Although the holiday season has come to an end, the Christmas story is just beginning. Mary and Joseph were told by an angel to care for the child Jesus. We too, must take Jesus with us on our journey into the new year and care for Him as He cares for us. The Work of Christmas Begins… “When the song of the angels is stilled, when the star in the sky is gone, when the kings and princes are home, when the shepherds are back with the flocks, then the work of Christmas begins: to find the lost, to heal those bro-ken in spirit, to feed the hungry, to release the oppressed, to rebuild the nations, to bring peace among all peoples, to make a little music with the heart. And to radiate the Light of Christ, every day, in every way, in all that we do and in all that we say. Then the work of Christmas begins.” – Howard

Thurman

In this New Year, let us pray that everything we do will keep this profound Christmas message alive in our community. Take a look and reflect Although we still have a few months left, this time of year is appropriate to reflect on our accomplishments and celebrate our successes. I would like to thank the numerous parents who helped out in various activities since Sep-tember, your help and contributions are invaluable. For those who are look-ing for an opportunity to volunteer, please find the volunteer orientation and documents to complete on our website. Our staff is to be commended as well for the opportunities they provide to our students in Athletics, Music, and clubs such as Leadership, Yearbook and Poetry. For those students look-ing for some extra help, teachers are always available. Our CTF Challenge has been very successful thus far. Through our SAC (Student Advisory Council) we look for op-portunities to improve our community. Students have asked for the opportunity to offer CTF Challenge sessions which will occur in February. As well, our students were able to identify who were their “Champions” and they wanted to have one CTF Challenge session with their champion while doing some teambuilding. A champion is a staff member a student feels comfortable to approach when they need help. Naturally we will continue to work on our educational plan for the year through Faith Formation, Success for all students, First Nation, Inuit and Metis understanding and acknowledgment as well as Student Wellness. (please see page Educational Plan for more infor-mation) Open House The new year is also the time when we begin thinking about the upcoming school year. Word of mouth is the best

strategy to promote our school. Please feel free to promote our program to anyone you know who would benefit

from the challenge of learning another language and join us in in Late French Immersion Program or students who

would like to continue their French Immersion journey. On March 9, we welcome prospective students and their

parents to our Open House. We thank you for spreading the word. More details to follow.

Mme Martine Claeys M. Jonathan Black Principal Vice Principal

Administration Message

Dolphin Dispatch J A N U A R Y 2 0 1 7

Permission to Leave the School

Students who leave the building during school hours for reasons of illness or appointments must inform the of-

fice staff. The parent must sign the student out when leaving and sign in upon return. Notes regarding appoint-

ments should be submitted to the office. In the event of a sudden illness parents will be notified before the stu-

dent can leave the school.

Reporting School Absences

To report your child absent or late, please call the school

directly at 403-500-2008. Our school office hours are 8:00 a.m.

to 4:00 p.m.

If the office is closed, please leave a message stating your

child’s name and reason for absence. If a student will be away for

an extended length of time, a signed note/email must be sent to

the school stating the dates, the reason and the length of the

absence. Please ensure you notify the office as well as the teach-

ers.

Telephone Usage

The school telephone is for school business only. Our students will be permitted to use the office

phone for emergencies and when they are not feeling well. Students will not be called from class to

the telephone. Office staff will only take emergency telephone messages for students. These mes-

sages will be relayed to students at dismissal time for the lunch period and the end of the day. Stu-

dents are not permitted to use cell phones to make phone calls in class. We request that parents

make arrangements (pick-ups, appointments, etc.) with their child before they arrive at school.

Student Handbook

The updated 2016-2017 student handbook has been posted on our school website.

In an effort to save paper, we ask all families to access it online & review it with your child.

Calendar for 2017—2018

The District Calendars for 2017-2018 are now finalized. Calendars can be found at the district’s Inter-net site at: https://www.cssd.ab.ca/Calendars/Pages/Default.aspx .

2016-2017 SCHOOL YEAR

BELL TIMES

8:55 Warning Bell

8:59 – 9:05 TA

9:07 – 10:00 Period 1

10:00—10:09 Nutrition/Movement Break

10:09 – 11:02 Period 2

11:02 – 11:55 Period 3

11:55 – 12:15 Lunch

12:15 Warning Bell

12:15 - 12:31 Outside Break

12:34 – 1:27 Period 4

1:27—1:31 Locker Break

1:31– 2:22 Period 5

2:22 – 3:17 Period 6

3:17 Dismissal

BUS PASS SCANNING

The Bus Pass Rebate forms for

eligible Jr. High students for

the school year 2016-2017 are

still available in the office. If

you haven’t already done so,

please complete the form and

submit to either the school

office or mail to the district

office (address is on the form).

