The Holidays are Here!

So the Winter Break is finally here! Take this time to rest and relax. Don't forget, though, that your Geography assignment will be due the second week back after the break. 

Happy holidays!

High School FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions:

 

Q:        My child has applied to one of the Regional programs in YRDSB (IB, ARTS, Bill Crothers), do we still have to a complete a Maple High School Registration Form?

A:        If you have already received confirmation of acceptance into a Regional program, please inform the Grade 8 teacher, so they can remove the child’s name from the list of outstanding Registration Forms.  If you arewaiting to receive an acceptance into a Regional program, please complete the Maple High School Registration Form, and attach a note to the front of the form indicating “Has applied to IB/ARTS/BCSS-waiting for notification”.  This will ensure that, if the application to the regional program is not successful, your child will have a space at Maple High School.

 

Q:        My child will not attend Maple High School, but will attend a private school, a Catholic school, or a school in another board due to a move of residence, do we still have to a complete a Maple High School Registration Form?

A:        If you are moving out of the Maple High School boundary area, or to another board of education, or if you have registered your child at one of the private or Catholic schools in the area, please inform the Grade 8 teacher, so they can remove the child’s name from the list of outstanding Registration Forms.  If you are moving, we recommend that you contact the school in the new location as soon as possible to determine the requirements for registration at that school.

 

Q:        I wish to transfer my child to another YRDSB school outside of the boundary area I live in.

A:         Complete the Maple High School Registration Form, and the “Application for Student Transfer From One York Region School To Another” Form (available from the Main Office of the elementary school your child currently attends).  These two forms must be received by Maple High School no later than Friday, February 3, 2017, so that the application can be included in the board wide transfer process that occurs during the week of February 6 – 8, 2017.

 

Course Selection – Important Dates:

 

Friday, February 3, 2017                   Completed Registration Form and Application for Student Transfer Form due to Grade 8 teacher for students and parents requesting a transfer to another YRDSB school – these must be received by Maple High School no later than February 3, 2017.

 

Friday, February 3, 2017                   Completed Registration Forms due to Grade 8 teacher for all students planning to attend Maple High School – these must be received by Maple High School no later than February 3, 2017.

 

Wednesday, February 8, 2017          Date by which all transfer requests will have been considered by the YRDSB, and students contacted.

 

Monday, February 13, 2017              Earliest date that students may submit their Course Selections in Career Cruising.

 

Friday, February 24, 2017                 Due date for Course Selections to be SUBMITTED in Career Cruising for all students attending YRDSB schools.

 

Wednesday, March 1, 2017              Signed copy of Course Selections due to Grade 8 teacher

 

As a quick reminder, the Course Selection visits are scheduled for:

·        Monday, January 9 – Discovery (morning) & Teston (afternoon)

·        Thursday, January 12 – Maple Creek (afternoon)

·        Friday, January 13 – Mackenzie Glen (morning)

·        Monday, January 16 – JA Gibson (afternoon)

·        Tuesday, January 17 – Michael Cranny (afternoon)

Helping Heroes

Please remember to bring in non-perishable donations for our Helping Heroes! The last day is December 9th!

Basic Camera Shots

Basic Camera Shot types:

Extreme Wide Shots (EWS) act to establish the area.

Wide Shots (WS) show the entire person or area.  They’re great for establishing the scene and allow for good action of the characters.  Sometimes this is known as the long shot.

Medium Shots (MS) frame the subject from the waste up.  This is the most common shot and allows for hand gestures and motion.

Medium Close Ups (MCU) shots show the subject in more detail and are often framed from just below the 

shoulders to the top of the head.

Close Ups (CU) show a particular part of your subject.  For people this usually means the shot frames just the head!

Extreme Close Ups (ECU) are much tighter close-up shots in which you get detail greater than the human eye might be able to normally perceive.  An example of this shot might be of the mouth and eyes together

Credit: http://www.thewildclassroom.com/wildfilmschool/gettingstarted/camerashots.html

School Cash Online

The permission forms for our upcoming trip to Maple High can be found on School Cash Online. Please ensure that it's completed before Monday. 

A few reminders...

Please don't forget to update your online portfolio with your Wonder Presentation. 

