March 5, 2014 Volume 9, Issue 3 The Pelican …...27 Booths at 2014 Career Fair 7 Yearbook Committee...

youth leaders. For two days, Stan taught the youth how to lead discussion, create open ended questions, and most importantly made eve-ryone realize how integral they are to create change in our school. The values gained from the workshops with Stan could not be matched as the students were able to lead the forum the entire day in an orga-nized, professional manor.

Together, we all did make a change!

— Mr. Shawn Hordy

The leadership group did a great job in facilitating the event. It was great to see the students progress as the day went on. . . . One student made a comment to me that this was way better than the last youth forum. Here is a link to the Youth Forum: http://youtu.be/btR1Q8dgPts

— Ms. Norma Kejick Executive Director N.N.E.C.

Youth Making Change On January 23, 2014 Ms. Russell and Mr. Hordy’s leadership classes were asked to plan, coordinate and facilitate a Youth Fo-rum at PFFNHS. It would be used to gather the thoughts and ideas of all students attending the school regarding academics, housing, and after school activities. A big task placed on the shoulders of our stu-dents! Some doubted they would be able to handle it on their own. With some encouragement and a week of dedicated motivation and planning, the students of the two classes were able to brainstorm on how the con-

Literacy, Numeracy & Student Retention at a Glance

2-3

Potential Grads Travel to Edmonton

4

Wrestling Comes to Pelican

5

Healing Through Hip Hop

6

Jim Jordan Talks About Bullying

6

Annual Cultural Club Trip to Winnipeg

7

First Semester Honour Roll

7

27 Booths at 2014

Career Fair

7

Yearbook Committee Busy Fundraising

8

Inside this issue: Pelican Falls First Nations High School

March 5, 2014

The Pelican HeraldThe Pelican Herald

Volume 9, Issue 3

ference should be facilitated. The main consensus was to make sure it was a student run event with only stu-dents’ voices and opinions heard. For the majority, this was a completely new con-cept. Many have never been in a position to lead or facil-itate a discussion let alone a full day forum, so they needed some help.

Pelican Falls was very fortu-nate to have a special guest, Stan Wesley. Stan is from Moose Factory First Nation, now currently residing in Toronto. Stan flew to Sioux Lookout and arrived at Peli-can Falls to work with our

Principal’s Message great hockey action over the break. Once we come back from the break, the semester will go by very quickly. The OSSLT date is March 27, and I urge all parents to not take students off site this day as they need to do this test as a graduation requirement. I also want to remind parents that Final Exams are May 8 & 9 and our graduation is May 15.

— Mr. Darryl Tinney Principal

It has been a long cold snowy winter so far, but with all of the great student activities, clubs, trips and other activities, time has flown by! It is already mid-term and March Break. I want to encourage all students and staff to have a safe restful March Break and take the time to relax and spend time with friends and family. Good luck to all of our hockey players and safe travels to all of the parents and students and community members who will be arriving in Sioux and Dryden for some

Mrs. Norma Kejick, Executive Director

of N.N.E.C. addressing the Youth

Forum. Student suggestions are posted n

the background.

Principal Darryl Tinney with son

Cesar and nephew Walker applaud

the CWF wrestlers.

http://youtu.be/btR1Q8dgPts

The Pel ican Hera ld Volume 9, I ssue 3

Literacy Activities at a Glance: opportunity to take part in different stations de-signed to make Literacy more engaging.

In November, the thea-tre group Shakespeare in the Ruins came to PFC to perform a re-creation of Shakespeare’s Ham-let. The performance consisted of four actors from the company and a fantastic mobile set.

During the Sioux Look-out Literacy Festival the students participated in

The students at Pelican have been very busy participating in Literacy activities this year.

In September, we were able to participate in a school wide literacy challenge. This chal-lenge tested students’ knowledge of literacy brainteasers and word games.

