Suzuki Planet: November 2015
Be The Change
Mission, Vision, Values
Our Motto is "Be the Change".
Our Vision for David Suzuki Secondary School is to develop a collaborative community of individuals who are continually evolving to become environmental stewards capable of taking action to better the world.
Our Mission as a school community is to create a safe learning environment where all students learn to respect each other, their community and the planet. We do this by providing diverse learning opportunities that involve students, staff, parents and the community so that students can become productive lifelong learners.
Our Values include: Honesty, Responsibility, Respect, Empathy.
Message from the principal
The first few months of the 2015/16 academic year have been a whirlwind of activity, triumphs and new beginnings! Some exciting highlights of our year to date include the LINK Crew led orientation for all grade 9 students, our amazing Science Olympics and our 2nd Annual Commencement Ceremony where we welcomed nearly 400 graduates and their families to celebrate new and exciting beginnings for our graduates. Suzuki also celebrated the official opening of our first Outdoor Classroom during our Community Open House. More, our fall teams and clubs spread #SuzukiPride as we sent finalists to OFSAA Cross Country, Golf the DECA Provincial Competition!
David Suzuki Secondary School’s mission is to create a safe learning environment where all students learn to respect each other, their community and the planet. Looking ahead, we continue to BE THE CHANGE as we grow herbs and vegetables in our wonderful new Tower Gardens and support our community through clothing, coat and food drives.
Second Year of Our Paperless Newsletter!
Smore offers a format that works well on your computer as well as your mobile device. And, with links to rich media, we're offering more content, more conveniently.
Chapters Night!
Tuesday, Nov 17, 2015, 06:30 PM
52 Quarry Edge Drive, Brampton, ON, Canada
Suzuki Cleans Brampton - Fall Community Clean-up
#SuzukiValues, Fall 2015
Suzuki LINK CREW
The Art of Suzuki
Thursday, Nov 19, 2015, 07:00 PM
David Suzuki Secondary School
Athletics!
Math Department
The Math Department would like to encourage all students to do their daily homework assignments provided by their math teachers. Please encourage your child to attempt every question and should they experience some difficulty with their homework, they should consult with their teacher and/or attend the Math Study Hall for additional support as soon as possible.
The Math Study Hall is located in Room 201 and is open daily during Period 3 and Period 4 lunch. New this year – we have Math Warriors assisting other students with their homework questions every Tuesday and Thursday. If you are interested in becoming a Math Warrior, please see Ms. Jangi or Ms. Cheung for further information. Students are encouraged to drop-in anytime they have questions or even if they just want to complete their math homework in the presence of a math teacher.
TIPS – Studying for Math
- Do all homework questions throughout the unit. Any difficulties, highlight! Don’t erase.
- Ask Questions. Help is available.
- Make study notes with important formulas and key concepts.
- Re-read lesson notes.
- Make yourself a mock test.
- Get plenty of sleep.
Students in Grade 9 are encouraged to visit the EQAO website for additional practise questions as students enrolled in Semester 1 will be writing their EQAO test on January 21st. Semester 2 Grade 9 math students will be writing in June.
Also, please register your grade 9 or grade 10 student for Counting On You Math this semester if math help is needed. Students, please see Ms. Sy in the Student Support Services office to get more information about Counting On You.
We have already started the Math contests this year. The Waterloo Senior and Intermediate Mathematics Contest is happening on November 25th . Pascal, Cayley and Fermat Contests are taking place in February. Euclid, Fryer, Galois and Hyptia Contests are happening in March. Speak to Ms. Mahathantila, Ms. Tudhope, or your Math teacher if you are interested in writing any of those math contests.
The Math Department would like to wish all the best to our students. As we work together, we will be able to improve the students’ numeracy skills and math education.
#SuzukiCares: Nurturing a Positive School Culture
Our goal is to create a safe and positive school climate through a variety of proactive and responsive bullying prevention and intervention strategies; to increase the capacity of school staff and students to actively get involved in bullying prevention and intervention activities; to increase the number of students who are willing to seek support from school staff for personal and peer related issues.
Learn more by visiting our Safe Schools page: http://schools.peelschools.org/sec/davidsuzuki/aboutus/safeschools/Pages/default.aspx
or by visiting @FacesOfSuzuki on Instagram.
Suzuki Remembers
Arts at Suzuki
Our student actors, artists, dancers and musicians have had an amazingly productive semester so far, and will celebrate with an amazing performance and exhibition of artworks on November 19th. Students have already had opportunities to connect their curricular learning and extra curricular experiences to character values, numeracy, the environment and 21st century skills.
To learn more about what is happening in the Arts at David Suzuki, follow our blog at dsssarts.com
To see more about our Arts Performances and Exhibitions, view our storify:
English Department
Congratulations to all who deciphered the English department's Halloween anagram "Playing with words!" Several students deciphered other English-themed logical anagrams from the same phrase... Can you?
The English department is excited to be taking grade 9 students to see a production of Romeo and Juliet. Grade 12 students will also have an upcoming field trip opportunity to see Hamlet.
All students currently in English will soon be working on their independent novel studies, so encourage students to talk to you about the books they are reading and the work that they are doing.
We encourage all students to embrace the idea that "Literacy is Everywhere" and an integral part of our lives. Keep reading!
Suzuki students value the healh of their environment: Fall ,2015
Literacy, Numeracy, Science, Technology and core values of Caring and Responsibility all come together in many of our environmental projects. Have a peek at some of the highlights of a semester of environmental responsibility:
Athletics
Congratulations to all winter sports teams for their achievements and accomplishments as they begin to wrap up their season. Good luck to the boys' basketball teams as they prepare for playoffs. Try-outs for the following sports teams will be beginning in March. Cricket, Badminton, Rugby, Soccer, Track & Field, Girls Fast Pitch, Boys Baseball, Lacrosse, Ball Hockey and Ultimate Frisbee. Our goal is to offer programs for every student at David Suzuki whether it is the weight room club, intramurals or a sports team we challenge all students to get involved in extracurricular activities at David Suzuki.
