Waterloo Region District School Board

The week of March 3-6 was Staff Appreciation Week at Riverside PS in Elmira. This week was designed to recognize how important staff are to the success of students and schools and how much their hard work, kindness and support are appreciated. All week children wrote messages of appreciation on paper apples that soon covered the painted tree outside of the office. On March 6 there was an assembly with Trustee Harold Paisley and Superintendent Mark Schinkel bringing messages of appreciation. Students performed readings, including some original poems written for the staff.

Congratulations to Michele Brooke a grade 5 student at Forest Hill PS who won first prize in a writing contest - elementary school category sponsored by Wilfrid Laurier University. Honourable mentions were won by Emma Schmelzle and Laura Arnold for their contributions.

NA MacEachern PS became a math demo school on a day in February as parents of junior kindergarten to grade 6 students sat in on math classes to observe teachers using the problem-solving method. Students wrote personal invitations to their parents to visit. Over a hundred parents attended.

Silverheights PS has been awarded the School of Excellence Award from Barrday Inc. It all started when Cathy Gregory, a teacher at the school, was awarded the Teacher Award for Excellence from Barrday. Because of this, the school was in the running for School of Excellence award and they won it. In addition to the award, they will receive $10,000 to implement a framework designed to identify and support their struggling learners, provide time for consolidation for those students who are not struggling and enrichment support for those students who have mastered the skill or concept.

Staff and students at Cameron Heights CI have been recognized by the Waterloo Wellington Children's Groundwater Festival with an Ontario Heritage Trust Award in the Environment Category for their ongoing support of the Festival for the past five years. The Festival organizers indicated that Cameron Heights provides outstanding volunteers at the Groundwater Festival who have added to the quality of their program over the years.

Livia Raptis, a student at Bluevale CI, has won the Ontario Secondary School Teachers' Federation, Marion Drysdale Student Achievement Award for 2008 for a painting she created titled "Reverse Osmosis". Livia describes her painting as symbolic of sacrifice; where one person is crossing into danger to help the other. The topic for this year's contest was necessity. Livia will receive her award from the Minister of Education at the Annual Meeting of the OSSTF Provincial Assembly.

Forest Hill Public School staff, students and parents are celebrating their 10th anniversary of hosting a family literacy evening. This year 120 parents and children came out for a light supper and then a night of literacy activities. The parents were active participants in a make and take event rotating through four literacy centres where they made games to take home and use with their children. One of the centres focused on learning how to read to your child and how to assist your child in asking good questions when they are reading to you.

Canada World Youth is an international educational program for young people aged 17 to 24.  Nine Canadian students from across the country were paired with nine students from Peru.  They were hosted by local families in Waterloo Region and performed goodwill acts throughout the area.  Elmira DSS welcomed these 18 Canada World Youth participants for a day.  They shadowed an EDSS student and participated in classes.  It was a great opportunity for the students to live a day in the life of an Ontario student and an equally enlightening chance for EDSS students to learn

The Homer Watson House & Gallery is featuring the Waterloo-Oxford District Secondary School's Graduating Class Exhibition titled "Spirit of the Artist" from January 12 to 31, 2008.  The gallery is located at 1754 Old Mill Road, Kitchener.

Mme Zieske, a teacher at Riverside PS, is giving her Core French Grades 4 and 5 students a chance to make international friends! Last summer, she met a teacher living and teaching outside of Paris. They decided that their classes should become pen pals. Riverside students are writing in French and their pen pals are writing in their new second language, English. The school in France is in Champigny-sur-Marne, France. What a wonderful opportunity for Riverside's students to make meaningful connections around the world.