MARCH, 2015

355 Annette Street, Toronto, Ontario M6P 1R3

Lorinda Mazza, Principal Dr. Jim Saraco Barbara Poplawski, Trustee, St. Cecilia Catholic Church Marisa Cicero, Olga Geryluk (CSAC Co-Chairs)

Victoria Purri, Vice-Principal Superintendent TCDSB, Ward 10 Father Joseph Tran, Pastor, Teresa Pavlin, CSAC Secretary

Maria Fauceglia, Secretary 416-222-8282 ext. 2486 416-512-3410, 416 -241-7130 416-769-8163 Sandy Moutinho, CSAC Treasurer

St. Cecilia Motto: Learning with Hearts, Hands and Minds - Growing in Harmony

St. Cecilia’s C.S.A.C.

Legacy Leaf Fundraiser

To commemorate our 100 year anniversary, we will be placing a Legacy Tree in our

school. A limited number of leaves for the tree are currently available to families,

alumni and staff for purchase. Each leaf is $100 and every donor will have the

opportunity to engrave his/her leaf with a name or short phrase. The funds raised

will be used to support important projects that will benefit all students, as well as

the community. An order form is found in this newsletter. For more information

about this fundraiser, please visit our Centenary site: http://www.saintcecilia100.ca

April 8th

CSAC Meeting

Our next meeting will be on April 8th * at 7pm. Everyone is welcome and childcare

is provided. A portion of this meeting will be dedicated to

Secondary School Admissions. Our school guidance counselor,

Frank Amato, will join us to address parent questions about the high school options

available to our students and related admissions requirements.

If this topic is of interest to you, please join us!

NOTE: The will be no CSAC meeting in March.

The February newsletter listed the date for the April CSAC meeting as the

15th. This was a misprint – our apologies.

CSAC Grant Committee

We are still looking for parent volunteers to be a part of our new Grant

Committee. There are many types of financial aid programs available to school

communities – we need the help of volunteers to short list the ones for which we

qualify and assist with application submissions. Please contact us if you are inter-

ested!

Marisa Cicero & Olga Geryluk, CSAC Co-chairs

csac.stcecilia@tcdsb.org

Go to www.saintcecilia100.ca

to comment and contribute to our school’s

100th Anniversary.

Principal’s Message

As you’ll see in this newsletter, we have been quite busy at St. Cecilia. This may have been one of the coldest Februarys on record, but it has not slowed us down. I want to acknowledge the hard work and dedication of our staff, students and parent volunteers. Their commitment to a supporting/participating in a large range of extracurricular activities helps to create an exciting, engaging environment – one that so many families in our neighbourhood are eager to join.

Be sure to print our March calendar so you’re kept up to date on the many events happening next month too, like our civvies day to support a focus on clean water, Chess Tournament, Concours D’Arts Ora-toire competition, public library visits, Music Champion work/ performances, swim meet etc.

Our staff has been focusing on incorporating growth mindset and math problem solving strategies in the classroom. Consider the recommendations in the Growth Mindset article we’ve included in this newslet-ter.

SCHOOL HOURS Office Hours: 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

(416) 393-5218

School Website:

http://stcecilia.tcdsb.org

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Virtue of the Month: fORGIVENESS

Forgiveness is the final form of love. Reinhold Niebuhr

How timely that the virtue for this month is FORGIVENESS, not

only because we are in the season of Lent but also because it is

an important cornerstone of our faith and one that Jesus modeled

for us in his life and death. We are reminded that forgiveness is a

gift to ourselves as we let go of the burden of resentment when

we forgive another person and it’s a gift to our children when we

teach and model it to them.

Blessed Mother Teresa tells us that we need to pray with a heart

full of compassion.

“Lord, open our eyes, that we may see You in our

brothers and sisters.

Lord, open our ears, that we may hear the cries of the

hungry, the cold, the frightened, the oppressed.