In October, the whole school participated in the Literacy Cafe. Where students had the

a house reading chal-lenge. The Timber-wolves also travelled to Sioux Mountain Public School to read to the pri-mary classes. Literacy events still to come this semester are: The OSSLT on March 27, The Spelling Bee on April 11, and pretesting our grade 9 students for the Litera-cy Test.

— Mrs. Desta Buswa,

FNSSP Coordinator

Numeracy Activities at a Glance: students from each class

were picked to compete

against the others in

their own grade levels in

front of the school. The

winning team earned a

pizza party for their

class. The teachers also

competed and it came

down to a tie breaker!

— Ms. Gabrielle Landheer

lunch!

In November, we had

our first annual Numer-

acy Café. We had differ-

ent stations available to

the students like math

apps on the iPads,

Yahtzee and Monopoly,

Sudoku’s and quiet

word puzzles, chess and

checkers, different card

games, and a station on

how to solve a Rubik’s

cube. Each class came in

for 20 minutes and en-

joyed a coffee or tea

along with a snack.

In January, we had our

second annual Math

Olympics. The top 3

This year at Pelican we

have done a few differ-

ent Numeracy activi-

ties/challenges that

have involved the entire

school. We have really

wanted students to be

able to engage and enjoy

math activities, and real-

ize that math can be fun!

In October, we had each

class compete in a

Newspaper Challenge.

The students were to

find different pictures,

words, and articles that

had specific numeracy

terms they were to look

for. The two class win-

ners earned a Chinese

Numeracy Café underway — Checkmate!

Million Minutes winners. Meegwetch Sioux Lookout Public Library for the

generous donation.

Claudia Mamakwa reading at Sioux Mountain Public School

7 + (-5) = _____

-4—(-7) = _____


Student Retention Activities at a Glance: Pelican Falls

First Nations

High School

motto is “To

Become What

We Can Be!”

There have

been many

activities to

promote stu-

dent success

within the

2 0 1 3 — 2 0 1 4

school year.

R e g u l a r

monthly activities in-

clude, bi-monthly men-

torship activities for our

grade 9 and 12 students,

celebrating the 7 Grand-

father Teachings bi-

weekly , b i -weekly

school-wide challenges,

focusing on Native Lan-

guage, Native Studies,

History, Student Reten-

tion, Physical Education,

etc. A school effective-

ness survey is conducted

twice a year: in the fall

and spring, taking stu-

d e n t s u g g e s -

tions/feedback and

making improvements

to the school communi-

ty.

Keynote events have in-

cluded:

-Fall Elder’s Day, Cul-

tural Teaching Presenta-

tions on Gifts From the

Moose, The Miijim Ex-

hibit, PFC Incentive

Trip, PFC Movie Day,

PFC Winter Carnival,

Grad Trip, Hon-

our Roll Trip,

Sachigo Lake

Community Vis-

it, and Stan Wes-

ley’s visit which

was connected to

our Youth Fo-

rum.

The Youth Forum was primarily led by our two Lead-

ership classes, which was a pow-erful, positive ex-perience for the

PFFNHS students. With student recommenda-tions being actively im-plemented, the im-portance of the student voice is evident at PFFNHS.

Upcoming activities in-clude:

Ta’Kaiya Blaney visit,

Pink Shirt Day, Indspire

Career Conference,

Spring Elder’s Day,

C A T 4 T e s t i n g

( F a l l / S p r i n g ) ,

Academic/ Athletic

Banquet, Prom and eve-

ryone’s favourite day at

PFFNHS-Graduation!

Good luck to our 14 po-

tential graduates! Go

Timberwolves, Go!

— Mrs. Desta Buswa,

FNSSP Coordinator

Literacy school-wide challenge underway

Mentorship Menu: Indian Taco’s Anyone?

Potential grad Kevin Winter oversaw the accommodations component of the Youth Forum. Best of luck to this Kingfisher Lake potential grad. Future’s looking sharp!

