For St. Joseph’s principal Bonnie Annicchiarico it’s just what she loves to hear. She says she and her staff strive through the school’s “One” program to make ELL (English Language Learner) students feel safe and at home — and to foster an environment where they can learn and share with their peers as equals while getting used to Canadian culture.
“We recognize that their first language is important to them and we need to be respectful of that,” Annicchiarico explains. “And it’s a real intense learning experience for students to be immersed in a brand new culture. So they need breaks from that too. That’s a stage they go through, and we allow them to go through that stage as we are constantly inviting them to speak more English. So while we recognize the diversity, out of that we want to create commonality.”
According to Holy Family principal Kelly Ehalt, his school’s challenge is a more fundamental one.
“It’s all about the survival skills of language,” says Ehalt. “You know: Bathroom. I’m hungry. Can I get a drink of water? I’m hurt. On a very basic level the needs and the wants of the little ones.”
Ehalt says the staff at St. Joseph’s and Holy Family work closely together to have programs in place which allow fundamental language acquisition at the K-6 level so that by the time his students are ready to enter high school they will no longer be at any language disadvantage with their native born Canadian peers.
“A lot of our programming, and what we’re trying to address, is very common. So, of course, we work with St. Joseph’s as a large- scale that is K-12, but with two different schools in the same school.”
SEAM By ALEX MCCUAIG
St. Joe's student Lero Edwin has come a long way from a Sudanese refugee camp in east Africa to the Catholic school in Brooks, Alberta.
Out in the busy hallways at St. Joseph’s the hustle and bustle of activity is nearly deafening. Students of all ages play basketball in the gym during their recreation period and there’s a buzz of conversation in every corner. The school’s population has increased by 27 per cent in the last year alone, and it takes a lot of creative organization to ensure there is sufficient classroom space to accommodate the ever-expanding student body.
Exp nd yo r horizo s...
There are about 420 students in high school and 630 in elementary in a building designed for half as many. The staff room has been converted into a classroom, and the teachers now take their coffee-breaks at an ad-hoc kitchenette set up beneath the central staircase. The Holy Family Academy library resides at the end of one hallway with shelves of books jammed together there alongside a librarian computer station for signing them out. The school has had seven new students enrol since Christmas and rumours have it 40 more Irish Catholic workers for the Lakeside plant and their families will be arriving in the next few months. Annicchiarico says Lakeside management tries to keep local schools in the loop when it brings in new workers, but she admits it is still a great challenge for her and her colleagues with a larger school building two years away yet.
“It’s been a delight, a challenge and a frustration,” Annicchiarico admits. “It’s been exciting, but we never know what’s around the corner. We don’t know how many kids will arrive this week.”
DINOSAUR PROVINCIAL PARK
While there are certainly stresses says St. Joseph’s teacher and vice-principal Ben Galeski, the rewards of being part of a diverse and active school far outweigh
South East Alberta Metal (SEAM) may have originally been envisioned as a way to promote metal manufactures in Brooks and the County of Newell but during the last boom, it was metal workers rather than metal work that SEAM was trying to wrangle.
Today SEAM is continuing to do both as well as promoting the metal trade in the Brooks area, recently purchasing a 3-D printer for the Brooks Composite High School.
SEAM’s business development officer Brian Gale said the organization was formed as a “clustering” effort of like- minded companies to help highlight the Brooks-area as a centre for metal manufacturing.
“Businesses of the same type create an economic advantage for a region and if they work together to try to solve common problems, they can continue to grow and be more prominent in the region,” said Gale as the inspiration for SEAM.
Backed by funding from municipal, provincial and federal governments, it is the first phase of SEAM’s promotion of the business in the defence, agriculture, oil and gas sectors.
While formed with the original intent during lean years of growing the metal industry, it soon needed to shift its focus to getting work to getting workers, said Gale.
“A lot of the shops in the region said they could get the husbands to come but couldn’t get the wives,” said Gale.
“We were able to develop some packages promoting the recreation activities in the region, tourism opportunities, Lake Newell.”
To make the transition easier, Gale said SEAM was able to produce guides that assisted new workers on a range of issues such as school enrolment and other community services.
SEAM also opened the door for trade apprenticeship programs to also be utilized in Brooks in conjunction with the Medicine Hat College as well as through its Brooks Campus.
However, it’s SEAM’s partnership with the Brooks Chamber of Commerce and Rotarians as well as Newell Regional Development Alliance that Gale said is bringing a 3-D printer to Brooks Composite — one of the first schools in Canada to have such a tool.
The printer will be able to create scale models and prototypes of mechanical devices or engines all through a desktop unit.
“The goal is to get kids back interested in making things and involved with the technology of making things too,” said Gale.
continuing to grow
OUR COMMUNITIES ■ OUR REGION ■ OUR PEOPLE | 105
41110443•03/26/13
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