December 2014 Murdoch MacKay Collegiate 260 Redonda St. Winnipeg, MB R2C 1L6 Ph. 958-6460 Fax: 224-5920 www.mmci.retsd.mb.ca Principal Mr. John Muller Vice-Principals Mrs. Carol Kovacs Mr. Peter Nicholls RETSD Board Office Ph: 667-7130 CALENDAR Dec. 3 Winter Concert Dec. 19 Last day of classes - Christmas Break Early Dismissal 2:30pm Jan. 5 Classes Resume - Day 2 Jan. 14 Early Dismissal - 2:30 Jan. 26 - 30 First Semester Exams Feb. 2 No Classes Feb. 3 Second Semester Begins - Day 1 Feb. 12-13 Grad Picture Retakes Feb. 16 Louis Riel Day - No Classes Feb. 18 Early Dismissal - 2:30 Feb. 19 MMCI Open House Feb. 20 No Classes For more details and other dates throughout the year please check our website at: mmci.retsd.mb.ca and click on Murdoch MacKay Collegiate website Murdoch MacKay 30S/40S Drama Stu- dents are busy rehearsing a two-act Don Zolidis play entitled The Brothers Grimm Spectaculathon. This 22-actor produc- tion will be presented January 14 th and 15 th at 7 p.m. nightly. Admission is $10 per adult and $5 per student. Tickets available from cast members, the school office, or at the door. In the Brothers Grimm Spectaculathon the fairy tales of the Grimm Brothers are turned on their heads in this fast paced two -act play. Follow along as two Narrators and a full cast of actors attempt to re-enact some of the original 209 Brothers Grimm tales, from classics like Snow White, Cinderella, Hansel and Gretel, and many more. THE BROTHERS GRIMM SPECTACULATHON
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THE BROTHERS GRIMM SPECTACULATHON€¦ · Jan. 5 Classes Resume - Day 2 Jan. 14 Early Dismissal - 2:30 Jan. 26 - 30 First Semester Exams Feb. 2 No Classes the door. Feb. 3 Second
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Vice-Principals Mrs. Carol Kovacs Mr. Peter Nicholls
RETSD Board Office Ph: 667-7130
CALENDAR
Dec. 3 Winter Concert
Dec. 19 Last day of classes - Christmas Break Early Dismissal 2:30pm
Jan. 5 Classes Resume - Day 2
Jan. 14 Early Dismissal - 2:30
Jan. 26 - 30 First Semester Exams
Feb. 2 No Classes
Feb. 3 Second Semester Begins - Day 1
Feb. 12-13 Grad Picture Retakes
Feb. 16 Louis Riel Day - No Classes
Feb. 18 Early Dismissal - 2:30
Feb. 19 MMCI Open House
Feb. 20 No Classes
For more details and other dates throughout the year please check our website at: mmci.retsd.mb.ca and click on Murdoch MacKay Collegiate website
Murdoch MacKay 30S/40S Drama Stu-dents are busy rehearsing a two-act Don Zolidis play entitled The Brothers Grimm Spectaculathon. This 22-actor produc-tion will be presented January 14
th and 15
th
at 7 p.m. nightly. Admission is $10 per adult and $5 per student. Tickets available from cast members, the school office, or at the door.
In the Brothers Grimm Spectaculathon the fairy tales of the Grimm Brothers are turned on their heads in this fast paced two-act play. Follow along as two Narrators and a full cast of actors attempt to re-enact some of the original 209 Brothers Grimm tales, from classics like Snow White, Cinderella, Hansel and Gretel, and many more.
THE BROTHERS GRIMM SPECTACULATHON
Message from Administration...
It was wonderful to see so many families come out for our Parent Teacher Conference Evening on November 20, 2014. Staff appreciated the conversations regarding student growth and goal setting. As we continue to work through our first semester of study, we encourage families to have ongoing discussions about progress with your children, engaging our teaching staff in conversations as needed. As we move towards the holiday season, we would like to wish all of our students and their families a safe, relaxing, and fun filled December.
