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Dear Carson Community, It's hard to believe that it is already the second week of April! I hope that you all had a chance to enjoy a wonderful Spring Break with your families and friends and that you were able to take some time to relax, refresh and recharge as we enter the busy last three months of the school year. As mentioned last month, we do have a few Staffing Updates to keep you apprised of:
In keeping with past practice, my intent is that this blog will be a great place to find out about all things Carson. It is designed to communicate information, find out about upcoming events, highlight some of the amazing that are happening at the school and to keep you informed about future events. Please bookmark the blog and refer to it as needed. Sincerely, Suzette Dohm June Calendar The calendar for June 2019 has now been published on our school website here. Please note that all students are expected to be in classes until Friday, June 21st. Additionally, we would like to highlight the following important year-end details:
School Fees (from the desk of Administrative Assistant Carol Oswald) On Monday, April 15th, we will have a homeroom and those students with outstanding school fees will receive notice of this (along with their Course Verification Form). School Fees for the 2018-2019 school year were available to pay on October 12, 2018. Individual course fees are levied for materials or activities that are supplementary to what is required to sufficiently meet the Province’s general requirements for graduation. Specifics on what is covered by the course fee can be obtained from the teacher of that class. School fees can be paid conveniently online by credit card or direct debit via School Cash Online. Please login to your School Cash Online account to pay school fees. In order for teachers to plan and purchase supplies it is helpful if fees could be paid as soon as possible. You can access your School Cash Online account here: https://sd44.schoolcashonline.com/ If you do not yet have a School Cash Online account, signing-up is quick and easy. You will need your child’s student number to register for an account. Student numbers are available on student school fees invoices, on student ID cards and on student schedules. Detailed instructions on how to register for a School Cash Online account are available here: http://www.sd44.ca/District/SchoolCashOnline/Documents/SchoolCashOnlineStepByStepRegistration.pdf If you need any assistance with fees, please contact Carol Oswald, Administrative Assistant at coswald@sd44.ca or 604-903-3679. Psychology Exhibition (from the desk of Psychology Teacher, Danielle Hornstein) Before spring break, Psychology 11 & 12 students hosted an exhibition to showcase the work they completed for our unit on mental health. In our project based learning unit, students were challenged to answer the following question: How can you design a product or service that will help educate the youth at Carson Graham about mental health or a specific mental illness? Students rose to the challenge to create memorable and impactful projects. Their work aimed to inform youth about different mental illnesses, promoted good mental health, offered coping mechanisms, and worked to erase the stigma around mental illness. The products created included art pieces, comic strips, video game design, poetry, play writing and short stories, videography, websites, song lyrics and recordings, and event design. The exhibition was visited by students from all grades and was a great success! A big thank you to all students for their hard work and for those that came to support us. Examples of student work (hover over photos for caption): Zumeria Habibula & Samin Salahi created a website exploring the benefit of therapy animals https://menalhealthhelp.weebly.com Carson Graham Girls Rugby New Zealand and Australia Tour (from the desk of Coach Brad Baker) The girls’ rugby team embarked on an 18-day tour of New Zealand and Australia on March 13th. The air was filled with excitement the day we left with the prospect of playing rugby at its highest level. We landed in Auckland on Friday, March 15th and drove to our first stop in Tauranga. Once we were settled, we soon realized that we landed on the same day as the Christchurch massacre and the country was in shock and mourning. The events of March 15th would play a role in our stay in New Zealand as in each town that we visited and in each of the games versus NZ schools, we honoured the victims with a moment of silence. While we were in Feilding, we participated in the National Day of Mourning and laid flowers at the Cenotaph. Our girls were emotional through this process and became closer. Our rugby games in New Zealand were exciting to watch and our girls played with heart and desire. Our record in New Zealand was 1 win and 2 losses. The overall experience in New Zealand was incredible for the girls and we would like to thank the three schools – Tauranga, Taupo and Feilding for hosting us and making us feel like we were at home. We moved onto Australia on March 24th and began our journey by staying in the forests of Port Stephens. This was a unique stay as we had the entire facility to ourselves and were able to have team building activities throughout our stay. Being in the forest, we were also surrounded by local critters– we regularly had Possums join us for dinner, spiders crawl around us and Kookaburras watch us eat breakfast. After our stay in Port Stephens, we moved to the iconic Bondi Beach for some rest and relaxation before coming home. We had a successful rugby tour in Australia where the girls won both XVs games and went 2 and 2 in the Sydney 7’s Tournament. Overall, the girls’ rugby tour can certainly be viewed as a success for all of those involved!  