Scanning of bus passes takes place during

lunchtime in the office every 1st week of the

month.

PERSONALLY OWNED DEVICES

We continue to investigate ways to positively integrate the use of personally owned

devices (cell phones, iPods etc.) into instruction.

We will continue to look for ways to incorporate them into our instruction again this

year.

Cell phones, however, are NOT to be used as cell phones or for texting unless otherwise instructed by a

teacher for instructional purposes.

If these devices are being used improperly, they will be taken from the student and returned at the end

of the school day. For each subsequent offence, student’s parents/guardian must come to the school to

pick up the device.

More detailed information on the use of personally owned devices will be forthcoming.

CHILDREN WITH MEDICAL CONDITIONS

We would like to know if your child has medica-

tion for a medical condition. Should your child

be in need of medication (asthma inhaler, Bena-

dryl, epipen etc..) it is more expedient to have it

in the office rather than trying to find where he/

she keeps the medication.

When time is of the essence we do not want to

be looking up locker numbers and combinations;

we do want to have it readily available.

The district mandates that an “Authorization for

administering medication form” be completed by

parents each year if you wish to have medication

available at the office or administered by staff

members. These forms are available from our

secretary.

We certainly hope that it will not be necessary to

administer medication to your child but should

an emergency arise we want to be able to offer

the necessary help.

DOLPHIN BISTRO

The Dolphin Bistro has been well-

received by our students and offers

affordable, hot healthy meals and

other food/snack items.

HOT LUNCH DAILY FEATURED ITEMS:

Monday: Pizza Pretzels

Tuesday: Pasta with breadsticks

Wednesday: Healthy Hunger —pre-order online asap

Thursday: Mac and Cheese Day

Friday: Surprise Day—TBD

REGULAR ITEMS FOR SALE:

School Visitors and Volunteers Parents and other visitors to the school are reminded to check in at the

office. This practice will minimize disruptions in classrooms and help us to

protect our children.

Before volunteering at the school, you are required to attend a volunteer

orientation or in the comfort of your home, you can go to our website

(www.cssd.ab.ca/schools/madeleinedhouet/Parents/Volunteer/Pages/default.aspx) and look at the Power-

Point, take the quiz and fill in the forms. Once you have dropped off the package, you are an official volun-

teer for this school year.

COUNSELLOR’S CORNER Bonjour,

We have been gearing up for high school registration this past month with visits from St.

Francis High School, letters of invitation being sent out from St. Mary’s High School and a

field trip to Bishop Carroll.

Each grade nine student has also received a copy of Footprints to Your Future: a Guide to

High School. This is an excellent resource published by the District to assist you and your

child in the registration process. It is packed full with information regarding high schools

in the District, including the requirements to achieve an Alberta High school diploma. You

will also find course descriptions, dates of open houses and high school boundary maps

for your reference. I also encourage students to complete the Interest Inventory on Page

16 which will help them begin to think about their strengths, interests and set some ca-

reer options. Another excellent resource for young Albertans planning their future is the

website www.alis.alberta.ca. Check it out.

The transition to High School is an exciting time in your child’s life. Please know that we

are here to assist you along the way. Feel free to call me anytime at MDH if you have any

questions or concerns.

OPEN HOUSES

St. Francis January 11, 2017

Bishop Carroll February 7, 2017

Notre Dame February 8, 2017

St. Mary’s February 8, 2017

Please refer to the high school website for details.

Leslie Rome B.Ed, MSW leslie.rome@cssd.ab.ca

Wrestling

The 2016 wrestling season was an enor-mous success. Thanks to the huge efforts of our two coaches, Josee and Hilary, our wrestlers were able to finish 4th overall in division 1.

The hard work of the athletes was reward-ed with almost every athlete finishing in the top 3 of their weight class. Madeleine d'Houet staff and students would like to thank Josee and Hilary for all of their time and hard work in training our athletes.

Kevin Buck

Danceworks

This year MDH students have chosen Interna-

tional as their theme for Danceworks. Students

are busy choreographing a variety of dance

styles, including Latin, Asian, Contemporary/

Jazz, African, Aboriginal, Bollywood, and Hip

Hop/Break, to showcase at St. Francis on April 5th at St. Francis.

Events

MDH will host a Junior Boys and Junior Girls Basketball Tournament on February 9th and

10th. Stay tuned for the schedule.

Julianna Burwash

BasketBall

The 2016/2017 basket-ball season has just started.

