Festival of the Corn!

Great evening tonight at STUDCO's first ever "Festival of the Corn!" Not only did our students, staff and community enjoy the corn roast, but they were also treated to some great entertainment. Country music, our own in-house, teacher "Blue Grass Band" (Mr. Beck, Mr. Dahlinger, Ms. Grieve, and Mr. Schaffer), our newly formed student "hip-hop" sreet dancers, lots of games, treats and a scary movie to boot! Our Student Council also incorporated the act of "giving" as part of the evening. A "Wishing Well" was available for donations to build a well in Kenya; student reps of our PINK Campaign provided items for purchase to support our continue PINK Campaign for breast Cancer and donations were accepted at the door for our local food bank. The point of the evening for STUDCO was to combine a school event while also raising awareness in support of  a local, regional/provincial and global cause. Well over 200 folks attended this highly successful "First Festival of the Corn!" The first of many to come, for sure! Thanks everyone for your support of this event and special thanks to STUDCO, COMMCO and our staff, students and community for a job well done!

Ridge Spirit!

This past week at "The Ridge," truly exemplified our "Ridge Spirit!" Our Special Education Resource Team and members of our Personal Career Counselling Team held three "Learning at Lunch" sessions with our staff to review students in Grades 9 -12. The sessions were very well attended and are a tribute to the committment of our staff who came to  learn more about the learning needs and profiles of our students. On Tuesday September 27th, our whole school participated in the Terry Fox Walk/Run in support of cancer awareness and research. Thanks to the Healthy Active Living Team for organzing this event and setting the tone as we head into our "Pink Campaign" this upcoming month, which will focus on a full month of education, special events and fundraising in support of Breast Cancer awareness and prevention. On Wednesday September 28th to Friday September 30th, our Grade 10 Students headed to the Tim Horton's Camp near Brantford to continue to build relationships together with their Senior Synergy Leaders and Synergy Staff Team. Our Grade 9 students participated in their first dance, sponsored by our Student Council. This was a very successful event...with many more events to come through our Link Crew and Student Council Leaders. A "new teacher" meeting was held with all staff who we have been very fortunate enough to bring aboard. It was a pleasure to host this meeting as we oriented staff to our school and heard some pretty amazing and positive "first impressions" from them. At the start of the week, we had a very well attended School Council meeting which was chaired by Celine Steeves. This was a great opportunity to network together and share in discussion and feedback about our first month back at school, from a student, parent and staff perspective. We hope to see more folks out at our next meeting on November 21st at 7pm. Parents & caregivers are also reminded about the upcoming Tuesday at 10/7 to be held this Tuesday October 4th. Please check our website for more details! As we leave September and Ridge Spirit Month, we now begin October...our "Partners in Pink" Month. We hope to engage all of our school and community in the many activities and events that we will be hosting to raise awareness and funds on behalf of those afflicted by Breast Cancer. Together we can make a difference and together we will ensure that "The Ridge" leads the way in supporting this very worthy cause!

Fall Greetings!

Hello everyone! Yes...we are back to school at "The Ridge" and heading into our 3rd week! We are off to a fantastic start in 2011/12 and really happy to be gearing up for an amazing Semester 1. In our first week, we held our "Absolute Think Day" which allowed us to gather as an entire school to listen to a motivational assembly which focused on the theme of "Live Different". Through a series of musical performances, including Canadian Idol, Brian Melo and his bandmates, multimedia and personal story-telling, the "Absolute Youth Team" challenged our students and staff to make changes personally.... to get involved in our community (both locally & globally) and make a real and meaningful difference in the lives of others. In the afternoon, workshops were held for 9 student groups and many individuals from various classes, where the learning and sharing went deeper. The students were given time with their "Think Team" facilitator to brainstorm ideas on how they could "make a difference" in 2011/12.This was a great way to kick off our school year, and as active as we are,  in the school community and the world...we look forward to greater things to come in the next several months as our students get mobilized and put their ideas into action as they "Live Different!" We also welcomed our Grade 9 students and parents on the first day back, with our Link Crew engaging our 9's and our Parent Engagement Group and Public Health Nurse engaging our Grade 9 parents in a session providing tips on "How to Ensure A Successful Transition  for your Teens!" Ensuring a welcoming and  inclusive environment for our Grade 9 students and parents, the morning's activities got us off to a terrific start as we began the building of  new relationships with our newcomers and Class of 2015! This past Friday, we held a "New Student Luncheon" hosted by our Personal Career Counselling Team which was very well attended and much appreciated. We also welcome many new staff for 2011/12. Kate Rehm (VP),Kris Reeve (Student Success), Rachel Stecca (PCC), Michael Fraser (Vocal Music), Caitlin Grieve (French), Jeff Yuill (French), James Caldwell (Canada & the World) Lisa Weir (Special Edcuation) and Susan Hammond (Science). We welcome back Karl Mustoe (Art), Nancy Zigrovic (French), Shalini Singal (Math), Gordana Panoska (English) and Anjay MacKenzie (English/French). All of these folks add so much strength to an already strong teaching staff and we look forward to working with them this year!  So...it's off and running into Week 3, with many of our co-curriculars, teams, clubs and activities ready to formally spring into action. We hope for great success in 2011/12 and invite all of you out to support our students, coaches and teacher/mentors as they engage in athleticcompetition, the "arts", student leadership and additional special events and activities. "Go Ridge!"