Costa Rica Trip (from the desk of Teacher Sponsor Peter Bond) This March, 24 lucky students and 4 staff members headed off for a Spring Break trip to beautiful Costa Rica. The trip was organized by the Carson Graham science department with Stephanie Strandt and Peter Bond heading the team. Students were delighted to enjoy some summer weather and experienced the many different Biomes of Costa Rica. We travelled by ocean-going canoe to secluded beaches and enjoyed some snorkeling on the Pacific coast of the country. Next we headed inland and got up close and very personal with 14 foot crocodiles. In the highlands of the country we toured the cloud forests and saw many intriguing animals like sloths, snakes, tarantulas, howler monkeys and scorpions. We could have seen many more forest creatures but at some points we were travelling far too quickly on zip-lines and the backs of horses! Volcanoes cover the central spine of Costa Rica and the tour took us through some amazing volcanic landscapes. Students experienced a hike to a natural hot-spring and relaxed in a beautiful pool on the edge of a volcanic peak. The tour wrapped up with visit to the town of Tortuguero, which is only accessible by boat, on Costa Rica’s east coast. There we experienced a canal tour of the mangroves and dipped our toes in the Atlantic Ocean. After a couple of amazing meals and dance lessons from some of the locals the group headed back to our starting point of San Jose. Students and staff had a spectacular trip and returned with an increased appreciation of the splendour of Costa Rica. The Senior Boys Rugby Team Tours Italy (from the desk of Teacher Sebastian Cabrera) The Senior Boys’ Rugby Team travelled to Italy over Spring Break to prepare for their upcoming season. In our first few days in Italy, we explored the sights of Rome on a bike tour, watched Italy vs France at Stadio Olímpico, visited the Vatican City and the Sistine Chapel. After some scary, but fun Gladiator Training, the team left Rome and traveled by train to Florence. There, we visited major sites including the third largest Cathedral in the world (The Doumo: Santa Maria del Fiore) and learned a lot of history from the Renaissance to World War II. The team also visited lesser known, but amazing, places such as Cinque Terre, where five hillside towns are connected by walking paths. The towns are on a ragged coastline with steep cliffs. They swam at the beautiful beach below in Monterosso and walked around the town of Vernazza. Next, in Parma, the team did training led by two professional players from the Zebre Rugby Club, one of two Italian teams that are part of the Guinness Pro 14 professional league. Two highlights of the trip were competing on the Italian Go-Kart Grand Prix and ziplining at Jungle Raider Park in Civenna (overlooking Lake Como). The students had a great time racing, exploring, and bonding as a team. They also took a couple of ferries across the lake and walked around Bellagio and Tremezzo. With one awesome experience after another, the team visited the Ferrari museum in Maranello (30 mins outside of Parma), and watched an Italian Serie B rugby match, Piacenza VS Lecco, in Piacenza. The team had the opportunity to practice at different local clubs’ fields and use their facilities during the tour. In Rome, we practiced at SS Lazio Rugby Tor Tre Teste. In Parma, we practiced in the Amatori Rugby Parma club. The team had three exhibition games against local clubs. We played US Primavera in Rome, Colorno in Colorno and and ASD Lecco in Lecco. After the practices and games, the teams had dinner together and enjoyed home-made meals prepared by the hosting club. After every game, the Carson boys spent time with the players from the other team and chatted over a meal. They always found a way to communicate considering the language barriers. We were all impressed with every team’s genuine hospitality after the games. The quality of Rugby and players' skills sets were above average and challenged our Carson team in every game. Overall, the boys had a great tour and the coaches feel the players are ready to pursue their goal of being in the top four in the province. Go Eagles!  