Each year the Addington Highlands Council and the Addington Highlands Economic Advisors for Development call for nominations of a deserving person to receive a Community Builder Award in a number of categories This year’s recipients received their awards at a ceremony last week.

Abbi Woods received the Emerging Youth Leader Award. A grade nine student from North Addington Education Centre, (NAEC) Abbi has exhibited strong leadership skills and enthusiasm towards volunteering. She helped organise the local soccer association and was a coach, and volunteered with the Santa Clause Parade, the Lions Club, the Haunted Walk hosted at Sherwood Park, and the Trunk or Treat Halloween events in Flinton.

Diana Weichenthal also received the Emerging Youth Leader Award.
Diana is a grade eleven student at NAEC. Diana provides leadership through her involvement with volleyball and in the hallways of NAEC, where her positive demeanor welcomes others and makes everyone ready for learning. Teri Woods received the Citizen of the Year Award. Teri was recognized for volunteerism in the community over the past few years. She helped to organize the Breakfast with Santa and Touch the Truck events in conjunction with LARC, the township float for the Santa Clause parade, and the North Addington Soccer Association. Teri has had a positive impact on our local community for many years and has also donated her time to the Lions Club of Land O’Lakes as well as North Addington Education Centre.

Jillian Mumby received the Business Leader Award. She operates a small business and employs a significant number of locals depending on demand. Jillian recently built a two-unit family dwelling in Flinton to provide housing for seniors. During construction a number of local companies were contracted to complete the project.

The Township and AHEAD committee thanked the recipients for their efforts in the community and congratulate them on a job well done.

The students of North Addington Education Centre suited up on October 31st in their Campbell’s Soup Costumes, to collect items for the food bank. For the second time ever, items were collected in Denbigh, for the Denbigh Food Bank.

About ten secondary students were spread out between Flinton, Northbrook, Cloyne, and Denbigh to collect non-perishable food items, instead of tricking or treating for candy. The students are not strangers to supporting the community who supports them.
This is the seventh year for the very successful event. We visited as many households as possible, but we know that some houses were missed- especially those on back roads, or not in a very central area. If you have food that you would like for us to pick up, please call Candice Bovard throughout the week at 613-336-8991.

On behalf of students and staff, the principal, Angela Salmond, would like to thank the community for their contributions to our food drive efforts over the years: “I always have a feeling of tremendous pride when students come to my door, excitedly telling me about all of the food they have collected, and how families have bags or boxes ready at the door. Thank you to the community for continually supporting this event and investing in our children”.

Items can also be dropped off at North Addington, or the Denbigh Medical Centre.

by Valerie Allan

Students and staff found their rhythm at high energy, fun workshops presented by Derek De Beers on Friday, October 17. Derek brought a large assortment of drums and other percussion instruments such as shakers, odd contraptions involving pedals and instruments, and basketballs.

Students and staff learned from Derek that “You think you are drumming, but you are really doing mathematics. You are adding, subtracting, dividing and multiplying. You are counting.” He added that mathematics is important in life, when people have to consider how much rent they pay, their hydro, their gas bill, etc. Teachers were very pleased that Derek highlighted the importance of mathematics.

However, Derek also stressed that without the Arts, students’ “souls would wither and die.” Derek stated that students need a combination of the right brain and the left brain to be successful.

Derek’s workshops were full of fun and drumming. One particularly amusing aspect was Derek’s assigning random names to students and teachers. Due to the very large numbers of participants, it would have been impossible for him to learn everyone’s name, so this was a clever way to still make a connection with the attendees.

The workshop was made possible by a subsidy from the Crabtree Foundation, which subsidized the “Bboyizm” workshop held last year. Students and teachers both enthused over how much fun they had had, and several said they would love it if Derek were to come again

 

Submitted by NAEC

The students of North Addington Education Centre will be suiting up in their Campbell’s Soup costumes on October 31 and knocking on your door! They will be asking for non-perishable food items which will be donated to the local food bank, which is experiencing a shortage of food.

About a dozen secondary students will be spreading out between Flinton, Northbrook, and Cloyne to collect non-perishable food items, instead of tricking or treating for candy.  The students are not strangers to supporting the community who supports them.

This is the fourth year for the very successful event. We’re asking community members to contribute what they can. We will be having three to four students canvassing each community between approximately 5:00 and 8:00pm. They will be wearing NAEC ID tags and a very large smile. We are going to visit as many households as possible, but if you have contributions and the food is not picked up, please call Candice Bovard throughout the week at 613-336-8991 and we will pick it up.

On behalf of students and staff, the principal, Angela Salmond, would like to thank the community for their contributions to our food drive efforts over the years: “The response we have received is overwhelming. We would not be able to organize events like this without the support of very generous families in this community. I am proud to see students take ownership of the area in which they live and recognize what really matters”.

