Good bye, for now.

Since leaving Chatelech Secondary for Kinnikinnick Elementary I have had many opportunities to reflect on the change in my role. Since I see all teachers as leaders, there are more similarities than differences. I wish you all well, until our paths cross, as I'm sure they will.

Socials 10-2/10-4: West Coast Logging Legacy (video link)

To access the video, use this LINK.

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History 12-1: Finishing China and Test Prep

To access the vocabulary terms Google doc use this LINK.

History 12-1: Intro to post-war China

Please read DeMarco pp. 190-195 and do Ex # 8-10 in preparation for tomorrow's lesson.

Socials 10-2/10-4: The Chinese in BC

This week in Socials 10 we looked at the People's History episode titled "Gold Mountain" as a means to start a discussion about the Chinese experience in BC. We saw just how much racism existed towards Asians in this province. It was BC who petitioned the Canadian government to impose the ever-increasing Head Tax as a way to stem the tide of Chinese immigrants after the initial influx of miners and the later influx of CPR workers. We also discussed immigration in general and the nature of the evolving demography here in BC. There is no homework.

Students are always shocked that a company would
produce a machine and give it such a "racist" name.

Socials 8-3: The Reformation Day 3

Today we worked to complete the work on the Reformation. I gave a short lesson on the rules for capitalization since correcting Grade 8 punctuation is a full-time job these days. Proper nouns seem to be the biggest problem, so please take care when answering your questions. Thursday will be a day to summarize the Reformation (I have a bullet sheet available) and that will complete the set portion of the course. I have booked the laptops for the last two weeks to allow you to inquire into any topic we've studied in more detail. After Thursday, there are only four blocks of Socials 8 left! (boo hoo).

History 12-1: The Middle East - cont.

Well, since you folks said that you are not using the blog, I've decided to slack off keeping it up to date. On Friday we watched the documentary on the Six-Day War and there was no homework. Yesterday most of the class was present in spite of it being grad skip day - thank you. We did a practice map test and collaborated to complete the study guide that summarized the Arab-Israeli wars of the 40s, 50s, 60s, and 70s. Here is the summary:

 Today we had a map quiz - this one didn't count but the next one might. After that we looked at the maps from the handout package I issued earlier and we discussed what extra info they offer to the story. Next, we had a quick introduction to creating tables in Microsoft Excel so that we could build a "chart" (graph) of the data. After a bit of practice, created more detailed graphs of the price of oil in the period under consideration. Finally, we took the graphs and imported them to a Word document and then adjusted the format and added some commentary: this is all good practice for those of you planning to attend post-secondary school (a picture is sometimes worth a ...). Using graphics you compose is often faster than trying to find the perfect one via the Internet. There's no homework other than to finish the Word doc.

Learning to navigate Excel

The finished product