Lord, open our hearts, hat we may love each other as

You love us.

Renew in us Your spirit.

Lord, free us and make us one. Amen”

Special Visitors in Mrs. McClory’s Class

The grade 2/3 students are blessed to have the opportunity of having

Molly Sutkaitis visit the class and tell stories. This remarkably tal-

ented storyteller invites the children’s attention and they listen very

attentively. They truly look forward to her visits.

“St. Cecilia’s 50 Years Ago” Former student, Mr. Formosa, shared stories and personal

items of his time at St. Cecilia’s. The students were a captive

audience and really enjoyed his presentation.

TCDSB 2014—2015

SCHOOL YEAR CALENDAR

Mid-Winter Break March 16–20, 2015

Good Friday April 3, 2015

Easter Monday April 6, 2015

Victoria Day May 18, 2015

Last day of classes June 25, 2015

PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITY DAYS

June 5, 2015 Assessment, Evaluation and Reporting

June 26, 2015 Provincial Education Priorities

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School Masses and Sacraments

March 10 @ 10:00 Lent

March 25 Lenten Reconciliation

April 9 @ 12:45pm Easter Mass

Saturday, April 11 Confirmation

April 24 @ 6:00pm Sacrament of Reconcilia-

tion

Saturday, April 25 First Holy Communion

May 22 @ 10:00am Caregivers

June 16 @ 6:30pm Graduation

June 25 @ 10:00am End of Year Mass

Grade 6 Science Classes Visit Ripley’s Aquarium

On Tuesday, February 17th, he grade 6 students visited Ripley’s Believe It or Not Aquarium and had a blast. Students enjoyed a one hour session on biodiversity in Ontario, focusing on invasive species, and were able to see a tank show where a diver described the different fish in her sur-roundings. The students also had the opportunity to pet sting rays and crabs. They also enjoyed their lunch in “Ray Bay” during the sting rays’ feeding time. While touring the aquarium for the rest of the day, the students saw many other small and large aquatic species. I think the biggest hit was the shark! Many thanks to CSAC for providing transportation.

(Mrs. Kowalenko, Mrs. Spalding)

March Book Fair: Grades 4-8

After much consideration and discussion with junior & intermediate students, it has been decided that we will invite Mable’s Fables Bookstore back for a second book fair at our school. Following last year’s fairs, the older students were of the opinion that Mable’s Fables offered a greater variety of literature appropriate to their grade level.

The Mable’s Fables book fair will run from Tuesday, March 24 through Friday, March 27th.

Students in grades 4-8 will also participate in a Book Talk led by one of the Mable’s Fable’s employees. During this presentation, students will be introduced to various books, appropri-ate to their specific grade level, that will be available at the fair. Students will also be taking home a flyer with the dates and times of the fair prior to the March Break. Commissions earned from the sales at the fair will be used to replenish existing library books and to pur-chase new reading materials in both English and French.

Upcoming Events: There will also be a Scholastic Book Fair held during the first week of May for

all grades. More details to follow.

Recycle Your Used Books to Our School Library

We continue to accept used picture books and chapters book at the school library. We ask that all donated books be in good condition and that books be appropriate for students in grades one through eight.

On behalf of staff and students, I would like to express our sincerest appreciation to all families who have donated a va-riety of reading materials to the library. With increasing enrolment, your donations are integral to providing all students with access to quality and current reading materials. Thank you for your generosity!

Mrs. Tavares

Library Volunteers Needed!

We continue to catalogue all existing and new books into the new automated library system. This tedious task has been started by Mrs. Tavares with the assistance of Mrs. Henry. Although most books have now been catalogued into the new system, part of the non-fiction and French collection still needs to be catalogued. As an incentive, the school board is offering a free label maker to all schools that complete the cataloguing of their entire library collection by June.