Martina Fiddler leading the Mino-Bimaadiziwin station during the PFFNHS Youth Forum

Ta'Kaiya Blaney visits PFFNHS to speak on the urgency for youth to share their voice and act upon matters they are passionate about at a local level. Ta'Kaiya Blaney is a 13 year old First Nations youth activist. Student Council leadership taking the opportunity to honour her visit.


Olympic Games Come to Pelican much more. Also students would show various events at lunch time in the class-rooms to try and create awareness of the various and unique winter sports.

On Friday, Feb. 21st, the two leadership classes host-ed a Northern Traditional Games Olympics for the entire school as a wrap up to the Olympic Winter games in Sochi. Students were divided by their com-munities to participate in

The month of February saw Mr. Hordy’s and Ms. Rus-sell’s leadership classes pro-moting the 2014 Olympic Games in the school by having a different Olympic event each day. Some major events the students orga-nized were; a wing night where students were able to watch the Team Canada Men’s Hockey game and eat chicken wings, a broomball evening, downhill skiing, Olympic Wipe Outs, and

Potential Grads Travel to Edmonton

watching sea lions, pen-guins, and marine life enter-tainment, and Galaxy Land Amusement Park to Mindbender Rollercoaster rides. Our students indicat-ed that they had lots of fun and awesome time going on the rides and shopping at the West Edmonton Mall which is the largest mall in Canada.

— Mr. Glen Whiskeychan Social Counselor

On January 30 to February 3, 2014 the following stu-dents went on the “Incentive Grad Trip” to Edmonton, Alberta: Sara Rose McKay from Kee-waywin, Kyra Wesley from Cat Lake, Yzerman Skunk from Mishkeegogamang, Aaron Kakepetum from Keewaywin, Kevin Winter from Kingfisher Lake, Mi-cah Moskotaywenene from Bearskin Lake, and Marco Monias from Sandy Lake. Chaperons were Mrs. Sha-ron Newman and Mr. Glen Whiskeychan.

Our students had the op-portunity to visit and tour the Grant MacEwan Uni-versity City Centre Campus, which was Aboriginal fo-cused, and did a scavenger hunt of the university. They also had the privilege to meet people within the Uni-versity and shared their ex-perience in a group setting

in what they would be inter-ested if they were to attend the University. They went to the West Ed-monton Mall to shop, have dinner and at-tend a movie – “I Franken-stein.” On Sat-urday, our students went to the Royal Alberta Museum to look at the exhibition and history of the aboriginal culture spanning from 11,000 years ago and 500 generations etc. Our stu-dents indicated that they learned a few things about native history and took lots of pictures while touring the museum.

Some of the highlights of the trip was shopping and spending most of the time at the West Edmonton Mall,

these events. The opening ceremonies were much like the Olympics where the students paraded through the gym playing an anthem and carrying a flag they cre-ated to represent their com-munities. After the ceremo-nies the student athletes braved the elements and headed outside to compete in multiple events such as the modified Snow Snake and the high kick challenge.

Olympic airplane game in progress

Aaron Kakepetum and

Yzerman Skunk enjoyed the

rides at West Edmonton Mall.

Amazing aboriginal display at the

Royal Albert Museum

Potential grads at the Royal Albert Museum in

Edmonton, Alberta

Continued page 8


Wrestling Comes to Pelican So you want to

be a pro wres-

tler! Students

at Pelican had

the opportunity

on Family Day,

February 17th

to participate in

a one day wres-

tling boot

camp with the

wrestlers from

Canadian Wres-

tling Federa-

tion.

The morning session was 3

hours of stretching running,

squats, push ups, and other

cardio and endurance exer-

cises. In the afternoon stu-

dents got to get into the ring

WWE champ may be

among us! The stu-

dents who participated

were: Shane Meekis,

Shane Chapman, Trey

McKay, Lamar

Mawakeesic and Thom-

as Mawakeesic. Mr.

Keating and Mr. Tin-

ney also participated in

the event.

