Sept. 27, 2019

Week four is in the books.


In preparation for week five, please remember to sign up for PLT yet! Please do so by the end of Monday.

English 8: no homework!

CLE: Your MBTI Analysis report is due on Thursday. You will have Tuesday to work on it, but remember that Tuesday is a short day (PLT).

For those absent today, we joined you at the protest in spirit by learning about some prominent (teen) leaders in the movement towards greater accountability for climate change. We talked about the types of changes (personal change and systemic change): for example, there are small, day-to-day things that each of us can do to limit our greenhouse emissions - this is personal change. To change our world, though, we also look at systemic change: and that's what we're seeing through the missions of Isra Hirst, Xiuhtezcatl Martinez, Autumn Peltier, and Greta Thurnberg. It's about taking a big idea and collectively translated that into action.

As the video above describes, we can all have a role in systemic change, through skills such as being investigators and communicators (which all of us IB learners are!).

Cited Sources
Cassel, Emily. "Isra Hirsi: The Climate Activist." Citypages, 25 September 2019, http://www.citypages.com/news/isra-hirsi-the-climate-activist/561264211.

Fox, Louis (Dir). "The Story of Change." The Story of Stuff Project. 2018, https://storyofstuff.org/movies/story-of-change/

N. A. "Autumn Peltier Named Chief Water Commissioner by Anishinabek Nation." CBC News, 25 April, 2019, https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/sudbury/autumn-peltier-chief-water-commissioner-1.5111137

N.A. "Xiuhtezcatl Martines: At the Forefront of Climate Change." USC Visions and Voices, n.d. http://visionsandvoices.usc.edu/events/listing.php?event_id=1297425 

Weir, Bill. "Greta Thunberg: The Teenage Old Soul of the Climate Crisis." CNN, 20 September, 2019. https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/20/us/greta-thunberg-profile-weir/index.html 

Sept. 26, 2019

Thank you all for participating in this year's Terry Fox run, and to our Student Council 2019 - 2020 for their masterful organization of this school-wide event.


I&S 8: If you did not complete your research by today's due date, please join us after school today. Should you still need more time after today after school, you will be expected to join our class tomorrow at lunch for support and working time.

English 10: Congratulations on running through practices for all four Criterion, over the last week and a bit. You have earned your weekend break. See you on Monday. No homework. We will continue with our guided annotations on "I Have a Dream" (King, 1963) next week.



Remember to sign up for Tuesday's PLT, by the end of Monday.  Our classroom will be focused on paragraph structuring.

Sept. 25, 2019

English 8: No homework for English. Please ensure your social studies is up to date: three out of the 4 note-taking templates should be complete for tomorrow!

CLE: MBTI Analysis report due Oct. 3. We will be exploring time management strategies on Friday. 

Tomorrow is Terry Fox Day, so please dress appropriately!

Sept. 24, 2019

Socials 8: You have ONE more day of research. By the end of class on Thursday, four of your "Entry Four" note-taking forms should be completely full of detailed information. If you haven't finished 3 out of the 4 sources, please make sure that is done before next class.
A reminder that office hours run from 7-8AM and 3:00-4:30PM every day.


English 10: Appeals and Devices paragraph (typed or handwritten) is due on Thursday. This is a practice assessment for Criterion A (analysis) and Criterion B (organization).

Reflections on Silent Reading

Sunday was almost entirely rainy, and I'd finished my chores and gone to the gym by noon. This window provided me the opportunity to do something I hadn't done in a while, despite being an English teacher: I brewed a pot of tea and spent the entire day with a novel. It was a thriller, Adrian MacKinty's novel The Chain (2019). It's a genre that reaches out from the cracked spine, grabs the sleeve of your shirt, and pulls you through each page until your reach the exciting conclusion. If reading isn't particularly engaging, I've found mysteries and thrillers to be particularly engaging. You can ask one of our librarians for recommendations.

Why do we have a school-wide silent reading practice? You've likely heard many different reasons, but here is why I stand by it, and why I ask you to bring your novels, newspapers, or graphic novels to class:

1. It can help centre us, in the middle of a busy day. I am often most calm and inspired after reading for an extended period, once I've returned back to reality after being engrossed in a novel. It reminds me of a quote from Markus Almond (2016): "Be the calm and centred version of yourself. This is the most productive and inspiring version."

