Page From the Principals Office Principal s Message Spring weather brings to us a renewed optimism, enthusiasm and a celebration of student learning. At this time of year our students appear more independent and confident, and are often ready to take new challenges in their learning. As a school community we strive to encourage and nurture their desire to learn. Our recent Open House allowed us to highlight some of the amazing student progress we are seeing everyday. It was wonderful to see so many families participate in the evening. We hope you enjoyed the opportunity to sit down with your child(ren) and discovered more about the learning they are engaged in and the learning that is taking place in their classroom. Netbooks April was also filled with many exciting activities like the arrival of the netbooks. Students in Ms. Andrews Grade 4/5 class and Mr. Vender s Grade 5 class are currently engaged in TDSB s first wireless netbook pilot. In both classes children are engaged in the curriculum through : learning. Each student has been assigned their own netbook for a period of six weeks to complete a learning project. Upon completion of the project the netbooks in Ms. Andrew s class will be shared with another school within the Northwest #3 Family of Schools. A special thank you goes to our Superintendent John Chasty for his support of this innovative learning initiative within the Northwest #3 Family of Schools. Thanks to a cost-sharing initiative between the school and parent advisory council at Summit Heights the 24 netbooks in Mr. Vender s class will remain in the school and will be shared with classes in the junior division. Upon completion of the learning projects Mr. Vender and Ms. Andrews will share with Summit Heights parents some of unique learning opportunities provided through : learning. EQAO Testing Every year the Ministry of Education provides every Ontario school a standardized test in Grade 3 and 6. The EQAO testing period will be during the week of May 3 st June 4 th. The EQAO test is based on the Ontario Curriculum standards and expectations. If you would like to support your child on the EQAO test, please visit the website at www.eqao.com for sample questions and resources. Staffing News This is the time of year when administrators receive their school allocation for teaching staff. This year we have been given 8.0 full time teachers for the 200-20 school year. This is the same number of teachers as we have this year. However, we have had to declare.5 teachers surplus because we have more teachers on our Summit Heights register that may be returning. Should there be any contract teacher movement in the school for next year (e.g., leaves of absence, going to another school, promotions, etc.), then we may be in a position to recall both teachers back. Here is our staffing model which was shared with School Council Executive earlier this month and has been approved by our School Superintendent. Summit Heights School Model 200-20 Kindergarten Teachers Assigned JK/SK.0 JK/SK.0 Primary Division Grade.0 Grade 2.0 Grade 23.0 Grade 34.0 Junior Division Grade 45.0 Grade 6.0 Special Education Primary Gifted.0 Grade 4 Gifted.0 Grade 5 Gifted.0 Grade 6 Gifted.0 Primary ISP Program.0 Junior ISP Program.0 Home School Program 0.5 Resource Support 0.5 Specialist Subjects French.0 Library.0 Music Physical Education.5 Total 8.0
Page 2 Thu May 6 Thu May 6 Tue May Important Dates Pizza Lunch School Council Meeting 7:5-8:30pm (Exec 7pm) Summit Rocks 6pm Wed May 2 Thu May 3 Fri May 4 Mon May 7 Mon May 7 Tue May 8 Tue May 8 Wed May 9 Thu May 20 Fri May 2 Outdoor School Photo Wear Red Stingray T- shirt Rain Date for Summit Rocks School-wide Track Meet Rain Date for Schoolwide Track Meet Gifted Open-House for Incoming Students Parents Gifted Open House for Incoming Students Character Education- Integrity Assembly Ultimate Frisbee Tournament Pizza Lunch Grandpal Day!" # $ % ' ($ ) Mon May 24 Victoria Day (No School) Tue May 25 Thu May 27 Area Track Meet (for students who qualify) Boys Soccer Tournament Fri May 28 Girls Soccer Tournament Mon May 3 Beginning of EQAO Testing - Grades 3 6
Page 3 Treasurer s Report In April most our students have been visited by the Scientists in the Classroom, another exciting workshop sponsored by the Parent Council. Also the Council has provided a budget for each classroom during the school year that helps to enhance the curriculum and contribute to travel costs for school trips! Thank you parents for all your support. Emanuela The Grade 6 parents would like to send out a big thank you to all of those who so generously supported our bake sale fundraisers. With your support we were able to help reduce the costs as well as enhance the graduation event. Summit Heights School Council General Council Meeting Thursday, May 6th, 200 7:5 8:30 pm School Library All parents are welcome If babysitting is required, please contact: Bev Gold bevgold@rogers.com or Mindy Smith mindys@rogers.com Executive Council please arrive at 7:00pm (, -. $ ),
Page 4. (!/ 0,, 2 ( $,3 % 3 - ( 3 4 5 5 6 %. 7 ) 9 4 ) : 8 $ 6 ; # ;
