March 9-13

• Business Letters were due on Tuesday - If you have been away, please submit these when you return to school

• Novel Study for Touching Spirit Bear - we finished reading the story on Friday, so if you have been away, please use the PDF  version of the book to finish reading to the end of the book.  Make sure you keep up with your response journal as well.

• We viewed the Documentary film, God Grew Tired of Us, which documents the experiences of a group of Sudanese refugees moving to the United States.  Please watch this film and answer the  related questions. 

• Earlier this week, Senator Paula Simons from Edmonton gave a speech in the Senate related to the link between Immigration and prosperity - with particular emphasis on Edmonton and Calgary.  Please watch the clip, and make note of Simons' main point as well as the evidence she provides to support her opinion.

• We are also working from chapter five in the textbook and taking notes.  

March 2-6

Business letter for Touching Spirit Bear is due on Tuesday, March 10.  You will have time to print on Tuesday, but not time to work, so please make sure your letter is complete.

YCJA Quiz is Monday, March 9.  To prepare, take a look at the following, as well as Chapter 2 in the textbook (shared in Google Drive)

• Advocacy groups - (John Howard, Elizabeth Fry) How is their focus unique?
• Fair and equitable
• Rehabilitate
• Restitution
• Reintegration 
• Extrajudicial Measures / Extrajudicial sanctions
• Counseling
• Community Service
• Criminal record
• Publication ban
• Prosecution
• Defense
• Jury
• Age range for YCJA
• Adult sentences
• Indigenous Sentencing Circle

Goals of YCJA:

• Rehabilitation
• Reintegration
• Meaningful Consequences
• Hold youth accountable for actions

Factors that determine consequences:

• Seriousness of the offense
• History of young person
• Attitude of young person
• Circumstances of young person

YPI Presentation Finalists

Thank you all for your amazing work on your presentations for the Youth Philanthropy Initiative program!!! 

Mrs. Cooke and I were very impressed by the quality of your information and your skills as presenters.  As promised, we are posting the Charities of the groups selected to be finalists.  These two groups will present at YPI finals on Tuesday, March 3rd at 1:30pm in our main gym.  A panel of five judges (outside of the grade 9 teaching team) will determine the winning presentation at this time.


The two groups selected from 9-1 and 9-2 to proceed to the finals are:

Calgary Homeless Foundation (group members KA, OL, RO, AZ, JZ)

and

Ronald McDonald House Charity (group members DF, KH, NL, KZ)


Again, a huge thank you to everyone for participating and for putting in such an impressive effort!  

Feb 17-21

Thanks to everyone who handed their "Story of" integrated projects in on Thursday.  Mrs. Cooke and I are eager to look at them together next week! :)  If you did not hand yours in, it is overdue so please hand it in ASAP. 

YPI Presentations are on Friday, Feb 28th - Please make sure you spend some time at home to get ready for this - you will have some time in Humanities also.  Two groups from the 9-1 and 9-2 group will be chosen for the finals on March 3 at 1:30pm.  

February 10-12

A reminder that there is no school for students Thursday, Friday (Teacher's Convention) or Monday (Family Day).  

The "Story of..." Science/Humanities integrated task is due on Thursday, February 20th.  Students conferenced with me this week for a progress update - notes were recorded in PowerSchool.

YPI presentations will be on Friday, February 28th!  Good luck to everyone who has made arrangements to visit their charities over the next two days!  Two groups from 9-1/9-2 will be chosen to proceed to the finals, which are on March 3rd at 1:30pm.  

January 27-30

Yellow Bowness Registration forms are due Tuesday, Jan 28th.  Please make sure you have also registered in Powerschool and that you have ensured that your yellow sheet matches Powerschool.  

Branches of Government re-test is scheduled for Thursday, Jan 30 at Lunch.  Let me know if you are interested in taking part.  

January 20-24

Tuesday is our trip to Bowness for Grade 9 Tours.  You will get your yellow course recommendation form afterward.  Please see this powerpoint presentation for instructions on how to use PowerSchool to make your course selections.  If you need help, or need to use a school computer to do this, please let me know and we will make time for you to do this.  Yellow forms need to be signed and returned by Tuesday, January 28th (one week today).    PowerSchool will close after this time and no changes to course selection will be able to be made.



Federal Government Quiz on Thursday - please be familiar with the three branches of government, the roles within the three branches of government, as well as the key features of each role (i.e. what is the role of a Cabinet Minister?)

December 13

I will be attending a meeting at Bowness High School today, so Ms. Pedersen will be in for me.  You will be working on:

1. reading two chapters from Marrow Thieves:  "Loss" and "The Circle" (use ebook on laptop or ipad mini)
2. SS Questions 14-18
3. Analogy task - due December 18

You will have access to a laptop cart all morning, so make sure your time is productive! 