Summer Reflections and "Think Day!"

Hello everyone! I hope all of you are enjoying a wonderful summer with family, friends and those you love. Over the summer months all of us are engaged in relaxation, recreation and activities that we are interested in and passionate about. This is the time when we actually do reflect on many things, whether they be professional or personal. For me, I can take a look back at a full first year as Principal of Iroquois Ridge High School and truly be proud of a great year had by our staff, students and parent community. I am very thankful for the support that has been provided thoughout this first year and look forward to even greater things in 2011/12. One of the events, that we are finalizing for early September, is an opportunity for all of our students to participate in...is a "Think Day", which is planned for September 8th. Our entire student body will participate in an energizing and motivational assembly that will set the tone for the first semester. As a follow-up to this event, many of our students will be involved in smaller workshops where they will work with our "Think Team" presenters to consider ways in which they can continue to support and engage in the local and global community. Through the strength and participation of our students we know that great things happen and will continue to happen in 2011/12. Our students are highly involved in service to others whether it be through their leadership in the community or through charitable activities that are sponsored by the many clubs and groups at our school. Whether the focus be a local one or global one our students shine in this area, which bodes well for all of our futures. Our school and students will continue to be highly involved in "service" and leadership on behalf of others and we look to our "Think Day" event to kick-start off our year in a very positive manner. Special thanks to the team of Monique Gazan, Erin Leahy, Marie Guest, Tiffany Olmstead, Tara Connor, Kathryn Patterson and Jacquie Schettler for supporting this event on everyone's behalf. It will be great!

"Your Best You!"

This morning we had two great assemblies...one for our girls and one for our boys on the theme of self-esteem, body image and being "Your Best You!" Teacher Virginia Gingras presented her story to girls in Grades 9-12, while World Guinness Book of Record Holder, Rapper Duane Gibson presented to our boys Geades 9-12. Duane's message focused on "Staying Driven" for success by practising hard, sacrificing and persevering to reach your goals. Virginia's message included a challenge to our girls to be the best they can be despite what others may think or say. She challenged our girls to be strong and look out for each other
and to love themselves for who they are. Both assemblies were well received by our students and the promotion of self-esteem and wellbeing resonated well with the respective student audiences. Special thanks to Kathryn Patterson who organized the assemblies with Virginia. Thanks also to COMMCO for supporting our assemblies with the usual excellence and precision. It was a great morning!

ASCD Virtual Conference

Some of you may not know that Iroquois Ridge is an Affiliate/Mentor Site for the Association for Supervision and Curriclum Development, based out of Alexandria, Virginia. The ASCD represents more than 160,000 educators from 148 countries and 60 affiliates. The organization includes superintendents, supervisors, principals, teachers, professors of education, and school board members. As a mentor site for ASCD we were asked to present at a "Virtual Conference" last Friday. The presentation focused on the origin, evolution and successes of our Parent Engagement Program. We were fortunate enough to get a first hand experience with Adobe Connect Pro in the delivery of our powerpoint and video presentation to educators from around the world. As a mentor site, all participants of the conference had access to our presentation, had an opportunity to ask questions and access resouces, as a follow-up. This opportunity to participate with Adobe was a great learning for our team who got a chance to hone their 21st Century Learning Skills. Congratulations to Sara Severin (Parent Engagement Co-ordinator), Nancy Anstett (Program Leader of Personal Career Counselling) and Mary Tabak (Public Health Nurse) for preparing and presenting our program for ASCD. Special thanks to Al Samsa for his technical support on the day of the conference. Thanks also to student-Alex Theodore for filming our parents and caregivers, who offered exellent testimonials on behalf of our program. We had a very positive response from our ASCD partners, of which we are very proud. We hope to continue to work on projects with ASCD such as this as an affiliate/mentor to share our learning with others in the world-wide professional learning community.Well done Ridge Team! We are very proud of you for your leadership and ambassadorship on behalf of our parents, students, staff and school!

Relay for Life

What do over 600 students, staff and members of our parent community and extended community do for a great cause on a Friday Night? They participate together in the "Relay for Life" to raise funds for cancer. Not only is this a Friday night event but the "Relay" extends all night into Saturday morning! Teams of students have put their energy, heart, souls and emotions into walking all night on behalf of those they love and others they know who have been afflicted by and perhaps succumbed to cancer. The evening began with a "Survivors' Reception" followed by speeches by our students who have lost someone to cancer. Although, the rain started to fall and the skies got stormy this did not dampen our young people's spirits as they moved inside and carried on the event with great enthusiasm. Students were inspired by their team mates as well as some all night entertainment by numerous rock bands and other fun filled activities in our theatre and "street." Tonight they are all camping out in our school while continuing to walk well into the wee hours. Many parents, caregivers and members of our community came out to assist as did our staff, for which we are truly thankful. The goal is to try and reach the $50,000 mark...which would be an outstanding achievement by our young people. It is moments like these where we can feel so proud of our kids and know that the future will be bright in their capable hands. We are proud of all of you for your committment and caring...you are all outstanding!