The main discussion will be mostly around the planning for the Spring Festival scheduled for March 31st. We’re going to need several volunteers to help organize this, so please spread the word!

All parents welcome to attend!

NSA’s Halloween activities were a wonderful success, as some students report: “I won 10 $ for best costume! It was exhilarating!” -Nassi A. “Mr. Scerbo was dressed as a princess whilst Mr. Terrone became he-man for a day. These funny costumes made my day filled with laughter and joy!” -Daniel M. “I was so happy to have participated in this cheery day! It was a blast!” -Chris C.

(INSERT PHOTOS)

On a more somber note, the school gathered on November 11th to pay homage to the soldiers who have fought for the freedom of our country during its first Remembrance Day assembly. Although the tributes are paid for wretched reasons, many students have come together to participate in the recognition of this solemn day. Roman De Bonis and Nassi Alexopolous composed an emotion-provoking poem, featured here:

“On Remembrance Day

we sat there and prayed

for the people who died

and the tears that we cried

The world is such an evil place

lives are lost, and lives are

replaced, memories fade day by

day, on November 11 hear what we say

Let’s have a moment of silence,

for the soldiers we trust, who

scarified their lives for all of

us, in Flanders Field the soldiers

lay, yet we keep fighting till

this day

Wives waitings at home all

alone, hoping that their husband

will see their first born, Daddy

why am I alone? Why is mom

telling me you won’t come home?

Mankind is such an evil race,

Please come home so I can see your face. In my prayers

you will feel my love, I hope

you can hear me from up above

Wishing you were here by my side

keeping me warm, keeping me alive

so that one day I can see my

first born child

Bullet pierces through my skin I

can see my life wearing thin.

On November 11th remember what

I’ve done, my beautiful wife

and my first born son. ”

Well-written compositions from students of various grades exuded a heart warming environment and emitted sensibility from the entire audience. Truly, I think this Remembrance Day is one we shan’t forget for we have addressed our fellow Canadians with diplomacy.

Mr. Terrone is raising money in order to purchase new equipment for sports. In order to contribute to the amelioration of your P.E ambiance, look around for Canadian Tire money. Canadian Tire money is usually owned by most of us but laying around the house fruitlessly. However, now it can have a value to you and your peers!

Don’t forget to take advantage of your democratic school system! Voice your opinions and they will materialize (of course, if they are appropriate). Do so at: www.nsasuggestions.tk and www.nsasurvey.tk. You can also follow NSA on Twitter: @northstaracademy

As the creator of last month’s quote of the month, I will not only voice my own opinion on the reality of it but Christina Jade Contrino’s, who was chosen as having the finest essay on the topic in Secondary V by Ms. Awan.

Is the way in which we treat others a reflection of the way we feel about ourselves?

By Jessica Rast.

“People and things appear to us not as they are, but as we are.” This quote directly reflects the phenomenon of human beings reflecting their own person thoughts and feelings upon others. There are numerous reasons for this matter such as the psychological occurrence called projection and the nature versus nurture component.

To commence, psychological projection, or projection bias, is a psychological defense mechanism where an individual subconsciously denies his or her own attributes, thoughts and emotions and ascribes them to the outside world. The reason many people confine to this mechanism is because it reduces anxiety by allowing the expression of unwanted unconscious impulses of desires without letting the conscious mind recognize them. The ego tries to defuse these discomforts by attributing them to other individuals. For example, if somebody is dealing with the feeling of fear and confusion about not being able to understand reality, they may have the tendency to assign this to others. Especially those who are generally happy people, the individual feeling negative emotions will feel as though the happy person does not deserve to live in the disillusionment of happiness. This is directly reflected in the aforementioned quote, life is seen only as the individual is capable of seeing it. Thus, the average human being is isolated by their circumstances and feelings unless they are capable of realizing so, in order to overcome this. However, there may be people who appear fearful and confused towards reality yet treat others with respect. This can be related to their personal feelings of wanting to deal with these emotions by themselves and that others should not deserve to feel this pain. These people are often very quiet about such things and their inability to communicate in order to overcome these feelings lead them to become substance abusers. Therefore, personal feelings and thoughts, whatever they may be, are clearly inflicted upon other people, only some are harder to detect. The antecedent examples are very particular and most definitely do not describe every psychological case that pertains to this matter.