The following night

staff and students at

Pelican Falls Centre

were treated to a CWF

wrestling show which fea-

tured eight superstars of

CWF.

— Mr. Darryl Tinney Principal

Winter Season Sports Update Our Winter Sports season has

come and gone and what an

exciting season it was for

our athletes! Although none

of our teams qualified for

NorWOSSA, we finished on

a high note with some close

competition and exciting

games to end the season.

Many of our athletes have

come a long way in develop-

ment, and it looks like we’ll

have some competitive

teams next year.

The Boys’ Hockey season is

coming to a close after a

busy and enjoyable season

in the Sioux Lookout Men’s

Hockey League. The team

played twenty five games in

the league as well as a week-

end tournament in Lac Seul

and Sachigo. An exhibition

game against DFC is cur-

rently in the works to wrap

up the season. The hockey

team represented our school

well!

Badminton season has just

begun and we’ve been get-

ting a large number of stu-

dents at practices. We’re

working hard to prepare

ourselves for an exhibition

tournament which will take

place at the end of March in

Fort Frances. The Qualifier

Tournament will follow one

week later in Sioux Look-

out. Good luck to our new

and returning badminton

players!

Please contact me at

[email protected] for

scheduling questions and

game time information.

Everyone is welcome to

come cheer on our athletes!

Keep up the great work,

T-Wolves!

— Mrs. Shannon Lawrance,

Athletic Director

and learn the basic grappling

and bumping required being

a pro wrestler. During the

session many of the stu-

dents excelled in different

areas; who knows, the next

The JR Girls Volleyball Team at

Beaver Brae for the annual Kenora

Invitational Volleyball Tournament

in January.

The SR Boys Basketball Team against

WFB on January 30th. The T-Wolves

won 50-27.

CWF wrestlers in action!

CWF wrestler Rip Impact and PFFNHS student Shane Chapman

look on as Lamar Mawakeesic, Trey McKay and Thomas

Mawakeesic pose.

mailto:[email protected]


Healing Through Hip Hop

to be bullied, and how mu-sic helped them heal. The message Lightning Cloud was trying to send out to students is that we’re not alone, and to speak up. Lightning Cloud sent a mes-sage to all the Pelican stu-dents through his songs; his message was in the songs he rapped. Lightning Cloud put words down on how he was feeling, and thus he turned those words into lyrics. The lyrics he wrote about bullying and how mu-sic helped them heal was the message.

In Lightning Cloud’s music they rapped about their life and how they grew up. The message they sent out

On February 26, 2014 Mr. Tinney invited a group Lightning Cloud, well known native rappers, to perform at PFFNHS. Lightning Cloud is a group that writes music about bul-lying, where they are from, and how they came to be now. They put their experi-ences of being bullied to music, which helps them heal.

The students of Pelican par-ticipated in this event to raise awareness of bullying. The staff also participated in this event; they said “This could be a way for the stu-dents to speak up.” Light-ning Cloud talked to all of the students on how it feels

through their music was about healing through it, to help you get over your fears, and stand up. Lighting Cloud’s music inspired stu-dents to speak up; and also, the music they rapped was to help us feel safe, com-fortable, and not alone. That is what Native rappers known as Lightning Cloud showed us through their music.

Kerrigan Neekan said Light-

ning Cloud is the most awe-

some Native rappers that

she heard, and hoped they

will come back next year.