Vimy Pilgrimage Award Winner Brooke Glazier The Vimy Foundation created the Vimy Pilgrimage Award to recognize the actions of young people who demonstrate an outstanding commitment to volunteer work through positive contributions, notable deeds, or bravery that benefits their peers, school, community, province, or country. We are proud to announce Brooke Glazier as one of the winners of the prestigious award that consists of a fully funded week-long educational program in Belgium and France to study Canada’s tremendous First World War effort. The program features daily visits to important First World War sites including museums, cemeteries, and historic battlefields. A total of 20 students were selected for the 2019 program. Please click here to read the North Shore News article that highlights Brooke's accomplishment. Something in My Eye (from the desk of Photography Teacher Shannon Van Baalen) Chester Fields is the Polygon Gallery’s teen outreach program. Every year, the gallery invites teens from across the Lower Mainland to create an original work of photographic art in response to a unique theme. Inspired by the current exhibition a Handful of Dust, this year's theme Something In My Eye, challenges artists to think close to the camera’s lens and to experiment with ways of interrupting or changing the lens’s ability to view and capture its photographic subject. Two of our students, Victoria Jackson and Pablo Esquivel submitted work into the youth competition. The work of both students was selected and Pablo also recieved top prize and $300. The finalists of the 2019 Chester Fields Program are featured in an exhibition at The Polygon Gallery from April 6-21.   SALTS- Sail and Life Training Society (from the desk of Ms. FitzGibbon) Carson is again planning to run the SALTS Trip next fall (September 30 - October 4th). This is a great leadership opportunity for students to learn about themselves, each other and the world around them, all aboard a tall ship! There are still a few female spots available for this fall and interested students can pick up an application form or find out more information from Mr. Wood, Ms. Benko or Ms. FitzGibbon. Road Safety Day On April 9th, we hosted an event that included interactive displays and activities put on by the North Vancouver RCMP, the City of North Vancouver Fire Department, the B.C. Ambulance Service, the North Vancouver RCMP Road Safety Volunteer team and ICBC Road Safety to help highlight the importance of road safety. ICBC is committed to supporting youth in developing strong decision-making skills on the road to help prevent crashes and save lives. Over the past two decades, ICBC’s road safety speakers have been sharing their stories with approximately 50,000 B.C. high school students every year. The morning culminated in a Grade 12 ICBC Road Safety Presentation by Kevin Brooks who knows the horror of one day waking up to a life that has changed forever. From his wheelchair, he told his story as a reminder to think before getting into a vehicle. He shared the consequences of his crash and the deep hurt felt by his loved ones. Audience members laughed, cried and, hopefully, will remember his story moving forward. Health Canada’s Consider the Consequences of Vaping Tour Health Canada’s Consider the Consequences vaping awareness tour will be visiting our school on May 24th and they will be educating students on the following topics with an engaging maze activity:
We encourage you to have conversations with your child in advance and after the event. To learn more, and for more information and resources, please visit https://www.canada.ca/en/services/health/publications/healthy-living/talking-teen-vaping-tip-sheet-parents.html?utm_source=xm-agency&utm_medium=email-en&utm_content=march&utm_campaign=vaping-19 Save the Date (from The desk of Music Teacher, Mr. Lo) Below is an overview of upcoming dates for the Music Department: April
May
June
The PAC Corner (from the desk of PAC Chair Cheryl D. Mitchell) Your Parent Advisory Council (PAC ) is really looking forward to the PAC meeting tonight in the Library at 7 pm. A program adviser from BCIT will explain post-secondary options and the school nurse from Vancouver Coastal Health will let us know what services are available for our students. We are also looking forward to hearing from our new vice-principal, Justin Wong, and from our new Principal, Suzette Dohm. Any questions or comments, please email me at chair@carsongrahampac.ca. Remember, all Carson parents and guardians are automatically members of PAC. Upcoming Events and Dates April 10 - PAC Meeting - 7:00pm April 11 - Parent Teacher Interviews - 1:15pm Dismissal April 12 - Early Dismissal - 1:15pm April 15- Homeroom - 12:45 pm- Course Verification and School Fees Forms Distributed April 17 - Staff Collaboration - Late Start 9:55am April 19 - Good Friday - School Closed April 22 - Easter Monday - School Closed April 22 - Earth Day April 24 - Holocaust Symposium @ Carson May 1 - Grade 12 Exit Interviews (12:15pm Dismissal) May 6 - District Pro-D Day (no classes) May 15 - EPIC Wednesday - 8:35am Start May 20 - Victoria Day - School Closed May 22 - Staff Collaboration - Late Start 9:55am May 22- PAC Meeting 7:00 pm May 25 - "One Night Only" Music Dept Fundraiser May 29 - Staff Collaboration May 30 - Year-End Choir Concert June 4 - Year-End Band Concert June 5 - EPIC Wednesday - 8:35am Start June 6 - Year-End Guitar Concert June 8 & 15 - Music Department Car Wash Fundraisers June 17 - Carson Awards Evening June 20 - Grad Ceremony at Queen Elizabeth Theatre @7pm June 21 - Last Day of Classes June 24 - English 12 Provincial Exam @ 9am June 24-25 - Numeracy Assessments June 26 - Communications 12 Provincial Exam @9am June 27 - Grad Banquet at Westin Bayshore
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