main Foyer. The Book Fair will be open every day at 8:00 a.m., during lunches, and after school. A big thank you to Ms. Greenspoon for organizing and staffing the Book Fair and to parents and students for supporting the library in this way.

Reminder: Family Day

images.jpegSt. Andrew’s will be closed on Monday, February 15th to allow our community to celebrate Family Day.

Gerri Gershon’s Ward Forum Summary

Ward Update – Jan 2010

images.jpegHello everyone…in case you missed it, we had a very informative Ward Forum meeting. There was a full house with many parents, principals and staff discussing issues pertaining to our children. It was a cold night….so thanks to all who attended and braved the sub zero temperatures!

As a result of questions raised at previous meetings I organized this forum to focus on “all you ever want to know about tests.”

Click to read more from Gerri

We were fortunate to have excellent presentations from 2 members of the EQOA office. This is an independent governmental organization charged with providing and marking tests at the grade 3, 6, 9, and 10 level.

The purpose of these provincial tests is to assist teachers in improving their program by pinpointing specific areas of the curriculum that require attention. As a result of these assessments there has been a significant improvement in scores over the last few years- a clear indication that teachers are focusing more acutely on areas where students have difficulty. Except for the Grade 10 Literacy test which is a requirement for graduation, these large scale tests are not what is considered “high stakes” in that success on the tests is not required to move to another level or to score teachers or to close schools. In other words unlike the United States these tests are essentially diagnostic.

Parents can get more information by going to www.eqao.com and click on the parent’s section.

A central coordinating principal from the TDSB School Effectiveness Team then spoke on how we use the EQAO tests and other tests such as the Developmental Reading Index, CASI, quizzes, etc. in our schools to assess students and improve programs.

Lastly we heard from an elementary teacher and a secondary teacher on how they used tests in their classrooms. In short…it’s all about the kids and how we can help them to be the best they can be!

Our Superintendents Kathleen Meighan and Johanne Messner reported on:

  • Supporting new teachers
  • breakfast programs
  • emotional intelligence workshops for our principals
  • the choral project with conductor Brainerd Blyden-Taylor for our family of schools
  • Demonstration Classrooms
    These are functioning classrooms where as part of their professional training teachers from across the board can visit to observe and talk about excellent teaching strategies. There was a recent article in the paper about one of these classrooms at Thorncliffe Park. Click here…Demonstration Classrooms.

As part of the Trustee Report, I talked about

  • Our new Director of Education Chris Spence’s Vision of Hope
  • Bedford Park’s approval on becoming a Jk – 8 school
  • Harrison PS having TDSB Full Day Kindergarten class beginning in this fall
  • The significant amount of money raised by our neighbourhood schools for the Haiti. For more TDSB for Haiti
  • TDSB Idol
  • Empowering our girls with a new program called “Girls on the Move.”

For more information on these and other TDSB initiatives visit our website www.tdsb.on.ca.

It was an information packed evening. Looking forward to seeing you at my future Ward meetings on February 25, April 29 and May 31 all at 7 pm. Stay tuned for location.

Gerri

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