Woodlands School Council

On Thursday, December 9th, the Music department put on their annual Snow Show, which showcased all of the talented instrumentalists and singers at the Woodlands.

After months of early morning sectionals and afterschool rehearsal, the Woodlands music students and teachers came together to put on a spectacular night of music.

• The Intermediate Jazz Band and the Senior Jazz Band both wowed the audience with amazing solos from the brilliant musicians and their jazz renditions of Christmas songs, especially the Senior Jazz Band’s performance of “Sugar Rum Cherry” from The Nutcracker Suite.
• The Concert Choir treated the audience to a unique performance of “Three Japanese Songs” and the gospel style “Hark! The Herald Angel Sing”, accompanied by the talented Brian Cho.
• Megan Kuhrt and Mr. Marjanovic played a special harp and cello duet that was undeniably one of the biggest highlights of the show.
• The Elementary Strings Ensemble, the Intermediate Concert Band, and the Senior Concert Band all filled the cafeteria with amazing music that comes with the hard work and dedication that all Woodlands music students put into their practice.

Thank you to Mr. Mootrey, Ms. Koehnen, Mr. Marjanovic, Mrs. Locke, and the MAC for all their hard work.

Submitted by Carol Ding

At the beginning of the year, my ENG1DE students completed a short story unit and I encouraged them to participate in the Marion Drysdale Writing Award for Peel.  Several of my students took the opportunity to submit their stories, and I just found out that one of the students received an honourable mention!  Please see below for details:

"On November 29, 2010, the District Judging Committee chose 7 district winners and 7 honourable mentions.  Winston Chow, honourable mention in the Prose/Poetry Category A-1 - Intermediate, 9-10 Academic division for the entry entitled, "The Lunar Pond."

Winston, his family, and myself have been invited to attend a reception for Peel winners, where they will receive their awards.  It will be held on Monday, January 31st, 2011 at the Educators' Centre, 6435 Edwards Blvd., Mississauga.  

Submitted by Christine Micallef, LTO, English and Family Studies

Kids.Now is a program that guides students in developing self-esteem, communication skills, conflict resolution skills, stress management and goal setting, all of which are important for personal and professional success.

Grade 7 students committed themselves to a 12 week program, 1 1/2 hours per week. Their biggest commitment is the one the students have made to themselves --- to be the best they can be!

Please congratulate the following students in their selection to participate in this worthwhile program: Tiffani C., Joanne F., Shahanna H., Aisha H., Shymal L., Bo L., Emanuel N., Jagjeet S., Nudrat Z., Angela H.

The Kids.Now after-school leadership program for the first session of
the year is being taught by volunteer coach Minnie Clare from the
private business sector.

In the Winter Term, we are hoping to offer another Kids.Now leadership program.

Please contact Mr. G. Samuels, Guidance Counsellor (7/ 8) for further information about Kids.Now

Over the course of November, The Woodlands drama department has been working around the clock to make things happen. On November 26th and 27th the many bite-sized comedies, dramas and 'dramadies', prepared by the drama department, were performed for an audience of students and relatives in The Woodlands' own Theatre Shorts 2010. Six of the eight plays were student written, and previously performed at Studentwrights, hosted at Meadowvale S.S. The plays, Won’t Look Down by Kimberly Sue, Single F_ 33 by Simi Daljeet and Jeremie Lau, A Mere Player by Katie Spiler, Liberty by Kyle Holleran, The Crate by Claire Ding, and Male Musk by Cassandra Walls were applauded for the excellent acting, directing, stage managing and technical aspects that were showcased at the school’s performance nights.

The Friday night performance began with the drama Won’t Look Down (directed by Omeir Parker), a tragic play based on the life of a soccer superstar named Robert Enke (played by Bronson Tropea) who committed suicide in 2009. The play was followed by yet another tragic play, Single F_33 (directed by Kendra Campbell); about a man named Evan (played by Kyle Holleran) who gave up on trying to win over his ex-girlfriend, Caroline (played by Mollie Garret) and was subject to fate taking his life. After an intense first half, the plays continued with lighter fare. The comedy, A Mere Player (directed by Kyle Holleran), was about a man (played by Sean Hustins) who was convinced he was crazy, and a psychiatrist (played by Charmaine Arellano-Chua) who slowly made him understand that his entire life was a play. This comedy was followed by yet another hilarious play, Switching Places (directed by Mrs. Hindmarch), a play about a teenager named Scott (played by Taylor Barras) who pressured an innocent girl named Sal (played by Simi Daljeet) to participate in activities that were unforeseen. However, his fortune was soon turned against him when an angry godess (played by Nada Abu-Saleh) and a macho god (played by Kevin Yeung) decided to surprise Scott and make him understand the consequences of his actions.

