Happy New Year!

Welcome back everyone!  I love a new year, it feels like we get to hit "reset" and we all get to start fresh!

Humanities 9

We are looking at Champlain's role in the creation of New France and the conflicts the French had with the Iroquois.  Here's the video we watched today (I finally found the easy way to insert videos!):

Socials 11

Yesterday we passed a Bill in class:  the "Work Wednesday Bill".  It was approved by the House of Commons and the Senate and it was signed by the Governor General.  So it is law now, "The Work Wednesdays Act", Wednesdays will be for work! Here's a short video on how Bills are passed in Ontario (essentially the same process as BC and Federally):



Today we are looking at political parties in BC, the Political Spectrum, and the very cool www.apathyisboring.com

Good times.

Socials 11 Provincial Exam is January 28th in the afternoon!

Long overdue update

Wow, time flies...much like the snow right now.  Here's a long overdue update for you.

2 weeks ago, Mr Warren, my student teacher started his official teaching with the grade 9s.  He's learning a lot and will be back in February for round 2. He will be teaching one Humanities class a day.

Last week I was home recovering from minor surgery.  I left my students in the capable and awesome hands of Mr Merrick, who was my student teacher last year.  I'm now back at school, almost fully recovered and very thankful to my students for their get well wishes and kindness shown towards me this week.

Now we are in our last week of school.  I've had several requests for homework packages for students leaving early on holidays or coming back later in January.  I generally don't give homework packages as they rarely get done and they take me hours to prepare, and some students have only given me a day or less notice.  We have x-block at our school for catch up time, and I'm available most lunch hours to help students.  So I will be working with students in January to help them get caught up.  Please contact our school admin if you have any questions about our school "holiday policy".

Contrary to popular belief, we are still having classes as usual this last week of school, we are teaching lessons and doing work for marks, so students should be here in class (unless they are sick or you are snowed in). 

I wish you a very wonderful holiday and a Merry Christmas (for those of you who celebrate).  Have fun and see you in January 2013!

A letter from my coworker to the parents of students at Mark R Isfeld

November 15, 2012

Dear Parents,

As we are nearing the end of November, students in English classes have been busy preparing speeches/ted talks, spoken word poetry, and music to present at Mark R. Isfeld’s Second Annual Humanities Week at their very own Model TEDx conference. This will happen on Nov. 30 at 1 pm-3:30 pm in the Multipurpose room.

Your son or daughter may be involved with this event, and if so, we are inviting you to attend on Nov 30. Just show up at the Multipurpose Room at 1 pm to see students ‘celebrate the humanities’ by presenting their hard work.

Secondly, we are hosting, the next day, (Dec. 1) our second annual TEDx conference, also in the multipurpose room. This year is looking to be an even more fabulous event than our 2011 edition as we are taking part in a worldwide TEDxWomen event that is happening in over 140 locations around the world - we will have live speakers at our event as well as live-streaming from some inspiring and intriguing speakers from the TEDxWomen mothership event in Washington, DC.

One speaker, Marianne Elliott, is the author of the book Zen Under Fire: Finding Peace in the Midst of War (Penguin NZ, coming in US & Canada, June 2013), the story of her experience as a human rights monitor in Afghanistan. She is even coming from as far away as New Zealand to speak at our school, passing up an opportunity to speak in New York at the same event!

Space is limited for Dec. 1 and you need to sign up online. All the details and the form for tickets can be found at http://tedxisfeld.com . There is no cost, but you must sign up for this part of the event.
Looking forward to seeing you there! Please email me if you have any questions.

Jodie Zuccato
English Teacher
Writing Coach
Mark R. Isfeld School

Ah, how time flies when report cards are due.  Yes, report cards are coming home Monday, please watch for them.

Humanities 9
Task 6 should be done at this time.  We will be working on tasks 7-10 next week and the week after that is assembly time for our books and then the project will be due Dec 3.  I won't take any late assignments, students will hand in what they have finished on Dec 3 and I will mark them as is.  My hope is to have all of these projects marked before the Winter Break...then no one has homework over the break, including me.

Socials 11
We are finishing up our work on The Second World War.  The notes and review packages were due today.  The test will be on Wednesday.  I will hold a study session in my room (401) on Tuesday at lunch.  I'm available every Friday at lunch for extra help.

Have a great weekend!

For Socials 11 and anyone else who is interested...

The Story of Keep Calm and Carry On

Humanities 9

We are in the middle of our Back to the Future project on Aboriginal people in Canada.  Students should be done task 1 and 2 by now.  We have an awesome guest speaker coming tomorrow to talk about clothing and baskets and another person booked for next week to talk about dog sledding and survival!  It's awesome what we are up to!  I will conference with students this week one-on-one to see how the project is going.

Socials 11
We are done the 1930s now, the test will be on Thursday, Nov 1.  In the meantime we will be looking at study methods and a movie about pre-WWII Germany, Swing Kids...if I can get it from the video store!

Humanities 9
We are embracing our research about Aboriginal People of Canada, pre-contact.  I have sent the class back in time to 100 years before contact through my classroom cupboard time machine, they should be home in time for dinner.  We will be having lots of guest speakers coming, so stay tuned.

SS11
We finished the Roaring 20s yesterday, all the chapter 3 assignments were due today.  We are now examining the Dirty Thirties.  The Chapter 3 + 4 test will be coming up soon.