Welcome to Winter! Nothing like a few centimeters of snow to get everyone in the mood for all your favorite winter activities. Unfortunately, all the snow has certainly hampered the access of busses picking up our rural students. Thank you for helping keep your yards cleared as best you can with the wind being so vicious.

As we head into December the countdown for holidays will be on in many students’ minds, but teachers will be attending to learning and curriculum every day, including December 22nd, the last day of classes in 2022. To help add some festive joy to our school days, the SRC has some fun spirit days and weekly Name that Tune competitions planned, as well as a Food Bank Bingo for classrooms to collect some much-needed food for local families. In addition, the NESD will be providing food hampers to some of our TMSS families.

Of course, this year, our annual Christmas dinner will be full-on in-person for all students. We are expecting nearly 600 people to go through the buffet lines in the Auditorium. Thank you to all the families cooking dishes at home to donate or donating food items for the Foods classes to help in preparation or paying for a child to eat a meal. We live in a generous community!

See you at the band concert!

Carmen Messer

The Grade 6 student who has shown much growth, resilience, integrity, and togetherness is Lux Boxall. Lux shows an eagerness to learn and improve, she seeks out learning to broaden her skill set, and does not shy away from challenges. She overcomes setbacks and doesn’t allow them to destroy her positive attitude. Lux regulates her emotions and focuses on the things she can control rather than dwelling on things or people out of her control. She can be trusted to do the right thing. Lux is fun to be around, and always considers others’ feelings when working in groups. Congratulations to Lux, and keep up the great work!!!

This month's Grade 7 GRIT award goes to Dustyn Brett. Dustyn shows GRIT every day as he strives to do his best and is resilient when faced with a challenge. He makes sure to stay caught up with his work and asks questions when needed. Dustyn is determined, respectful, and hard-working. He is always willing to lend a helping hand, and shows kindness to other students and staff. Way to go, Dustyn!

The Grade 8 GRIT nomination goes to Troy Boon for December. Troy is a very kind, respectful, and considerate student who always tries his best. Thank you for being a great student!

This months Grade 9 GRIT Award is presented to Declan Murray. Of the GRIT learning attributes, Declan epitomizes togetherness. Always willing to share, include everyone, and ensure that his classroom is conducive to learning. Declan also exhibits a high level of integrity by recognizing strategies that work best for his learning. Congratulations Declan!

Our Grade 10 GRIT winner is Alastair Spencer. He shows GRIT by working extremely hard in his classes and showing resilience when he runs into problems. His attendance has been excellent this semester and I wanted to highlight his great attitude towards learning! Keep it up Alastair!

This month’s Grade 11 GRIT award goes to Jordan Szucs. Jordan is such a hard worker and is always showing diligence in her work. She is always is a great mood. She has a strong work ethic, and is a critical member to the senior girls volleyball team. Amazing work, Jordan, you’re a great example to others!

This month's Grade 12 GRIT recipient is Josh Boon. Josh joined TMSS part way through semester 2 last year and has been a welcomed addition! He has been an active member of our Football team and is looking forward to basketball season! Josh consistently demonstrates excellent work ethic and uses class time efficiently. Josh is a positive leader and team member. Keep up the great work!

What a season! The Jr. Girls A1 Volleyball team brought home the NESSAC Championship by defeating Choiceland, Melfort and Nipawin in the NESSAC playoff. Congratulations!

Here is a recap of their amazing season:

2022 NESSAC Jr. A Girls Champions

2nd Place Melfort Jr. Girls Tournament

2nd Place Choiceland Sr. Girls Tournament (Yes, Senior Girls!)

1st Place TMSS Jr. Girls Tournament

1st Place Porcupine Plain Jr. Girls Tournament

Well done, Tornados!

