Student Profiles

AMAZING STORY OF LINC STUDENT PABI RIZAL

On Tuesday, June 19, I attended a gathering at the National Arts Centre  organized by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees in recognition of World Refugee Day.  The gathering featured several speakers including Deputy Mayor of the City of Ottawa Eli El-Chantiry, who announced that June 19, 2012 was officially proclaimed World Refugee Day in Ottawa.  The featured speaker was Ottawa Citizen writer Luisa Taylor.  She has chronicled the plight of Bhutanese refugees at Beldangi II refugee camp in Nepal. 

http://www.thenownews.com/Slide+show+Life+limbo/6204300/story.html

For me though, the hi-light of this gathering was the testimonial of Bhutanese refugee Pabi Rizal.  After living in Beldangi, Pabi came to Canada with her parents and 4 of her siblings on July 15, 2009.  In addition to dealing with culture and climate shock, she faced an additional challenge - her deafness.  Thanks to a specialized language program at the Ottawa Catholic School Board's Language Instruction for Newcomers to Canada (LINC) program at St. Joseph Adult School and a gifted teacher named Armand Brennan , Pabi was able to learn American Sign Language and eventually go on to attend Sir James Whitney School for the Deaf in Belleville, graduating with an Ontario Secondary School Diploma this very week!   Check out the following link for more about Pabi's inspiring story:

 http://www.unhcr.org/print/4e8461276.html

L to R LINC Coordinator Salome Atandi, Pabi Rizal, Superintendent 

Peter Atkinson, & Continuing Education Manager Shailja Verma

ST.  NICHOLAS ADULT HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATION

Make no mistake about it - The St. Nicholas Adult High School graduation ceremony is like no other graduation!  For everyone of the nearly 300 adults who graduated this year, there is a remarkable story of perseverance and courage.  

A case in point is Principal's Award winner Cheryl Burnett, whose story was featured in the Ottawa Citizen by Kelly Egan on Friday, June 22: 



  http://www.ottawacitizen.com/Life/All/graduation+from+high+school+from+life+streets/6821018/story.html

Congratulations to Principal John Karam, who is retiring at the end of the school year, and the dedicated teachers and staff of St. Nicholas, who do whatever it takes to help the adults who attend St. Nicholas to succeed.  

  

Celebrating Excellence

Mother Teresa Student Wins App Competition

Mother Teresa student Aritra Sengupta went home a winner from TechU.me's AppJam Competition, taking home a cheque for $1,000, a Blackberry tablet, and a summer employment opportunity from WorldReach Software. Aritra's Air Hockey App was impressive and overcame obstacles that included the adjustment of Android SDK to eliminate the gravity property. Congratulations to this technology enthusiast!

Aritra Sengupta



St. Francis Xavier High School Student Wins CAYFO Award

At the 15th annual Spirit of the Capital Youth Awards Ceremony held on May 28, St. Francis Xavier High School student Elliott Dooley received the Young Athlete Award.  Spirit of the Capital Youth Awards are sponsored by Child and Youth Friendly Ottawa (CAYFO).  Elliott is an incredible example of how strengthening your community and supporting your team can have a lasting impact on others.

International Languages Program Year-end Celebration

The International Languages Elementary program is mandated by the Ministry of Education.  The Continuing & Community Education Department of the Ottawa Catholic School Board offers instruction in 25 languages for close to 3,000 elementary age students.   Classes are held on Saturday mornings at 11 sites throughout the city.  We also offer an International Languages credit program in 11 languages for high school students on Saturdays at St. Pius X High School.

Mr. Vitus So (site administrator), Mr. Atkinson, & Kitchissippi Ward Councilor Katherine Hobbs
with Graduates of Chinese Mandarin program at Notre Dame  

On Saturday, June 16, I was pleased to attend the year-end celebration of our Chinese Mandarin International Languages program at Notre Dame High School.   The celebration featured student performances and even a fan dance by some of the students' mothers.  Graduating students from the program were also recognized.

Book Review: The Principal as Instructional Leader in Literacy

Book Review: The Principal as Instructional Leader in Literacy

The Principal as Instructional Leader in Literacy, by Dean Pilkington, is a quick and easy read that provides school leaders with a basic understanding of literacy and outlines strategies for leading instruction in their schools.

The author identifies 13 components of a balanced or comprehensive program in literacy instruction and also summarizes the Four Blocks Literacy Model of Patricia Cunningham and Dorothy Hall.  He recommends that a principal establishes with teachers a set of literacy core values, and then follows these steps to develop a literacy plan for a school:

            - Determine where the school is and where it needs to go in literacy instruction
            - Determine where each teacher is on the openness to change continuum
            - Create a collaborative action plan, using Smart goals, for improving literacy instruction

Pilkington emphasizes the importance of involving parents as partners in literacy initiatives and makes a case for shared leadership and a team approach towards literacy instruction improvement.  He also discusses a number of strategies principals can use to support classroom instruction in literacy, including action research, various forms of professional development, teacher self-reflection, and classroom learning walks.

For a book that has literacy as its theme,  it's both surprising and disappointing that The Principal as Instructional Leader in Literacy focuses so little on specific literacy strategies.   Instead, the emphasis in much of the book is on generic strategies and tips for principals for leading any instructional practice.  On the other hand, the book does feature some useful charts, rubrics, and checklists that principals can use to help them in their critical role of instructional leader in literacy. 

Business Studies at Mother Teresa HS

 Learning in The 21st Century in Catholic High Schools:

Business Studies at Mother Teresa High School

 Recently, some Mother Teresa High School students in Ms. Sally Morency's grade 12 business studies course (BOH4M) showed me a presentation on their class's project: to establish their own company to promote and sell fair trade African products.  Their project demonstrates important features (bolded) of learning as it should be in Catholic high school classrooms in the 21st century.

 The class conducted a collaborative inquiry in order to learn about various fair trade African compamies - that is, companies that avoid exploitation of people in the 3rd world and, instead, compensate them fairly for the goods they produce.  In this way, the class project helped students develop an awareness of the gospel value of social justice.  

In their inquiry, students used the internet to investigate specific companies:

     

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3mC8KsL4fY&feature=player_embedded!

Ultimately, the class selected products marketed by Nharo!.



The class then went about the process of establishing an actual company - experiential learning.  Each student in the class used practical literacy skills in completing an application for a position in the company, based on her or his skills and interests.  Work teams were then established, in which students brainstormed and then selected possible names, logos, and mission statements for the company - ultimately selected one of each.

Akanaka - The name & logo the students selected for their business

The students then advertised the Nharo! products by various means, but mainly through social media - Facebook, Twitter, etc.  They sold many bracelets, sculptures, and other products and made over $4,000 in commission, which they then agreed to used for other social justice initiatives at the school.

Grade 12 Business Studies Class at Mother Teresa



The students' willingness to use the money they earned in this way demonstrates they learned well this lesson in social justice.  It was their exit card!