31 Nadolny Sachs Pr.
613-722-0020
www.hillelacademy.ca
| October 15, 2010
Volume 3, Issue 74
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In this issue ...
- Important Notes.
- Community Care Access Centre.
- Introducing New Teachers.
- Extended French fun.
- Our Community Garden.
- D'var Torah |
Coming Up ...
- Grade 8 to CBB of Montreal Leadership camp, Tues, Oct. 19 and Wed, Oct 20.
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Early Dismissal Dates:
Nov 12 - 2:30
Nov 19 - 2:30
Nov 26 - PD Day
Dec 3 - 2:00
Dec 10 - 2:00
Dec 17 - 2:00
Jan 7 - 2:00
Jan 14 - 2:30
Jan 21 - 2:30
Jan 28 - 2:20
Feb 4 - 3:00
Feb 11 - 3:00
Feb 18 - PD Day
Feb 25 - 3:00
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From the Administration
As we are sure many of you have noticed at pick-up, we have a little project on the go near the pool. You are seeing the creation of a Community Garden. As some parents know, Ottawa is twinned with the Galilee Panhandle through the Partnership 2000 (P2K) program. Many of our teachers have made trips to Israel with P2K and last year 23 students from grades 8 and 11 got to travel to Israel and spend several days with students from our partnered schools, getting to know more about life in Northern Israel. You can read more about the details of the garden below.
Strengthening our special connection to this region of Israel is very important at Hillel and we are very proud that two Hillel parents, Sarah Silverstein and Mitch Miller, are on the P2K committee. On the occasion of creating the garden last weekend, the P2K committee unveiled a sign, in a project spearheaded by Sarah, that we hope will help raise awareness of Ottawa's unique relationship with this area of Israel. We are lucky to have such a connection and to have such concrete proof, in the form of the garden, of that connection and of our community's ability to cooperate.
Shabbat Shalom,
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Some Important Notes
- November's Hot Lunch form is up on the website. It must be returned by Thursday, October 21st. Please note that the Friday dismissal days on that calendar are wrong. On November 12th and 19th, the dismissals will be at 2:30 pm, not 3:45, as indicated.
- Like last year, we will be joining with the other schools on Broadview to collect socks for the Ottawa Mission. Our sock bin will be out in the front foyer soon.
- Save the date! Our Chanukah Celebration will be on Wednesday, December 8th this year.
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Community Care Access Centre
We are pleased to announce a new partnership with the Community Care Access Centre
(CCAC), who will be facilitating our occupational therapy services. We would like to extend a warm welcome to Liane Duguay, Hillel's new Occupational Therapist. Our in-school occupational therapy focuses on developing fine motor skills, pencil grip and pressure, as well as letter forming. This service is available to students who have been assessed by CCAC and have been found to have difficulties with their fine motor development. When a teacher has concerns about a student's fine motor development, an assessment will be conducted, with parental permission. For more information, please visit the Occupational Therapy section of the Resource Teacherweb page, or contact our Student Services Coordinator, Keren Gordon, by email or at 613-722-0020 (ext.334). |
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Introducing Two New Teachers
As many of you know, Mrs. Mandel-Carsen will not be able to return to teaching this school year and Mrs. Mackintosh has moved to part-time. Therefore, we are delighted to introduce you to our two new teachers, Patrick Darvasi and Linda Signer (pictured below).
Mr. Darvasi grew up in Toronto and received his undergraduate degree in Montreal. He then spent 10 years in Chile, where he first started teaching. He earned his B.Ed. when he returned to Toronto and has now moved to Ottawa to be with his fiance, who is completing a Ph.D. at Carleton University. In his downtime, Mr. Darvasi likes to cycle, which makes Ottawa a great place for him, and he like to write songs and play his acoustic guitar. He's teaching in the senior school: Study Skills to grades 5C, 6, 7 & 8, Social Studies to grades 6 - 8, and English for grades 7 & 8.
While Mrs. Signer has just moved here from San Diego, where she lived for 21 years, she is an Ottawa native and came home to be closer to family. She has an M.A. in Child Psychology and was a school counselor in the United States, as well as teaching a variety of subjects at both public and Jewish day schools. Last year, she was a recipient of the Grinspoon Steinhardt Award for Excellence in Jewish Education. Mrs. Signer is teaching Social Studies to grades 1 - 5 and has also joined our Resource Department, providing remedial and extended help in reading and math.
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PTA Magazine Fundraiser
What should you do with all those magazine renewal notices? Feed the recylcing box! Hillel's magazine campaign is on now. You can renew your magazine subscriptions through us, and the school at the same time earn us money. We get about $10 a subscription. They accept all discount coupons and there are over 600 magazine to choose from. Your oldest child should have brought home the QSP magazine this week and you can take a look at what they have and order at www.qsp.ca. Enter #11529 to credit our school. The PTA requests that the orders be done online.
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Our students have been very busy in Extended French. Above, grade 7 students Victoria, Rachel, Jordan, Noah and Justin during a lively presentation on the People of the Plains. Below, Michael, from grade 5, presents his 'Greatest Canadian' project on Moshe Safdie.
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A Garden!
Hillel is getting a garden! Under the P2K Program, the Jewish Federation's Social Action Committee visited Israel earlier this year to help on a building project in the Upper Galilee region. Several Israelis then visited Ottawa last week and, together with members from the Social Action Committee, they built the garden over the weekend.
The students of Hillel will now get to paint the rest of the fence and in the springtime, under the supervision of Ms. Coghlin, we will plant a garden. Next, it will be up to the SJCC summer camps to maintain the garden until we return in the fall. The hope is that the garden will produce some crops that can then be donated to the Kosher Food Bank.
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Above, members of the Social Action Committee plan out the garden. Below, they pose with their (almost) finished garden.
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Teaching Teachers
They may be here to teach, but our teachers are also always learning! This Thursday, they gave up their lunch breaks to hear our Student Services Coodinator, Keren Gordon, give a presentation on strategies to help students with ADHD in the classroom. The teachers also shared tips they found worked well.
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Learning About Strength
Mr. Place had his grade 8 students attempt pull-ups in gym this week, to teach them more about upper body strength. A number of students learned they really don't have a lot of it! However, Noa, left, does an impressive job of pulling herself up. |
D'var Torah - Lech Lecha
Rabbi Howard Finkelstein, Spiritual Advisor, ADK-12
G-d's command to Abram to leave his home, his birthplace and his country to head out for a land that G-d will show him is eerily reflected in the lives of our children, who upon reaching adulthood leave home and blaze new paths of life and career. However, there is a blatant difference between the command given by G-d to Abram and the decisions our young ones take when they leave home for university or for other reasons.
In the case of Abram, there is no doubt that our founding patriarch must make a concerted break with his previous background. He must leave his home, which is a bastion of idolatry, and must abandon his birthplace and land, the values of which are contrary to those advocated by the Almighty, namely the pursuit of justice and mercy.
Our children, on the other hand, leave our homes fully secure and ensconced in the values that we have inculcated in them. Their venture into the 'real' world is not construed to be an abandonment of that which is taught to them, but a reconstruction and revalidation of that which they have been taught earlier in their formative years.
Our students at the Ottawa Jewish Community School not only excel in their studies, but exemplify and represent the values their parents and teachers have inculcated in them. When they do eventually leave home to pursue advanced educational opportunities, career options and family choices, they will not have to face the challenges G-d poses to Abram, who has no choice but to clearly break with his past. Our children's upbringing will indeed redound to their benefit, and with G-d's blessing, succeed in life.
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