Welcome back to another school year! We’re hoping that your child has become familiar with their schedule and their locker combinations as we’re a month into the year and most wrinkles in our day have been ironed out.
We are welcoming 4 new staff members: Miss Gulutzan is an intern in Mrs. Pollon’s grade six classroom. She is from the College of Education at the University of Saskatchewan. Mr. Chavez is interning with Mr. Lam Ma in the high school and is also from the U of S. They’ll both be with us until mid-December. Mrs. Greif has joined us in the bio lab. She teaches mostly science in our high school. And finally, Mrs. Ernst is our new vice principal who will be the administrator for our grade sixes and sevens, as well as a grade nine ELA and social studies teacher.
We’ve also had an influx of students at TMSS, so there are many new faces in our facility. Our school enrollment is well above 500, which is the first time that’s happened in over a decade. Teachers class lists have been changing as we move students in (and sometimes out) of classes trying to provide the best learning experience that we can.
On the first day of school, we met in the Auditorium for an assembly, and I spoke to the student body about the upcoming school year. Our teachers will continue to encourage our student mantra of G.R.I.T – an acronym for growth (mindset), resilience, integrity, and togetherness. As part of togetherness, we had some students struggling last year with how to NOT like someone. As teachers and parents, we haven’t done a great job of helping children with this social skill and it showed up a few times in our school last year and it led to serious consequences. Some people might use the word bullying to describe what we were experiencing, but that’s a term I rarely use. I did see some children who challenged boundaries and learned some difficult lessons, and also some children who wanted to advertise how much they didn’t like someone. This is where I think the problem lies. We need to point out to our youth that just because they don’t like someone doesn’t mean they have to recruit others to not like that person or, even worse, make that person not like themselves. School is difficult enough as it is. No one should be making someone else’s day harder. We’re going to work on being kind at TMSS!
Thank you to all the family that came out to support our SCC hotdog BBQ, teacher Meet & Greet as well as our 2022-23 academic awards.
Carmen Messer
Our September Grade 6 GRIT winner is Madden Eberle. Madden got involved with the Cross Country team right away this year. He has shown growth as a learner, and is committed to improving. Even when things are challenging, he is resilient in that he can find different ways to do things. He shows integrity when he is helpful and supportive of other students and peers. Madden, you are excited to learn and build relationships with others, and your kindness is infectious.
This month's Grade 7 GRIT award goes to Harper Zslnka. Harper shows GRIT every day as she strives to do her best and is resilient when faced with a challenge. She comes to school with a smile on her face and works well with others. Harper is positive, respectful, and hard-working. She is always willing to lend a helping hand, and shows kindness to other students and staff. Way to go, Harper!
This month's Grade 8 GRIT recipient is Koen Scammel. Koen has shown growth in his academics. He works well in class and is able to solve problems using a variety of strategies. He is determined to come up with the right answer and has been working diligently to ensure he is successful. Not only that, he has been good at explaining his strategies to his classmates to help them be successful as well.
Arianna Clysdale is very deserving of one of the first Grade 9 GRIT awards of the 2023-24 school year. She arrives at school each day with a smile on her face. Not only is she hard-working and diligent in her school classes, she will also take the time to help out her classmates or teachers if needed. Arianna participates in class discussions and works well with others in small groups. Congratulations Arianna! You are off to a fabulous start!
For our Grade 10 Grit nomination, I would like to call out Gage Boxall’s resilience and overall dedication to be the best version of himself. Gage has constantly been asking questions on how he can improve not only his writing but his overall learning in the class as well. He has not only exhibited resilience in his schooling but showed growth as a person through his relationships with other classmates as well. Gage never fails to lighten the mood when faced with challenges during the class and constantly strives to become a better student every day.
Congratulations to this month’s Grade 11 Grit winner is Jessa Cogal.
J- Jessa shows integrity daily in the classroom and the hallway
E- Eager to learn (Growth)
S- Smiling, happy and positive disposition (Togetherness)
S- Self-disciplined to get the job done and stay on task
A- Always persistent and never gives up (Resilience)
This month's Grade 12 GRIT award goes to the students of Mrs. Simoneau's Foundations 30 class and Mrs. Andris's ELA B30 class. Between the two they exemplified GRIT by raising over $1000.00 themselves towards the Terry Fox Fundraiser. Both groups enthusiastically competed against one another to bring in the most amount of funds as possible in order to support cancer research. The students worked together, showing integrity in their willingness to donate repeatedly, whether in amounts big or small. They showed great maturity and leadership and for that, they deserve much appreciation. Great way to start the year Grade 12s!!
Cross Country Running Team News
We have a very large team competing this year. Some days our team is even too large for our GRIT mobile. It’s a great problem to have.
The grade six runners are practicing as group most noon hours. We use the Doghide Trails to train on and every time out there is about a 2 km run – a challenging distance for 11-year-olds. They should be proud of themselves showing such GRIT as rookie Tornados. They will be competing in meets in Nipawin, Zenon Park, Hudson Bay and we’ll host our own at the Kinsmen Park next month.
The grade 7-12 teams have competed in our first meet that we hosted. Our trails here in Tisdale offer a great little run for the NESSAC league to begin with. We will also attend two meets at Rolling Hills golf course (near Nipawin) and Regina will host the provincial meet in October. We encourage all athletes to just come out to train and not compete if they wish. Running is a great way to stay healthy and fit for other sports.
