Departments
Arts:
The Arts Department has had a productive and busy start to our school year in all three disciplines; Music, Visual Arts, and Drama. Our department welcomes Mr. Gallo who is our Music and Drama LTO for Ms. Buffa.
Music:
Currently all bands and choirs are in full performance preparation mode! They will be performing at our feeder schools on December 3th and 4th, providing a wonderful opportunity for future STL students to witness first hand the overwhelming success of our Music program.
The Junior Choir has graced STL with its beautiful singing at our opening mass and the Grade 8 Parent Night on November 20th. In addition, the choir will be heading into the community to sing Christmas Carols at the Aurora Community Band’s annual Holiday Market. This takes place at the Aurora Cultural Centre on Saturday, November 30 from 10:00am - 2:00pm.
This year’s annual Christmas Music Concert is on Wednesday December 11th at 7:00pm in the STL Gym. All STL bands and choirs will play: Junior, Senior, Intermediate, Jazz, and Wind Ensemble. Tickets for this event sell out fast and will be on sale one week prior to the performance!
Visual Arts:
In keeping with the times, this is the first year that our Grade 11 Visual Arts course will make the move to digital photography from the traditional darkroom photography. Despite the move, the darkroom is remaining open for business! Senior art students under the supervision of Mr. Meiorin, have started a darkroom Photography Club who meet every Thursday at 2:30pm in room 101.
Sketchbook Club - In its second year, Mr. Meiorin is supervising the club on Tuesdays after school in room 102 The club provides a stress free environment for students interested in developing an excellent sketchbook which is an important component of the post secondary art portfolio. The club is open to STL Art students interested in applying to a post secondary Visual Arts Program.
Drama:
The Grade 12 Drama students wrote and performed their annual Remembrance Day presentation, incorporating music, tableau, monologues, and song to allow students and staff to reflect on those who fought and died for us over the years. This year, the significance of WW1, WW2, and the Afghanistan War were reflected upon, and the traditional Last Post was played, followed by a moment of silence.
The annual Grade 12 Drama production, Dust will be performed on Thursday, December 5th at 7:00pm in the STL theatre. The production, a comedy, is a compilation of five one act plays, that ironically enough, ponder the subject of death! The play features 19 senior Drama students in a variety of roles under the direction of Ms. Santagato-Davies. The short plays provide the actors the opportunity to portray characters who find themselves in comical situations, while still offering up some poignant moments that speak to the human condition. Tickets are $10.00 and go on sale in early December.
And finally, looking ahead…
April 2020 will mark the tenth anniversary of our annual New York Arts trip which will be available to 45 Senior Visual Arts and Drama students. Although Spring is months away, the trip is being planned well ahead of time to include: 3 nights in Manhattan, two Broadway plays, visits to the Metropolitan Museum, the MOMA, the Rockefeller Centre and sightseeing tours, allowing students to experience the diverse New York art culture. Art teacher, Mr. Meiorin, will be distributing trip packages to interested students in December!
Co-op:
The Co-op Program offers students a variety of opportunities to explore their career interests.
Anne-Jolie Bahkit - Gr. 11
York Region Sleep & Pulmonary Centre
After being at her placement for four weeks, there are many things she has learned. Firstly, she has gained good communication skills. Since she is constantly communicating with her co-workers about tasks and issues, she has learned how to respectively and assertively talk. Another skill she has developed is time management. She is able to learn how to manage her time when she is given a variety of tasks to complete in a day. Her overall experience thus far has been really good as she is enjoying her time and learning so much. She is surprised at the amount of work that needs to be done in a day. Many challenges also arise as sometimes she would have to deal with difficult patients or complete tasks that are not easy. Her most memorable experience occurred when a very demanding family came in and brought many issues to the office. This was memorable as she and her co-workers worked together as a team to control the situation and maintain peace in the front office. She is looking forward to continuing to work/learn with the great team at the YR Sleep & Pulmonary Centre in the months ahead.
Alex Pagliuca - Gr. 12
(105.9 FM - The Region)
During his time at his placement at 105.9 The Region, Alex has learned a lot of useful skills. For instance, the ability to problem-solve, collaborate, be open to suggestions, and take feedback. He says, the experience of his placement is amazing. His co-workers are a blast to work with, he is assigned new tasks every single day, and he gets to do two of the things he loves the most: video editing and graphic design. One surprise he’s had so far, was where he was going to be working. He initially expected to work in a cubicle with a desktop computer. However, he works in the boardroom on his school laptop, but he’s more than okay with that. He says that the biggest challenge he has faced was the storage space on his computer, getting full. Whenever this happens, he just deletes some files that he doesn’t need. His most memorable experience occurred when I met my primary co-worker, Nedda. It was memorable for him, because little did he know he would work well with her and get along nicely too. He looks forward to all the new projects he will be working on in the coming months.
Library Learning Commons:
The Library Learning Commons continues to be the hub of the school. From the time that the library doors open at 7:30 a.m. to the time that they close at 3:15 p.m., the library is a very busy place. Students come to the library to study, complete research, finish homework, print assignments, finish assignments, read, work on puzzles, or play chess. Many classes come to the library to work on their culminating performance tasks; other classes come to the library to select novels or non-fiction works to read. There are students who come to the library because they need a peaceful place during their busy day. Here they can read or quietly listen to music. January is a stressful time for students because they are finishing their final assignments and preparing for exams. We will be bringing in therapy dogs from St. John Ambulance on Tuesday, January 14 during all of the lunch periods. The therapy dogs always help to relieve stress and put smiles on faces. The library is also offering writing workshops for students who would like some assistance with their assignments. Any student who is interested is asked to speak to Mrs. Meschino for details.
Physical Education:
On October 11th, our grade 12 Introduction to Kinesiology students headed down to the University of Toronto, Faculty of Kinesiology for a hands on experience at one of Canada's oldest and most prestigious universities.
The day began with a tour of the Goldring Centre for High Performance, which is the new state of the art facility built adjacent to the newly renovated Varsity Stadium in the heart of the city. Our students were greeted by several current Faculty of Kin students who began the day with a full tour of the new multi million dollar property and were invited into the four story Fitness Centre where the Canadian National Men's Soccer team was training in preparation for their match vs. the United States. After a visit to the Muscle Biopsy lab where students got to see first hand experiments taking place by Kin grad students, the class was given a 30 minute speech from the Dean of the Faculty, Dr. Ira Jacobs, who did a brilliant job of outlining all the career possibilities that are available with studies under the umbrella of Kinesiology and Life Sciences. The students would use the afternoon to complete three hands-on workshops where they studied muscle potentiality, cardio-respiratory patterns and perhaps most memorable, they partook in a seminar on the relationship between mental health and physical activity which left us all a little more inspired.
This was the first visit to the Faculty for our STL Kin course, and it certainly will not be the last as it aided in not only showcasing a bit of university life to our grade 12s, but it also provided them with some tangible experiences that they can use in their studies in the months to come and hopefully in their careers thereafter.
Mr. Onorati
Health and Physical Education Teacher
