Email: mdjh@nlesd.ca
Website: mdjh.info
Location: 110 Macdonald Drive, St. John's, NL, Canada
Phone: 709-753-8240
Twitter: @mdjh

• March 4 - Fundraiser #2 - 50/50 tickets
• March 8 and 19 - Grade 9 Immunizations
• March 14 - Science Fair
• March 18 - St. Patrick's Day Holiday

• March 22 - Term 2 Reports
  
• March 18-29 - Kids Eat Smart Breakfast Blitz Food Drive
• March 28 - Parent-Teacher Interviews, 12:30-6:30
  
• April 2 - Teacher Professional Development Day - No school for students
• April 19-26 - Easter Vacation
  

We are now rolling out our second fundraiser for the school year. It is a 50/50 draw for Easter Cash! The maximum Grand Prize could be a whopping $10,000! Tickets are $2 each, and the winner will be drawn on April 17, 2019.

As an incentive for ticket sales, we are offering a top seller’s prize which will be a $200.00 gift card for Best Buy. To encourage early submission of tickets, we will also be drawing weekly prizes. These prizes were graciously donated by the food establishments in our local area. Finally, there will be ice cream treats for the top selling class. Each student will be given a booklet of 10 tickets. If you need extras, just let us know.

All proceeds will be used for new educational technology for our students. If you would like to make a monetary donation in lieu of selling tickets, that would be warmly welcomed. The ticket sale deadline is April 12, 2019, so please return any unsold tickets by then.

We want to thank you for your help with this fundraiser and, as always, for your wonderful support.

We are having a Breakfast Blitz Food Drive to help fill our KES cupboards. Drop your donations off at Macdonald Drive Junior High from March 18-29.

KES Breakfast Club Grocery List for Grade 7 students:

1. Paper Plates

2. Mini muffins

3. Mini Wheats Original

KES Breakfast Club Grocery List for Grade 8 students:

1. Granola Bars (peanut free)

2. Breakfast Cereal Bars (peanut free)

3. 100% Orange Juice or 100% Apple Juice

KES Breakfast Club Grocery List for Grade 9 students:

1. English Muffins

2. Bagels (plain or blueberry)

3. Paper Bowls

Donations can be dropped off at Main Office. Breakfast Club Volunteers will be collecting donations during Parent-Teacher Interviews as well.

Pink Day is our annual day against bullying and a big part of our WE Rise Above campaign. On this year's Pink Day, February 27, we celebrated at Macdonald Drive Junior High!

In homeroom, students were shown a video about how pink day started. During period 1, all students learned about Digital Citizenship using the WE curriculum. There were over 1900 cupcakes delivered to the school in the morning, and during period 2 the student council and staff delivered them to our students. Special thanks to all parents who donated cupcakes for this very special event!

At recess, students signed our #WERiseAbove@MDJH banner and made a pledge to stop bullying online and to stand up when they see bullying happen.

And our LGBTQ+ community put off an amazing assembly during period 3. Some very inspiring students spoke about how students at MDJH can be allies to their friends in the LGBTQ+ community. Our guest speaker, Mr. Taylor Stocks - a trans activist, educator, artist, and a PhD student at MUN's faculty of Education - talked about his journey becoming who he is today. We were also treated to a wonderful choir and teacher band performance.

We ended the day by giving away free pink t-shirts to one student in every homeroom. Special thanks to all students, parents and teachers who supported this day and helped to make it a great success! This is just another example of how MDJH is rising above bullying!

Congratulations to Maria Burton, who placed first in The Telegram Spelling Bee! Congratulations also to Tanish Bhatt, MDJH’s other competitor. It was a great day for spelling! For more information, click here to go to The Telegram’s article. Best of luck to Maria on her upcoming trip to Washington, DC, to compete in the National Championships! (Photo Credit - The Telegram)

The (WAG) Woman’s Artistic Gymnastics Team from Newfoundland consisted of the 6 best women/girls who competed JO Level 10 in December, 2018, and won their spot on the team to represent Newfoundland at the Canada Winter Games Games in February in Red Deer, Alberta! Two of the team members are MDJH students: Nadia Simpson and Jane Young!

