Week of June 1st-5th

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🙏Prayers and Spiritual Guidance

Prayer to the Holy Spirit

O Holy Spirit,
By Your power, Christ was raised from the dead to save us all.
By Your grace, miracles are performed in Jesus' name. 
By Your love, we are protected from evil.
And so, we ask with humility and a beggar's heart for Goodness within us.
We want to be link your Saints in heaven.  
Holy Spirit renew us by your power with your Goodness 
that we may bring the Good News to the world.
Amen.

Here is Pope Francis' homily for Pentecost

"[The Holy Spirit] reminds us that first of all we are God's beloved children; all equal, in this respect, and all different.  The Spirit comes to us, in our differences and difficulties, to tell us that we have one Lord-Jesus-and our Father, and that for this reason we are brothers and sisters!...Let us look at the Church with the eyes of the Spirit and not as the world does." - Pope Francis

Pope Francis' Pentecost message for ecumenical prayer movement

"We need to be united in facing all these pandemics that are spreading.  Not only that of the virus, but also those of hunger, war, contempt for life, and indifference to others." - Pope Francis


Source: Vatican News

Visit the Archdiocese of Toronto COVID-19 website

This website offers spiritual, employee, and public health resources as well as information on how to continue support our local parishes during this time.

Alpha Online Series

The following information and invitation comes from Alan Lee Hoy, the youth pastor at St. Luke's Parish in our local school community.

He invites us on a journey, an adventure to explore life's greatest and most important questions. This is an invitation to join ALPHA ONLINE.

Alpha is a series of interactive sessions that freely explore the basics of the Christian faith. NO PRESSURE. NO FOLLOW UP. NO CHARGE.

Alpha has around 10 sessions, a short talk, and a discussion at the end where you can share your thoughts. Alpha really is for anyone who’s curious. The talks are designed to encourage debate and explore the basics of the Christian faith in a friendly, honest and informal environment. Millions of people around the world have tried Alpha.

Below are 2 short videos about Alpha and here is a PDF document with further details. This is open to ADULTS ONLY (over 18 years old). SPACE IS LIMITED.

It will run every THURSDAY from 7:00-8:30 pm through ZOOM (and 8:30-10:00 pm, if necessary).  The journey begins Thursday, June 11.







New Beginnings Online Drop-In Bereavement Support


If a family member or friend is coping with loss and bereavement, or if you are suffering with grief, New Beginnings is offering bereavement counselling sessions online.  New Beginnings is run by Catholic Family Services of Toronto.  Their services are free but they do ask for people to register in advance

Register HERE


Join us in Praying the Rosary📿

Join us in praying the rosary every Friday at 10 a.m.  

Our Google Meet nickname is str-rosary.  

If you are unable to join, but would like to express special intentions for our prayers, please email me.

Daily Reflections

These daily reflections are a great way to start your day. Feel free to share them with your students on your class VLE.

Monday, June 1 -“I Hope You Dance” CARFLEO
Tuesday, June 2 -“Thy Word” CARFLEO
Wednesday, June 3 -Refiner's Fire CARFLEO
Thursday, June 4 - ”Only Hope” CARFLEO
Friday, June 5 - "Your Raise Me Up!" CARFLEO

😇Check out the 3 Minute Retreats on the Loyola Press Website.

Here are the Weekly Prayers for Week 9 of Distance Learning.


💻EdTech Support and Resources

Flippety.net

Easily turn a Google Spreadsheet into a set of online cool stuff for students, such a progress indicators, crossword puzzles, word searches, and mad libs.




📚Library Resources

Documenting a Pandemic

Some municipalities are working on documenting the pandemic.  For those of you who live in Aurora, Newmarket, King City, and the City of Whitchurch-Stouffville, below are some links on how your municipalities are collecting artefacts to remember this time in history.  If the municipalities are not mentioned above, you might want to do a google search to see how the region you live in is working to remember this time.

From an educator's perspective, this may be an activity or CPT your students can work on...a portfolio of sorts that documents the pandemic through the lens of your subject matter.

Aurora 
Scroll down to Documenting a Pandemic
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****Includes a 32 pg diary.  I don't think they'd mind if other municipalities/schools use it as it has a site of its own and instructions on how to download it.


The Canadian Encyclopedia & Historica Canada - A Living Archive - Junior and Senior Learning Tools


A project of Historica Canada, th Canada during COVID-19 Learning Tool encourages students to think more deeply about primary sources and the ways historians use them to uncover the past.

Here is the Study Guide
 

Featured Free Trial:  Righting Canada's Wrongs


    

A series of 6 e-Books about shameful parts of Canada's History - posted in Canadian Cloud Library.  Access on the St. Robert eBook page:  https://sites.google.com/ycdsbk12.ca/strolibrary/ebooks

Username (case sensitive):  StRobert

Password:  robert


Teacher-Support Website

The St. Robert Teacher-Support Website is updated on an ongoing basis.  Check out what is available for your department.  Visit the tech-support page for instant help.  This site is accessible to students so feel free to post links to any page of it for your students to have easy access to something you found useful.  If you have something you want added, ask away!


🧠Staff Wellness

Five Lessons to Remember When Lockdown Ends 

(click on the link to go to the article)

  1. Being with others is key to happiness.
  2. Reducing stress is good for everyone.
  3. Showing gratitude matters.
  4. We need less stuff than we think.
  5. We are stronger when we act together.



The University of Berkeley Greater Good Science Center offers science-based practices for kinder, happier schools.  Here are some resources to help you in beginning a mindfulness practice:

📰Newsworthy News

Class of 2020 Video

The graduation committee is putting together a "Class of 2020" video for our graduates.  

Please submit a video or photo congratulatory messages you wish to share with our grade 12s before they embark on the next phase of their lives.  Perhaps you may wish to share some advice with our graduates for the future.  Whether you choose to make it comical or serious, be creative!

Here is what we are looking for:
  • a brief video or photo sharing a message (as was done in the teacher video we created at Easter)
  • if you choose to share a video message, please ensure that it is brief and that the video quality is clear (i.e. submit your video in mp4 format); creating your video using your cellphone will ensure the best picture and sound quality.
  • if you are choosing to create a video, please record your video horizontally and in a quiet environment so that no background noises are heard
  • departments can choose to collaborate to create a unified message either in photo or video format
  • if you would like, you can also submit any photos, videos, artwork, etc. you may have of our grade 12 students throughout the years.
Please submit your messages HERE.

We would like all submissions no later than Monday, June 8th.

We will share the video with our graduates the week of Monday, June 22nd

Thanks for your contributions.



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