Focus on Finals

With approximately two weeks to finals, pleased encourage your child to keep their attention fo-cused on their daily work and to prepare for the final June exams in Science, English Language Arts and Mathematics. School attendance is imperative to a child’s success in school. Parents are encouraged to check Pow-erSchool to ensure their child has completed and passed in all as-signed work prior to exams. We would like to see all students ex-perience a successful end to their school year.

Parent Newsletter

Dates to Remember:

Spring Concert: Tuesday, June 7, 2016

Breakfast Program /Cafeteria Service ends: Friday, June 10, 2016

Final Exams: Wednesday, June 15—Friday, June 17, 2016

Last day of school—Thursday, June 23, 2016

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June 3, 2016

Guiding Tips

As students start preparing for their final exams it is important to have:

1. Quiet study area

2. Remove distractions

3. Rest

4. Eat well

5. A plan– remember; last mi-nute does not work

6. School Supplies—pencils, pens, eraser, calculator, ruler

.

www.testtakingtips.com/test/index.htm

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Grade 9 School Leaving Celebrations 2016

On behalf of the Grade 9 students, we

would like to thank parents, teachers, stu-

dent volunteers for their contribution to our

School Leaving Ceremony. Thank you to

Kathy Pollett and her team for coordinating

the food in the cafeteria. Feedback wel-

come.

Celebrating Student’s Successes We want to acknowledge and celebrate the

accomplishments of the students of MDJH.

We have a wall of celebration where we will

place a certificate of acknowledgement

highlighting participation and success in a

variety of activities. We want to know if your

child has participated in any plays, musicals

or has been on a team that has won some

title or has been recognized in any individual

competition. We need your help with this.

Parent

Volunteers

We will be seeking parents to help out with the breakfast program and School Council in the fall. . Please contact the administration if you are interested in help-ing us out.

Sarah Osmond: sarahosmond@nlesd.ca or Craig Squires: craigsquires@nlesd.ca

What’s happening?

Come Join use for a Night of

Music and Fine Arts: June 7 @

7:00 pm in the gym

Learning Partnership: Turning

Points

The MDJH English Department is proud to announce that grade 7 student, Michaela Wells, has placed third in the Turning Points essay contest that was sponsored by The Learning Partnership. Essays from all over Newfoundland and Labrador were consid-ered. The winning essay, entitled Everyone Matters, explored the importance of having empathy for others. Michaela wrote using beautiful imagery and vibrant word choices.

Michaela will read her essay at a ceremony on June 1 at the Manuels River Hibernia In-terpretation Centre in Conception Bay South. Congratulations, Michaela!

Page 3 JU NE 3, 201 6

Safety on and off School Grounds

It is very important that all students exercise caution on and around school grounds at all times. We have a lot of on-going construction around our building.

Students need to use crosswalks, be aware of construction zones, act and behave accord-ingly when going off school property for lunch (parks and eating establishments), and refrain from using the MDE playground.

We strongly encourage you to be alert and careful at all times. As well, to drivers, please adhere to speed limits in our school zone and be extra alert.

Yearbooks

You can now pre-order yearbooks for the 2015-2016 school year. They are available at a cost of $20. Order forms are available at the office or from Ms. Quann or Ms. Sauvéé .

ALL MDJH STUDENTS are included in the yearbook. It is not just a book for Grade 9. It is a nice keepsake for all junior high students that highlight school events and memories. Our yearbook includes all school events from September 2015- June 2016 and are deliv-ered next fall.

Yearbook Photos

Many school groups and activities ongoing. Anyone having a team or group photo to submit to the yearbook can please email their photo to ColetteQuann@nlesd.ca.

MDJH Team Pictures Needed

Thanks to everyone who has sent in pic-

tures. We are still looking for pictures of

many of our teams. It would be much ap-

preciated if a parent, coach, or student

could pass along a picture by emailing Ms.

Quann at colettequann@nlesd.ca. If you

are emailing a picture taken from a cell

phone, please select actual size when you

email as changing the size will alter the pic-

ture and the quality of the picture will be

poor so we will be unable to put it in the

yearbook.

Europe 2017 Any student interested in going to France and Italy during Easter of 2017 should see Ms. Quann for information. Email Colette Quann at colettequann@nlesd.ca for de-tails. There is a $100 discount offered to anyone signing up before the end of June.