They participated in week one of the CWG in Red Deer! The girls both competed solid routines at the Games, and their team beat out four other Canadian teams, which is a record for NL WAG at any Games!! They will remember their experiences in Red Deer for a lifetime! The girls will continue this season by competing at Provincials, Easterns and Nationals.

On Wednesday, February 13, two grade nine classes were treated to a visit by Senator David Wells. The program SENgage sponsored the visit as a way to communicate the role of senators in the Upper Chamber of the Federal Government.

Senator Wells immediately connected with students through stories of his days attending MDJH and his adventures in mountain climbing. He then discussed the process of debate and passage of legislation in the senate. Students were surprised to learn that the Senator's duties extended to the international stage through his participation on committees throughout the world.

Mr. Wells advised students about the importance of lifelong learning and the ability to be conversational on a variety of topics, even if those topics don't interest them. This advice resulted from a discussion of events that led Senator Wells to the position he now holds. Great advice, indeed!

We need judges for our school Science Fair!

As you will know, science students have been busily and creatively at work designing and performing experiments, and building models. Our annual Science Fair is always a big event - we have a high rate of student participation which makes us proud, and we have a high degree of community involvement from parents and other scientists.

If you have a science background and want to share in the excitement of doing and talking science with young people, we want you! Judges visit individual projects and engage the students in conversation about their work, giving each participant the benefit of a supportive, enthusiastic, and thoughtful audience for their learning. Then the judges help select the Science Fair winners, who will have the option of going on to the Regional Science Fair. (If you have a child in our school, you will be asked to judge a different grade.)

The MDJH School Science Fair this year will be Thursday, March 14, 1:00-5:30 pm.

If you are able to participate, please contact nathaliebrunet@nlesd.ca

Also, if you know someone else who would like to be involved, please forward this information.

MDJH School Science Fair 2019 is on Thursday, March 14, from 1:00 to approximately 5:30 pm. Students wishing to present their science project in the fair need to register online by Tuesday, March 12. (Students need to be logged in to Google in order to access this link).

Participants will be called to set up their project in the cafeteria at the beginning of period 5. The first round of judging goes until about 3:30. Projects selected for the second round continue on; other students are free to take their project home or stay on to support their classmates.

Visitors are welcome at 1:30 to view the projects. Our science students have been busily and creatively at work designing and performing experiments and building models, and are looking forward to proudly showing off their work. Come and talk science with us!

Every year in Newfoundland and Labrador, children with life-threatening sickness/disease hope to be granted their WISH from The Children’s Wish Foundation.

In Newfoundland and Labrador, we have approximately 71 children on the WISH list. Back in 2018, the Children’s Wish Foundation decided to implement a WISH School Campaign where schools can work towards becoming a designated WISH school by granting a wish to a child in our province.

MacDonald Drive Junior High has WISH children in our very own building! We have been working towards becoming a designated WISH school and granting our very own wish to one or two of our own students, as soon as possible. Our goal is to grant this by June, 2019. We have various activities taking place at our school and funds raised will go towards our primary goal of $10,000 per WISH.

Please consider donating to this very worthwhile cause. Since last May, we have raised approximately $3200, so we really need your help! We hope to grant the wishes as soon as we are able, and we certainly hope to achieve this by June 2019. Wouldn’t it be just so heartwarming to grant our own students their wishes?

When we are successful, a live media event will be held in our gymnasium to publicize granting the wish. Also we will accept a MDJH WISH School Banner that will be proudly posted in front of our main foyer indicating that MDJH is an official WISH School.

MDJH is also a designated WE school that contributes to many community projects around the world and here in our own province. WE, all of us in the community, work together to achieve various goals while instilling empathy, compassion, morality, and kindness in our youth so that they may continue becoming productive citizens of society. The WISH School venture falls under the umbrella of our WE school initiatives in our WE Create Change Campaign. Every donation helps in this cause, so please contribute to this worthwhile initiative! WE really appreciate all of your support - together, WE can create change and we can make this a reality!

When making a donation of $20 or more, please make cheques/ cash payable to MDJH

(WISH). Please include your name and address on the front of your envelope. Once the foundation receives your donation, you will receive an official tax receipt in the mail. Please note that MDJH does not accept E- transfers!

