June 2012

Applause

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Return to Applause! 2012

International Languages Emcee

A recent event held to celebrate international languages was emceed by a Grade 8 student who also delivered a 'welcome' in eight languages to participants. For Cameron Praysner, a student at Adrienne Clarkson Public School, exposure to languages started early on as he heard two languages at home before he could even speak. When he started speaking, he spoke English and Farsi, with ease. He had some early lessons in French and Mandarin and clearly had an interest as well as an ability to compartmentalize different languages.

As the years went by, he was exposed to several other languages, through the Internet, tutors and school programs. Today Cameron is fluent in Farsi, English, French, Spanish and German and also approaching fluency in Japanese. The early experience with languages has allowed Cameron to pursue his other interests more deeply - that is understanding cultures, history, geography, philosophy and world politics. He is an avid reader in different languages and thinks deeply and critically about social issues in various societies. He particularly enjoys meeting people from different cultures - living in York Region has allowed many opportunities for Cameron to learn about and contribute to our multi-cultural society.

Cameron is always seeking to help people improve their lives and their communities. He has a particular interest in helping children and the elderly. After wonderful and memorable years at Adrienne Clarkson Public School, Cameron is looking forward to starting Langstaff Secondary School's French Immersion program in September.

Police Appreciation Night Soloist

On April 19th, McKenzie Clune, a Grade 11 student at Newmarket High School, had the honour of participating in York Regional Police's Police Appreciation Night. McKenzie performed O Canada, God Save the Queen and Amazing Grace.

McKenzie was recommended for the appreciation night by her music teacher. She has received numerous awards for exceptional performance in voice competitions. Some of these awards are the following:

• Semi-finalist in the 2010 York Region "Celebration of the Arts";
• Finalist in the 2011 York Region "Celebration of the Arts";
• Winner of the Gillian Henry award in the 2011 Newmarket Voice Festival;
• Winner of numerous "Best in Class" awards in the Newmarket Voice Festival and in the Newmarket Lions' Festival;
• Participant in South Simcoe Festival in April, 2012.

McKenzie plans on studying voice in a post-secondary music program.

Chief for a Day

Each year York Regional Chief of Police hosts an annual "Chief-For-A-Day" speech writing contest. This year, all Grade 5 students were invited to write an essay on the following topic, "If you had an opportunity to be Chief for a day, what would you do to lead the York Regional Police to make a difference in your community?" The submissions were narrowed down to five top finalists who then presented their speeches to a panel of judges who scored the context, form and public speaking abilities of all.

Ashley Chan, a student at Bayview Hill Elementary School was the winner of this year's contest. As such, Ashley was sworn in as Chief of Police for a day on April 12th. She also participated in a variety of special events including a sharing of her speech for peers in Grades 3-5. She also toured the armoured vehicles and canine unit; visited the Safety Village; saw how crime scenes are investigated; and was introduced to the Emergency Response Teams as well as their vehicles and safety devices.

Ashley also presented her speech at the 20th Anniversary Police Appreciation Dinner on April 19th.

Newmarket High School Student Saves Life of British Boy

Paige Dayal, a Grade 9 Newmarket High School student, has shown extraordinary civic responsibility in helping to save the life of a teenage boy near Bath, England.

After coming across a worrying online posting, Paige set in motion an international investigation that resulted in an emergency intervention at the young man's home in England. Paige had read a post by the 16-year-old boy stating that he had taken an overdose of pills. Troubled by the post, Paige contacted local police and the RCMP to request help.

Unable to obtain assistance, Paige and her mother googled the boy's town and local police station. Although they were not able to find the correct contact information they did not give up. Paige and her mother enlisted the help of an international phone operator who provided them with a contact number for a police station in the Bath region. After contacting the local police force, an officer and team of paramedics were dispatched to the home immediately. As a result, the young man was taken to a local hospital for treatment and is now under professional care.

Paige's concern and quick thinking is a testament to her caring and compassionate nature.

Promoting Awareness of National Down Syndrome Day

March 21 was the first ever National Down Syndrome Day. In honour of this day Jennifer Sheldrake, a staff member in Human Resource Services, spoke to several classes at Bayview Glen Public School to help raise awareness about Down Syndrome.

She talked to students about her life including the struggles that she has encountered and how she has worked to overcome obstacles. She even showed off her talent of singing and sang a song, "It's a Small World After All." Jennifer spoke with confidence and pride and made her department very proud.

Students came away from Jennifer's talk with a new awareness and appreciation for the abilities of people living with Down Syndrome as well as an appreciation of the value of resiliency.

Cyber Jazz Takes on the World

Oscar Peterson Public School's Cyber Jazz Robotics Team went to Florida in May to represent Canada at the FIRST Lego League World Open Invitational Championships: "Robots in Paradise."

Sixty-one teams from 13 countries spent four days competing in various robotics challenges and presented research projects on food safety. Students were judged in four key areas: robot performance; robot design and programming; core values (which assessed their problem solving abilities and teamwork skills); and their research project which included an innovative solution to a current threat to food safety.

Cyber Jazz chose to research potato farming and created a robotic potato sorter that disinfected and scanned potatoes for blemishes while sorting them by size. Their potato sorter finished in the top five. The Grade 6-8 students also won third place in the Run for the Roses, a robot race held on the same day as the Kentucky Derby.

Team members Abdul Syed, Alvin Mathew, Alycia Holt, Caitlyn Mackie, Ernest Chui and their coach, Jason Wilson, a Grade 8 teacher, qualified for the World Open by placing first in the York Region First Lego League qualifier and third at provincials. In addition, they competed at the Ontario Technological Skills Competition and took first place in the Junior Lego Robotics Challenge and third in the Intermediate Lego Robotics Challenge. As a way of promoting robotics, they run robotics workshops for students and staff from seven schools and organized the Robots Rock! Tournament in which 16 teams from eight schools took part.