Celebrating Character & Multiculturalism

The Ben R. McMullin school community shared in a celebration of character and multiculturalism with many special events planned earlier in the school year. They continue to focus on building and enhancing a positive school culture that includes the importance of diversity and inclusion. Their high energy character assemblies involve student participation and sharing in character. Students and staff enthusiastically join in and sing along to their favourite character songs, participate in sharing a presentation of all of the many special activities they are involved in throughout the month that represent the character attribute focus and look forward to another month of good character.

In the beginning of the year, student members of the school community gave a very special presentation of traditional dance in anticipation of a successful Multicultural evening organized by the school. Community members including students, staff and parents were invited to share in an evening of Character that included traditional foods, song, dance and culture. Ben R McMullin is pleased to share more about their special Multicultural evening and their energetic character assemblies!

If you would like more information, please contact Kerry Grbich~ Character Education Special Assignment Teacher for more information.

grbichk@adsb.on.ca
or
705- 945- 7433

Fun Fall Festival

Toronto Symphony Orchestra Northern Tour

The Toronto Symphony Orchestra had an amazing stay in Sault Ste. Marie recently as part of Sault Ste. Marie's Algoma Fall Festival program. Here is an excerpt from the TSO blog:

Right after the concerts in Sudbury, we jumped on the bus to Sault Ste Marie. We stopped at a rest stop along the way with a GREAT ice cream and fudge store – I think the most popular ice cream flavour was triple chocolate brownie, and it was yummy!
Upon our arrival in the Soo, we had an orchestra dinner where most of us ate until we couldn’t eat anymore! The Waterfront Inn even had a welcome sign for us:

Thursday morning was our first student concert in SSM, at the Kiwanis Community Theatre Centre. The kids loved the show – and were especially enthused about having Jim Gardiner as the soloist – born and raised in the Soo!
Thursday afternoon was hectic as Roberta had planned for many in-school performances and masterclasses. Lucky for us, we had some wonderful volunteers from SSM helping the staff to drive musicians to their schools. I went to Rosedale Public School with the brass trio – and the kids loved them! Here’s a picture of Andrew, Gabe, and Megan performing for the grade 7/8 classes:

Thursday night we were ready for our SOLD OUT show in SSM!. Christian Sharpe, Orchestra Personnel Administrator, and I were so excited about selling out the hall:

The show was fabulous and the audience was amazing! Jim Gardiner sounded awesome playing the Hummel Trumpet Concerto and the audience gave him a well deserved standing ovation. After two encores and a whole lot of clapping, we made our way to the Civic Centre for a nice reception put on by the Mayor.
All in all it’s been a great tour. As the last student concert wraps up, and we jump on our plane home, we’re all getting excited for an amazing season opener in Toronto! Special thanks to everyone on tour – the musicians, Peter, the staff, our presenters & supporters, all of the wonderful people we met in the communities we visited, and our super bus drivers Tony and Stan.

Getting on the plane!

A big thank you to Roberta Smith and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra members, as well as the Algoma Fall Festival , Festival Of Learning committee for organizing and providing this amazing opportunity for our students.