2. There is ample developing research to show that our brains develop for the better when we are creating mental pictures, sequencing events, and reading between the lines (Carnegie Mellon, 2009; Goldman, 2012; Kamenetz, 2018).

3. Reading is experiential. It's not always feasible to go on a field trip to France or be a spy for a day at an escape room. When the author's writing is descriptive enough, it can feel that you're in that same space. Further, studies have shown that reading helps us develop our understanding of another person's (or character's) state of mind, and share those feelings (Rowe, 2018). This is called empathy.

Sept. 23, 2019

PLT Day is tomorrow - please ensure you are signed up. In our room, we will be working on our Social Studies Projects. Grade 10's, please meet in the library during PLT for your Personal Project meeting. 

Homework Board

English 8:
1-1:
Please attempt the crossword on Memoir Devices, as well. Bring any questions and confusion to class!

1-3: 
Please finish the remainder of our questions on "Lost and Found," for submission. Point form is fine!

         5 )    How do you feel after reading about the narrator finding Poppy’s (grandfather’s) letter? Explain.           6 )    What does the last sentence mean?

Please attempt the crossword on Memoir Devices, as well. Bring any questions and confusion to class!


CLE:
No formal homework. MBTI Analysis paper due on October 3. You will have 2 more periods for this.

Week Three Reflections

Homework Board

Socials 8: I hope you all had fun at Activity Day today! Please remember that your notes on all four sources is due at the end of class on Thursday, Sept. 26th. You are being assessed on the depth of your investigation (research) as Criterion B, so be detailed in your notes!

English 10: A reminder to please select one of the commercials from our class viewings and take notes on the story and rhetorical strategies used. Use your blue handout to guide your notes.
Optional Homework: Complete your rhetorical devices crossword and submit it on Monday for a prize!

Reminders

Sept. 18, 2019

English 8, 1-1: Please complete your "Hairs" descriptive writing questions and bring them to class on Monday.

English 8, 1-3: We did not get a chance to begin the "Hairs" activity, so it has not been assigned as homework. Sometimes classes work at different speeds, and that's okay. You might have homework on a day that the other class doesn't, and that's okay. 

CLE: No homework. We will continue on MyBlueprint next class.

School Reminders

• Grade 8's, remember tomorrow is Activity Day!
• Parents (and students) are invited to Meet the Teacher tomorrow evening. For more information, please feel free to check our school website. 

Sept. 17, 2019

Socials/ I&S8:
A reminder that the first two pages of your "It Starts With Us" project should have been completed for today. Check your Action Plan to see what you need to have done for next class. Because of Activity Day on Thursday, you only have two more sessions in the library to get all your research done. I highly suggest you take notes on 2-3 of your sources (Entry Four) by next Socials class (Sept. 24).
Need help still? Remember my office hours are 7-8, and 3-4:30 every day. Please note that Friday is a Pro-D, and morning office hours are cancelled on Wednesday due to late start (Collab).

English 10:
Your Teens of 205 is due on Thursday. We will continue with rhetorical appeals, and learn some helpful devices, on Thursday.

Sept. 16, 2019

English 8: no homework

CLE: no homework

PLT Day tomorrow!

Sept 13, 2019 & Week Two Reflections

Homework Board

Socials 8: Please complete Entry One (brainstorming) and Entry Two (your research questions). If you need help, come by our classroom before school or at lunch on Monday.


English 10: Your Teens of 205 is due on September 19 (Thursday). On Tuesday, we start our Rhetoric Unit!


Week 2 Reflections & Reminders

Sept. 12, 2019

English 8:
Please either continue/revise Tuesday’s story, or the prompts given today. Do your best to include as many elements of a story as you can! Please bring your completed, edited story to class on Monday (September 16). Hand-written or typed – either is okay!


CLE:
No homework. Thank you for your participation in class today!


School Notice: The PLT offered in our classroom will be focused on note-taking strategies. If this interests you, please register on the yellow sign-up sheet posted outside my room. Please bring the material that you want to study -- I will prepare supplies, but you will probably get the most from this session if you take notes on content relevant to you. 