The Learning Partnership Grade 7 Turning Points

On June 1st, 2016, grade 7 students were honoured for their work on their Turning Points essays. Michaela Wells from grade 7-8 won third place and her essay was chosen from among 217 essays. The contest involved students from across the province, so this is quite an honour.

Michaela’s essay, entitled Everybody Matters, discussed the importance of empathy and the time she first discovered how essential it is to care for and understand others.

The ceremony was sponsored by The Learning Partnership which is “is a national charitable organization dedicated to building stakeholder partnerships to support, promote and advance pub-licly funded education in Canada.” In attendance at the ceremony were Education Minister Dale Kirby, Deputy Minister Janet Vivian-Walsh, Learning Partnership liaison Derrick Moore, Senior Ed-ucation Officer John Way, and Program Specialists Christine Greene and Dr. Scott Linehan.

Michaela delivered her speech quite confidently in front of the gathering of parents, students and officials and was a great ambassador for Macdonald Drive Junior High. She received a cash prize and certificate. Congratulations Michaela.

Page 4 JU NE 3, 201 6

Student Council

Parent/Student Information Meet-ing on Canadian Student Leader-ship Conference (CSLC 2016)

The national leadership conference for grade 9-

12 students will be held in Edmunston, New

Brunswick from September 27th- October 1

st.

This is a wonderful experience and provides op-

portunities for students to participate in leader-

ship workshops and activities. Please visit the

CSLC website at http://cslc-ccle2016.com/en/ to

see what these conferences are all about. Reg-

istration is May 16 and there are a limited

number of spots available per school and per

province. There will be a meeting Tuesday, May

17 at 7 pm in the LRC. Anyone interested in this

conference is urged to attend.

Help for Fort McMurray Donation Update

MDJH student council would like to thank the school community for your sup-port in our efforts to raise money for the people affected by the fire in Fort McMurray. With your help, we raised $1890 for this worthwhile cause.

Awesome job, MDJH!

Photography Club

The last pho-tography club meeting for this year was Wednesday, June 1

st. There

will be a display of our work at our upcoming Fine Arts Night. We hope to see you there to view the photos taken by our members. The photography club is interested in taking a variety of pictures of any groups or clubs at MDJH to use in this year's yearbook. All we need is some notice and a schedule. Please email Ms. Quann (colettequann@nlesd.ca) or Mr. Trevor Wragg (twragg@hotmail.com) to advise of practice times, events or games and we can arrange to have your group's picture taken. Electronic Devices

Electronic devices (ipads, ipods, phones) are not permitted for use during instructional/classroom time unless under the direction of a teacher.and permission has been given to use the devise All phones should be turned off during class time and placed in the appropriate place as directed by the teacher. These devices are only permit-ted to be used in the morning prior to class start-ing, during recess, lunch period, and after school.

If a student does not follow rules pertaining to elec-tronic devices in the classroom they will be sent to the office whereby home contact will be made. If the electronic device is not rendered the student in question will be sent home. As well, a student us-ing an electronic device during class time or at any other time throughout the day (hallways) during instructional time will have it confiscated and sub-mitted to the office. Repeat offenders will require parents to collect the item from the office. We are not responsible if these items are lost or stolen.

If you need to contact your child while he/she is in school, please call the school number at

709 753 8240

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Band Notes – Week of June 6-10

Page 6 JU NE 3, 201 6

Spring Concert and Arts Evening: TUESDAY, JUNE 7 at 7:00 pm MDJH School Gymnasium

Tickets are available at the door - $5 per person or $10 per family

All the MDJH Bands and Choirs will perform – The theme is

“BILLBOARD and BLOCKBUSTERS”

Grade 6 Band from Rennies River, MDE, and Vanier will be special guests.

There will be a “Gallery of Student Art” as well as a “Photography Club” display

All students are asked to be at the school between 6:30 and 6:40.

The last band practices will be:

Monday: after school – JAZZ BAND

Tuesday: period 4 in the gym: Grade 8 / 9 Band; period 5 in the gym: Grade 7 Band

Music Donation

We are very please to announce that the Tulk family has generously do-nated a bass guitar and amplifier to our music program in memory of their son, Blair, who interned with us last year. As well, the school re-ceived a piano, guitar and wind instrument from Rex Simmonds and family earlier this year. We are very appreciative for their kind and generous donations.

MDJH Digital FYI: What every parent should be aware of...

Page 7 JU NE 3, 201 6

YouNow: A Parent’s Worst Nightmare

There are a wide range of apps that connect teens to the outside world in today’s communication age. By just opening a social media app, your teen can connect to people all across the globe, but do they, or you, really know who is watching?