We have finished tryouts and are pre-paring our teams for our first league game which starts as soon as the Christmas break is finished.

Our senior girls team is looking to re-peat as city champions while the boys are looking to continue their winning ways by using their city championship volleyball win as inspiration for this year's basketball season.

Our junior teams look strong and will be competitive in all of their games this season.

Kevin Buck

BAND PROGRAM INFORMATION Happy New Year and welcome back!

January is going to be an extremely busy month for the music department. We are hard at work preparing our pieces for the Alberta International Band Festival (AIBF) coming up in mid February. The schedule has not been released yet, but should be published soon. I will send out the dates and times of all our perfor-mances as soon as I receive that information. The grades 8s and 9s both have band camp coming up at the end of January and beginning of February. These camps are always a highlight of our year and promise to be extremely productive and a lot of fun! Please stay tuned for more news at the end of February, as we will be starting to get things together for our annual “Jazz à l’Étage” fundraiser on April 27th. If you know of any companies or organizations that would be interested in sponsoring our growing music program please let me know.

Upcoming Dates:

Grade 9 Band Camp – Jan. 26 - 28

Grade 8 Band Camp – Feb. 2 - 4

AIBF Grade 8 & 9 – February 22 -28 (Dates TBA)

AIBF Jazz bands – March 7 – 10 (Date TBA)

AIBF Grade 7 – March 14 – 15 (Date TBA)

Jazz Night – April 27 (6:30pm)

Sounds Of Spring – June 5 (6:30pm)

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at the school. Sean Craig, Band Director 403-500-2008, sean.craig@cssd.ab.ca sean.craig@cssd.ab.ca

Christmas Concert at the Rosza Centre

As our band program has grown, we looked at an alternate location for our Christmas

concert. Although there were some growing pains such as limited seating, the environ-

ment was the perfect location for our Band. The stage, sound and staggered seating

provided our parents with an ideal place to listen to and see their child perform. We appreciate your feedback and

are looking at other larger seating areas for next Christmas. If you had the opportunity to attend, you know how

amazing the performance was. It always surprises me how our grade 7 students are able to play after just a few

months. The progression of our grade 8 and 9 students, as well as the Jazz band shows the dedication and time that

both students and teacher have made. Since Mr. Black, Mme Boyer and myself where in the back of the house with a

few students, an experience in itself, we were unable to come and say hello to you. Therefore, I wanted to express

our sincere thank you to Mr. Sean Craig. I am sure you agree how grateful we are for having him. The program he

offers is exceptional in part due to the fact that he teaches them the music but he also nourishes their hearts and

minds. His dedication to his students is nothing but commendable. We also would like to thank each band student

for their diligence and perseverance which as they realize pays off in the end. Congratulations on a great perfor-

mance. A special thank you to Ms. O’Grady and Ms. Lucin for organizing the tickets.

Mme Claeys

Student Leadership As we all know, Christmas can be a time of struggle for many families. Back in November, the Leadership group decided to

gather food hampers for the St. Vincent de Paul Society. With your help and generosity, we were able to provide hampers to 14

different families. On behalf of the Leadership group and myself, we would like to thank you!

After a nice refreshing break, it is now time to get our groove on!

The Leadership group is excited to be planning our annual Snowball dance which will be held on :

January 19th from 18:00 until 20:00.

This event is always appreciated from the student body as it is an occasion for them to get

dressed up and blow off some steam!

We are now looking into our next fundraising activity which will be linked to the Me to We

Movement. More details will be given in the near future.

Have a great month of January!

Mme Gélinas and the Leadership Committee

The 2017 District Day with the Calgary Hitmen When: Friday, January 27, 2017 at 7 p.m. Where: Scotiabank Saddle Dome Who: All are invited! Feel free to pass this invite and promo code on to family, friends, neighbours, etc. This would make a great stocking stuffer!

Why: This is an opportunity for Calgary Catholic to take over the dome with face-painting, mascots, students highlighting their hockey skills on-ice during intermission and a school band providing entertainment. Also making a grand return is our CCSD light sticks for those who arrive early. In addition to our festivities, this Hitmen game is part of the an-nual Lunar Celebration which includes fortune cookie prizes, dragon dancers and post-game fireworks! PLUS: $2 FROM EVERY TICKET PUR-CHASED, AS WELL AS A PORTION OF 50/50 SALES, GOES TO SUPPORT THE CALGARY CATHOLIC EDUCATION FOUNDATION (CCEF). The CCEF is a charitable organization that provides grants for enhanced learning opportunities for our students. Learn more: https://theccef.ca/ How: To purchase your tickets for the special rate of $12, click here or within the attached PDF. Under ‘Ticket Types’ select ‘Promotions and Special Offers.’ Then enter offer code ‘LUNAR’ when prompted, before selecting your seats. We look forward to seeing you there!