The library will be closed from March 9-13th to continue, and ideally, com-plete the cataloguing process. Any parents available to assist with inputting the data of the remaining collection are asked to contact Mrs. Tavares at the school (416-393-5218). The cataloguing process is not complicated and can be easily learned by all. Advanced computer skills are not necessary. Mrs. Tavares is confident that if a team of volunteers could be organized during the first week of March, the cataloguing process could be completed and allow Mrs. Tavares to catalogue new reading materials that will be arriving following the upcoming book fairs. Any high school students in need of volunteer hours are also welcome.

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Valentine’s Day Activities and Dance

Page 5

Me To We Goat Fundraiser

Thank you to all who participated in our ‘We Create Change’ fundraiser from Free the Children. Our dress down day on January 22, 2015 raised $707.85 to try to end poverty overseas by

providing a means of sustainable income. Every $50 raised/donated, buys one goat for a family overseas. With your donations, St. Cecilia has purchased 14 goats for this campaign. Well done!!

Candy-grams Fundraising Update

Our first ever candy-gram fundraiser for Valentine's Day and in support of our Clean Water Project for Ecuador for Free the Children, was a great success! Students and teachers sent candy-grams

to friends and colleagues to support his worthy cause and wish them a Happy Valentine's Day. A total of $ 403.50 was raised!!

SKATING at HIGH PARK

True to our Canadian spirit, the grade 6 stu-

dents enjoyed an afternoon skating at High

Park. “The cold never bothered them, any-way”.

Eco-News

March 13 is Water Bottle Free Day - Water is a Human Right

Bottled Water Free Day is a national day of action which takes place in March. This day is a

project of the Polaris Institute, working with the Canadian Federation of Students, the Canadian

Union of Public Employees, the Sierra Youth Coalition, Development & Peace and others. On

March 15, youth in communities across Canada and the world will be mobilizing for the national

day of action against bottled water. For further information, please visit the following website:

http://cfs-fcee.ca/take-action/bottle-water-free-communities/the-issues/no-water-for-profit/. As a

result, St Cecilia, we will be taking the pledge NOT to drink bottled water where tap water is

available. As a result, we are having a dress down on March 13, 2015 to help fund a water refilling station at our

school. We are asking every student to dress down and contribute $2.00. The money raised for this dress down day will

go toward funding a water refilling station for our school.

Please support this worthy cause and bring $2.00 on March 13, 2015.

March 27, 2015 - St. Cecilia Participates in Earth Hour Earth Hour is an international event usually held on the last Saturday of March between 8:30-9:30

pm. During this hour, citizens around the world turn off their lights in support of addressing climate

change. St. Cecilia will participate in Earth Hour on Friday, March 27 from 10:00 am to 11:00 am.

We will celebrate this event with prayers, and turning off our lights and unplugging all non-essential

lights, computers, and other electrical devices. During this hour, students will also have the oppor-

tunity to participate in various activities such as an outdoor hike, recycled crafts, or storytelling, etc., to learn about the

importance of reducing our use of electricity. Through learning and action, we can make a difference for our planet.

Thank you for your support in this worldwide movement to raise awareness about climate change and protecting our

planet as we invite the whole St. Cecilia Community to participate in Earth Hour on March 28, 2015 from 8:30 p.m. to

9:30 p.m.

The Eco Team

To access eco-information, please visit our St. Cecilia Eco-Team website: https://sites.google.com/site/saintceciliaecoteam/

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Black History Month

The Grade 4 students and the Perseverance Club led a prayer service, performed songs and presented two

short plays to commemorate Black History Month and the virtues of Courage and Love. The students’ rendi-

tion of ‘Glory’, arranged by Mrs. Spalding, was very moving and the whole school sang along to ‘What is

Love’. The plays featured two prominent figures in Civil Rights history, both Canadian and American, Viola

Desmond and Ruby Bridges. Congratulations to the recipients of the certificates for the virtues of the months

of January and February. Well done!!

Virtues of Courage and Love: Congratulations!