YouNow is a live streaming video chat app that allows anyone to film themselves via live video feed with their smartphone, tablet, or laptop camera. Signing up is simple, as you can login in just seconds with Facebook, Twitter, or Google. The problem with this is that teens can quickly sign up and host a web-show without a parent’s ap-proval first. What starts out as small shows meant for friends from school turns into a large audience of unknown origin.

By using live streams, it becomes a way for teens to have a sleepover with thou-sands of people without eating all the food in the cupboard. The greatest concern here is why thousands of people want to hang out and watch your teen play truth or dare online with YouNow. Sharing pictures or videos that announce our location, our friends’ names or that reveal too much about ourselves can quickly turn into major mistakes.

Talking with teens about these subjects as a parent can be difficult at times. But it is important to have discussions in order to find out what is going on and determine if our children need additional guidance. Whether or not a child knows about a particu-lar app such as YouNow is not as relevant as sending the message of being safe and responsible when using smartphones and tablets we have provided.

Make sure to check out every new app your child installs on a smartphone. Down-load it and try it out and you will be able to come up with the right things to say to help keep them safe. Smartphones, tablets and wireless Internet access may be simple to use, but they are not “grab and go” toys. Smartphones are communica-tions tools and parents must always be aware of how they are being used.

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What Does DM Mean?

An abbreviation that is widely used in texting and on Instagram, Face-book, Twitter and elsewhere on the internet. DM = Direct Message

PARENT NEWSLETTER

Macdonald Drive Junior High

110 Macdonald Drive

St. John’s NL

A1A 2K9

Phone: 709-753-8240

Fax: 709-753-1243

E-mail: leoetchegary@esdnl.ca

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Public Announcements

Page 9

Cafeteria Service

Please note: Our cafete-ria service will conclude on Friday, June 10th, 2016.

Note: There will some items in the vending ma-chines for sale.

School Closing / Reopening:

School will close for summer vacation on Thursday, June 23rd at 1:00 PM. Buses will depart 1:10 PM.

School reopens on Wednesday, Septem-ber 7th for students in grade 7 - 9. Please note that classes begin at 8:10 AM. Doors open at 7:50 AM and home-room commences at 8:05 AM.

Breakfast program

Please note: The MDJH breakfast pro-gram will finish for the year on Friday, June 10, 2016

Parents & Guardians: Did you know that construction is ongoing for a new recreation facility, the Paul Reynolds Commu-nity Centre to replace the Wedgewood Park Recreation Centre? With a planned completion date of January 2017 the City of St. John’s is interested in hearing from current and potential users on the public programs to be offered at the facility. Drop in to our two public open houses: 1. Sunday, June 5, 6:30 pm – 8:00 pm at Macdonald Drive Junior High 2. Wednesday, June 8, 6:30 pm – 8:00 pm at Macdonald Drive Junior High We want to hear about the kinds of recreation and leisure programs you are interested in for you and your family.

June exams start on Wednesday, June 15th. The norm is:

1. Students in school up to and including Tuesday, June 14th.

2. Students show up to write their exams during the examination period. Students can remain in

school and attend study hall in the cafeteria. Should a student elect to go home after writing their

exam they require parental consent. Please write a note granting permission.

3. Buses will run normal hours.

4. On Thursday, June 23rd, students to attend school regular time. The year-end assembly will

take place later in the AM followed by distribution of report cards then dismissal for the summer.

5. June 20 - 22 will encompass classroom and locker cleanup, textbook collection and compiling,

clean up of school grounds, academic intervention / decisions for summer school and

programming for next year and other school related issues. Students who are present often help

MDJH Exams Schedule 2016

Page 10

Day / Date Grade Time Exam Wednesday, June 15th 7 8:30 – 10:30 AM Math

Wednesday, June 15th 9 8:30 – 10:30 AM English

Wednesday, June 15th 8 12:15 – 2: 15 PM Math

Thursday, June 16th 8 8:30 – 10:30 AM English

Thursday, June 16th 9 8:30 – 10:30 AM Science

Thursday, June 16th 7 12:15 – 2:15 PM English

Friday, June 17th 7 8:30 – 10:30 AM Science

Friday, June 17th 9 8:30 – 10:30 AM Math

Friday, June 17th 8 12:15 – 2:15 PM Science

(Unit Test)