“One’s mind, stretched by new ideas, may never return to its original

dimensions.”

- Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.

Islington Junior Middle

School

Monthly Newsletter April Edition April 2017

Principal’s Message

Peek inside for a view of all

the exciting initiatives at

Islington JMS!

What a wonderful month we have had! March has been extremely busy for us at Islington JMS and we have certainly shared moments that will go down in our school’s history! As you will read in this newsletter, we had a wonderful day on March 30th with Historica Canada who visited us to film student voice for their upcoming documentary on Canada’s 150 years.

April 2017

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Islington JMS Newsletter

FUN—DRAISING!

SAC NEWS Our next SAC meeting will be on Monday April 3, 2017 at 6:30pm in the Islington JMS library. We hope to see you all there to discuss upcoming events/initiatives at the school. We would like to thank all the parents that came out to the Ward 3 Council meeting on March 28

th, held

at our school. Parent Councils from different schools shared best practices with each other while enjoying food from our Lakeshore CI students and delicious, non-alcoholic beverages made by our parents!

On March 8th, International Women’s day, two of our students were invited to speak at a function hosted by Councillor Justin DiCiano. The attendees were inspired by our students’ words of wisdom about “being bold for change”. This was an unforgettable experience for our students. To add to the amazing events happening at the school, on April 21st, we will be participating in Clean Toronto Together, the City’s annual spring cleanup that brings together thousands of Toronto residents, students, businesses, organizations and community groups to remove litter and keep our city clean and green! We continue to host visitors and teacher candidates, both from local and international institutions, with whom we exchange best practices, learn and find innovative ways to meet our students’ needs. We are in the midst of preparing for a very exciting STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Math) evening in May. This will be a school-wide event and we invite all of our parents/community to partake in 21st century learning with us! More details regarding this event will follow. We look forward to continued excitement and learning during the spring months!

2017/2018 SCHOOL YEAR Student class placement is always a complex process, during which we strive to achieve a good fit for all students. Careful time and consideration are given by staff and administration when considering the best learning environment for each child. Classrooms are organized based on a balance of the following factors: academic levels, social emotional needs, program needs, gender, learning styles, group dynamics. If you wish to make us aware of any program and/or special needs that may impact your child’s learning, please submit this to the main office in writing no later than April 25, 2017. We will

take your note into consideration, however, we cannot guarantee a specific placement. Please note that last minute requests will not be considered because classes are organized during the month of May. Also note that requests for a particular teacher cannot be accepted as teacher assignments are tentative until September.

We will soon begin collecting orders for “Rafiki” bracelets. Rafiki bracelets are made by Kenyan artisans to help raise funds for community led development projects through Free the Children’s We Villages. The Rafiki bracelets will sell for $10.00 each and come in five different colours: blue, green, orange, purple and red. An order form has come home with this newsletter and should be returned to the school by Friday April 21, 2017. Thank you in advance for your support of this important initiative that teaches our students how to be agents of change as global citizens.

On Thursday, April 13 we will be having a Spring Carnival to celebrate and welcome spring. Students from grades K-4 will be invited to play lots of amazing games such as bowling, hop race, scooters race, egg-hunt, face painting etc. We will also be holding a mehndi stand at the carnival where grades 4-6 can have stunning, mehndi designs made on their hand. Students in grades 5 and 6 will take part in a Rangoli Competition in the morning. This is a competition where the students will be asked to create beautiful designs, on the floor of our large lunch room, based on the theme of spring using vibrant coloured powders. We will be selling tickets in advance (April 10th - 13th), each ticket will cost 25 cents or 5 tickets for $1.00.

