It’s another school year, Sentinels, and our library learning commons is alive and vibrant with students. We are grateful for your presence in our learning commons. On the daily we see students here studying, quietly reading, or simply working collaboratively with friends. Our space is your space…’Mi casa, su casa!’, as the Spanish saying goes. We want you to know that the library is a learning hub that promotes student success.
As we have opened our doors to you for another school year, we’d like to remind you of our library procedures, expectations, and services. Please review the flyer below which was shared with all Sacred staff to post in their VLEs.
Something NEW this year is our library hours, which have changed. This year, we are closed period 1, semester 1 and closed period 2, semester 2.
If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to speak with Mrs. Loffredi or Ms. Caldarola.
We wish you all a successful 2024-2025 school year!
Our Sacred Reads Student Book Club is onto it’s 3rd book for the school year. Join us in reading “The Authenticity Project” by Clare Pooley next. This is a ‘feel-good’ story about 6 strangers that leads to unexpected friendship. It’s a story about being brave and putting your real self-forward and finding out that it’s not as scary as it seems. Sacred Reads will meet Thursday, Feb. 8th, after school, in the library to discuss the book. We hope to see you then.
On September 30th, we acknowledge and recognize National Truth and Reconciliation Day, also known as Orange Shirt Day. On this day, we are invited to wear orange shirts to honour Indigenous people and to show a commitment to the idea that EVERY CHILD MATTERS. During this time, we recall Canada’s Residential Schools which is a tragic moment in our Canadian history.
Listen to The Orange Shirt Story by Phyllis Jack Webstad
On February 22, we began the Lenten season with Ash Wednesday. The season of Lent and Easter are the most important season in the liturgical calendar. Lent is a time for fasting, almsgiving (i.e. charity), and prayer and lasts for 40 days.
Here are some resources about this important Liturgical season that calls us to reflect, pray, and become closer to Christ.
Bell Let’s Talk Day is TODAY – January 25, 2023! Today Bell will donate 5 cents to mental health initiatives for every text, mobile and long distance call by Bell customers, tweet using #BellLetsTalk, social media video view, or use of the Facebook frame or Snapchat filter. Today, let’s help make these actions count!!
Here is what you need to know:
More than 1 in 2 people struggling with their mental health aren’t getting the help they need.
1 in 4 Canadians have been experiencing high levels of anxiety.
More than 200 Canadiens will attempt suicide everyday; twelve will die.
The number of opioid overdose deaths in Canada went up more than 90% during the pandemic. It’s now 20 per day.
Together, the students and staff of SACRED HEART can help create positive change for people living with mental illness. Because when it comes to mental health, every action counts.
Remember that if you need someone to talk to, your teachers, guidance counsellors, chaplains, vice-principals, and principal are here to listen.
To learn more about Bell Let’s Talk Day, visit their website.
Is this your initial reaction when you are told that it is time to prepare for exams? Does the thought of studying and writing exams make you super anxious?
Fear not!! Here are some exam preparation tips, tricks, and resources to help you succeed on your exams this month and succeed confidently.
Exam Prep Tips
SQ4R Study Strategy
Tips for Writing Your Exams
The Forgetting Curve
Research has shown that when you study or review material it is natural for us to forget over time. However, with spaced repetition and review, we will forget what we learned less and less.
Remember to Get Enough Sleep
In today’s busy world and as your schedules fill up with multiple activities, I feel that sleep isn’t overrated enough. We all seem to downplay the amount of sleep we get on a regular basis and brag about how little sleep we actually do get. However, when it comes down to exams, it is so important that you get enough sleep the night before and avoid cramming if you want to perform successfully. This is why it is so important to start studying for your exams earlier, so that you don’t have to pull ‘all-nighters’ the night before.
So, why is sleep so important?
Watch this TED Ed Talk about how sleep helps you to recall and remember information.
This year the Sacred Heart Library participated in the Epic Puzzle Challenge. This was an event that involved most participating YCDSB High School Libraries. The library to have students complete the puzzle first would obtain the Epic Puzzle Challenge trophy, and take it back from St. Max’s.
A group of our senior students were determined to complete the puzzle and finished it in 1 DAY!!! A special thank you goes out to the following grade 12 students: Eli, Sofia, Jewella, Vanessa, Ana, Katelyn, and Matteo. This group was very determined to win the trophy.
In spite of our students’ efficient and determined efforts, we were not the first school to finish this 5000 piece puzzle. The trophy remains at St. Max’s. We will get them next time.
The road we travel is equal in importance to the destination we seek. There are no shortcuts. When it comes to Truth and Reconciliation we are forced to go the distance.
–Words by Justice Murray Sinclair
September 30th is recognized as National Truth & Reconciliation Day (also known as Orange Shirt Day).
What do these words mean to you?
Relationship
Broken
Family
Government
Missing
Indigenous
Language
Churches
Reconciliation
Tradition
Trauma
Residential
School
Intergenerational
Culture
Words have the power to mean something either positive or negative for different people. These concepts and words help to describe the tragedy surrounding residential schools that is Canadian history.
More than 150,00 First Nations, metis and Inuit Children were forced to attend government-funded residential schools between 1870s and the late 1990s. There was reported abuse – emotional, physical, and sexual – in these schools.
More than 4000 children failed to return home. This annual day of commemoration is seen as a way to raise awareness of past wrongs and acts as an important step in the healing process.
Source: “Healing the Past: Canada’s First National Day for Truth and Reconciliation” CBC News: News in Review, December 2021. Curio.ca
Why is it an Orange Shirt?
The “orange shirt” in Orange Shirt Day refers to the new shirt that Phyllis Webstad was given to her by her grandmother for her first day of school at St. Joseph’s Mission residential school in British Columbia. When Phyllis got to school, they took away her clothes, including her new shirt. It was never returned. To Phyllis, the colour orange has always reminded her of her experiences at residential school and, as she has said, “how my feelings didn’t matter, how no one cared and I felt like I was worth nothing. All of us little children were crying and no one cared.“
The Orange Shirt Story by Phyllis Webstad
Truth and Reconciliation is Canada
Indigenous History through Art
The picture below was created by Kent Monkman and is titled Shame and Prejudice: A Story of Resilience. What do you notice about this artwork and what does it say about Canada’s history?
“I Lost My Talk” by Rita Joe
I lost my talk
The talk you took away
When I was a little girl
At Shubenacadie school
You snatched it away:
I speak like you
I think like you
I create like you
The scrambled ballad, about my word.
Two ways I talk
Both ways I say,
Your way is more powerful.
So gently I offer my hand and ask,
Let me find my talk
so I can teach you about me.
1. What does this poem mean by 'talk'?
2. At the end of the third stanza, the speaker admits 'your way is more powerful.' What might 'Power' mean in this poem? Who is the 'You' she is talking to? Does it include you? In what way is your way more powerful?
3. What does this poem express about language?
If you were to translate this poem in your own language, would it help you to understand what the poem expresses about language?
5. Imagine if your first language was taken from you. How would you feel? How would you tell your children about your family? How would you communicate with your ancestors from your home country?
Adapted from:https://poetryinvoice.ca/read/poems/i-lost-my-talk
Reflection
We all come from somewhere, and we all have stories to share. What is a story you’d like to share?