Mr. J. Muller
Koats for Kids has been a Winnipeg institution since 1989. Every year students from MMCI's Metal
Fabrication Program work with the Charitable Ideas and Youth in Philanthropy Group to make custom
coat hangers to help out. All proceeds go to the Koats for Kids program which distributes winter out-
erwear to families – for some children, having a warm coat means attending school on a cold day, in-
stead of staying home. It’s part of United Way’s commitment to helping children and youth be all they
can be. A HUGE thank you to everyone who supported Murdoch MacKay’s 2014 Koats for Kids fundrais-
ing campaign by purchasing personalized coat hooks!!!
DRAMA UPDATE
Over the past few months, students at Murdoch MacKay Collegiate have been preparing for the April production of Annie Warbucks. Sixty students are taking on various responsibilities to make this musical a great success. Much is being done both on stage and beyond – from learning new songs, to promotion, to set construc-tion, and more. Annie Warbucks takes place after the original Annie with which many are familiar. On Christmas morning in 1933, child welfare commissioner Harriet Doyle arrives at Daddy Warbucks’ mansion
to tell him that he must marry in sixty days or Annie will have to go back to the orphanage. Despite being a father and having someone after his fortune, he manages to fall in love. Mark your 2015 calendar, noting the dates: April 14, 15, 16
th @ 7:30 p.m. At Murdoch Mac-
Kay Collegiate Theatre. Tickets are available at the school office – adults $15 students $5.
Improv at Murdoch has begun!
Students interested in Improv have been coming out on
Mondays from 3:30 – 5:00. Once the team is selected, they
will take that over as their practice time. A noon hour slot will be announced for anyone else
wanting to try out Improv.
The Carpe Diems Improv Team will once again participate in the S.O.S. Improv League which
includes schools from Winnipeg, Grunthal, and Steinbach. On Game Nights, 4 teams gather
at one of the participating schools to entertain the audience and each other in rollicking
fashion! More information and dates will be forthcoming.
See Ms. Peters if you are interested.
S.C.A.A.T. – STUDENTS CREATING AUTISM AWARENESS TOGETHER
This group, now in its 5th
year, works to gain knowledge and share with
groups of students and adults alike. Typically meeting once per month,
S.C.A.A.T. has developed a 1-hour interactive presentation that promotes
inclusion and understanding of those who have Autism. A date for an or-
ganizational meeting will be announced soon.
Remembrance Day
This year, the students of Mr. Rochon’s grade 11 Advanced History class organized and prepared a moving and emotional service on November 7th. The students organized everything for the service, from decid-ing on the roles they assumed, creating a program, speaking parts, distributing poppies , to ensuring the attendance of guests of honour: Mr. Lawrence Toet, MP, The Honourable Daryl Reid, MLA, and Councillor Russ Wyatt, as well as RETSD trustees Mrs. Colleen Carswell, and Mr. Jerry Sodomlak. We also thank the Royal Cana-dian Legion Transcona Branch #7 for attending and participating in the service too.
The students decided on a theme for the service that looked at extremely significant numbers, as it is the 100th anniversary this year of the First World War. The students explained the significance of the different numbers and dates, but also expressed that these soldiers are more than numbers – they are the men and women who defended and are still defending our country.
In preparation for the service, the students participated in the Lest We Forget project provided by Ar-chives Canada at the Millennium Library. Each student was given the opportunity to look deeper into the lives of many soldiers who fought in World War I through a variety of primary source documents to aid in their un-derstanding of who these soldiers really were.
Thank you to all who attended and paid their respects during this service.
Mr. Rochon’s grade 11 Advanced History Students working with the primary source doc-
uments at the Millennium Library
Social Studies Update
On Friday, November 14th, the 4 current grade 9 Social Studies classes had the pleasure of lis-
tening to a presentation by the Member of Parliament for Elmwood Transcona, Mr. Lawrence
Toet. The Social Studies classes are currently working on their Government Unit and as a result
the presentation was very relevant and interesting for both students and teachers alike.