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LUNCH TIME at Islington JMS JK/SK-B Room 3 Varsha Koneri/Dina Guzova JK/SK-C Room 2 Tanya Galluzzo/ Silvina Machulec JK/SK-D Room 4 Heather Heanning/Sue Ieriti FSK-A Room 8 Xuan Hue Vuong/ Khaddouji Kotb FSK-B Room 1 Katya Teixeira, C/ Pasqal Fulginiti FI1 Room 5-2 Vicky Simard FI2 Room 9-4 Mamadou Sanogo 1 Room 5-3 Joan Kim 1/2 Room 5-4 Tracy Caudle 2/3 Room 9-1 Jennifer Chang 3 Room 9-2 Mary Lou Morgan 3/4 Room 9-3 Lois Gadway 4 Room 10 Deborah Welsh 5 Room 19-2 Tsetan Dolma 5/6 Room 19-3 Lisbeth Paisley-Smith 6A Room 17 David Zayachkowski 7 Room 16 Phil Trigiani 7/8 Room 19-4 Lori Pidgeon 7/8A Room 15 Lidia, Kyprianou 8 Room 20 Dalia Mukherjee ISP-Autism Room 18 Stephanie Porteous/Brandy Horvat Leap Rm.5-5 Ann Woomart Leap-A Rm.9-5 Janet McCarrol-Spiers Prep./Resource/STEAM Rm 11 Greg Karout Jr French/Music Rm 14 Maria Giannantonio Int French/ESL res. Rm 19-1 Ana Marinovic Music/IMI Band Rm 12 Library Library Angela Sakkalis Jr.Sr ESL Cong. Rm 19-1 Ana Marinovic Jr.Sr. HSP/Resource Rm 19-5 Netta Stambolic MART/Sp. Ed. Rm 1 Angela Sakkalis Guidance Rm 6-1 Leigh Doucet Reading Recovery/Prep Rm 6-2 Lata Iyer Phys. Ed Girls Office Monika Watters Phys. Ed/Res Boys Office Ana Jimenez Instrumental Music Sml/lrg lunchrm Early Childhood Educators (ECE) Kamilia Seredocha, Dina Guzova,Sue Ieriti, Silvana

Machulec, Pasqal Fulginiti Khaddouji Kotb Educational Assistant (EA) Sujata Bhatia, S.N.A. Janet Rait Caretakers Alex Grech, Gladys Fleet, Elizabeta Malkowsua Lunchroom Fadwa Ghanem, Ms. Mahadale, M. Bahrani, Danielle

Lacivita Lunchroom KDG Ye Yang, H. Khatun, S. Salman, I. Jahan, TBA Settlement Worker Warda Abdulsamed Rm 19-6 Parenting Centre Beth Hunter

Principal Rocco Coluccio

Pizza Lunches 2017

We will be offering Pizza Day Lunch this year as one of our major fundraisers. It has been an excellent fundraiser for our community thus far. Our pizza lunch program is now in compliance with the Provincial School Food and Beverage Policy (P/PM 150). For more information on healthy schools, go to the Ministry of Education Healthy Schools Website: www.ontario.ca/healthyschools. The remaining pizza lunches are as follows.

April 5th April 12th April 19th April 26th May 3rd May 10th May 17th May 24th May 31st June 7th

June 14th June 21st

SKILLS CHALLENGE COMPETITION 2017! On March 1st a group of 4 grade 6s competed in the junior Skills Ontario technology challenge at the Science Center. They had to design and build a model device to remove debris from the Gardiner Expressway. The group faced stiff competition but managed to come in 3rd place of 21 teams!

STUDENT WELL BEING On Tuesday April 11, Islington JMS will be hosting a special guest speaker who will perform for all of our students, while disseminating a very important message about Perseverance. This topic will be explored throughout the month, as will mental health in the first week of May. On Tuesday May 2nd, Anthony McLean, an inspirational speaker will visit IJMS to speak to students about diversity, acceptance and anti-bullying. Parents are welcome to attend any of these assemblies. The primary assemblies will be held at 10:30am and the junior/intermediate ones will be held after lunch at 12:45pm.

April 2017

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Regular attendance is necessary to make progress at school. If your child is absent, the following actions need to be taken:

Attendance

If a student is to be excused during the school day, the parent or guardian should send a note to school with the student explaining the circumstance and the parent may telephone the

school.

If a student is absent from school the whole day or part of a day, the parent should telephone the school prior to 8:30 in the morning or 12:30 in the afternoon, thus ensuring safe arrival. The telephone

number is 416-394-7874. A note from a

parent communicating the child’s absence is also acceptable.

1

2

Students will not be excused

from school without parental

consent. Notes should include

date(s) of absence and parent’s

or guardian’s signature.