— Mallory Neekan Grade 10 Student

Jim Jordan Talks About Bullying He also spoke to the full student body in the gymna-sium about the aspects of bullying; how there are three elements for bullying to take place. “There is always a perpetrator and victim,” said Jim, but added “there is a third element which is the ‘bystander’, someone who sees the occurrence, but does nothing to curb the action.” By using the analo-gy of a burning candle, he demonstrated that for a can-dle to continue to maintain its ‘life’, it requires oxygen. When a bully shows aggres-sion towards someone, and if the bystander does noth-ing to curb the problem, in

Just after the Christmas

break a trio of students

came to see me about hav-

ing Jim Jordan come to Peli-

can and speak about the

topic of bullying. Jim

agreed, and on February

26th, met with the leader-

ship classes of Ms. Russell

and Mr. Hordy, and provid-

ed a very entertaining and

provocative session on lead-

ership. Using his skills as a

magician, he wowed the

students with some of the

illusions, and agreed to

show them how some of the

illusions were performed.

speaking out or interfering in the negative behavior, bullying will continue. However, if a bystander shows concern and stands up to the bully, he takes away the ‘oxygen’ from the bully.

One of Jim’s favourite illu-sions was the story of the Lost Bandana (lost banana), which caused much merri-ment within the audience. In the afternoon Jim pre-sented to the students at Q.E.D.H.S.

— Mr. Tom Hoppe

Guidance Counselor

To make a point about bullying,

Jim Jordan demonstrates an

optical illusion.

Mrs. Desta Buswa is seen assisting

students in making suggestions to

improve the services at Pelican Falls

First Nations High School.

Hip Hop artists ‘Shibastik’ and

‘Lightning Cloud’ sporting their new

PFFNHS hoodies which were pre-

sented to them in appreciation for

their presentation


First Semester Honour Roll

27 Booths At 2014 Career Fair PFFNHS conducted a career fair in the school gymnasium on Valentine’s Day. There were 27 booths registered with some presenters coming from the Toronto area as well as Thunder Bay. A variety of local businesses and profes-sions were in attendance, ranging from government services to a local church.

The students were required to visit each booth, ask ques-

tions pertaining to their ca-reer, and then have their passport stamped or signed by the booth’s representative. When their passport was full, it was entered into a draw, hosted by Wasaya Airlines for a return flight within the Wa-saya system.

Some students were given free haircuts by the hairdress-ers at the fair. A spaghetti lunch was served to all in

attendance; guests, students and staff.

In the afternoon, a presenta-tion by James Lathlin provid-ed the students with an in-sight into his former life as a gang member. His riveting historical progress to being “scared straight” was dramat-ically detailed to the students.

— Mr. Tom Hoppe Guidance Counselor

Annual Cultural Club Trip to Winnipeg really appreciated what we were trying to do for them.

We arrived in Winnipeg, and decided to treat them to a movie at the theatre. The next days’ adventures start-ed out touring the Manito-bah Mukluks factory. The rich First Nations’ history this company has is incredi-ble. It is owned and operat-ed by First Nations peoples, and the money that is given back to the communities is awe inspiring.

We toured the Red River College. The kids asked

The Cultural Awareness Club just recently went on its annual incentive trip to Winnipeg. Mrs. Sharon Newman, Mrs. Juliette Blackhawk and Mr. Patrick Keating chaperoned.

The trip started with the drive to Winnipeg which was a lot of fun. The stu-dents conversed and, of course, we had to make a couple timely Tim Horton’s stops. The students abso-lutely love their Tim’s. It was great to see how all the kids got along so well and

many questions and were able to see many of the pro-fessors teaching.

We stopped at a fur shop. The kids lit up looking through the furs and chat-ting with the friendly staff.

That evening we took in a movie in 3D, Pompeii! Our elder really enjoyed the movie and so did all of the kids. This trip was a major success. A big thank you goes out to everyone who supported us.