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CARNAVALE D’HIVER

Page 8

Many thanks to Mme. Choquette and team for organizing great winter activities for the students.

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R EADING BUDDIES

Grade 1 and Grade 8 students reading together.

Mme Choquette, Mrs. Pelech and

Mme Czulo’s Classes

The Learning Myth: Why I'll Never Tell My Son He's Smart Tue, 19 Aug 2014 14:43:00 By: Salman Khan

My 5-year--old son has just started reading. Every night, we lie on his bed and he reads a short book to

me. Inevitably, he’ll hit a word that he has trouble with: last night the word was “gratefully.” He even-

tually got it after a fairly painful minute. He then said, “Dad, aren’t you glad how I struggled with that

word? I think I could feel my brain growing.” I smiled: my son was now verbalizing the tell--tale signs

of a “growth- mindset.” But this wasn’t by accident. Recently, I put into practice research I had been reading about for the past few

years: I decided to praise my son not when he succeeded at things he was already good at, but when he persevered with things that

he found difficult. I stressed to him that by struggling, your brain grows. Between the deep body of research on the field of learning

mindsets and this personal experience with my son, I am more convinced than ever that mindsets toward learning could matter

more than anything else we teach.

Researchers have known for some time that the brain is like a muscle; that the more you use it, the more it grows. They’ve found

that neural connections form and deepen most when we make mistakes doing difficult tasks rather than repeatedly having success

with easy ones.

What this means is that our intelligence is not fixed, and the best way that we can grow our intelligence is to embrace tasks where

we might struggle and fail.

However, not everyone realizes this. Dr. Carol Dweck of Stanford University has been studying people’s mindsets towards learning

for decades. She has found that most people adhere to one of two mindsets: fixed or growth. Fixed mindsets mistakenly believe that

people are either smart or not, that intelligence is fixed by genes. People with growth mindsets correctly believe that capability and

intelligence can be grown through effort, struggle and failure. Dweck found that those with a fixed mindset tended to focus their

effort on tasks where they had a high likelihood of success and avoided tasks where they may have had to struggle, which limited

their learning. People with a growth mindset, however, embraced challenges, and understood that tenacity and effort could change

their learning outcomes. As you can imagine, this correlated with the latter group more actively pushing themselves and growing

intellectually.

The good news is that mindsets can be taught; they’re malleable. What’s really fascinating is that Dweck and others have developed

techniques that they call “growth mindset interventions,” which have shown that even small changes in communication or seeming-

ly innocuous comments can have fairly long--lasting implications for a person’s mindset. For instance, praising someone’s process

(“I really like how you struggled with that problem”) versus praising an innate trait or talent (“You’re so clever!”) is one way to

reinforce a growth -mindset with someone. Process- praise acknowledges the effort; talent- praise reinforces the notion that one

only succeeds (or doesn’t) based on a fixed trait. And we’ve seen this on Khan Academy as well: students are spending more time

learning on Khan Academy after being exposed to messages that praise their tenacity and grit and that underscore that the brain is

like a muscle.

The Internet is a dream for someone with a growth mindset. Between Khan Academy, MOOCs, and others, there is unprecedented

access to endless content to help you grow your mind. However, society isn’t going to fully take advantage of this without growth

mindsets being more prevalent. So what if we actively tried to change that? What if we began using whatever means are at our dis-

posal to start performing growth mindset interventions on everyone we cared about? This is much bigger than Khan Academy or

algebra — it applies to how you communicate with your children, how you manage your team at work, how you learn a new lan-

guage or instrument. If society as a whole begins to embrace the struggle of learning, there is no end to what that could mean for

global human potential.

And now here’s a surprise for you. By reading this article itself, you’ve just undergone the first half of a growth--mindset interven-

tion. The research shows that just being exposed to the research itself (--for example, knowing that the brain grows most by getting

questions wrong, not right--) can begin to change a person’s mindset. The second half of the intervention is for you to communicate

the research with others. We’ve made a video (above) that celebrates the struggle of learning that will help you do this. After all,

when my son, or for that matter, anyone else asks me about learning, I only want them to know one thing. As long as they embrace

struggle and mistakes, they can learn anything.

