Welcome Back

Hello parents and students and welcome back to a great school year. I will try to post here once a week what we are doing and interesting links.

Socials 11

We have finished our politics unit already and have started history. We will be studying World War 1 for the next few weeks.  I will email marks home as soon as all your emails are imported into my computer.

In the meantime, here are a few links relevant to last week.

http://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2013/09/18/Break-Residential-Schools-Dark-Legacy-Understand-Why/

http://www.vancouversun.com/news/thewest/Video+Thousands+brave+weather+reconciliation+walk/8944592/story.html

Socials 9

Due to the as yet mysterious to me Friday rotating schedule, I haven't seen this class since Wednesday and won't until next Wednesday. We are studying First Nations of Canada and will soon move to a pre-contact map of Canada.

English 9

We are reading Night by Elie Wiesel and writing personal narratives. We are going on a field trip Tuesday to the Gibsons Public Library. Don't forget your permission form!

English 8

Our class has just been split in half and we now have a wonderful class size of seventeen, and everyone now speaks up. We are in a Heroes and Idols unit, reading non-fiction accounts of Canadian heroes and learning note taking techniques. Next week we will begin paragraph writing and have a library tour.

EXAMS

English 8 B-1:  Monday, third block. Upstairs in Mr. MacDonald's room.

English 9 B-2: Monday, fourth block. Upstairs in Mr. MacDonald's room.

English 8 C-1:  Tuesday, second block. Our classroom 108.

Socials 11 Provincial Exam:  Friday, 8:45. Library.

Final English Assignment

Charming Chapbooks

Today was the last day of classes and exams start Monday. I have a lot of marking to do in the next week, then report card marks, work habits and comments to input, then more marking of provincial exams. However, I don't feel too overwhelmed this weekend because the marking consists of these beautiful little chapbooks written by my grade 8 and 9 students. 

After weeks of writing and revising poems, I booked the computer cart and showed them how to align their pages landscape wise and choose two columns.  Then how to photocopy two sided to make book like pages. I gave them card stock paper for the covers and showed them how to bind them with embroidering thread and bought. Some ran out of time and used the long armed stapler, which is OK, too.

A lot of the poem assignments are from the old classic, Rose, Where Did You Get that Red? And others are from Georgia Heard's books about teaching poetry writing.  Maybe because we read so many poems as a class, maybe because they know I am a poet, maybe because they are young and full of imagination, they took to writing and constructing poetry books naturally.

These books are pretty to have in the house, and I know it won't feel like a chore to mark them. Each has a BC English Curriculum rubric tucked inside so I won't mar the books themselves with marks. They all need them back Monday for their portfolio exam.

May 9

Socials 11

Some students came to the all candidates meeting last night and got bonus marks. Others should look for it on Coast Cable. Politics test and student vote Monday.

English 8 and 9

Students have begun writing poetry with a class found poem and their own found poem.

May 2

I am in the Okanagan at a workshop led by Lorna Crozier, one of Canada's best writer's and recent winner of the Lieutenant Governor's award for lifetime achievement in literature. On Monday I will be at Chatelech discussing evaluating writing with other teachers.

English 8 and 9

Next week we will shift from responding to poetry to writing it. I will take their notebooks in one more time for a mark, then they will continue using them to draft poems.

Socials 11

Today students watched the televised leaders' debate and Friday will research political parties. Tuesday night at 7 there is an all candidates meeting at the Gumboot in Roberts Creek and Wednesday night at 7 there is one at the Gibsons Legion. I have asked students to try to attend one of these in our study of politics. Chapter 9 questions are due Tuesday.

April 25

English 8 & 9

Our poetry unit continues amid great student enthusiasm for poetry which is heartening for their teacher. My English 9 class, in particular, is having mature and introspective class discussions about poetry.  They are filling up their Hilroy notebooks with glued-in poems, notes and paragraphs, which I am collecting this weekend for an initial, formative evaluation.  After about one more week, students will choose one of their paragraph responses to expand in a good copy, then we will start writing poems.

Social Studies 11

Test on Chapters 6, 7 and 8 is tomorrow: Friday, April 26, last block. There will be 50 multiple choice questions and two written answers.  Note for students reading this blog: Aboriginal people in Canada won the vote in 1960.  (We ran out of time in our review today.) Now we are finished history!

Next week we start our Canadian politics unit and will be participating in Student Vote activities which will liven it up a bit. The politics unit is only three chapters (and three weeks) long: 9,10, and 12.  (Law in chapter 11 is no longer in the course.)  Also, there is no essay on politics on the provincial exam, so we will just be focussing on facts.

April 18

English 8 and 9

Both grades are in a poetry unit this term, and the school has bought each a Hilroy booklet for their poetry work. It would be helpful if students brought their own glue sticks as the school ones run out quickly. Right now we are reading and responding to poems, and later students will write them. The grade 9s are using a new grade 9/10 anthology called Live Lines and the grade 8s are using a special children's edition of Arc Poetry Magazine, in addition to the old tattered anthologies published in the 1960s.  Some days students write a response to a poem. As the term goes on, they will write more. Ask your child to describe the IQIQU reading strategy and to show you his or her pocket poem.

 

Social Studies 11

We continue to focus on post-war Canada, this week on Canadian Identity. What does it mean to be a Canadian? Questions are due Monday. The next test will be on Friday, April 26. This is a fast moving, very full course. Keep up the good work, everyone!

And here is a handy glossary of terms and definitions needed for the exam.