You may also choose to start adding other work that you're particularly proud of into your digital portfolio (e.g., math quizzes and tests, geography projects...etc). Also, your Wonder Book and blog are due on Friday.

And don't forget to bring in newspapers to class. We still need a whole bunch more!

Picture Day

This is just a heads up that on Monday, October 17th, we're having our picture day. Mark it in your calendar!

This is a busy, busy week

Hey 8s -- you have a lot of work this week so let's not fall behind:

1. Your Wonder Presentations are happening THIS Thursday and Friday (October 6 and 7)

2. Your Geography Presentations are taking place THIS Thursday and Friday as well (6 and 7)

3. Your math test is THIS Thursday, October 6th as well.

...Welcome to Grade 8! :)

High School Information: Maple, Westmount and Bill Crothers

Those of you who are interested in Bill Crothers -- they are having an information night Tuesday, October 18th from 7:00 - 8:30 in the school cafeteria.

Arts Westmount is Wednesday, October 19th at 7:00 in the school cafeteria as well.

Maple's information night is Thursday October 13th at 7:00 as well. 

Some Wonder Questions to consider...

1. What is the World's "richest" ancient civilization?
2. What is humanity's most important invention?
3. Is all "freedom of speech" acceptable?
4. Is it worthwhile to watch TV?
5. Should we be celebrating Christopher Columbus?
7. Does the government get too involved in our lives?

Quizzes Signed and Returned

Please bring newspapers everyday to help build our collection and have your math quizzes signed and returned!

Newspapers

In anticipation of an upcoming unit, I'd like to ask you to bring in as many newspapers as you possibly can in the coming weeks. We'll be needing them by mid-October. Many thanks!

Leadership Forms

Hi 8B

On google classroom you will find a google form for you to fill out based on your Leadership Interests. You are NOT obligated to join a group so please be ready to commit to your choice for the year. 

Also, it was a pleasure to meet a number of you who visited Mackenzie Glen on Curriculum Night. Looking forward to a great year!

Math Journals

Congratulations!

You are now the owner of a brand new math journal. This is going to be a place for you to stretch out your mathematics potential, reflect on what you are learning and show your thinking. You will have a variety of different journal entries to complete throughout each unit that will challenge you to solve mathematical problems, explain your thinking in a variety of ways, analyse mistakes, think about similarities and differences, write about new learnings and to try to justify and prove your answers. This journal will encourage you to use the following mathematical processes:

1. Problem Solving
2. Reasoning and Proving
3. Reflecting
4. Selecting Tools and Computational Strategies
5. Connecting
6. Representing
7. Communicating

The above processes are all important and transferable skills that all mathematicians need to be able to use.

Here’s how this is going to work. I will set a due date for each journal entry period, I will present you with 5-10 journal prompts to choose from and you can answer as little as 3 and as many as 10. The questions will be posted in class as well as on google classroom. You will be assessed based on how well your entries demonstrate deep thinking. A student might complete 10 entries and not show the same level of understanding as a student who completed 3, it’s not about the number….it’s about the thinking that you can show.  The checklist on the next page will be used to assess your entries as a whole after each entry period. You will also fill out a self assessment to hand in with your journals.

Different Ways of Showing our Wonder

 

Welcome 8s!

I'm absolutely excited to welcome everyone back!

I'm sure you'll notice right away that it's a bit different being in grade 8 -- lots of responsibility and accountability on your shoulders now. But at the same time, you've still got the same involved and caring teachers to help you along the way.

At any rate, I'd also like to take the opportunity to welcome you to our classblog! For the grade 8s reading this, you'll notice that the design is a bit different -- but it's pretty much all the same. Grade 7s who are doing geography and history with me: with this blog, you'll never forget what you had for homework. At the same time though, you'll never have an excuse as to why it's not complete! ;) Sorry!

Everything you'll need to know for Hist/Geo, Math and Language will be updated  under the "Homework" tab. Periodically, the "Home" page will be updated with upcoming events and news that you or your parents might need to know. There will also be a lot of good information on the homepage related to some new learning and strategies so make sure you bookmark this blog! Speaking of which, yes, your parents will and do have access to this blog as well. 

So again, welcome to the 2016/2017 school year!