Team photo: Elizabeth Crawford, Sophia Sherlock, Paisley Garland, Jaelyn Gonzalez, Sadie Painchaud, Coach David Painchaud, Dayna Hamilton, Hailey Szucs, Shaye Woolley

Missing from photo: Adison Wallington and Stephanie Sibayan

2022 Tornados Football Award Winners:

Rookie of the Year: James Van Haastert

Most Improved: Luke Small

Hardest Hitter: Robinson Irving

Special Teams Player of the Year: Loukas Sherlock

Most Versatile: Ryley Wood

Lineman of the Year: Tyson Schwanke

Leadership Award: Tilka Chapman

Defensive Player of the Year: Kyler Black

Offensive Player of the Year: Ambrose Abiara

Most Valuable Player: Ryley Wood

2022 CHRISTMAS DINNER!

Christmas Dinner is coming back again!

Foods 20 & the SRC are busy planning the Sixteenth Annual TMSS Christmas Dinner to be held on THURSDAY, DECEMBER 22 at 12 p.m. This is a regular school day with regular classes and attendance is mandatory.

We are asking students and staff to either donate food items for the banquet or to pay $15 to cover the cost of the meal (one food item per person or $15 per person). If you would prefer to bring your own bag lunch to the dinner due to allergies, etc. that’s fine.

Please use the link provided to select a food item. You will get a confirmation email. Please note that some food items have to be at the school a week or two before the dinner. Please bring to the Main Office. On Friday, December 22, please bring food to the auditorium.

PLEASE DO NOT PREPARE ITEMS CONTAINING NUTS.

If you are absent, paying or just need a seat, please use the link to select your option. Payment is accepted through the online portal or by cash/cheque at the main office. If you want to donate the cost of a meal for someone else, select the box in the link and pay either online or in person.

We also need parent volunteers to help out with the meal doing such jobs as: making salads, cooking perogies, plating desserts, slicing turkeys, washing dishes, etc. You can volunteer for any amount of time between 8am and 3pm. If you are available, please check the box in the link provided.

Thank you to our SCC for providing drinks. Please bring your own water bottle if you wish to have something more to drink.

All leftovers from the dinner are packaged and distributed with the Salvation Army Hampers.

If you have any questions, please contact Mrs. Kristin Lee (873-2352) or lee.kristin@nesd.ca.

Check the link below:

https://tmss.wufoo.com/forms/sj0qgo21yl1vt9/

https://prestigeportraits.ca/get-prepared/how-it-works/

We would also like to extend our sincere thanks to Buy-Low Foods and community members who raised $150 for our school’s breakfast/snack program in the 2022 Toonies for Tummies Campaign. These funds will be put to good use as our breakfast cart and snacks are available everyday, ensuring our students are nourished and ready to learn!

Mrs. Lee would like to thank those who have donated containers and fabric to the Home-Ec department, and to the Sigfrid's for donating a turkey and carrots for the Christmas Dinner. TMSS is very appreciative of the generosity of our community!

Mrs. Lee is still welcoming donations of food containers with lids and fabric for the Home-Ec department.

Our Library would like to request donations of any old holiday cards (Christmas, Birthday, etc) for a bookmark making project for patrons. They can be dropped off at the library or at the TMSS office. Many thanks in advance!

In November, Foods 20 planned an anti food waste campaign which involved daily announcements, info graphics on the TV screens around TMSS, posters, scalable QR codes and the creation of the I Love Leftovers Bins outside the office. The bins are for any new, unused food items that students have and don't want. Once items are placed on the basket, anyone can help themselves. The hope is to keep perfectly good food out of the trash. We hope to see the TMSS student body continue to use the bins!

Let’s talk about anxiety and how to support our children/teens if they are experiencing anxiety. Anxiety is not a new problem, but we certainly hear about rising rates of people that are experiencing anxiety. Oxford dictionary describes it as, a feeling of worry, nervousness, or unease, typically about an imminent event or something with an uncertain outcome. We certainly can’t blame everything on the covid pandemic, but it was an unwelcome event that came with a lot of uncertainty and no real end in sight. We are just now getting back to our “normal” way of life.

Brene Brown, in her new book Atlas Of The Heart describes anxiety feeling like an escalating loss of control, worst case scenario thinking and imagery and total uncertainty. That sounds a bit like the state of the world these past few years, doesn’t it? She goes on to explain that the research shows, people with a higher intolerance for uncertainty are more likely to experience anxiety. So the more uncomfortable uncertainty makes you the higher the chance that you will experience anxiety more frequently and perhaps more intensely.