If you see students in the community and they are ‘trick or eating’, feel free to ask them to sing or dance for your donation; they are prepared to work for your generosity!

by Valerie Allan

North Addington Education Centre has been certified as an Ontario EcoSchool for the sixth year in a row. NAEC has received Bronze certification for 2013-2014. EcoSchools is an environmental education program in Ontario that helps students and schools to become more environmentally friendly. To become a certified EcoSchool, the school must show achievement in leadership, energy conservation, waste minimization, ecological literacy, curriculum and school ground greening.

NAEC showed their commitment to the environment throughout the 2013-2014 school year through events such as National Sweater Day, Earth Hour and Earth Day. Eight secondary students also participated in an Environmental Conference in Kingston.

The main focus for this school year was to revamp the school’s paper recycling program. With help from a variety of classes including the Restart Program, School to Community, Grade 12 College English, Grade 11 University Math and Grade 9 Academic English, the paper recycling program has been very successful this year.

“I am so proud of our students. It takes a lot of hard work over a long period of time to earn certification. This type of commitment to the school, the community and the environment is fantastic. Thank you to Ms. Randle and her hard-working team,” said Angela Salmond, principal at NAEC.

EcoSchools is a voluntary program led by teachers and volunteers at schools across Ontario.  

by Valerie Allan

On Thursday, April 24, a bus full of North Addington Education Centre students travelled to Sharbot Lake to visit Granite Ridge Education Centre for a concert by Kate Reid. 35 students were warmly welcomed by Heather Highet, principal of GREC, who was there to greet the bus.

The students were from the ReStart program, the Pink Panthers group, and Grade 9, 10 and 11 students who were interested in anti-bullying, and seeing the performance (and who also no doubt wanted a look at the brand new school).

After lunch in the cafeteria, and further greetings by Wendy Russell, Student Success Teacher at GREC, NAEC students were taken on a tour of the new school by a group of GREC students. The GREC students were obviously proud of their new school, and the visitors were particularly impressed with all the windows, which offer a lot of natural light.

They then enjoyed a concert by Kate Reid, a self-styled “queer-activist-musician” who takes on issues of bullying, difference and gender identity. This concert was one of a number organized by Meri MacLeod, the Human Rights, Equity & Inclusive Education Advisor for the Limestone District School Board. The performance was high-energy and challenged the audience to really think about how humans try to categorize people and make them fit into a certain mould.

The NAEC students were particularly pleased to attend, as it was a good follow-up activity to their Day of Pink

 

NAEC once more demonstrated a determination to end bullying at their Day of Pink on April 9. Students gathered for an assembly, wearing pink or Day of Pink pins. This year, several community members were a welcome addition to the assembly. The assembly started with some remarks from Grade 9 and 10 students. Brittany and Shannon Delyea, Lucas Parks-Delyea and Breanna Tryon welcomed the students, staff and visitors and talked about the Day of Pink in general, and what NAEC and the community can do to stand out against bullying. Brittany, Shannon and Lucas were attendees at a recent conference on the subject.

Included in the assembly was a video put together by the Pink Panthers, a group of Elementary students who are committed to ending bullying. They are Kaitlyn Rosenblath, Matt Emslie, Madi Lemke, Mackenzie Johnson, Chantal Keller, Madi Lessard, Olivia Bence, Avery Cuddy, Camille Cote, Cassandra Parks-Delyea and Luc DesRosiers. They asked fellow students and some staff members what “anti-bullying” meant to them. The resultant videos were edited and compiled by Mr. Pelow. Photo by Devin Gagne-Baldacchin

The assembly was invited to visit the hallway by Mr. Pelow’s room, where the Pink Panthers had placed two mural papers. To pledge their intention to prevent bullying, people were invited to trace their hand with a pink marker and sign inside. By the end of the day, the murals were full.

Posters and art with a Day of Pink theme were displayed in all the hallways of the school, as the whole school got involved with the spirit of the day. NAEC is hoping that more community members will come next year, so that bullying is eliminated and “every day is a day of pink”, as Lucas Parks-Delyea said.

Fifteen North Addington Education Centre students competed at the Limestone District School Board, Skills Competition, held on April 3 at St. Lawrence College. “Build something that lasts,” was this year’s Skills Competition motto, and that is exactly what they did.

Training hard leading up to the competition, the NAEC Skills team competed against students from Limestone District, the Upper Canada and Algonquin Lakeshore boards.

The competition hosts many different hands-on, curriculum-based events that fall under the skilled trades sector.

Mike McEwen & Devon Salmond (Silver Medals), Devon Deruchie & Lucas Parks-Delyea competed in 2D Animation team of two, a competition that has competitors using a program called Flash to generate a computer animation.

Summer Andrew, Allya Garey competed in Graphic Design Presentation, completing their advertising materials for Skills Canada before the competition and then presenting it to a team of judges.