Furthermore, there is an ongoing scientific debate regarding the shaping of one’s character in terms of nature versus nurture. If DNA is considered, it is the foundation of one’s qualities – very vaguely put. However, the ways these qualities are nurtured throughout the individual’s life are more important. For example, all human beings, in terms of nature, have both positive and negative attributes. Certain life circumstances, especially those that occur during a young age, suggesting that a malleable mind may make premature interpretations on them, can surely bring about negative qualities and diminish positive. A child so entirely depends on his or her early elucidation on the world that for example, if you put a child with flawless vision into a dark room during its first stages, it will be blind. Flawless eyesight is its natural factor that was nurtured by darkness; therefore the child could no longer see light. As such, nurturing one’s own qualities properly is very important. Essentially, one can believe that every quality in our state in pure potentiality is blank. Personality is a mask of what a human wants to present himself as to the world, hence, the word personality is derived from the Latin word “persona”, meaning mask. As Ford once said, “whether you think you can or you can’t, you are right.” If an individual becomes conscious of their infinite abilities within the physical and emotional realm of life, they have the ability to shape themselves.  Any desirable personality, any desirable aura, etc, can all be attained by anybody. If one allows their circumstances, good or bad, to shape what they are, then they are not using their full potential. This is why each and every human being can result in being unpredictable, because they are infinitely free in what they become.

Moreover, this concept is associated with the reflection of personal thoughts and attributes on other people. A reason for this is that a person can be born with certain qualities and when they are nurtured through the course of their lives, their circumstances develop them, whether positive or negative. For example, a child who is abused when they are young may grow up to bully others. Fear, confusion and hatred has been inflicted upon them from an early stage when their mind was shaping itself to suit the outside world. If the mind grows in a negative environment, the mind will believe that it is entering this type of world and find ways to defend itself. Thus, this individual subconsciously defends itself from the world in the only way it has learned in order to survive.

In conclusion, the subconscious mind may do many things that individuals are unaware of, therefore it makes them do certain things that counter the development of a peaceful world. It is very important that education on the subconscious mind is done for individuals, especially students in high school where this type of behaviour predominates, in order to prevent it. If people begin to realize that the way they treat others is really a reflection of how they feel about themselves, they may stop in an attempt to conceal the negativity which they endured/endure, and perhaps even help themselves to a more positive life.

How can we improve our self-esteem?

By: Christina-Jade Contrino

A passage that I had once read stated: “When we change the way we think about our value and worth, we change the way we treat others, ourselves, and the way we make decisions. Those decisions will have a huge impact on how we experience life.” People treat others in a manner that reflects their self-esteem, a phenomenon of vulnerability, thus the control of your character’s portrayal to the world is important. Self-esteem is all about good character. Self-esteem and your environment have a lot to do with how you are as a person. Bullying at home can also lead one to bad behavior towards others around them.

First, self-esteem is very important to have within yourself. Most people in the world, who are born into sympathetic family, begin living with the thought that they have a lot of worth and importance. Despite this, other people in their lives may attack them verbally or physically, as well as failures the individual may endure during the course of life, that may leave them feeling more vulnerable. Some actions you can try doing to have a more positive balance in your life are: do things that make you feel good, make humane decisions, live with no regrets and neglect bad memories, do things you are good at, and recompense yourself for your accomplishments. Hence, if you are a better person with yourself, you will be a healthier person to be around for others.

Second, the environment that you put yourself in can easily changes the way you feel about yourself, hence the way you treat others. Spend time with positive people who like you and encourage you. This is very important because if you are around negative people who bring out the worst in you, they are going to influence you to be a harmful person to others and a destructive person towards yourself. You can respect them but keep your boundaries and don’t get influenced by something unconstructive for yourself.

Third, bullying is a huge part of how a person expresses their anger out on the world when they are upset about how they feel about themselves. I once read a Dr. Phil article that said: “Bullying is a continuous pattern of behavior by one person towards another which is designed to hurt, injure, embarrass, upset or discomfort that person.” Bullying occurs in public areas but starts right at home. People, who don’t know how to control their melancholy, tend to attack others. This is bad because you can get not only self-destructive but it can lead to problems—at work, in your personal relationships, and in the general value of your life. No one wants to be around a destructive person because it can take the energy out of their lives and into the bullies.

In conclusion, in order to control your emotions, self-esteem must be considered as well as the situations of other people. Like the Buddha quotes “The tongue like a sharp knife… kills without drawing blood.” If a person says mean things to another, continuously, they may not notice it but it murders them slowly. People have to better themselves before they can act nice upon others. You cannot be loved without loving yourself first because the way you behave towards others reveals how you feel about yourself.