Lynn Lyons, psychologist and anxiety expert is one of my favorite resources when teaching about anxiety. She highlights 3 main things we can do to support our children and teens with managing their anxiety.

1. Understand how anxiety works. (to listen to Lynn Lyons explanation – check out her podcast Flusterclux (season 5, episode 11 – how to support your anxious child 101) at https://flusterclux.com/category/lynn-lyons-podcast-episodes/. You and your teen can listen together. Another good website to learn more about how anxiety works is the Anxiety Canada webpage - https://www.anxietycanada.com/

• 1) Anxiety demands certainty- wants to know exactly what’s going to happen next and wants to be in control. It also demands comfort and wants to avoid things that make you feel uncomfortable.
• 2) When we are faced with a situation that causes us to worry, there are lots of different anxiety thought patterns we can fall into. Catastrophizing is a common one, where we tend to think about the worst case scenario.
• 3) No matter the specific situation for which anxiety shows up it always sends us the same message. “This is an emergency and you can’t handle it”!
• 4) Our imagination takes hold of our anxious thoughts/worries and a little movie starts to play in our head of how badly things could go.
• 5) The amygdala is a part of our brain that is essentially our smoke detector. It’s not capable of knowing if this is just our imagination or the real thing. The amygdala just reacts as if what we are worrying about is really happening and sets off the alarm system in our body.
• 6) Once the alarm system is set off, we go into flight, fight or freeze and signals are sent to our body to get ready to protect us in this life or death situation. This alarm is really handy if you are faced with a real emergency, but not so handy if you are trying to speak in front of a group of people or write a math test.
• 7) Once the alarm goes off you no longer have access to the frontal lobe part of your brain that does all the higher thinking – hence why your mind goes blank. You get a shot of adrenaline that gives you extra energy and strength for a short period. Your heart beats faster to pump blood to major muscles, your breath gets quicker and shallower, your pupils dilate, you stop digesting food in your stomach and so on..

• 8) We learn that our anxiety is not only predictable, but it is persistent and it is redundant.
• 9) We can absolutely learn to control our worries, not watch the movie in our head and therefore not set off the alarm system in our brain.
• 10) This does require stepping into uncertainty, feeling uncomfortable on purpose and tolerating some of these physical symptoms and negative emotions.

This is very challenging in the short term, but rewarding in the long term, as your anxiety decreases with consistent repetition. We essentially retrain our amygdala. If we avoid what makes us anxious it often leads to increased anxiety.

2. Look at your own patterns. Chances are you or your partner or other members of your family deal with anxiety too. If anxiety has become a real problem in your household, you will find yourself going to great lengths to try and accommodate all the things that seem to upset your anxious child, or your anxious partner, or maybe even upset you. Brene Brown, explains it so nicely in her book Atlas of the Heart, when she writes about the misconceptions we have with worry: most of us believe our worry to be helpful in preparing us for what may go wrong; and that our worry can’t be controlled. But worry is not helpful, and we can learn to control our worries. Even all the worries that come with parenting a teen.

3. Stay out of the content. What your child is worrying about is just what worry grabs on to and you really want to think of it as a process. Pay attention to the bigger pattern. What they are worrying about today could be different than what they are worrying about tomorrow, but the anxious feeling is the same. Staying out of the content of what the worry is about is the hardest part as a parent. Do not try to rationalize with your child about their worry or reassure them that you promise what they are worrying about is not going to happen. When supporting your child or teen with their anxious thoughts, the less talking you do about the worry the better. Instead, you might try saying something like, “This sounds like anxiety, remember our plan, I know it’s hard, but let’s step into it”. You will get push back, but remember it’s hard in the short term, better in the long term. If you can bring fun and humor into it that usually helps. It’s ok to have a small reward in the beginning, as an incentive for when your child/teen does the difficult work of stepping into their worry.

If you are concerned about the amount of anxiety your child/teen is experiencing, please discuss with your family doctor and consider finding a counsellor that can work with you and your child on how to respond to the anxiety when it shows up. If anxiety is affecting your child’s success at school please reach out to their teacher or administrator to see what supports can be provided at school.

Here is a list of acceptable items: