Saturday, January 30, 2016

Grade 8s

I have shared with you two documents now: the first is the blank essay framework, and the second is a framework I completed for the essay: "Shreds of Humanity" - minus the quotes (see step 3 below).  

1. Open each file, make a copy of each one, re-name them, and they are yours to keep.

2. For the time being, don't go hog-wild making frameworks; I have an interesting idea about how to proceed and want to run it by M. Punnoose this weekend before letting the cat out of the bag.  

3. What can you do this weekend? Read my S.O.H. framework and add quotes to the 9 ideas (I had to leave you SOMETHING to do...)

I'm hoping to make the essay-writing experience even MORE enjoyable.  

Mr. Le Moine

Friday, January 29, 2016

8
ENGLISH
1. We have now begun our essay unit.  To assuage student stress, I have broken the task of writing frameworks into chunks, and given specific, staggered dates for them to be handed in.  Each student was given a 1/2 sheet entitled: "Essay Framework Tracker" today, and we wrote the first three dates for the frameworks on the paper.  You are being asked to add your initials to the sheet when your child has finished his or her framework and its ready to be handed in (on time, presumably).  The first one is due next Thursday.

Again, to alleviate stress and to save time, I have sent a blank essay framework entitled "7/8 Blank English Essay Framework" to all students through their gapps account.  STUDENTS: be sure to open the file, make a copy of it, and THEN make your edits.  Otherwise, you will be working on the same file...

What can your child be doing this weekend to prepare for the essays?
1. Brainstorm a list of potential ideas for the first three essay topics
2. Sort through the ideas and group them into possible paragraph headings ("the three bubbles"
3. Re-read (scan) The Giver.  Familiarity with the novel will go a long way.

Procrastinating frameworks will make for a very upset student: I have done my best to break it into manageable chunks, and your job is to begin immediately.

MATH
1. The unit test will be divided over two days: on Tuesday, students will be given tables of data and they will need to make deductions and inferences.  We spent a considerable amount of time today examining how to read a table and what conclusions could be drawn from the numbers.  This can be easily practised at home by looking a Stats Canada's Webpage and selecting tables that are of interest to your child.

2. The second test will take place on Wednesday, where students will do a quick reflection question based on the findings from their scatterplot project followed by a question on bias/reliability/validity.  Finally, they will need to be able to take a set of values and calculate %, decimals, and degrees (for a pie chart - they won't actually make the chart).


7

ENGLISH
1. 4 more seminars to go.  


MATH
1. 10.2 homework is due Tuesday.  The unit test 1.5, 10.1, and 10.2 will take place over two days: Wednesday and Thursday.

Thursday, January 28, 2016

Adrienne Clarkson Connections

Reminder from York Region Public Health

Dear parents of female Grade 8 students and parents of all Grade 7 students:

This is a reminder of the upcoming immunization clinic planned for our school.

York Region Public Health will be visiting our school on Friday, January 29th, 2016 to offer immunization against meningococcal disease (grade 7 students) and HPV human papillomavirus (grade 8 female students who were not immunized November 13 2015) as part of the school immunization clinic program. If you would like your child to be immunized, ensure York Region Public Health has your completed consent form on or before the day of the clinic. If you have not already mailed in a completed consent form to York Region Public Health, you can download and print an immunization consent form from the School Immunization Clinics page on york.ca. The completed consent form can be sent to school with your child the day of the clinic.

8

Math

1. 1st half of the review page given today.

English

2. 7 seminars left.  

7

Math

No homework!

English

Seminars (10 left): read pages 83-97 again for the quiz

Wednesday, January 27, 2016

Tomorrow is our last House Planning Session prior to filming (next week).

8

Math:
1. 5.6: 1b, 2ab, 3 or 5 graph on google sheets, 4abc

English:
1. Seminars are almost done!

7
Math:
1. 10.1: 1, 2, 3, 5, 9abcde
2. Watch flipped learning video here  This is the lesson showing how to derive the algebraic expression from a constant growth pattern

English:
1. Seminars continue tomorrow.

Tuesday, January 26, 2016

Hmmmm.....what is this?



8

MATH
1. page 214-215 #3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 10
2. page 216 #3, 4, 6abd


ENGLISH
1. Seminars: see Friday's blog for the schedule
2. Continue adding quotes (page #) for the essay topics


7

MATH
we will do the work in class tomorrow
ENGLISH
Seminars continue...See Friday's blog for the schedule.

Monday, January 25, 2016

Oh, behave....





8

Math:
1. For tomorrow: 4-12 line rhyming poem (cheesy) about mean, median, and mode
2. For Wednesday: page 214-215 #3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 10

English:
1. I gave back the westjet video media response today.  Please take some time to look it over with your child.


7
Math:
1. I handed back 3 tests today (actually, 1 test split over three days).  There are 3 separate grades, so please take some time to look them over with your child.

Friday, January 22, 2016

8


ENGLISH
1. Seminars on:
Monday: 26 - 61: Kimia, Humza, Daniella, Nora, Yasmin, Rachel
Tuesday: 62 - 97: Mia, Josh, Justin, Aniq, Catherine, Ronan
Wednesday: 98 - 133: Julia, Melodie, Sam, Fion, Super-Pauline, Angie
Thursday: 134 - 169: Aria, Ethan, Val, Melina, Darya

Don't forget: there is a quiz prior to each of the sections presented...




MATH
1. We finished our DM unit and did some reflecting on how we would improve our surveys.  Please ask your child to explain to you the iceberg analogy and how it pertains to survey creation.



7


ENGLISH
1. Seminars on:
Monday: pages 23-37: (Isabelle, Nusha, and Nicole).  
Tuesday: 38 - 52 (Amber, Ainnan, Kaitlyn).
Wednesday: 53-82 (Bella, Marko, Destin, Armaan, Atina, Johnny); 
Thursday: 83-112 (Maya, Eileen, Radin, Aydin, Chavae, Karren); 
Friday: 113-142 (Catalina, Helen, Helia, Ryan, Tian)

Don't forget: there is a quiz prior to each of the sections presented...

MATH
1. Page 30-31: 1, 2, 3, 6, 8, 9

Thursday, January 21, 2016

SOooooooooo deeeeep.  Like, Bill and Ted deep.



Transfer forms and registration forms due January 27th. 8

ENGLISH
1.  Seminars begin tomorrow: Mircea, Alex, and Xinye.  The rest of the class should be re-reading pages 8-25 to be prepared for the quiz and the presentations.  Monday will be Kimia, Humza, and Daniella (pages 26-43).

MATH
1. Today, we printed out the scatterplot graphs (including the table of values).  If you didn't get a chance to print it out, please do so tonight.  As well, a couple of people needed to re-start, so please look at your GAPPS email to see if you have 1-2 more surveys to fill out.  Thanks!


7

ENGLISH
1. Seminars: tomorrow.  Every student will write a small quiz on the pages being covered PRIOR to the seminars (pages 8 - 25).  For those who read the book ages ago, I recommend you re-read these pages tonight to familiarize yourself with the content.   Tomorrow's participants are: Nathan, Kyle, and Jaimie.  Monday will be: Isabelle, Nusha, and Nicole.


MATH
1. Finally done the 3 tests.  After an informal survey of the class, the feeling was that spread over three days was too much (writing a test every day), and that splitting a test into two parts would be preferable.

Wednesday, January 20, 2016

PARENTS!  Please read the big, bold, red writing below (I made a mistake and would like to clarify the dates - thanks, Karim for pointing this out to me!)


Transfer forms and registration forms due January 27th. 




Ski/Snowboard/Tube forms: due today!





Parents of 7/8 students: during English today, I gave each class 20-25 minutes to work on their seminars.  Prior to beginning the task,  I had each student estimate, then write down, a reasonable goal of what they could achieve within 25 minutes, rather than: "I will work as hard as I can within the time given." As a result, we had many satisfied customers: students were expressing how they were much more productive by focusing on the tasks that needed to be done, rather than the time they had to do them.  If you have had similar experiences in your work, please take some time to share them with your child.  


8





ENGLISH

1.  Seminars begin on Friday: Mircea, Alex, and Xinye.  The rest of the class should be re-reading pages 8-25 to be prepared for the quiz and the presentations.  Monday will be Kimia, Humza, and Daniella (pages 26-43).







MATH

1. Watch the flipped learning video describing how to format and tally results for the Google Sheets Survey: here


7





ENGLISH
1. Seminars: this coming Friday: .  Every student will write a small quiz on the pages being covered PRIOR to the seminars (pages 8 - 25).  For those who read the book ages ago, I recommend you re-read these pages on Thursday night to familiarize yourself with the content.   Friday's participants are: Nathan, Kyle, and Jaimie.  Monday will be: Isabelle, Nusha, and Nicole.