Page 5 Ms. Andrew s grade 4 5 students speak out about their Netbook learning experiences after just one week Netbooks are better in the class because it is more fun to type than to write. Also it is eco friendly because you are not using paper. It s cool because not many schools will get the chance to use them in class. Now we can go on computers more than once a week. Learning is fun now with netbooks. -Turner A netbook is a great invention. Before I got a netbook I didn t know what Scratch or other programs were. Netbooks are a great resource to find more information and keeps you focused. On my netbook I get to practice typing and now I m better at typing! I would recommend a netbook to anyone. -Rachel Netbooks are wonderful for learning things. The netbooks are fun because they make learning more fun. They also help with your typing skills. It s good exercise for your fingers. Netbooks help you when you need to research. The netbooks are also marvelous because they are portable so we can bring them anywhere we need. I think we should raise a lot of money and buy more netbooks so more classes in the school can have them. - Jamie Netbooks are fun because they make the learning environment more fun. You can use them in all sorts of ways. Don t you think that typing is more fun than writing? We are lucky that we have netbooks, other schools don t have them. I love netbooks! How about you? -Ethan Using Netbooks in my class is so much fun. I also like them because it is eco-friendly and we do not use paper. Netbooks are a great resource for learning and looking up great information. Also I like using all the amazing websites like Scratch. The Netbooks are fantastic because you can take them any where you are going in the school. I think every class should be getting Netbooks to have a great time at Summit. -Aaron Fascinating, new, exciting they re Netbooks. Netbooks are great because we get to go on Scratch. You can make a character and make it walk, talk, also bounce off edges. Also you can make a game. You have a time limit in the computer lab. But you don t have a time limit with netbooks. Every time you get better at typing. It s more eco-friendly and energy star. It s a great resource to search up information. We are learning and having fun. There is so much more to learn. We are really lucky to have netbooks in our school. -Sara My netbook, it s amazing and now I am going to tell you why it is. Using a pencil is boring and you get a muscle spasm in your hand after writing for several minutes. A netbook is only used by finger tips and you can change the font to make it look more interesting. Using paper is wasting trees; a netbook is eco-friendly considering the energy star stamp. Rather than using a dictionary and taking forever just type the word in and you have it in seconds. Using paper is wasting money on buying it weekly if you get a netbook you barely have to buy paper. That s why I am a netbook fan. -Noah Netbooks can do so much and they have done so much from helping us with typing to teaching us how to control a virtual animal in many different ways. They let us use computers more often than once a week and it s a way to research quicker. You can take them anywhere, and because kids are into technology it makes us focus more on what we are learning about. It also can save us by not using paper and being eco-friendly and being more efficient (Energy Star). What more could you ask for? -Josh I like netbooks because they re fun. Like on normal computers there is not Scratch but on the netbooks there is so we can explore and play it. Also, before we had netbooks I was not so good at typing but I got a bit better. Normally we only had one day a week of computer lab but since we got the netbooks I ve used computers every day. Those are only three of the million reasons I like netbooks. - Evan I think Netbooks are super fun because typing is way more fun than writing. I think it is way more fun than boringly scratching your pencil on paper. Also it is eco-friendly and energy efficient. -Stefan
Page 6 I think Netbooks are fun because you can use games such as Scratch. The Netbooks are fun to work on because you can go on the internet. Netbooks are also more interesting than writing too. That is why I like Netbooks. -Spencer. G. I love Netbooks! They are so much fun, especially Scratch. You can create games like making your own pulleys and gears game. Also we are learning how to do everything like changing colour, moving it, and making it talk. Netbooks are making learning more fun! - Matthew Netbooks are so cool. There are programs like Scratch and you ll never forget it. I don t have to go down to the computer lab because I have a netbook. You can get better at your typing. It s so much more eco friendly than paper. That s why netbooks are awesome! - Coby The netbooks are wonderful. You can use them in all sorts of ways. We learned how to take pictures with the netbooks. We also learned how to record sound or voices on the netbooks. Soon we will be making a game on them too. I thought that would be fun. I think netbooks are splendid. - Sammy My netbook is new. It is so shiny and you can use the internet, Scratch, and make your own music on it. So we are very lucky we get lovely, blue, warm, small, and cute computers. Like no one else and if we ever have to give them up it would be for a class without one. They are eco-friendly and run in energy star. So thanks for letting us use them. Soon we will be using them to make a game for S.S. (social studies). -Jordana Netbooks are so much fun and you actually learn something. It is so much fun to push buttons and learn things on Scratch. Also you learn something when you type like how to use the keyboard. Now as you know netbooks are fun but you learn at the same time. - Spencer.S. I like the Netbook because you can make games on Scratch. You can move your sprites around and do different things with them. You can get different sprites. You can make the sprites move with your arrow keys. You can create or make sounds. You can get backgrounds and also get scoreboards. Now we are basically making a game with netbooks. - Dylan Netbooks help in the classroom because they are fun. You can use them in many different ways. We learn new programs. It is fun to type. It is a great resource to find out more information about subjects. - Dilsad I think netbooks are a great opportunity for our class because we can use computers every day instead of once a week. We use a program called Scratch. On Scratch you can pick characters and make them do everything you can imagine, like spinning them, twisting them up, making them talk and even making a game. Netbooks help you get better at typing. You can use them for every subject and in everyway. It s a great resource instead of a dictionary. I think everyone who has had them liked them. -Alexa