Sept. 11, 2019

Homework Board

Individuals & Societies (Socials) 8: no homework

Language and Literature (English) 10 - New Media: Choose your best assignment between the lyric or news article, and complete/revise it for submission. You may submit both, if you wish, but only one of the two is required. Due Friday, Sept. 13.

Socials (Individuals & Societies) 8 - Global Issues Project

As mentioned in class, you can use a hard copy or a Google Drive for your notes. If you wish to use the Google Docs version, please make sure you make a copy -- please don't write on our template version. If everyone writes on the template, your notes will be mixed in/ potentially written over by other people.

The Google Docs version is available here. Hard copies are available in class. 

Sept. 10, 2019

CLE: Optional submission of goal setting journal, for practice assessment: you'll receive the marking rubric and see how the depth of your reflection stands on the traditional percentage-based grading system. A reminder that CLE is not an MYP course.

Socials: n/a

Sept. 9, 2019

Professional Learning Time (PLT) Tomorrow!

Tomorrow is Day 1, and PLT (held after Period 2). Remember to please sign up for a workshop/ session! All of your teachers have a yellow sign-up sheet, posted outside their classrooms. 

In our classroom is a session on organizing your time, through scheduling and action plans. All are welcome to attend. We will walk through how to "chunk" your assignments, and how to use something called time blocks. You'll also receive hard copies of some time-management resources. Curious about this session, but need to be in another workshop? Not to worry - depending on interest, we may run another session in the coming months. 

Homework Board

Individuals & Societies (Socials) 8: no homework

Language and Literature (English) 10 - New Media: Choose your best assignment between the lyric or news article, and complete/revise it for submission. You may submit both, if you wish, but only one of the two is required. Due Friday, Sept. 13. 

Have a great start to your week.

Week One Reflections

Congratulations on your first week of classes! Hopefully you are excited and ready for the year ahead. But whatever you are feeling right now, know that it is valid and normal. Let's just make sure to take care of ourselves and our neighbours, as we readjust to the school schedule (and, for some of us, get used to this new school). 

Remember that Monday (Day 2) is Photo Day, and Tuesday (Day 1) is PLT Day. For PLT Day, remember that classes start at 8:20 and end at 2:44, like usual, but will run for about an hour (to allow for the PLT block in the middle of the day). If you haven't signed up for a PLT workshop yet, make sure to do so on Monday!

English 8's: If you have not completed your puzzle piece, please try to find some time this weekend to do so. If you could bring it to class on Tuesday (the next English class), we'll make sure it's added to our wall display.

Socials 8: No homework. See you on Monday!

CLE: No homework. See you on Tuesday!

Tomorrow is a Full-Day Friday!

Grade 10's, 11's and 12's: you know the drill. Tomorrow is Day 1, and we're back to our 8:20-2:44 schedule.

Grade 8's!
Tomorrow our first regular day of classes. Your classes will go in the same order as Wednesday, but the times are different and there's a lunch break. We will also have silent reading at the start of Period 2. Your school map has the bell schedule, but the schedule is also in your agenda.

Some things to put in your bag tonight (for tomorrow):

• binder with paper
• pencil/pen
• silent reading material (novel, newspaper, graphic novel...)
• lunch (or money for the cafeteria)
• water bottle
• any other materials your teachers mentioned last day

Hope you had an amazing first Day 2 today. Get a good night's sleep and see you tomorrow.

Welcome (Back)!

Do you know that distinct smell when you come home, after camp, vacation, or a long time away?  That feeling enveloped my senses as I walked into Boyd in August. I hope you had an equally welcoming experience today, as you walked through those glass doors for homeroom. 

Our classroom is all set up and waiting for you: it is waiting to be filled with laughter, inquiry, and memories. But a reminder that, this week, before you head to class, make sure to start each day at your home room. This is for attendance, reminders, and submission of important forms.

Grade 8's, this next message is particularly for you: I was lucky enough to meet some of you today, and I look forward to meeting everyone else over the next few days. You have been polite, kind to one another, and good listeners when we went over the school structure, policies, forms, and all that paperwork. There has been a lot of information, but please remember to take things one day (or one class, one task) at a time. At times like this, Zig Ziglar's famous line comes to mind: "You don't have to start to be great, but you have to start to be great." Let's all start together.