‘Tis the season for Christmas craft sales!

Several RETSD staff members had a Grade 9 student (in many cases their child) join them at work yesterday for "Take Our Kids to Work Day." These students turned out to be quite handy—supervising “littles” on the playground, reading with students, and helping in the office, gym, or classroom. We’re sure the “littles” loved the excitement of having “bigs” visiting their school. #takeourkidstoworkday

Congratulations to Grade 12 River East Kodiak Sam Hezekiah on being selected as a Nissan All-Canadian TITAN! He’ll be playing in an exhibition game at next week’s #GreyCup in Edmonton. 🙌🏈 #CreatingStudentSuccess

Karina Walker, our community programming co-ordinator for youth, has been nominated for CBC’s Future 40! According to CBC, “Future 40 celebrates Manitoba’s new generation of leaders, builders and change-makers under the age of 40.” If you’re familiar with our Empowerment Projects, Guys Got Goals workshops, etc., then you’re aware of some of the wonderful work she does for our division. Congratulations, Karina, and good luck! For more info: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/events/future-40-2018-1.4876805

An exhibit of the photographic work of Norbert K. Iwan, a teacher from Bernie Wolfe Community School, is being held in the rotunda of the Manitoba Legislative Building on November 17–27. The exhibit commemorates the Holodomor–Ukrainian Genocide of 1932–33. November 19–25 is National Holodomor Awareness Week and marks the 85th anniversary of the man-made famine that resulted in the loss of 7–10 million innocent lives. (Photo by Mr. Iwan; model: BW teacher N. Ziemianski)

Today is "Take Our Kids to Work Day," and Grade 9 students across Canada are spending the day in the workplace of a parent, relative or friend, where they can experience and learn about working life. It was launched by The Learning Partnership in 1994, and now every year an estimated 200,000 students take part. Take a peek at some of these statistics and interesting facts about work! #takeourkidstoworkday #KidsToWork

Some photos from the Remembrance Day ceremony held at Bernie Wolfe Community School. (Photos by Norbert K. Iwan)

Chief Peguis Junior High recently participated in the Bag Up Manitoba initiative through Take Pride Winnipeg. As a school, they collected over 8,536 plastic bags! Instead of ending up in a landfill and polluting the environment, those bags will be recycled into something useful, like Frisbees, birdhouses, planter boxes, bird feeders, and benches.

WOW—Way to go, Kodiaks! 🏆

This Global TV story is about the No Stone Left Alone ceremonies held across Canada around Remembrance Day. It includes footage of a ceremony taking place in Transcona Cemetery that our Transcona-area middle schools take part in each year. It's a significant and moving learning opportunity for our students.

On November 1, the gym at Valley Gardens Middle School was filled with over 300 students, staff, and community members attending a fall feast held by the RETSD Indigenous Academic Achievement (IAA) team. Students performed for the crowd, and then everyone tucked into a delicious meal in celebration of autumn and IAA in our schools. Miigwech to Valley Gardens for hosting the feast! And chi-miigwech to the Elders, Knowledge Keepers, and presenters who helped make this day very special.

The Grade 5 students at Princess Margaret School held a Remembrance Day service at the East Kildonan War Memorial on November 7. Two veterans and representatives from the Henderson Highway Legion Branch #215 attended. One student placed a pair of boots at the memorial—these boots were one of the thousands of pairs placed at the Canadian National Vimy Memorial in France on April 9, 2017. They represent one of the nearly 3,600 Canadian soldiers who lost their lives during the Battle of Vimy Ridge, and serve as a reminder of the men and women who sacrificed their lives for us. As well, each student placed a rock of remembrance at the memorial, hand-painted with poppies and messages of peace and remembrance. The rocks were left for others to enjoy and possibly take with them to honour those who fought for our country so many years ago. At the going down of the sun, And in the morning, We will remember them.

REMINDER: Monday, November 12, is a co-ordinated day and RETSD students do not attend classes. All schools are involved in either administration, professional development, or parent-teacher reporting activities.

JOB POSTING | Physiotherapist | Apply by Friday, November 16, 2018 | For more info: https://tinyurl.com/yalepoch #RETSD #WinnipegJobs

Here's a great opportunity for creative writers in Grades 9–12! For more information about the competition, visit: https://www.bnaibrith.ca/introducing_the_diverse_minds_creative_writing_competition

Today, woodworking technology students from John G. Stewart School will present this beautiful piece they created to the Henderson Highway Legion Branch #215 to recognize the sacrifices made by those who have served. The students in this course have demonstrated some serious talent over the years, and their work is on display at several organizations throughout the city. We’ll have another announcement about a significant public installation they’ve created that will be unveiled in December, so stay tuned! #CreatingStudentSuccess

Robert Andrews School did an amazing job of collecting items for local food banks in October for their WE Scare Hunger initiative. They put together this brief video about their success.

Colleen Carswell re-elected school board chair in RETSD

On November 5, Grade 6 students from our Transcona-area middle schools—Arthur Day, Bernie Wolfe, John W. Gunn, and École Regent Park—took part in a growing tradition called “No Stone Left Alone.” RETSD partnered with the Transcona Legion to hold the event, which saw students place poppies on the graves of veterans in Transcona Cemetery. Every military gravestone was paid respects by one or more students, who also gave a salute to the veterans as part of the ceremony. In the days leading up to the event, the students learned about the importance of remembrance and were visited by Peter Martin from the Transcona Legion, so he could show them how to properly salute. To learn more about No Stone Left Alone, visit www.nostoneleftalone.ca.

Congratulations to Kara Wickstrom-Street!

It doesn't have to be Halloween for the staff and students at Kildonan-East Collegiate to be in the mood to dress up. They're always game for a costume! Here they are, recently, celebrating "Twin Day" and "Country Day."

James Thomson—the Interactive Digital Media teacher at Kildonan-East Collegiate—and one of his students, Shub Dhillon, took part in the Game Jam, and worked with industry professionals such as 3D artist Thomas Murphy (a KEC grad) to create a multiplayer game.