Drake Murphy (Gold Medal), Zack McQuigge (Silver Medal), Brittany Wood (Bronze Medal), Brody Munro, Tristen Veley competed in Graphic Design Studio, which consisted of designing packaging and marketing materials for a product.

Amey Sauvageau represented NAEC in the Photography event, bringing a portfolio of work, completing a Photoshop task and shooting and editing photographs on site.

Andre Tryon (Gold Medal), Josh Blackwell, Wyatt Keller competed in the Small Engines competition where they had to diagnose electrical circuit issues, write a test and tear down and reassemble an engine.

A bus full of NAEC students also attended to cheer on their school mates as they took on the day’s challenges.

Andre competed at the Regional qualifier held at St. Lawrence College on Saturday, April 12th, placing second. Both Andre and Drake Murphy now advance to the Provincial Skills Competition representing Team Limestone in Waterloo, Ontario on May 5, 6 & 7.

 

North Addington Education Centre students celebrated winter on February 28, with a Carnaval. They were joined by students from Granite Ridge Education Centre and Clarendon Public School. The event was organized by Madame Douwes, the Elementary French teacher, as part of a project involving other French teachers and students. Because of the icy temperatures, some events had to be changed so all events took place in the school, rather than outside, as previously planned. This led to some quick adjustments by Madame Douwes, assisted by a number of secondary teachers. Many secondary students volunteered to help run activities, making it a great co-operative learning experience for the entire school. Elementary students and their teachers cycled through a variety of events, including face painting, hockey golf, a three-legged race, maple taffy making, a wheelbarrow race, birdfeeder making, and crepe-eating. Points and prizes were awarded to students who made the extra effort to speak French throughout the day. Bonhomme, a mascot of the Quebec Winter Carnaval, made an appearance at the beginning of the day, and kept popping in on activities as the day progressed.

The day was a very busy one, and the students had a lot of fun as they learned about French activities and culture. Principal Angela Salmond said that at the end of the day Mr. Mooney addressed the assembly, and encouraged “Three cheers for Madame Douwes,” and the students erupted into deafening cheers. Madame Douwes remarked that it was the joint effort of all the students and staff at the school that resulted in such a successful day.

Feature article,April 7, 2005

Feature article April 7, 2005

LAND O' LAKES NewsWeb Home

Contact Us

North Addington hosts the first ever North of Seven Chess Tournament

Elementary students from as far away as Sharbot Lake and Napanee bussed up to North Addington Education Centre in Cloyne last week for the North of Seven Chess Tournament. Over 200 students, from Grades 1-8 participated in the tournament, which was a qualifying event for the Eastern Ontario Regional Tournament. which was slated to take place five days later at HMCS Cataraqui in Kingston.

Barb McLaren, who is teaching core French at NAEC this year, organized the tournament. Barb lives in Sydenham, and has been involved in many childrens chess tournaments as a parent. Her children attend school at Harrowsmith PS, and I thought since Im at NAEC this year Id get one going here.

So she called Chris Hargreaves, a History and Geography teacher at QECVI in Kingston, to help out. Chris has organized school chess tournaments for the past eighteen years, and he was more than happy to work on one at NAEC.

This tournament fills in the northern part of the board for us this year, Hargreaves said, joining with tournaments in Sydenham and at three locations in Kingston to give students from throughout the board a chance to compete.

Hargreaves says chess is a good way for students to learn skills. It teaches Geometric skills and encourages analytical thinking, and it shows the immediate consequences of actions, this teaches players they must think before they act.

Last year, about 320 players participated in the Eastern Regional tournament, and with this new tournament at NAEC we might see about 360 in the regional event this year.

Over the years, Hargreaves has noticed that chess has become more popular in the grade 4-6 age group, and interest has dropped off as students reach the high School grades.

There are lots of other competing interests among that age group these days, Hargreaves said.

Indeed, the NAEC tournament had originally been set up as a 1-12 tournament but a lack of participants from the home school scuttled that idea.

Nonetheless, as the tournament started, enthusiastic players scowled and grinned as they battled each other for supremacy. Each grade level had an older student monitoring the results from a score table. After each game, the scorer was informed about the results, and that person had the task of setting up further matches.

In some of the grade levels where there were 30 or more players, it was imperative to make sure that the top players eventually met each other to determine the overall winner. Between 10 and 1:30, the players played 5 to 8 games each, taking a quick break for lunch, in an event that sometimes looked chaotic but was inexorably moving towards a fair determination of the winners.

In the end there were medals for the 1st and 2nd place players, and an invitation to the regional tournament for the other strong finishers.

A couple of older gentlemen, members of the Kingston Chess club were on hand to play some of the winners from grades 6, 7 and 8.

The Grade 8 champion, from Prince Charles Napanee, played one of the Chess Club members to a win and a draw.

I had to work hard for that draw, the Chess Club member said afterwards.