December 10

Students are currently working on the Federal Government Analogy task.  This project has a written component as well as a visual one.  It is due on December 18 (we will share using a Gallery Walk format).  Please refer to the task, as well as the checklist/rubric to make sure you have completed the project fully. 

Cell Phone Student Survey

Please complete the Cell Phone Student Survey before December 13!

December 1

Business Letters are due on Wednesday.  Please make sure you have used the checklist provided to ensure your writing is edited and reflects your best work.   

November 18-21

Collective Rights - This week we looked at the history of Métis rights in Alberta.  We captured key events and legislation on a timeline.  Please make sure your timeline is completed by Tuesday, Nov 26.

The test for the Collective Rights topic on Friday, November 29.  The following list can be used to help review key concepts:

November 12-15

This week we are looking at how the Charter of Rights and Freedoms protects the rights of Canada's two official language groups.  If you were absent at all this week, please refer to the document share with you in Google Drive titled "Anglophone and Francophone Rights" and complete according to the following schedule:
Tuesday, Nov 12:  Task 1  (Timeline of dates)
Wednesday, Nov 13: Task 2 (murals in Quebec City)
Thursday, Nov 14:  Task 3 (Bill 101) and Task 4 (conflicting articles)
Friday, Nov 15: Task 5 (Les Fransaskois - Gravelbourg, Sask)
All five tasks should be completed by Monday, November 18.

For our novel study of Marrow Thieves, we have read/are reading the following chapters this week:

Wednesday:  'Haunted in the Bush' & 'A Plague of Madness'

Remember, a link to the ebook was sent to you via your CBE gmail account.  

Take Our Kids to Work Day

Take Our Kids to Work Day, Nov. 6

Take Our Kids to Work Day is Nov. 6. It involves students in Grade 9 spending the day in the workplace of a parent, relative, friend or volunteer host. It is not a CBE event; if parents want to take their student to participate in this day, they need to report the absence.

Students learn about a variety of careers, industries and sectors.

Area I IB Presentations

October 29

We continue to learn about Collective Rights in Humanities - Yesterday we looked at a scenario based on actual events in Canadian history.  Today, we will deconstruct the scenario and connect it to terms in Treaty 6 and Treaty 7.  

We are also working on Dramatic Group Performances of the extended endings you wrote for "Miriam" or "The Landlady".  Some groups chose an ending that they particularly enjoyed, while other groups decided to create a collaborative script using bits and pieces of different students work.  Students are encouraged to think of different strategies (music, sound effects, etc) to engage their audience and help establish their intended mood/tone.  Each student should have a speaking role, however not all speaking roles need to be equal in length.  Groups will share these performances on Thursday, Oct 31!  

Photo Retakes on October 28!

A reminder that Photo Retakes are on Monday, October 28!

October 25

Today students had an entire period to write their Extended Ending draft.  If you did not finish this, please make sure you do so for homework over the weekend.  If you are able to print a copy of your ending at home, please do.  If you don't have access to a printer, not to worry, you can print a copy at the start of class on Monday.  We will be working with your drafts on Monday so it is important you are done this stage.

If you were on the SEAs trip, you are not expected to have this done.  You will have another role in this task.

October 24

This week we have been reading two short stories that each have quite an eerie mood to them.  'Miriam' by Truman Capote and 'The Landlady' by Roald Dahl have different plots but certainly share some similarities.  For example, both have rather abrupt endings.  We have begun the process of writing an extended ending for either story (your choice).  

Your task: Roald Dahl chose to end “The Landlady” very abruptly - Based on foreshadowing clues, we can certainly guess that things didn’t look good for Billy,  but since Dahl chose to end the story where he did, we don’t know for sure. Similarly, in “Miriam”, we aren’t sure what happened after the strange reappearance of the young girl when the story ended.   Your task is to write an extended ending. Your ending should be in the 250-500 word range.  You may type or write by hand.   As much as possible, stay true to Roald Dahl’s/Truman Capote’s writing style, characterizations of the Landlady/Miriam and the story’s tone/mood.   Use dialogue and descriptive language, and show how things ultimately turn out for Billy Weaver or Mrs. H.T. Miller.

You will have time in class on Friday to develop your extended ending and should have a draft ready to share for Monday's Humanities class!

Field Trip to Wordfest tomorrow!

Our field trip to listen to author Cherie Dimaline is tomorrow! We will leave at around 9 and be back by lunch.  There are still several students who need to bring their forms back. Students who don’t have their forms returned will be assigned to another classroom to complete an alternate assignment.