MATH
1. Final test in the 6.1 - 6.4 chapter.  Tomorrow is communication.  Tonight, review formulas (including HOW we came up with them) and how to find a missing side.

Tuesday, January 19, 2016

Course selection and registration forms due January 27th.  

Ski/Snowboard/Tube forms: due tomorrow!

8

MATH:

1. Complete all surveys by Thursday.  As you examine the results from your survey, you can do a couple of tasks at home in advance of Thursday's class.

a.  You will need to calculate each student's score for the x column and the y column /50.  One way to make this easier is to group the "x" questions together on the spreadsheet, and do the same with the "y" questions.  To move a column, click on the letter at the top of the column (see image below)

A hand symbol will appear, and you can then drag the column to the left or the right (depending on where you want to group the x or y values). 

b. Now that you have all the "x" value columns together, you can insert a column to the right of the last value, entitle it "X Total" and then give a score for each student /50. 

ENGLISH:

1. Seminars: this coming Friday: Mircea, Alex, and Xinye.  Every student will write a small quiz on the pages being covered PRIOR to the seminars (pages 8 - 25).  For those who read the book ages ago, I recommend you re-read these pages on Thursday night to familiarize yourself with the content.  


7

MATH
1. Part two of the 6.1 - 6.4 measurement test will take place tomorrow.  This part of the test will be knowledge and thinking: students will be given four shapes and they will need to calculate the area and the perimeter for each shape.  Review the formulas for triangles, rectangles, trapezoids, parallelograms, and irregular shapes.  

ENGLISH
1. Seminars will begin this week, so if your child still hasn't finished The Outsiders, it's time to cram.  

Monday, January 15, 2016

Grade 8 Parents: a number of students didn't complete the math homework given on Thursday - even with my stellar blog update on Saturday morning.  Many excuses later (I was busy, I had a practice), they were behind and needed to catch up.  After speaking with some former grade 8s who came for a presentation today, the overwhelming comment they made was that they have an average of 2 hours of homework a night.  This will be a major shift for the ACPS grade 8s - this is worthy of a discussion with students who have had chronic problems with homework completion.  


Course selection and registration forms due January 27th.  

MATH:

1. We will have the laptops again tomorrow morning to respond to the surveys sent to us.

ENGLISH:

1.  I gave a sample seminar today for The Giver.  As well, your child was given the date for his/her seminar.  She should start preparing immediately as the first three will take place this Friday.


7

MATH:

1. I have decided to split the unit test into three parts.  Tomorrow, they will have an application question based on the first question from the review sheet.

ENGLISH:

1. Please bring your Outsiders book tomorrow!

Saturday, January 16, 2016

8

CAREER CRUISING

Parents, I spent a couple of hours with my son this weekend going over course selection, discussing long term goals, strengths, areas of difficulty, and finding the best fit for the choices available.  

If you're looking for a place to start, take a look at the following pages:

For Langstaff, click here

For Thornlea, click here



MATH

Project: If you're having some trouble coming up with two categories that could be linked, think about your day to day experiences: what affects your mood? Your general happiness?  For example, when people eat, how much they eat, what types of food they eat?  As well, sleep has a huge impact on us: how many hours? Is it good sleep or broken?   Whatever you choose, remember that this is a causal relationship: in my example, I said that coming on time has an impact on how you do in school.

The 10 questions are due Monday, so make sure you have them typed or handwritten.  If you want to save some time, you could type them on a "pages" document in your google apps for education.  That way, on Monday, you can copy and paste them into the google forms document you will create.  

I hope this helps!

Thursday, January 14, 2016

Have a wonderful long weekend!

8
MATH:

1.  Hypothesis and 10 (or 15) questions completed by Monday; these may be typed or hand written.  We have the computers for 3 periods next week during which time you will create the form, (day 1), submit it and respond to the 25 surveys sent your way (day 2) and receive your responses and graph them (day 3).

ENGLISH:

1. Sensory journey: Yasmin's group (Monday); Kimia's group (Tuesday); Nora's group (Thursday).   Today's presentation was pretty fantastic: constantly evolving, funny script, defined characters, and fluid execution.  There can always be more sound f/x...


7

MATH:
1. The review sheet given out today is homework for Monday.

ENGLISH:
1.  PSAs will wrap up on Monday.

7

Math: 

1. Two new flipped learning videos.  One for 6.3 found here:  Trapezoid.  And the second for 6.4 here: Irregular Shapes

2. Homework: page 236 #1, 2, 4, 6

ENGLISH:
1. Finish the Outsiders by tomorrow.  

2. PSA presentations continue tomorrow


8

Math: 
1.  page 203: 2, 3cde, 4 - explain your choice (don't create it), 5

2. Fion created a new flipped learning video describing how to create a 10˚ angle (her dad taught her how to do it).  Check it out: 10˚

English: 
1. Sensory journeys begin tomorrow.  Finally!

2. Finish The Giver by tomorrow.

Tuesday, January 11th, 2016

Grade 8 students going to Langstaff: you have received your registration forms (today), and they must be handed in to me by Tuesday, January 26th.  


8  

English: two more rehearsals (tomorrow) for sensory journeys.  Then we begin....


7 

Math: we have finished 6.3 and are about to move on to 6.4.  Please take some time to review "isolating the variable" on the worksheet I gave you should you be having difficulties.

Saturday, January 9, 2016

Grade 8 Reminder: a small number of students did not have their parents sign the permission form for Monday's field trip to Thornlea for the author visit.  Don't forget!

Friday, January 8, 2016

Myparkspass  click on link to watch last year's winner...


8
 Math
1. 5.2: we are examining deduction and inference.  Homework: p. 197: 1, 2, 3, 6, 7

English
1. Finish The Giver by next Thursday.  

2. Video media analysis test on Monday.  Here are the conventions (just in case you left your notes at school): camera angles, shot sizes, narrative, narrator, focal point, music, lighting, choice of colours, contrast, and turning point.  Remember: identify the convention used, give the specific moment in the video when it is used, and explain how it contributes to mood and/or audience engagement.

3. Sensory Journeys begin on Tuesday!


7

Math 
1. 6.3: 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9

English
1. Finish reading The Outsiders by next Thursday.

2. PSA: over the weekend, complete the framework as we will begin our presentations on Wednesday (Jan. 13).  

3.  Book talk summative rubric came home today.  Please take some time to look at it with your child.

FIELD TRIP!
A permission form went home today for a field trip we will be taking on Monday, Jan. 11th.  We will be going to Thornlea for an author's visit (Eric Walters).  Please hand in the permission form by January 8th.  Oh, that's tomorrow.  Sorry for the quick turnaround.


GRADE 9 COURSE SELECTION
Parents: here's some clarification about the course selection process.  Students should be making their course selections for their home french immersion school UNLESS you are planning a transfer.

If your child is planning to TRANSFER from their home french immersion school (the default school on Career Cruising), you must hand in to me a transfer form by Wednesday, January 27th.   This will give time for the "transfer" school to approve/reject the application, and make appropriate changes to Career Cruising.  If your child's transfer is approved, in the week after Feb. 1st, the home school box on Career Cruising will change from the original school to the transfer school.  At that point, your child can then pick the correct courses (pre-AP, IB, HPA...) offered by the transfer school.

Answers to some parent FAQs:
1.  Students CANNOT transfer from Thornlea to Langstaff and stay in the French Immersion Program.  They can transfer to Langstaff, but only in the English stream.

2.  Students CAN transfer from Langstaff to Thornlea and stay in the French Immersion program.

3. I am an Aries.  It's pretty obvious.

4. The Senators are in a bit of a slump, but they will pick up - like they always do - in the last month of the season.


Grade 8

Math

1. We will be doing a "checkpoint" quiz tomorrow.  Be familiar with the concepts of validity, bias, reliability, census, and sample.  As well, think about how each of the terms has an impact on the other (e.g. bias has an impact on reliability...).  We had a riveting conversation today about all of the conditions that need to be met in order to have a reliable, unbiased, valid survey (it's actually quite hard to do).  




Grade 7

Bullying PSA: to begin, search on Google: "Canadian Bullying Statistics" which will provide a bevy of websites hosting the necessary stats.  Then, make a hypothesis about the bullying statistic found: why do you think it is this way?

