May 9 - High School Plays

7:30 p.m. - South Huron DHS in Exeter performs its final showing of Our Town. Tickets are $7.
8:00 p.m. - North Middlesex DHS in Parkhill performs Grease! You’re the One that I Want. Tickets are $8 for adults and $6 for students.

May 6 - SHDHS presents Our Town; Port Franks meeting tonight

May 6 - 7 p.m. - Thedford arena - Lambton Shores is holding a revitalization meeting for Thedford, Arkona and Port Franks. Citizens are encouraged to attend this important meeting. For more details, visit the Lambton Shores website.
7:30 p.m. - SHDHS in Exeter presents Our Town, the Thornton Wilder play. Tickets are $7. For more information, visit the SHDHS website.

May 6-9 - SHDHS presents Our Town; post-secondary grads give advice

Principal’s Page
By Jeff Reaburn

One of the events that we look forward to at this time of year is the annual school show, and it is rapidly approaching. This year’s production, Our Town, by Thornton Wilder, will be performed from May 6 to 9 in our small gym. Director Beth Jantzi and her cast and crew have been rehearsing and preparing for months for this well known classic. The show begins at 7:30 each evening and tickets, which are only $7.00, can be purchased in the main office at the school. This will be an excellent opportunity to see and hear the dramatic talents of many fine young actors, and we encourage you to come out and show your support of our dramatic arts program.
The School Council’s final community forum of the year will take place on Monday, May 5. This one will be a departure from past forums in that it will take place in the afternoon and the audience will be students rather than parents. The topic this time is “What I Wish I’d Known,” and we have invited graduates who have gone on to college and university to come back and speak to South Huron students who will be heading to post-secondary education this fall. Our goal is to have the grads share their experiences and make our current students more aware of the challenges and opportunities they will face when they head off to college or university.
While we believe that we (the school and parents) do a pretty good job of preparing students for the post-secondary world, some lessons, both good and bad, can only be learned through experience. We also think that recent grads may have more credibility with our students than some of us who attended college or university many years ago. The goal of this session is to have the speakers share the lessons they have learned, to offer some tips and pointers, and perhaps help some of our present students avoid the mistakes and pitfalls that sometimes happen at college or university. If this proves to be a worthwhile forum, we may consider offering it every year.
The forum will be open to Grade 12 students who have applied to college or university and will take place in the cafeteria in last period on Monday, May 5. One of our speakers will be speaking to us via the Internet from Rotterdam, and we are keeping our fingers crossed that we won’t have any technical difficulties. We encourage the students who will be attending this session to come prepared with any questions they may have about post-secondary education, whether they be about finances, independence, having a roommate, workload, or any other aspect of college or university life.
More information about this forum can be found on the SHDHS web-site at: http://www.shdhs.ca/.
This week we have also entered into the election campaign for next year’s Students’ Council. Campaigning will take place throughout this week, with the election on Friday, May 2. Congratulations to Leanne Hoffman, who was selected earlier this month as the Student Senator for SHDHS. She will be meeting regularly with senators from the other high schools in the Avon Maitland District School Board to discuss issues and provide the student voice to the trustees of the school board. Two of the senators were chosen last week as student trustees and they will sit with the elected trustees at regular school board meetings.
Finally, I would like to remind parents that the Semester Two Mid-Term Report Card was distributed in last period last Friday. If you haven’t seen it yet, you may want to ask your son or daughter about it. For this report students were required to complete a Response Form on which they were to comment on their academic progress this semester and on their goals for the year. This form must be signed by a parent and returned to the school to be placed in the students’ Ontario School Records. The deadline for this is Friday, May 9, and we would appreciate any assistance that parents may offer in getting this task completed.

Semester two mid-term reports, music cabaret

Principal’s Page
By Jeff Reaburn

The Semester Two Mid-Term Report will be distributed in last period on Friday of this week. Students will be required to complete the Response Form that accompanies this report, take it home for a parent signature, and then return it to the same teacher who hands it out on Friday. The completed Response Form will then be placed in the student’s Ontario School Record (OSR), along with a copy of his/her report card. We would like to have the Response Forms returned to us within two weeks, which means by Friday, May 9. It is always somewhat of a logistical nightmare getting the Response Form handed out, completed, and returned to the school, and we appreciate any assistance that parents can offer in getting this task completed.
Last weekend our music students held their annual Cabaret, with two excellent performances in front of large and enthusiastic crowds. Although I was not able to attend the Saturday evening performance, I did get to the Sunday afternoon presentation, and, as always, I was very impressed with the musical talents of our students. Under the direction of Mr. Moore and Mr. Weston, the bands performed incredibly well, and I would like to congratulate all of them for their hard work and commitment all year long.
The Cabaret is an important fund-raiser in support of our extra-curricular music program, and this year the funds generated from this event will help to offset some of the costs of our bands’ trip to MusicFest Nationals in Ottawa next month. As a result of their excellent performances at the regional MusicFest competition, our bands were invited to compete in the national competition, which is a great achievement, but also an expensive one. On behalf of the bands, I would like to thank everyone who attended Cabaret, all the businesses and individuals who donated prizes for the raffles, and especially the parents who provided snacks and refreshments.
I would especially like to thank the parents who support the music program all year long by encouraging the students’ participation, getting them out of bed and to the school on time for early morning practices, and by attending the various concerts throughout the year. Their support is crucial to the success of our music program, and, in fact, parental support is vital to all of our extracurricular programs. I don’t thank the parents often enough: we are very fortunate to have a very supportive community, and this makes our jobs as educators much easier.
College and university applicants and their parents are invited to attend an OSAP presentation on Wednesday, April 30, at 2:05 p.m. in the cafeteria. Students are asked to check the OSAP website prior to presentation to see if theirÜ2008 application has been posted. This session will give students and parents the opportunity to find out more about the Ontario Student Assistance Program and ask any questions that they may have.
On a completely different note, you may have read or heard that the London District Catholic School Board voted last week to impose a ban on the use of cell phones, MP3 players, and various other electronic devices in their schools. I have commented on this issue several times in the last few weeks, but I would like to get some feedback from students, parents, and the community. Recently, I asked teachers to have students give me some feedback on “electronic etiquette,” and several teachers gathered responses from their students.
I am interested in getting the perspectives of more students, but I would like to hear from parents and other adults as well. If you would like to provide me with some feedback on this issue, please feel free to send your comments to me at the school or by email at jeffreab@fc.amdsb.ca. Although my main concern is the use of electronic devices at school, I am interested in hearing your comments on electronic etiquette in our society as well.

Blues take Dashwood teen to Ottawa

MusicFest chooses Carly Schroeder as one of the best music students in Canada; three SHDHS bands competing nationally

Story and photo by Casey Lessard

Grade 12 student Carly Schroeder is representing South Huron District High School and her hometown of Dashwood when she heads to Ottawa next month (May 12-18) to perform in the MusicFest Canada national concert band. But her parents won’t be there to see it.
“We’re feeling really bad about that,” says mom Brenda Schroeder. Before they knew Carly was accepted into the band as an alto saxophonist, Brenda and Steve had booked a trip to visit Carly’s brother, an RCMP officer in B.C. “We leave on Thursday and she performs on Friday. The timing’s all bad, so we’re hoping there will be CDs or DVDs that record the event. When it comes to your kids, you like to see them in such situations.”
You can’t blame the Schroeders for making plans; her selection to be part of the band was certainly a surprise to Carly.
“I didn’t expect to get chosen,” she says. “It was a little overwhelming at first. I was like, Are you sure?”
An email mix-up didn’t help. After sending the first confirmation message, something confusing happened.
“They sent me a second one that was addressed to Ryan someone. I emailed them back and a couple of weeks later, they sent me another email to say yes, that I was in. It was kind of a long process.”
That process began when music teacher Isaac Moore helped her record a CD of work learned during lessons with Ryan Fraser of London.
“The pieces I played were not your typical alto saxophone songs,” Carly notes. “The first song I played had this growling part to it, and it was really fun. I wasn’t sure what they’d think about it. Then there was another second movement to it that was more typical.”
The judges must have been impressed, says MusicFest Canada executive director Jim Howard.
“It’s very difficult to get into the saxophone section because Dr. Jeremy Brown (the head of music at the University of Calgary) is a world-renowned saxophone player,” he told the Strip from Calgary. “She must be very, very good to get in there.”
“This is kind of the ultimate honour band,” he adds, noting the band consists of 55-60 students from across the country. “It’s an amazing experience. We run it like a camp as opposed to running it like a touring band. Yamaha provides clinics to sectionals with them during the week. They get access to the MusicFest Canada master classes, and they get to play music they’re normally not going to get to play. They’re playing such a high level of music, even university bands aren’t tackling the repertoire these kids are going to play.”
University scouts will be at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa to hear Carly and the rest of the band play, bringing with them $100,000 in scholarships to attract the best to their schools.
The band will practice for nine hours a day for four days, and then perform twice as a group. Howard estimates about 2500 students will jam the hall to see them perform. A big event for a small-town teen who became attracted to the saxophone as a student with Exeter’s Lori Erb.
“My parents put me in Music for Young Children when I was six,” Carly says. “That was piano, and I picked up the saxophone in high school. I loved jazz and blues, and I played my first blues song on the piano. That’s when I decided I wanted to play saxophone.”
“At about Grade 3 piano, she was wavering and wasn’t enjoying it,” Brenda adds, “and Lori had the insight to let her have a whole year of playing blues and jazz, staying away from the conservatory pieces. That was a real turning point for her.”
Besides jazz and blues, Carly loves classic rock, favouring the Beatles, Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin. Classical music can be heard when she’s studying. And there will be many more years of that. She’s planning on becoming a high school music teacher.
“Music has always been a huge part of my life,” she says. “I don’t see my life without it. Seeing this high school music department, it’s awesome how it brings people together.”
Bringing people together is what the music department does best, and three of its ensembles are heading to Ottawa with Carly. The senior concert band, wind ensemble and percussion ensemble excelled at the regional MusicFest in London last month, with the percussion ensemble earning the coveted gold status.
“It’s nice to be recognized for the hard work we do here,” says teacher Isaac Moore. “The national thing is pretty special because it means some of the best bands in the country come from right here in Exeter, Ontario.”
The music department’s annual Cabaret will showcase some of the work being performed at the nationals. The Cabaret happens Saturday, April 19 at 7 p.m. and Sunday, April 20 at 2 p.m. All of the department’s bands will be featured.

Earth Day, and cell phones in the classroom

Principal’s Page
By Jeff Reaburn
Next week our students and staff will be engaged in a number of activities to recognize Earth Day on April 22. Students are being encouraged to wear green and take part in some “eco” activities, including an Eco Trivia contest. They will also be encouraged to take part in a litterless lunch, producing little or no garbage and recycling their cans and bottles.
In collaboration with Exeter’s Communities in Bloom Association, Exeter Public School, and Precious Blood School, several of our classes will be involved in a community clean-up. As well, students in Ms. Migchel’s and Ms. McCowan’s classes will be participating in an Invasive Species Remediation project with the Ausable-Bayfield Conservation Authority, cleaning up the old Ausable River Channel. These activities are being organized by our Eco Schools team, which is headed by Ms. McCowan, Ms. Black, Kendra Windsor, and Amy Lightfoot. While Earth Day is only once a year, the goal of these activities is to encourage students and staff to reduce energy consumption, reduce the amount of waste we produce, and develop greater awareness of environmental issues all year long.
The Junior Optimists Club, on behalf of our Healthy Active Living Committee, will be holding a three-on-three basketball tournament on April 29 in support of Hoops for Heart. The tournament, which will be a round-robin format, will take place during Period Three (lunch period) and is open to community members as well as students. Pledge forms for this event can be picked up at the school, and the money raised will be donated to the Heart and Stroke Foundation.
A couple of weeks ago I wrote about cell phone use at schools and suggested that trying to ban cell phones from schools was not very practical, given the number of students who have them, how easily they can be hidden, and the fact that they use them so much outside of school. There have been times, however, when I have thought that a total ban might be the easiest way to deal with the problem. I had such a moment last week.
A couple of individuals were allegedly trying to organize a fight at lunchtime in a community not too far away. Reports of the planned event began to circulate via text messaging during the morning, and some of our students, along with students from another school, decided to attend the event. The fact that they would have to skip school to take in the fight did not seem to deter them, and they allegedly made their travel plans by text messaging one another.
The police were informed of the plan, however, and were present at the appointed hour. The fight did not occur at that point in time, but a new time and location were arranged, again apparently by cell phone and text message, and an altercation did occur a little later in the afternoon. This activity caused a flurry of cell phone calls and text messages at school throughout the day, many of which were during class time, and caused major distraction and disruption at the school all day. The impact would certainly have been much less if students did not have cell phones at school; so, clearly, there is some merit in considering an all-out ban of cell phones.
However, the issue still comes down to teaching students appropriate behaviour: the cell phone, like the iPod, the digital camera, the computer, etc., is a tool, and we need to teach students when and how to use it - and how not to use it. While I am not convinced that it should be the school’s job to teach this, it’s obvious that cell phones are going to continue to be a part of students’ lives, and will therefore continue to have an impact on school life. Like any form of technology, the cell phone can be used for good purposes or bad, and unfortunately, last week we experienced the bad.

SHDHS students show their citizenship

Principal’s Page
By Jeff Reaburn

In the last few years, one of the goals of the Avon Maitland District School Board has been to develop positive citizenship qualities in our students. In order to help us achieve this goal, a character education program was developed with input from the community, starting with the identification of ten character attributes that we would like to see our students acquire. Two of these traits are empathy and compassion, which South Huron students demonstrate remarkably well throughout the year by their involvement in charitable ventures, something that has been very evident in the last couple of weeks.
The newly formed Junior Optimists group staged a clothing drive, collecting gently used articles of clothing to be turned over to local charitable agencies, which will sell the clothing at very affordable prices. This serves two purposes: it provides clothing at greatly reduced prices for those who may not be able to afford new clothing and it helps the local agencies raise funds to continue their good works. The Junior Optimists collected 2000 items of clothing from staff and students, and they should be commended for the success of this venture. I would like to thank also all the staff and students who supported this endeavour.
While they were doing this, the Change Bandits in our SCC DD classes have been collecting pocket change in support of The Children’s Hospital. Their goal is to raise $500, and to date they are more than halfway there. Their campaign continues this week and I have no doubt that their target will be reached. Special thanks goes to EA Joanne Pickering, who has organized the Change Bandits campaign for the past few years.
On Friday and Saturday last week, over 130 students took part in the annual 30 Hour Famine. SHDHS has been one of the most successful schools in Ontario in terms of both participation and fund-raising for this event, and this year is no exception. While the participation numbers are down a little from the past couple of years, it looks as though this year’s event will raise almost $10 000 for World Vision.
The Character Education Committee took on the task of organizing this year’s Famine, and they report that the students were extremely well-behaved throughout the event, which began on Friday at noon and finished up at 6:00 p.m. on Saturday. The students stay at the school for the thirty hours and the Character Education Committee would like to thank all of the staff, including a couple of student teachers, who supervised the event. Without the support of staff, students, and parents, events like this are just not possible; so a huge “thank you” goes out to all the participants, the supervisors, organizers, and everyone who pledged money in support of World Vision.
This week we will be holding an assembly to introduce two more charitable events that will take place later this spring: Hoops for Heart and Relay for Life. Students and staff have been involved in both of these campaigns in the past, and we anticipate high levels of student and staff involvement, and considerable community support of these events again this year.
But the fund-raising is only part of the story: what impresses me most about our involvement in all of these things, is the willingness of the students, staff, and community to get involved and the excellent behaviour of all those who take part. The excellent conduct and concern for others are truly impressive and indicative of the character of the whole South Huron community.
Lastly, I would like to congratulate the boys’ hockey team, coached by Ryan Soldan and Roger Dougall, for their fine performance at OFSAA, the provincial championships. Though we did not advance to the play-off round of the tournament, the boys had a very respectable 2-2 record against some very tough competition and both victories were shutouts. The coaches reported that the boys were very well behaved and served as excellent ambassadors for the school. There were a number of parents who traveled to Ottawa to support the team, and a few students as well, and I would like to thank them for their support, not only in this tournament, but throughout the year.

South Huron boys’ hockey team eliminated from OFSAA

The South Huron District High School boys’ hockey team lost a critical game Friday morning, 7-2 to #2 ranked Appleby, and were eliminated from the OFSAA tournament with a 2-2-0 record. The top two teams from each pool advanced to playoffs, but the loss put South Huron into third place.

For more details on the tournament, visit the OFSAA website.

South Huron boys’ hockey team 2-1-0 at OFSAA in Ottawa

South Huron District High School’s boys’ hockey team is sitting at two wins, one loss and no ties at the OFSAA championships in Ottawa. South Huron entered the tournament ranked 15 out of 20, and are now placed third in their pool, with one game to go.

The boys lost their first game to Sacred Heart 4-2; they won their next two games, 6-0 over Queen Elizabeth and 4-0 over St. Charles.

South Huron has the second lowest goals against average in the tournament, with 1.333. They will face undefeated Appleby - who won all three games with shutouts - Friday morning at 10:30 a.m.

Grade 9 girls’ career day and cell phones in classroom

Principal’s Page
By Jeff Reaburn

Girls in Grade 9 are reminded to return the consent form for the Girls Unlimited Career Day, scheduled for May 23. The consent forms were sent home with the recent Interim Report Card, and while the event is several weeks away, we do need to confirm our attendance numbers shortly. We need to have the consent forms by April 14 for all girls who are planning to attend this event.
In a recent column I indicated that I would be writing some columns on technology and its role in education, and I thought that I would start with perhaps the most controversial piece of technology in schools today - the cell phone. Until about three years ago, we had very few problems with cell phone use in schools because very few students had them. However, in the last couple of years there has been an explosion in the number of students who have their own cell phones, and we have struggled with how to respond to the situation.
The problems at school caused by cell phone use are fairly obvious, with the most common complaint being that students are distracted by cell phones ringing or vibrating during class, along with the accompanying need to answer the call. Increasingly, however, students are being caught text messaging one another during class time, and some students are being accused of paying more attention to the cell phone than to the classroom teacher. Many young people today spend so much time text messaging one another that they find it a real challenge to turn their phones off or ignore them, no matter where they are or what they are doing - attending class, driving, watching a movie, or eating in a restaurant.
The most common response to the concerns at school has been to impose a ban - either a total ban of all cell phones and electronic devices from school, or a ban on using them while in class. Schools and boards that have tried the total ban have not had much success for a couple of obvious reasons. The biggest problem is that cell phones have become so small that it is virtually impossible to determine who has one. In fact, in many cases, total bans actually encourage students to bring cell phones to school, just to see if they can do so without being caught. Since in most cases it is parents who have purchased the cell phones for their kids, having them confiscated by the school administration is generally not well received.
Our approach at South Huron has been to allow students to have cell phones at school but to expect them to be turned off during class time so that they do not become a distraction. If a student is caught using the phone during class time, the teacher has been authorized to take it away for the remainder of the period or for the rest of the day. Repeat offenders have had their phones turned over to the vice-principal, and our policy for continual offenders is that the phone will be confiscated and held until a parent can come to pick it up. Naturally, we have faced some challenges with this policy, and because cell phone use continues to be a concern, we are continually reviewing our response to this situation.
Recently, there has been considerable discussion in education circles about using cell phones as educational tools, rather than trying to stop the use of them. Cell phones can now be used for much more than making phone calls, and they are becoming more and more like hand-held computers. Cell phones now have calculators built into them, digital cameras, dictionaries, text messaging, and, increasingly, students can access the Internet on their phones. Educators are now exploring ways to incorporate cell phone use into their lessons. In fact, I have heard that some university professors even encourage students in large lecture hall classes to text message them during class with questions they may have about the lecture.
Personally, as a classroom teacher, I would prefer to have my students put their cell phones out on their desks where I can see them, rather than try to prevent them from using them surreptitiously during class. Some students are so adept at text messaging that they can send messages without even looking at the phone itself. As they become more and more skilled at doing so, it will become almost impossible to prevent them from doing so secretly. Maybe if we turn cell phones into an educational tool, it will become less attractive for students to use them during class time.
It seems pretty likely that within a few years virtually every student will have a cell phone. And since they are using them so much outside of school, they will want to do so at school as well. Clearly, we will have to develop a more effective response to this issue, as it is not likely to go away.
Perhaps a good place to start would be cell phone etiquette - teaching students when it is appropriate and when not to take or make a call on a cell phone. At virtually every meeting I attend, the first order of business is to tell the audience members to turn off their cell phones. Despite this request, someone invariably has a phone ring or rushes out to respond to a cell phone vibrating in a pocket or purse. Maybe if we can convince students that there are times and places that are inappropriate for cell phone use, they will become responsible by the time they are adults.

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