Hello parents/guardians and students:
As always, I’d like to start by wishing everyone good health and hope that our Oakwood family is well and safe. Continuing to be as positive as possible and seeing things through the lens being ‘half-full’ as opposed to ‘half-empty’ is so important to all of our health and well-being. So…it’s Friday!...and we are forecasted to have glorious sunshine this weekend!...let’s enjoy that --- and EACH OTHER!!! Please continue to be safe, be smart, and be happy. Remember, while enjoying the sunshine and the vitamin D, we need to maintain distancing, wear cloth masks if distancing cannot be achieved, wash our hands frequently, and staying home if we are aren’t feeling well. It’s about taking care of each other.
This was a short week but one with a few important items to share:
- The Minister of Education shared this week that publicly-funded schools in Ontario, including those at the TDSB, remain closed to students as part of ongoing efforts to help stop the spread of COVID-19. Schools will continue with remote learning until the end of June and that we will be issuing report cards at that time. Although this is not how we envisioned finishing off our school year, the safety of students, staff and school communities was paramount and the priority. With that said, our staff are continuing to work hard to support your children and provide opportunities for them to learn while away from Oakwood. I know that teachers are continuing to connect in many different ways, and care tremendously about them, and their learning. For example, I’ve heard that one of our teacher’s lessons or ‘podcasts’ includes the sharing of music as part of the lesson and connection. Hey, who says learning about 70’s or 80’s music in connection with curriculum expectations can’t be done? Students learn about Sammy Davis Jr . and “Candy Man” and us ‘old fogies’ learn about Rihanna and “Sell Me Candy”—the joys of learning!
- Please take a moment to read through the attached newsletter, “Hearts & Minds”, which is being shared by the TDSB’s Psychological Services department. It’s full of information, tips, and ideas meant to make parenting a little bit easier, for you and your children. As I’ve said to my children many times in the past: “Sharing is Caring!” --- so have a read!
- Our OCI Activities site is a hit and we’ve added more content. Check out what’s new and learn with us! Remember, the site is open for TDSB email addresses only so connect with your child and enjoy together: https://sites.google.com/tdsb.on.ca/ociactivitiessite/home. Students if this link does not work you can also search in your Google drive under OCI Activities Site
- Lastly, I love spreading joy and happiness during these ‘different’ and unique times… please see the link below of the beginning of our staff meeting this week. We invited our 3 major award recipients for the OPTIMA, OPTIMUS, and VALEDICTORIAN awards. Typically we would announce the winners on the PA during the school day but obviously, this year is different and we were not able to announce them in that way. We wanted to do something special so I called them individually to inform them and also invited each of the students to our staff meeting so that staff could celebrate and share in their joy and happiness. We also recorded it to be shared with the rest of the student body. To give you some background, graduating students are nominated by staff for each of these prestigious awards and then grade 12 students vote on who they feel best deserves the awards. The award recipients for the graduating class of 2020 are:
Optima Award – Tara Vahabi
Optimus Award – Cameron Tuffner-Lyons
Valedictorian – Celena Ho
Hope it brings another smile to your face… click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvkRjZXQM0s
Although we couldn’t get the video of the entire staff, the students did get to see the faculty and their immense joy. We did however catch the priceless reactions of Ms. Lasagna from the main office --- the camera somehow picked her…classic!!! And thanks to Ms. Wallace for the recording and editing expertise.
Please continue to reach out to your child’s teachers, as well as both Lesley and I as needed. Our emails are:
steve.yee@tdsb.on.ca
lesley.wallace@tdsb.on.ca
We will update and inform everyone when the government, Board, and Public Health officials provide the school with direction around the re-entry into the building to retrieve personal items. Stay tuned.
Enjoy the sunshine and warmth that it brings. Have a FUNomenal weekend and Oakwood, remember:
“Take care of yourself --- and each other,
Strive to be the best you can be,
Don’t be afraid to be different --- Be an ‘Original’, Take risks,
Think ‘outside-the-box’,
Think ‘Other’ ----- Think OCI!!!”
Steve.