If you require further information, please do not hesitate to contact me at carolynstacey@nlesd.ca or 753-8240.

The next national leadership conference will be September 24 - September 29, 2019 in Abbotsford, British Columbia. The theme is Empowering Inner Resources. The conference theme will flow through the keynote speeches, leadership workshops, volunteer opportunities and cultural experiences of the conference.

Any current grade 8 student interested in attending this conference next year should see Ms. Quann. Parents can email colettequann@nlesd.ca to express an interest in having their child attend this conference. There are limited spaces so students will be placed on a list on a first come basis. You can visit the website https://cslc2019.studentleadership.ca/ for more details. Registration opens in March. All students who have expressed an interest will be registered, but may be put on a wait list until registration ends and the number of student delegates for each province is allotted.

A big thank you to all our school community who brought in treats for Staff Appreciation Week. They were greatly appreciated and enjoyed by all staff.

You can now order the 2018-2019 yearbook.The cost is $20. Forms are available at the office and from Ms. Quann colettequann@nlesd.ca

Thank you to everyone who has submitted pictures for the yearbook. Please send any team pictures to colettequann@nlesd.ca. If sending from a cell phone, please select actual size to ensure the quality is good for uploading to the yearbook.

We want to acknowledge and celebrate the accomplishments of the students of MDJH. We have a wall of celebration where we will place a certificate of acknowledgement highlighting participation and success in a variety of activities. We want to know if your child has participated in any plays, musicals, has been on a team that has won some title, or has been recognized in any individual competition. We need your help with this. Please let us know so we can proudly display this on our wall. Please email colettequann@nlesd.ca with Celebrate YOUR CHILD’S NAME in the subject line.

Photography club meets every second Wednesday from 3-4:30. Each month there is a photo contest. Club members are reminded to please submit their photos to twragg@hotmail.com

School Development Surveys are conducted annually to gather feedback from students, staff, and parents/guardians to inform the school development process. The survey results will be provided to your child’s school and used with other data to identify the school’s strengths and challenges. Your child’s school will then create and implement a plan to build on successes and address areas of challenge.

The survey is anonymous, which means that we cannot connect your survey responses to you. We encourage everyone to participate so that we have the most accurate representation of family perceptions at your school.

The Family Survey will be available on February 11, 2019. Please complete the survey by March 15, 2019 by clicking here to access the survey. If you do not have internet access, you may contact your school to arrange access to a school computer or mobile device for survey completion.

If you have any questions or concerns regarding the school development surveys, please contact:

• Christie Warren at 709-729-5649 or christiewarren@gov.nl.ca or
• Jennifer Smith at 709-729-5588 or jenniferfsmith@gov.nl.ca or
• Patricia Emberley at 709-729-6850 or patriciaemberley@gov.nl.ca

Thank you for your participation and for being a valued member of your school community.

Click here to download a PDF of this letter from the Director of the Evaluation and Research Division.

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup plain yogurt
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
• 1 teaspoon plus 2 tablespoons lemon juice, divided
• 3 medium ripe avocados, peeled and cubed
• 1 medium apple, chopped
• 1 cup halved seedless grapes
• 1 can (11 ounces) mandarin oranges, drained
• 1 medium firm banana, cut into 1/4-inch slices

Directions

For dressing, mix yogurt, honey, lemon zest and 1 teaspoon lemon juice. Toss avocados with remaining lemon juice. In a large bowl, combine remaining ingredients; gently stir in avocados.

Serve with dressing.

Adapted from: https://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/avocado-fruit-salad/

Ingredients

• Waffles (whole wheat)
• Fruit assortment of your choice
• Honey to spread or peanut butter or almond butter if able to serve at your school.

Directions

Toast waffles as per directions. Top with spread of your choice taking into consideration allergies at your school. Top with fruit assortment of your choice

Adapted from: https://www.5dollardinners.com/waffle-breakfast-pizzas/

We are a WE School.

Email: mdjh@nlesd.ca
Website: mdjh.info
Location: 110 Macdonald Drive, St. John's, NL, Canada
Phone: 709-753-8240
Twitter: @mdjh