Let's look at Chavae's example from today: she found that the highest percentage of reported bullying incidents in Canada occurred in Ontario, Quebec, and BC.  She then brought up a second statistic, the rate of urbanization in Canada, and drew a link between the two: with increased urbanization (all three of these provinces are home to the largest urban centers in Canada) comes an increase in internet connectivity (Chavae was just about to pull up a third stat to show this), and with increased internet use, you will find an increase in bullying incidents (lots of data to support this).

Math: 

1. 6.2

Wednesday, January 6, 2016

If you have never seen his show, you might not get this.  For those who spent time mesmerized by his voice, I bet you're smiling.



Grade 8:  CAREER CRUISING

Login to Career Cruising - to log in to the YRDSB Career Cruising, click on the link: CAREER.  Then, have your child enter his/her username (their 9-digit school code), followed by the password THEY created last year.  If your child has forgotten his/her password, click on the hypertext: "Forgot your username and password" right next to the login button.  If that doesn't work, have your child come and see me during recess and I will log in to the administrator site and retrieve the password.  


Grade 8

Math: 

Comment on the Matchmaker survey (bias, validity, and reliability).  No need to write a paragraph - point form will suffice.  

English:

1.  Read. The. Giver.

2. Darya's group sensory journey rehearsal tomorrow.  Bring all props and effects.


Grade 7

Math: 

1.  We began our interviews today for the Data Management project.  A small minortiy of students came "empty handed" (no survey responses), but these students were able to at least speak to the questions they created, the purpose of the survey, and how they would make changes to the survey going forward.  

2.  The new unit we're exploring is on area, and the homework for tonight is page 219, #1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 8, 10.  Students had 40 minutes to work on this, so it should be just about done.

English

1. Read The Outsiders (due by the end of next week)

2. Look for the two statistics for the Egghead PSA on Statistics Canada.

Tuesday, January 5, 2016

Oh....Steve....


Grade 8s: make sure you are having discussions about Career Cruising (and course selection).  By January 25th I need to know your choice for high school (if not your home school French Immersion).

8 

MATH:

5.1 page 189 questions 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8

ENGLISH

1. Continue reading the Giver.  You should be done the novel by the end of next week.

2. We are going to practice the media response work a bit more before the test (likely Monday).  



7 

MATH
1. Survey project is due tomorrow.  Today, I was a little surprised to find some students hadn't received their responses from their peers, let alone even create the survey.  Please have a chat with your child and ask the following questions (and look at the time stamp!):
1. Hey, can you show me the questions you are asking your peers?
2. Hey, can you show me how many responses you have received?
3. Hey, why are there so few responses? When did you submit this? 
4. Hey, can you show me the completed framework? M. Le Moine says he'll be using this as the basis for the interview tomorrow.
5. Hey, can you show me the graph you have decided to create based on your findings?


ENGLISH

1.  Continue reading The Outsiders.  You should be done the novel by the end of next week.

2.  Book talks are just about done...

Monday, January 4th, 2016

Welcome back!

Poetry Club meets tomorrow.  

Following a decent PSA on texting and driving, the grade 7s and I had a lively discussion about how pervasive this problem is.  One student was bold enough to state: "It's ironic that our parents can confiscate our phones for inappropriate use, but we can't confiscate theirs while they are texting and driving."  Your children demonstrated remarkable maturity, sensitivity, and a dash of intolerance around this subject, and I wouldn't be surprised if they were on high alert.  Just saying...


8

1.  Show your context and commentary test to your parents. 

2.  We did our final formative video response today (WestJet video).  On Wednesday, we will be doing our summative task: students will watch a brief video and comment on the conventions used.  Have your child show you a list of the conventions discussed in class.  Finally, finish the writing from class today.   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xk2TC0BBdHg

3.  Now that the break is over, I can officially ask students to BEGIN reading The Giver.  Get on it.

4.  I heard "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" is a great film to watch with children as it reinforces the notion of a good story: an ordinary man thrust into an extraordinary situation.



7

1.  Show your context and commentary test to your parents.  There will be a re-test tomorrow for anyone achieving less than 2+/3- tomorrow!

2. Submit your survey to 10 peers.  Time was given today to do so...

3.  Find the spreadsheet file on Google Apps for education that displays the results of your peers submissions.  The interviews for this project begin on Wednesday.

4.  Book talks continue tomorrow (I couldn't bring myself to ask these sleepy kids to present today).

5.  Now that the break is over, I can officially ask students to BEGIN reading The Outsiders.  Get on it.