After a memorable Friday night, many audience members were excited and anxious to see what the Saturday night’s shows had to offer. The night began with the play Liberty (directed by Kendra Campbell), an honest take on the events of the 9/11 incident that happened in 2001. The audience was left in suspense after a group of lawyers (played by Kyle Holleran, Jessica McMullen, Matthew Anningson, and Taylor Barras) working in the second tower experienced the horror of that tragic day. Following this tragedy was the satiric comedy, The Crate (directed by Sarah Norton), which was the interesting tale of a sad woman named Donna (played by Cassandra Walls), who had experienced the death of her mother, and decided to turn her mother into a zombie to deal with her sadness. However, when an angry sister, Ashley (played by Taylor Polite), was brought back into the picture, Donna is forced to decide how to solve the problem she created by bringing her mother back from the dead. After a short intermission, the plays continued, starting with Chaired (directed by Ms. Burt), a play about a young man named Potential (played by Chris Kovaliv) who is stuck on a chair, and no matter how hard he tries everyone around him won’t let him get up off his chair. However, at the very end of the play, he is helped by motivation to get out of his chair and to progress with his life. This inspiring play was followed by the hilarious comedy Male Musk (directed by Cassandra Walls and Taylor Polite), a play about a lonely kid, Eddie (played by Arthur Lu) who was unhappy with his life, until one day his uncle (played by Yi Zhou) gave him some male musk to make him have better luck with the ladies. To Eddie’s dismay, the musk turned out to cause his teacher (played by Maria Myssina), a football player (played by Matthew Anningson), and many other people at his school to fall in love with him. Thankfully, in the end his mother (played by Lena Sun) and his best friend (played by Omeir Parker) help him to get back on track.

After the hard work that went into making Theatre Shorts 2010, the drama club continues to progress. With the musical Fiddler on the Roof right around the corner, and the Ontario Sears Drama Festival in February, the 70+ students in the Drama Club will continue to work overtime to prepare their shows. Auditions for Fiddler on the Roof have finished, and after the auditions of many wonderful singers and actors, the casting list is set. Stay tuned with drama for the spring production of Fiddler on the Roof (April 13-16, 2011), and the Ontario Sears Drama Festival (Feb 15-24, 2011), which will be held at our school, and several other schools across Mississauga. At this event, two of our student written plays, The Crate and A Mere Player will be remounted to represent The Woodlands School in the Peel District.

The Woodlands was all golden at the Golden Horseshoe Music Festival this past Wednesday as  the Intermediate and Senior Concert Bands and Wind Ensemble all earned Gold Standings .  The Jazz Bands continued the week earning a Silver for the Intermediate  Jazz Band and a Gold for the Senior Jazz Band.  All the ensembles  have been invited to the Nationals taking place in Ottawa next May.  The adjudicators applauded the outstanding solo and ensemble work that each group brought to their polished performances.  The level of commitment and musicianship resonated in each ensemble and we are so fortunate to enjoy this fabulous gift of music. 

Congratulations to all of our outstanding musicians and the music teachers for your work and for upholding the continued standard of excellence here at The Woodlands School.

Twenty-three students from the Woodlands Robotics competed in the 8th annual Canadian National Robot Games this past Sunday at the Ontario Science Center and were very successful.  The Woodlands team was awarded a thermostatically controlled Soldering Station for being the largest team in attendance. Damien P. won Gold in the Advanced Line-Following Competition upsetting a 4 year reign by Truffle Pig.  Damien's speedy little robot was quite the crowd pleaser.  Increasingly challenging line courses posed problems but Damien's robot navigated to capture First. Woodlands took all three medals in the Search and Rescue.  Bronze was won by Viren G.,Silver was won by Mark S., and Gold was won by Sachin D..  This competition required rescuing a bear and returning it to the hospital by both autonomous and remote controlled robots. 

A great start to the robotic season saw Woodlands setting the stage for a very sportsmanlike and successful season.  Well done!

The Senior Girls volleyball team kicked off their season with a win against St. Martins.  Leading the Rams with kills was Tammy D. and Lisa B.  Way to go girls!  Next home game is this coming Wednesday.

Student Standings by Grade:

This showed to be a far tougher round than the first, but we still as a school have a perfect score and so we're still number 1 in the country, well done!!  The turnout was again very strong with 187 contestants writing.  The scoring breakdowns are as follows:

Score                                # of People

6                                                6

5                                                14

4                                                45

3                                                61

2                                                42

1                                                19   

The overall scoring leaders ended up as follows:

Grade 9

Name                                      Score

James J.                                     9

Sachin D.                                    8

Maxwell T.                                  8

Six students tied for 4th              7

Grade 10

Name                                      Score

Andy L.                                       11

Six students tied for 2nd place     10

Grade 11

Name                                      Score

Alex L.                                         12

Cheng Z.                                     12

Matt W.                                       11

Gordon Y.                                    11

5 students tied for 4th                  7

Grade 12

Name                                      Score

Tian X.                                         12

Ryan K.                                        11

Kevin T.                                        11

Jim Z.                                           11

Five students tied for 5th place    10

Students were expected to make a windmill that would create the most power.  However, the final prototype was only worth 10% of their final grade.  40% was their presentation to the expert panel and 40% aesthetics.  The purpose was for the design and the design process. 

We came in second place and fourth place out of 31 teams.

2nd place team:
                              Charlie G.
                              Gordon Y.
                              Cheng Z.
                              Dickson W.
                              Steven L.

The Woodlands School came in second place, after UTS, in the 30th Annual YES Olympics (York Engineering and Science Olympics) held on October 14th! The YES Olympics invites high school students to step outside of the classroom environment and compete in six challenging science and engineering focused events.  This competition attracts an average of 900 students province-wide each year.  Way to go Woodlands!