Go Grizzlies!
Follow us on twitter at:
@DSSSGrizzlyDen,
@DSSSRISE
DECA 2015-2016
The David Suzuki Secondary School DECA returns from the annual Peel Regional DECA Competition, held on November 8th. The event saw over 2,000 Peel students competing for business excellence. DECA members are excitedly awaiting their final results of both exams and role plays, to see who will qualify for the 37th Ontario Provincial Competition to be at The Sheridan Centre, Toronto on February 7-9, 2015. The event attracts over 6,000 dedicated and driven business competitors from all over Ontario. Special recognition goes to Jackie Hane, Spencer Ogston and Isha Trivedi, who all placed top 10 overall in their respective categories. Best of luck to all DECA members!
Are you interested in judging at the Provincial DECA competition? Any parents interested in being a judge can register at www.deca.ca by going to the judges registration tab. Parents that have participated at competitions have thoroughly enjoyed the experience and are impressed by how well DECA students compete. So come on out - we’d love to have you join in on the fun!
Ms. Liapis and Ms. Archdekin
DECA Advisors
Venture Week is coming!!!
Grade 10 business students have been learning the ins and outs of running a business and are ready to put their knowledge of Marketing, Management, Accounting, Production and Team Work to the test in this fall’s Venture Week! Come out on December 2nd and 3rd to enjoy some delicious treats, including spring rolls, samosas, muffins, popcorn, cinnamon buns and more! Last year’s Venture Week was a huge success with over $1,000 raised for charity. We’ll see you in the atrium on December 2nd and 3rd.
Suzuki is the first Platinum HIgh School in Peel!
Despite being the new kid on the block, we've become the first Peel secondary school to be awarded the top honour from Ontario EcoSchools: Platinum status.
To win this, our students and staff have helped every department to find energy and waste savings. Typically this ends up saving us money which can go back into programming, so it's win-win. Platinum also requires a wide range of environmental learning that is meaningfully tied to curriculum and a focus on making our community a greener, cleaner place. We've also reprogrammed our school heating and lighting system to find efficiency after school hours. Schools typically have difficulty earning Platinum, but we're happy to announce that we earned a near perfect score on our first attempt!
This is just another way Suzuki shows its caring, innovative approach that guides our daily practices. Congratulations to all involved!
Suzuki Holiday Talent Show: "Snowed in with SAC"
Suzuki online community
Twitter: Follow the school at @DavidSuzukiSS for updates.
Web: Our webpage has lot of useful information. View it here.
Instagram: We are using Instagram as a tool to help build a caring, compassionate community through our Faces of Suzuki project. @FacesOfSuzuki
Suzuki Student Success
Project Complete ran this October, giving many students a dedicated time and space to catch-up on missed curriculum. We've noticed that most of our attendees raised their marks significantly and feel better about their chances in their courses thanks to this intervention. We'll be running again near the end of the semester. Hopefully your child will not run into difficulty and need our help, but if they do Project Complete is there as one more way that #SuzukiCares.
Suzuki leads the way
Do you think of Suzuki as a model school? CWF does. At the beginning of the semester, they published a four page article in their national magazine, WILD, designed to inspire classes from other schools across Canada to follow the David Suzuki SS example!
Be The Change! - Refill Station
We saved over 700 plastic water bottles in under a month! Our new water bottle refill station makes it even more convenient for students to use refillable bottles. It was bought with prize money won by Miss Singh and Mr. Crozier's credit recovery classes in Canadian Geographic's national Energy Diet contest. Since we opened, we've constantly worked to pair education with healthy choices and a more sustainable way of doing business. The refill station is a way to do just that: learn abut the costs of disposable containers, encourage students to drink more water and reduce the waste our school produces!
Suzuki Halloween Fun
Suzuki Student Council
Student Council has had a busy year thus far. In September a new Executive Council was voted in. Congratulations go out to the 2015-2016 student council:
Soonalika Srivastava and Maleeha Ahsan - Co-Presidents
Aaron Anthony - Treasurer
Deepka Sharma - Secretary
Sabrina Mohan and Anisa Malik - Public Relations
Ayda Babur and Zainab Chatta-Spirit Leaders.
Layah Bernard - Tech
Sati Gosyne and Minahil Khan - Head of External Communications
Enzo Barachuy-grade 10 rep
Hansika Tathgur-grade 11 rep
Harmen Badhesha-grade 12 rep
Student Council has been busy planning "Snowed in with SAC". A talent show that will run on December 18th to highlight some of the amazing talent at DSSS! Upcoming events include: Snowed in with SAC, Candy Cane Sales, as well as a Holiday Spirit Week. This year promises to be a great year for Student Council!
Suzuki Opens our Outdoor Classroom!
We're in the news for opening our new outdoor learning space. It's a place to do biology close to where things really live and grow as well as a space designed in a special formation for mathematical inquiry. But it is well used by Dance, English, Business, Drama and many other classes too! We've been flooded with positive reviews about being able to utilize the circular format for discussion, access fresh air to enliven class and take advantage of beautiful weather! Look for this classroom t grow and develop in the future.
Thank you to all those in our community helped this project along!
Weekly Voice: http://www.weeklyvoice.com/community-news/brampton-school-opens-outdoor-classroom/
David Suzuki Secondary School
Website: DSSSonline.com
Location: 45 Daviselm Drive, Brampton, ON, Canada
Phone: (905) 457-7941
Twitter: @DavidSuzukiSS