— You can view the original op-ed in Huffington Post

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St. Cecilia Parish News

Sunday, March 1st at 3:30 p.m.: St. Cecilia's Church 37th Annual St. Patrick's

Mass and celebration. Main celebrant and homilist will be his

Eminence, Thomas Cardinal Collins. Everyone is invited!

Wed. March 4th: Archdiocese Day of Confessions: St. Cecilia's Church hours to

hear confession: 9:30 a.m.-10:30 a.m., 12:00-1:00 p.m. and

7:30 p.m.-8:30 p.m.

Friday, March 6th at 7:45 p.m.: Lenten Taizè Retreat at St. Cecilia's Church

Tuesday, March 10th: St. Cecilia's School Lenten Mass at 10:00 a.m.

No First Communion preparation classes during the two weekends of March Break. (March 16 & 22nd.)

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Page 12

Guidance Corner

High School Registration is Underway!

High school registration nights have begun and will continue into the month of March. Be sure to read through your child’s acceptance packages carefully and complete all of the necessary forms before submitting them on the date of registration.

Pay particular attention to the Reach-Ahead course that is being offered by some schools in the TCDSB. Your child may be entitled to a credit for taking a four week summer school course. This course is a great opportunity for your child to become familiar with their new environment, to meet the new students with whom they will be attending school, and they will begin in September with one completed credit.

Exchange of Information Meetings

Representatives from all of the high schools will be in contact with teachers this month to discuss your child’s progress and to ensure that the secondary school is prepared to receive their new grade 9 students. At the meeting, teachers will discuss proper placement (e.g. academic, applied or locally developed) for your child.

Change of High School Forms

Change forms will become available early in March. Students who would like to attempt to find a placement in a differ-ent TCDSB high school are to request a form from their teacher. Forms must be completed and submitted as soon as possible. Please remember that submitting a Change Form does not guarantee your child a spot in a different high school. Admittance is still based on availability of space.

Have a wonderful March Break! Mr. F. Amato

Guidance Counsellor

francesco.amato@tcdsb.org

Student Safe Arrival The safety of our students is of the upmost importance. When a student is marked absent, unless notified

of the absence, the office staff needs to call each and every student to ensure his/her whereabouts. With

enrolment at over 600, you can appreciate that this task is time-consuming. In order to be more efficient

and to make sure that all of our students are safe, we ask that you follow school procedure and call the

school to notify the office if your child will be away from school. For your convenience, you can leave a

message on the answering machine at any time.

In the morning, the school grounds are supervised only until 8:30 a.m., therefore, we ask that the students

arrive at school on time, ready to begin the school day with their peers. Punctuality is a very important

skill to instill in our children and we ask that you continue to encourage your children to plan accordingly.

When you visit the school, please ring the bell. When prompted, please state your name and business and

report to the office once you gain entry. Please be aware that the students are instructed not to open the

doors for anyone but staff and classmates.

Finally, please adopt the practice of dropping off your student in the school yard or at the front doors.

With the exception of our very young FDK students, children can proceed to their classrooms or the office

on their own. This will develop more independence in your child, make it easier to monitor the pres-

ence of adults in the school and create less congestion in the hallway. Therefore, we ask that you ‘Kiss

and Drop Off” your children at the beginning of the school day.

Thank you for your cooperation in keeping our children safe.

