Day Eighteen

The Inside Ride event happened today! Our school raised more than $8500.

From what I understand from your supply teachers, everyone worked well to complete:
1) Pay It Forward questions
2) Classroom Charter of Rights and Freedoms

Please hand these in asap!

Current events scheduled for Monday: Jon, Neil, and Mike!

Day Seventeen

Things are continuing to evolve in Libya. Keep you eye on cbc and bbc news for updates!



Thanks to Grahame and Josh for their current events today. Great topics! The powerpoint presentations really help us to follow your presentations. Tomorrow's current events will be moved to Monday (Jon, Mike, Neil) because of the Inside Ride event.



For the first half of the period students worked on their Creating a Classroom Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Please remember to have a corresponding responsibility for every right/freedom. Read the instructions very carefully...



And we FINALLY finished the rest of Pay It Forward. A few tears were shed ...



Both the Classroom Charter activity and Pay It Forward questions will be due at the end of tomorrow's class!

Day Sixteen

Guest Speaker: Community Police Office Rob Delvillar

Theme: Your rights

Day Fifteen

Current events presentations.

Just or Unjust worksheets ... (hand in your responses!)

Introduction to Charter rights (scenarios)

Time for us to meet P.E.T. (Pierre Elliott Trudeau)

Days Thirteen and Fourteen

Pay It Forward

Link to film:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33mE9i9ehV4

Free Hugs video link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vr3x_RRJdd4

Current Events scheduled for Tuesday: Jordan and Carrie

Day Twelve

A number of people seem to be having trouble getting to class on time... Feel free to request a 6 am wake-up call from yours truly!

Current events today: Alex and Ashling. Well done! Tomorrow: no Current Events presentations are assigned.

1) Age-based legal milestones assignment

2) Course selection process for the next school year

3) Just or Unjust scenarios, questions, and answers (to be continued tomorrow)

Day Eleven!

Thank you to Cassandra and Marisa for their current events presentations! Tomorrow Alex and Ashling are scheduled to present. Here is an interesting story from Italy:
www.cbc.ca/world/story/2011/02/15/berlusconi-judge.html

Today you completed your Island Simulation Reflection papers. For those of you who did not hand them in, please complete for homework!

Roving Reporter Assignment - Due Friday!
Congratulations to those of you who completed your first interview during class today!

Day Ten

Happy Valentines Day!

Please remember to bring your OPTION SHEETS to class tomorrow! They need to be signed by one parent/guardian.

Thank you to our three Current Events presenters today. They were very engaging stories...

Tomorrow we will hear from Cassandra and Marisa!

We (finally) made it through the final Island Presentations. I want everyone to think about what parts of their island government were autocratic and/or democratic. We will do the final task tomorrow...

Here's a little story about the April 29 'Royal' wedding:

http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2011/02/14/prince-harry-best-man-royal-wedding.html

Day Nine

President Mubarack of Egypt resigned today! To read more, please check the bbc links on the right side of the blog.

Thank you to those groups who presented their Island Simulations today. Well done! A variety of (different) ideologies have been represented thus far. The remaining groups will present on Monday.

Current events presentations planned for Monday: Zach, Abby, Paige!

Day Eight

Thank you to Savannah for reminding me that I did not update the blog this afternoon!

Congratulations to those of you who passed your Canadian Citizenship Test this morning! Some of you need to pay a bit more attention in your history and geography classes... !

Please be reminded that you will be presenting your Island Simulations in tomorrow's class.

Savannah and Zach will be presenting their Current Events assignment.

Keep a watchful eye on the situation in Egypt ... http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/

Day Seven

Day Seven and we are rolling along!

To start the class, I introduced you to a your Current Events Assignment. Each of you will present an event happening somewhere in the world (the story can be local, national, or global). The trick is linking your story to the interests of people in the class ... why is the students important for our class to learn about? I will post the first names of our volunteers on the blog the day before their scheduled presentation date. Don't forget to hand in the assignment sheet after you do your presentation.

For the rest of the period, groups worked on their Island Simulation project. After a (unanimous?) vote ... you all convinced me that you will need tomorrow's (Thursday) class to prepare your presentations. So please be prepared for Friday!

Interesting story of the day:

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/montreal/story/2011/02/09/pq-kirpan-measure.html

Day Six

I handed out a revised copy of the course selection sheet. There was one addition (grade 11 Fashion), so if you're not planning on taking that course ... then you didn't need a new sheet!

Today we started on our Island Simulation group project. You were asked to get yourselves into groups (with people that won't cause too much of a distraction for you!) and begin planning out your society. You're asked to consider things like type of government, lengths of terms for leaders, laws, law enforcement, citizen participation, etc. We will continue this project tomorrow ... please plan to present your work on Thursday!

Interesting Canadian news story to check out:
www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2011/02/08/georgian-luger-father.html

Day Five

Course selection materials were handed out to all students. Please go over the course information (blue sheet) with your parents and complete the white form together. All course descriptions can be found on the Acton course website. We will be inputting your course selections next Wednesday in our class!

Four Corners Debate

Completed our Types of Government lecture. Please don't lose these sheets ... you will need them for the next assignment!

Just for fun, have a look at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R55e-uHQna0

Day Four

Review of 3 Ways to Make Decisions

Group activity: Straw Challenge! How did your group work together: democratically, autocratically, or collaborately/consensually??

Lecture and note-taking
Topic: Types of Governments Around the World

Please keep an eye on the situation in Egypt. What will be the situation come Monday??

Day Three

The snow has finally stopped ... now we need to get down to work!

Recap the current situation in Cairo, Egypt

Board note: 3 Ways to Make Decisions (democratic, autocratic, collaborative/consensual)
We discussed the definitions, advantages, and disadvantages for each

For the second half of the class, we went to the cafeteria to hear the Inside Ride presentaion.
Sign up your team at the following link:
www.theinsideride.com/calendar/academics-events.php

Day Two

Snow day!

Enjoy...