Educational Plan Update Each year we review the programs at our school and examine how we can improve the education of our students. We are

very proud of the work of our teachers, students and parents as we work as a team to provide high quality education. Here is

an update in the areas we are focusing on in the next few months:

Faith Formation

Organize Grade 9 retreat

Continue to offer School liturgies at our school

Visits to the school by clergy and Sister Madeleine

Continue to build our Social justice program: our grade 8 students will have the opportunity to work with the

Bethany center residents on a monthly basis.

Build Champions program

Organize School Faith Day: working on a date

Academic Excellence, Success for all students

Building a strong French Immersion program where students are asked to take the risk and speak French in class-

room

Building on formative assessment techniques

Continue to build Individual Student Profiles

Introduction of STEM learning: Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics

Continue use of Google read and write

First Nations, Inuit and Metis understanding and acknowledgment

Build understanding and acknowledgement through CTF challenge sessions

Use district resources to support cultural and learning needs

Build understanding of current aboriginal needs

Student Wellness

Build our Champions program

Meet students’ needs

Provide CTF challenge sessions

Explore TAG program for next school year

In December we worked on Our School Surveys with our students. These surveys provide us with important information on a

number of factors impacting a student’s journey in school. Part of our survey looked at collecting some baseline data that we

can use as we develop and later on evaluate our Champion Program. Later this month, we will be having students identify

adults in the building with whom they have a connection through a google doc. From there we will work on opening commu-

nication channels with students and staff making sure students feel supported and hopefully decrease the possibility of stu-

dent anxiety. During one of the February CTF Challenge sessions, students will be able to do a team building activity with one

of their identified champions.

Choose Your Own FUN LUNCH!

What is Healthy Hunger?

Healthy Hunger is a business that coordinates meal distribution by various local restaurants.

www.healthyhunger.ca takes payment online for your meal, and then the restaurant delivers it to the school.

Every Wednesday volunteers will distribute Lunches as ordered from the Healthy Hunger website.

A portion of the proceeds goes back to the MDH School Council to enhance school programs.

How to order your Healthy Hunger Lunch:

Go to www.healthyhunger.ca

Create a student account for your child. (School is “Ecole Madeleine d’Houet”)

Order a lunch at least 5 days in advance, see deadlines below.

Order several lunches in advance or one at a time.

Payment is accepted by credit card.

Lunches are labeled by the restaurant and distributed by volunteers.

New as of 2016/ 2017

The MDH School Council replaced monthly FUN LUNCHES with weekly “Healthy Hunger” options for the 2016-

2017 year. This trial was successful and profitable for the Council. If your child enjoys Pizza-Day as a FUN

LUNCH, please follow the directions below to set up an account on the Healthy Hunger website. There will be no

Fun Lunch form and no cheque-payment option available. This new method provides more choices for your child

and the cost is comparable to the Fun Lunch (and it is less paperwork for the Council).

Schedule: Please note the new Food Vendors

Date (Wed.) Order deadline

(Friday):

Restaurant

Jan. 11 Jan. 6 OPA

Jan. 18 Jan. 13 Jelly Donuts

Jan 25 Jan. 20 Edo

Feb. 1 Jan. 27 OPA

Feb. 8 Feb. 3 Jelly Donuts

Feb.15 Feb. 10 Edo

Feb. 22 Feb. 17 Little Caesars

Mar. 8 Mar. 3 OPA

Mar. 15 Mar. 10 Jelly Donuts

Mar. 22 Mar. 17 Edo

Contact Paula at polypodium410@gmail.com for more information.

January 9: First Day of Classes— Welcome Back !

January 9—13: Bus Pass Scanning

January 10: Epiphany Celebration—10:00 am (gym)

Grade 7 Rec Leadership Field Trip -West Hillhurst 12:15 pm—3:15 pm

January 11: Healthy Hunger—OPA

Bishop Carrol HS Open House 7pm—9pm

St. Francis HS Open House 7pm—9pm

January 18: Healthy Hunger—Jelly Donuts

School Council & Ed Society Meeting 6:30 pm

January 19: SnowBall Dance 6pm —8pm

January 20: Quebec Trip Payment #2 due ($600.00)

January 25: Healthy Hunger– Edo

January 27: Professional Day—no classes

District Day with the Calgary Hitmen 7 pm

January 26-28: Grade 9 Band Camp

Important Dates for January 2017