— Mr. Patrick Keating

Goodman, Liam ........................................ 81.00

Beardy, Savannah .................................... 80.75

Kakekagumick, Keystin ........................... 80.25

Keesickquayash, Jonella ........................ 80.00

Winter, Kevin .............................................. 80.00

Tait, Isaiah ..................................................... 79.75

Sakchekapo, Jaslyne ................................ 79.50

Trout, Shaylyn ............................................. 79.25

Meekis, Krista ............................................... 79.14

Ostberg, Kylan ............................................ 79.00

Owen, Erickson .......................................... 95.25

Wesley-Wilder, Ryan ................................ 91.50

McKay, Sara .................................................. 88.33

Suggashie, Antonio.................................. 85.00

Aganash, Fred ............................................ 84.25

Barkman, Janessa ...................................... 84.25

Kakekayash-Rae, Alisha ........................... 84.25

Meekis, Blake ................................................ 82.25

Mamakwa, Claudia................................... 82.25

Anderson, Serena ..................................... 81.25

Claudia Mamakwa (above) and

Martina Fiddler were the lucky

winners of return tickets from

Wasaya Airways’ draw.

On Pink Shirt Day Mrs. Buswa

and Ms. Hardeman display an anti-

bullying poster signed by staff and

students.

Kasenda and Teri Meekis at the

Manitobah Mukluks factory

650 Pelican Falls Road

Sioux Lookout, ON

P8T 0A7

Phone: 807-737-1110

Toll Free: 1-800-378-9111

Fax: 807-737-1449

E-mail: [email protected]

Pelican Falls First Nations

High School

We’re On the Web! www.nnec.on.ca

‘To Be What We Can Be’

March 20—23 ................................. Winter Carnival (PFC)

March 27 ........................................................................ OSSLT

March 28 to April 4 ................... Student Exchange Trip

April 10 ................................................................... Elders Day

April 10 to 14 ............................................ Travel Club Trip

April 11—13 ........................................... Annual Pow Wow

April 10—17 ............... Student Exchange from Alberta

April 18 ............................................................... Good Friday

April 21 .......................................................... Easter Monday

May 8—9 ............................................................. Final Exams

May 15 .................................................................. Graduation

COURT SPORTS

Badminton

March 24 in Fort Frances

April 2 in Atikokan

The Yearbook Committee, consisting of several staff and students of PFFNHS, has been fund-raising since September with a bi-weekly preparation and serving of lunch to PFFNHS students. The Committee also de-pends on paid advertise-ments from local businesses to help with costs.

We solicit artwork for the Yearbook from students through an annual contest held in the second semester. This year’s winners were: Ernena Wesley who took first place, Sara McKay plac-ing second and Danielle

Meekis earning third place. The stu-dents earned $100, $50 and $25 respectively for their efforts. The judges of the art-

work were several teachers who are not Yearbook Committee members.

Student Yearbook photog-rapher Kendra Wesley has been kept busy attending sports matches and school events.

Currently, the Committee is working with Lifetouch Yearbooks which will be printing this year’s edition. The 2014 yearbook is ex-

Yearbook Committee Busy Fundraising

Elizabeth Fiddler, Ms. Colleen

Spearns and Austin Meekis

manning the canteen on Feb. 19th.

The Results of each event are listed below.

After a successful day out in the cold, each community gathered in the foyer of the school for the overall medal presentation. The three teams with the most medals were awarded prizes. Team Meekis (Deer Lake) took GOLD, Team Sandy Dam (Muskrat Dam and Sandy Lake) took SILVER, and Keewayin took the BRONZE medal. Big thank you to all teachers who helped run the various events and to all the leader-ship students who helped plan, organize, and make the event possible. Great job Team!!!

— Mr. Shawn Hordy & Ms. Crystal Russell

pected to arrive later than usual — in September, but will feature more of the school year including gradu-ation.

— Ms. Colleen Spearns

Olympics—Cont’d from page 4

Yearbook photographer Kendra Wes-

ley received a mug for her coverage of

the annual Career Fair.

Mrs. Colleen Spearns presented

Ernena Evangeline Wesley with

$100.00 who won the Cover Contest.

March 5, 2014 Volume 9, Issue 3 The Pelican …...27 Booths at 2014 Career Fair 7 Yearbook Committee...

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Transcript of March 5, 2014 Volume 9, Issue 3 The Pelican …...27 Booths at 2014 Career Fair 7 Yearbook Committee...