“Education is the most powerful weapon you can use to change the

world.” - Nelson Mandela

Islington Junior Middle

School

Monthly Newsletter December Edition

December 2016

Principal’s Message

Peek inside for a view of all

the exciting initiatives at

Islington JMS!

November has come and gone with great learning and fun at Islington JMS! Thank you to all those who helped organize and who participated in our memorable Remembrance Day Ceremonies. Also of great importance, our Kids Cops and Computers Program that once again awarded personal laptops to twenty Grade 7 and 8 students! Our students were ecstatic to have access to a tool that can support them throughout their learning journey. We continue to establish and maintain wonderful partnerships in our community as we enter the holiday season. Our members of student parliament helped collect non-perishable food items and partnered with Islington United Church and the Daily Food Bank to support the 49 Mabelle Food Program.

December 2016

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Islington JMS Newsletter

EARLY FRENCH IMMERSION INFORMATION

As shared at our French Immersion information evening, the application process opened on Tuesday,

November 1, 2016 with the deadline for applications being Thursday, December 1, 2016.

On-time applicants will be offered a placement online via the email address you have provided.

You MUST take action to accept this placement by the deadline requested when you are offered a

placement.

Offers of placement will be ongoing throughout the weeks and months following the close of the application

period. Please check your email regularly, including junk mail folders, and follow any instructions

While every effort will be made to place students in the school identified as their area French Immersion

school, this is not always possible. In cases where the number of applications in a given area is greater

than the number of spaces in the school, students may be redirected to schools with available space.

Placements are made based on the address you provide prior to the application deadline. If your address

changes between the application deadline and the fall of the SK year, there is no guarantee of placement in

your new area.

SCHOOL ADVISORY COUNCIL (SAC)

NEWS Our next SAC meeting is on

Monday December 5, 2016 at 5:00pm in the school library.

Our special guest will be Michelle Munroe from the

Parent Engagement Office at the TDSB. All are welcome to

attend!

Treasurer: Debra Petrushchak

Secretary: Courtney McCann

Co-Chair: Surer Osoble

Co-Chair: Jeff Dick

Community Liaison Rep: Alex Song &

Melanie Amadasun

Our senior boys volleyball team and senior girls basketball team participated in tournaments this month and proudly represented IJMS! On December 5, our junior boys volleyball team will compete and we wish them all the best! Teaching and learning in our classrooms continues to focus on providing students with opportunities to engage in problem-solving and higher-level thinking across grade levels and subject areas. We are placing particular emphasis on building strong numeracy skills and fostering positive mindsets around Mathematics. This edition of our newsletter will give you ideas on how to support this at home. On behalf of our staff here at IJMS, I would like to wish all of our students and families a safe, peaceful holiday season and a great start to the 2017 New Year!

- Rocco Coluccio, Principal

Islington JMS Newsletter December 2016

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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

HOT SOUP FOR LUNCH

Student Parliament at Islington, in collaboration with Plan Canada, proudly sponsors a child, through our Year- Wide Fundraisers. As a part of the fundraiser, we will be selling HOT YUMMY SOUP, made by Mrs. Christou, our Office Administrator. Our first soup day was on, Tuesday, November 29th, 2016. We will be selling soup (Halal meat and vegetarian options) for $2.00 a bowl, at lunch time in the large lunch room. Please remember to send a Toonie with your child, to enjoy a fresh warm bowl of soup and help support a good cause. Up- coming Soup sale dates are as follows:

December: Tuesday, 13th January, 2017 : 10th, 24th February, 2017 : 7th, 14th

Thanking you

Student Parliament

Well Being and Mental Health Awareness

November 20th- 26th was Bullying Prevention and Awareness week in the TDSB. As a part of our Ministry initiatives, Ministers and members of the Student Parliament at Islington took part in a half day workshop provided by the nurses from Toronto Public Health. Student leaders actively engaged in sharing their views about student well-being at the school, and they generated ideas for how to positively impact well-being in their role as leaders, throughout the year. It was also evident throughout their dialogue that they look forward to modeling some best practices to ensure the well-being of every child at Islington JMS. Members attending the workshop were happy to be a part of it and look forward to applying the strategies and ideas that they learned in order to help build and maintain a positive and inclusive environment at our school.

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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.

TEACHING AND LEARNING AT ISLINGTON JUNIOR MIDDLE SCHOOL

Building strong NUMERACY skills is an important goal for our students at Islington JMS. As a school, we want to ensure that students see themselves as being “good at math” by giving them opportunities to work with engaging problems that focus on process just as much as product. To help your child see math in the world around them in authentic ways, try some of the activities below with them.

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WORKSHOPS WITH AND FOR PARENTS!

In partnership with Toronto Public Health, Islington JMS will be offering parent workshops throughout the year. Our first workshop was a big success and parents asked for a part 2!! The workshop engages parents in conversation about how to build resiliency in our children. Join us on Tuesday December 6, 2016 at 9:30am at the school for the next session. All parents are welcome. Please sign in at the office upon arrival and someone will accompany you to the workshop room.

ECO-NEWS A big THANK YOU to all our students and parents who have purchased a “tulip” to plant on our Highway of Heroes. This initiative honours Canada’s fallen by planting 117,000 trees, one for every fallen Canadian Soldier since Confederation, along and near the Highway of Heroes between Trenton and Toronto. Students can purchase a tulip for a Toonie. The proceeds help fund this powerful cause. Our Eco-committee, comprised of staff and students from different grades, kicked off the year at our latest assembly, outlining all the exciting programs and initiatives they have been planning in order to make our school as eco-friendly as possible! For this month, those include:

Pumpkin-making with recycled/eco-friendly materials

Three separate garbage bins in both lunch rooms (recycling, garbage and green bin) Eco-Art Challenge: Class competition for designing a waste reduction poster using the

3Rs

To pre-register for the workshop, call the school office: 416-394-7870

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

Skills Challenge Competition

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

December 2, 2016 PA Day – no school

December 5, 2016 Parent Council at 5:00pm

December 22, 2016 Student of the Month Assembly

Dress Your Best Spirit Day

December 23, 2016 Last day of school

January 9, 2017 First day back at school

On November 24th, some grade eight students ventured to the Annual Lakeshore Collegiate Skills Challenge to show off their skills in six events against seven neighbouring Etobicoke schools. The competition was intense, but our Islington team did not shy away from the task at hand. Our students dove into hands-on projects in: woodworking, hospitality, cosmetology, photography, digital arts, and automotive arts and all had a great time working in an incredible setting and creating work they were all proud of. Congratulations to all those who competed!