Ms. Pepin reports that awards night was a huge success.

“The first surprise was the amount of the attendees. It was a full house! The parents were thrilled.  Special thanks to all the teachers and all the support that the parents gave to their children. It was heart warming. I am grateful to see all the participation. There were a lot of people who were successful this term and they all attended!”

I would like to wish everybody Happy Holidays and New Years! Remember to be safe and we will see you all next year.

Upcoming events:

Ski club starting in January

Ski trip getaway January 27-29

Cultural exchange with St. Sacrament

Carnival is on 22nd February

Quebec City Trip Sec. 2 February 10-12

Exams January 31st-Feb 1st-2nd

Friday the 3rd February Ped Day

February 16th is the Science Fair

Thank you to all the parents who supplied gifts and perishable items for Agape!

Helping the Planet!

On November 21, The WWF club was lucky to meet the president of WWF situated in Quebec,Marie-Claude. WWF stands for World Wildlife Fund. It is an organization that focuses on many problems.  WWF strongly believes in conserving the world’s natural habitat for humans and animals. This organization was established by Alan MacNaughton in 1967. It is one of the world’s leading organization, and is found in over 100 countries. Did you know the symbol of WWF- the panda- is inspired by Chi Chi, a giant panda found in London Zoo?

WWF believes in protecting life on Earth, climate change and the conservation of water. Canada considers that we should use green economy such as windmill and hydraulic energy. Did you know that the main source of energy in Quebec comes from dams?

The Artic is slowly melting away. Consequently, polar bears are struggling to feed their stomachs and find a habitation. Did you know that in 50 years, there will be no more ice?

Oceans are polluted with garbage. This does not only harm the planet but the sea animals as well. If sea animals swallow any plastic, they will die. Therefore, WWF is working hard on cleaning the seas and oceans.

Moreover, WWF desires to help wildlife animals in extinction such as tigers, elephants, and rhinoceros. These animals are tortured, if not killed simply for greed. Rhinoceros and elephants are wanted for their ivory, which is delicate and expensive.

Another harmful is palm oil. This type of oil is found in many foods and products we use and eat today, such as Oreos. How is palm oil harmful to our Earth? Palm oil is extracted from the Indonesian rainforests. Due to its high demand, trees are cut down. As a result, Orangutans are loosing their habitat. If this continues, this specie of apes will also head towards extinction.

How can you help? You can simply help by switching off your lights when you leave the room, recycling and conserving water, Furthermore, you could make sure all your garbage is deposited in the right place.

You can also walk, bicycle, and use a public mode of transportation. You could refrain from using products containing palm oil.

Two events that WWF will be hosting are National Sweater Day, and Earth Hour. National Sweater Day will be held on February 9. This day, you may simply turn down the heat and wear a festive sweater. Earth Hour will be held on March 26 from 8:30 to 9:30. During that period of time, you may not use any electronics. This may be difficult for some of us, therefore I suggest that you should play board games, chat with your friends and family, and read a book.  While doing so, don’t forget to buy Coca-Cola drinks. Coca-Cola and WWF have partnered up and Coca-Cola has committed of donating 1 million dollars to supply for fresh water across the World.

North Star Academy is also taking part in adopting a baby tiger. Throughout this year, we will be collecting funds of 500$ in our school. Remember, we are the children of this planet. We are the future generation who will make a change. We are the voice of the suffering animals.

By: Savleen Sur

Parent / Teacher Interviews are seperated into two groups,

Secondary 1 to 3 are from 4:00 pm to 6:00 pm

Secondary 4 and 5 are from 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm

950, Élodie-Boucher

Laval, Québec H7W 0C6

Tél: (450) 973-9797

Fax: (450) 973-4463

                                                                                                                                                                November 14^th, 2011

McCord Museum

Dear Parents,

North Star Academy Laval would like to advise you that an outing to the Montreal McCord Museum have been planned for December 6^th, 2011. Assigned teachers and students will be departing at 11:30 am, and returning to school at 3:30 pm. Students must bring a lunch. The cost of the outing is $20.00.

Please complete and return the coupon below with your payment to the front office prior to Thursday November 24^th, 2011 in order for your child to leave the school grounds for this outing.

*Please take note that for those who use the school bus, other arrangements must be made.

Thank you,

The Administration

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McCord Museum

o My child, ________________________________ will be participating in the outing.

o My child, ________________________________ will remain in school.

_______________________________________________________

Signature of Parent or Guardian                                               Date