MP Toet’s presentation mostly focussed on what a day in the life of an MP is like. He walked us
through a typical day for him, and it was very enlightening. Who knew that they typically work
such long days – often 12-14 hours, while working in Ottawa during the week?
The best part of the presentation was the question and answer period, which provided us with
insight into why and how MP Toet got into politics as well as a good argument as to why youth
should be interested in government and politics and the importance of voting.
Students from Murdoch Mackay’s Charitable
Ideas and Youth in Philanthropy group par-
ticipated in a hugely successful Halloween
for Hunger campaign, which included a
Hats for Hunger day at the school. This year,
we more than doubled the amount received
last year, collecting over one thousand
pounds of non-perishable food items and
well over one hundred dollars that have
been donated to the Transcona Food Bank.
A BIG thank you to all of the members of the
community as well as staff and students who
so generously donated to this important
cause. A special thank you to all of the stu-
dents who volunteered their time and mus-
cles to the event!
SCIENCE UPDATE...
SPEAK OUT continues at Murdoch MacKay. We will meet weekly to develop public
speaking skills and build confidence in a fun and engaging way. If you know of someone
who could benefit from this, please direct them to speak to Ms. Pe-
ters or Ms. Schultz for details. Traditionally, Murdoch has speakers
compete in the Skills Manitoba Public Speaking Competition and
many have gone on to compete very successfully at Skills Canada.
For anyone interested in pursuing this competition, contact Ms. Pe-
ters or Mrs. Schultz.
English Language Arts Exams: January 2015
Jill Reid Hodgert, ELA Department Head
Because of the nature of the ELA exam, many students believe that it is not necessary to study for Eng-
lish Language Arts exams. The ELA exams, grades 10 and 11 at MMCI follow the same format as out-
lined by the Grade 12 Standards Test. MMCI ELA exams require students to read and view a variety of
texts on a particular topic, to respond to the texts by answering 5 mark questions, to write an extended,
original text (e.g. essay, short story, speech, etc), to connect the topic to prior knowledge and to reflect
on choices in writing. The grade 9 ELA exam will include some multiple choice questions as well that
aim to assess student understanding of literary terms.
Throughout ELA courses, students practice these tasks or skills on a daily basis. Even though students
may not be asked specifically to respond to the novel that was studied in class, the reading and the re-
sponding that was completed during that unit is designed to help students in reading, connecting, writing
and reflecting – the very skills being tested on the final exam.
Students often say, “I can’t really study for an English exam.” If a student has done all of the assign-
ments, is fully aware of his strengths and weaknesses in writing and reading, knows how to write an
original text, like an essay or speech or short story and remembers the strategies for analyzing poetry
and writing 5 mark answers…then no studying would be necessary. However, for most students, some
review of the course materials is usually beneficial. Normally, students are instructed to look over
major assignments, review the rubrics to determine strengths and weaknesses, clarify previous prob-
lems, and think about the various strategies used in class – like the CSCE model for answering 5 mark
questions.
The ELA exam is between five & seven hours in length, depending on grade – however, not all in one
sitting. Students will start the ELA exam about a week prior to the scheduled exam time, as outlined by
the teacher. Students will work on the exam, in class for one hour, over the course of four or five days
while still attending all other regular scheduled classes. Finally, students will complete the last two
hours of the exam during the scheduled exam period, after regular classes have finished. It is a lengthy
process that requires students to be well rested, well-nourished and well prepared.
The grade 12 ELA Standards Test is scheduled for the following dates:
Jan. 6, 2015 (8:30am – 12:10 pm)
Jan. 7, 2015 – during regular scheduled Eng. 40S class – 1 hour
In the first newsletter, we talked about tip #1 (setting the stage for homework) and tip #2
(go back over the notes). This month, we’ll focus on the practice problems that make up
the majority of your son/daughter’s math homework. Remember, your child will be as-
signed practice problems almost daily – and as they move into grades 11 and 12, there may
be less available class time to complete them, which means they will need to spend addi-
tional time outside of class working on practice problems. There are two main reasons why
these problems are assigned. The first goes back to the idea of reinforcement of new ideas,
practice problems are one way of ensuring students spend some time outside of math class
thinking about the new concepts they have learned. The second reason simply comes from
the idea of practice – it is difficult to become good at something if you don’t work at it.