EQUITY AND ACHIEVEMENT AT IJMS April is Autism awareness month. Places all over the world Light it up Blue on April 2nd to show acceptance and understanding for people with autism. Since this lands on a Sunday all of us at Islington JMS will wear blue on Monday, April 3rd to show our support. An estimated 1 in 68 children are on the autism spectrum. With the May 2013 publication of the DSM-5 diagnostic manual, all autism disorders were merged into one umbrella diagnosis of ASD. Previously, they were recognized as distinct subtypes, including autistic disorder, childhood disintegrative disorder, pervasive developmental disorder-not otherwise specified (PDD-NOS) and Asperger syndrome. ASD affects tens of millions worldwide. You can visit http://www.autismspeaks.ca/get-involved/participate/light-it-up-blue-waad-test/ for more information about Light it up Blue.

The TDSB Autism Team will visit our next staff meeting to support educators in creating programming that meets the needs of students on the spectrum. They will also support staff with educating all students about autism and the unique skill sets that students on the spectrum bring to our school and society at large. We also know that planning and programming in the classroom for students with exceptional needs is beneficial to ALL students. As a staff, we continue to engage in conversations that urge us to grow in our ever-changing understanding of student learning and success.

We invite you to check out our bulletin board in the front foyer, created by our students in room 18! It contains information about what Autism is and about famous people with Autism. Our students found that, as they researched various people, autism may not be a disability but a blessing for what they were meant to be or be able to accomplish.

Islington JMS Newsletter April 2017

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APRIL 2017 STUDENT/PARENT CENSUS

April 2017 is the TDSB’s Census Month! This is the third administration of the TDSB’s Student and Parent Census. The success of this third Census relies on full co-operation from school administrators and staff as well as their school communities in order to ensure a very high participation rate from all students and parents. Grades JK – 3 will only be conducting a parent survey. Grades 4 – 6 will be conducting a student AND parent survey. Grades 7-8 will only be conducting a student survey. A letter was sent home detailing the census information. If you do not wish for your child to participate in the student census, please return the bottom of the letter to the school.

HISTORICA CANADA On March 30, 2017, Historica Canada visited Islington JMS to document student voice for the upcoming 150 years celebrations in Canada. This is part of a project called Here’s My Canada, a multilingual, nation-wide contest inviting Canadians to express what Canada means to them in a 30-second video. The entire school congregated in the gym, standing in the form of a maple leaf with the numbers 150 in the middle. All the students sang Oh Canada in English and in French. In addition, individual students who wished to express their thoughts on what Canada means to them had an opportunity to do so on camera. We were astounded by the number of students who asked to take part in the individual filming! The footage will be sent to us, once edited, via a link and it will be shared on our website very soon!

ECO NEWS In mid-March, our school Eco team conducted a full school eco audit to determine how well we are doing at placing litter/garbage in the appropriate bins. The results of the audit will be shared with students through daily announcements and with staff at our upcoming staff meeting. Our Eco team is also currently compiling our application for Platinum certification!

44 Cordova Avenue

Follow us on Twitter: tdsb_islington

Website: http://schoolweb.tdsb.on.ca/islington/Home.asppx

Main Office – 416-394-7870

Student Absent Line (24 hours) – 416-394-7874

OUTDOOR ED

Islington Junior Middle

School

Principal: Rocco Coluccio

Vice Principal: Simona Emiliani Superintendent: Tracy Hayhurst

Trustee: Pamela Gough Chair: Jeff Dick

Co-Chair: Surer Osoble

UPCOMING DATES AND EVENTS

Date Event April 3, 2017 SAC at 6:30pm

April 11, 2017 Perseverance Assembly

April 14, 2017 Good Friday – no school

April 17, 2017 Easter Monday – no school

April 20, 2017 Grade 8 Grad Photo morning

April 21, 2017 Community Clean Upf

April 28, 2017 Student of the Month Assembly

Our Grade 7 students participated in the annual trip to the Etobicoke Outdoor Education Centre. Over 40 students went on the trip, from March 27th to March 29th. They engaged in team-building initiatives focused on the beautiful outdoors – collecting maple syrup, finding land marks, reading maps and bird feeding. Students not only learned to appreciate the beauty of nature but also about eco-friendly actions and initiatives that reduce energy consumption and waste. All students reported having “the best time!” and we look forward to offering this again next year. We also thank our staff members who gave up their time to make the trip possible for our students.