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Special Events for March

March 2—School Support Staff Appreciation Day: http://www.tcdsb.org/pages/support-staff-appreciation-day-2015.aspx

March 7—Lift Jesus Higher Rally: http://www.tcdsb.org/pages/lift-jesus-higher-rally.aspx

March 8—International Women’s Day

March 16-20—March Break

March 21—International Day for Elimination of Racial Discrimination: http://www.tcdsb.org/pages/international-day-for-elimiination-of-racial-discrimination.aspx

March 21—World Down Syndrome Day: http://www.tcdsb.org/pages/world-down-syndrome-day.aspx

March 22—World Water Day: http://www.tcdsb.org/pages/world-water-day.aspx

Earth Hour—March 27th 10 a.m. (for school); March 28th 8:30 p.m. (at home) http://www.tcdsb.org/board/environment/earthhour/pages/default.aspx

Board and Committee Meetings

March 3—Budget Committee

March 5--Student Achievement Committee

March 9--Special Board

March 10--Governance & Policy Committee

March 12--Corporate Affairs Committee

March 25—Special Education Advisory Committee

March 26--Board

March 30--OAPCE Toronto

(Meeting dates subject to change; check the website for the latest information: http://www.tcdsb.org/Board/TrusteesoftheBoard/boardmeeting/information/Pages/Meeting-Schedule.aspx)

Remember to follow us on Twitter @TCDSB for all the latest news and information, or visit our web-

site at www.tcdsb.org.

Monthly Update from the

Board

March 2015

TCDSB Safe School Inquiry

Public Meetings Wednesday, March 4, 2015

6:30- 9:00 PM St. Andrew Catholic School, 2533 Kipling Avenue

Etobicoke

Wednesday March 25, 2015 6:00 PM- 9:00 PM Senator O’Connor Secondary School, 60 Rowena Drive North York

*All Public Meetings are open to any person or group from the TCDSB community wishing to present their views. No prior registra-tion is required. Those wishing to testify may contact Christina DeLuca from TCDSB Corporate Services at 416-222-8282 ext. 2473 or by email: christina.deluca@tcdsb.org

No Change to Secondary School Admission Policy

At This Time

No changes to the policy will be implemented in the short term. Status quo remains until further consultations are conducted re-garding any proposed recommendations arising from the first phase of parent input and the findings of first cycle of School Accommoda-tion Reviews. For more information, see the letter from the Director on our website: http://www.tcdsb.org/News/othernews/2015/Pages/Letter-from-Director-of-Education-Regarding-Secondary-School-Admissions-Policy.aspx

Voices of Charity

The Director of Education, Angela Gauthier, presents her latest webcast which focuses on the pursuit of innovation and excellence in TCDSB schools: http://youtu.be/fD19Ff5ZaC4

Upcoming Information Sessions for Parents

CSAC Training Session—Understanding school funding and the Board budget; more about fundraising--March 4th, 7 p.m. at Cath-olic Education Centre, 80 Sheppard Avenue East

OAPCE Toronto hosts PRO (Parents Reaching Out) Grants Work-shop #1 Partnerships, connecting to curriculum--April 1, 2015 at 7:00 p.m.

Information for Students:

Summer Employment—Focus on Youth Accepting Appli-cations Until March 27th

Check online for detailed information http://www.tcdsb.org/forstudents/focusonyouth/pages/foy-2015.aspx

Scholarships, Bursaries, Awards, Contests—Get the latest information here: http://www.tcdsb.org/FORSTUDENTS/AwardsScholarshipsBursariesContests/Pages/default.aspx

TORONTO CATHOLIC DISTRICT SCHOOL BOARD TRUSTEES 2014 – 2015

Ward 1 Joseph Martino Ward 2 Ann Andrachuk Ward 3 Sal Piccinnini Ward 4 Patrizia Bottoni Ward 5 Maria Rizzo Ward 6 Frank D’Amico Ward 7 Michael Del Grande, Chair Ward 8 Gary Tanuan Ward 9 Barbara Poplawski Ward 10 Angela Kennedy Ward 11 Nancy Crawford, Vice-Chair

Hanna McGroarty, Student Trustee Chris MacDonald, Student Trustee Angela Gautier, Director of Education