Tip #3: When stuck on a practice problem, go back to the notes.
Yes, we’re talking about those class notes again. There are many reasons why teachers are
so adamant that students take down examples in class. One of which being that when a
student gets stuck on a problem they are working on outside of class, the odds are good
that there is something similar shown in an example from class. Examples also usually fol-
low a pattern of increasing difficulty – the first example will be more basic and they will pro-
gress to more complicated situations or additional steps will be added on. When your son
or daughter doesn’t know how to do a question at home, they should first go back through
their examples and look for something similar.
Tip #4: Keep the bigger picture in mind.
Let’s say that your child was assigned 25 practice problems on a particular topic. Maybe
they completed ten in class, and have brought home the remaining 15. Now…you’ve all
eaten dinner, your child has done the dishes and cleaned up the kitchen, and it’s time for
homework. Your son/daughter finishes questions 11-16, then becomes completely stuck at
question 17. Despite multiple attempts, the answer on the page is different from the one
listed in the textbook’s answer key.
Skip question 17.
Advise your son/daughter to try 18, and then keep going. It’s entirely possible your child is
missing one step or adding two numbers incorrectly over and over again. Trying a new
question may help get them past that hurdle. In an assignment made up of 25 questions,
one or two incorrect answers does not mean that there is a misunderstanding about the
concept itself.
However, if they are unable to complete questions 17 to 25 – that is a sign of a larger mis-
understanding and they should clarify with the teacher the next day as to how to complete
those questions.
In the next newsletter, tips #5 and #6 will talk about getting help with those tough
questions.
STUDENT SERVICES UPDATE
Grade 12:
Credit checks were completed in November. A list of potential grads for June 2015 has been cre-ated and students can check their name in the main office.
This fall, we hosted presentations by the University of Manitoba, University of Winnipeg, Red River College, RCMP, Booth College and the Military for potential students regarding the pro-grams they offer. Applications are available in the Counselling Office or online at the respective institution’s website.
Interested grade 12 students had the opportunity to attend the Canadian University fair on November 7/14.
Manitoba Student Aid hosted a parent evening on November 20/14. Counsellors also presented scholarship information to parents in attendance. If parents would like a copy of either presenta-tion they are asked to contact Ms. Mann-Simpson at [email protected] and she will forward you a copy of the presentations.
Students will have the opportunity to attend the following Open Houses: University of Manitoba (Feb 19/15)
University of Winnipeg (Feb 18/15)
Red River College (Notre Dame Campus) (Feb 17/15)
Grade 9 -12: Students who know a second language can write a Language credit Challenge Exam and earn up
to 4 high school credits. The next Challenge for language credits exams will be offered in Febru-ary. Please see Mr. Warren in January if you are interested in registering for one of these exams.
All grade 11s will be attending the Rotary Career Symposium on April 22, 2015. All grade 9s will be receiving education from Council on Drug Abuse regarding issues around drug
use and abuse. Grade 9 classes were given a presentation on stress & coping skills.
Community Resources:
Middle School tour dates: Arthur Day (February 5/15), Bernie Wolfe (February 6/15), John Gunn (February 12/14)
Murdoch MacKay Collegiate Open House: Thursday, February 19/15
24-HOUR TELEPHONE SERVICES: Manitoba Suicide Line: 1-877-435-7170 Crisis Line: (204) 786-8686 / Toll free 1-888-322-3019 Sexual Assault Crisis Line: (204) 786-8631 / Toll free 1-888-292-7565 TTY Deaf Access Counselling - (204) 784-4097 Manitoba Farm & Rural Support Services: 1-866-367-3276 (For rural and northern Manitobans. Mon.-Fri. 10 AM to 9 PM)