Welcome to the United Nations, Division 2!

Today we started putting together our ideas about refugees and changing the world: Our questions were:
How can artists do that?
How can the UN do that?
How can kids do that?

Here are two clips you may want to discuss with your child ( or you may just want to have them teach you what they learned !).
We are building our background knowledge to prepare for our very own Model UN on global issues here at Cavell.

Here is Chinese artist Ai Wei Wei's trailer of the film "Human Flow"- about refugees and the way the world is shrinking with the advent of the internet. We know more, so we need to do more.



We also spent the "day" at the UN to see how Secretary General works with all 193 countries to reach decisions on global issues. 





Conference Times

Here is a list of conference bookings for our class. We look forward to meeting you!
If you have not yet booked, please email us a time that would work and is not already taken on the schedule below.
Division 2   Conference Schedule 
Wednesday, September 27, 2017 
Time 
Student 
2:20 
Sidonie  
2:30  
Charlie  
2:40  
Sean  
2:50 
Daisy  
3:00 
Emily (tentative) 
3:10 
3:20 
Ella  
3:30 

3:40  

3:50  

4:00  
Kainoa  
4:10 
Bianca  
4:20  
Egor  
Dinner 
------------------- 
5:00 
Lea  
5:10 
5:20  
Katie  
5:30 
Simone  
5:40 
Lauren  
5:50 
Ellie  
6:00 
Audrey
6:10 
Srdan  
6:20 
Marcus  
6:30 
Alex  
6:40 
Nadia  
6:50 
Andrew  

Division 2   Conference Schedule 
Thursday, Sept. 28, 2017 
Time 

2:20 
Sofia  
2:30  

2:40  
Jamie 
2:50 
Duncan  
3:00 






Updates- Assignments, Scholastics, and Conferences

Hello,
Just a reminder that the assignments tab now contains handouts for upcoming assignments! Parents, if you are looking for details on upcoming work, please check this tab.

Also, Scholastic orders can be placed until Tuesday, September 26th.
*Order forms go to Ms. House but you pay online.

Conference Times will be assigned on Monday and posted here on the blog. We are looking forward to seeing you on Wednesday and Thursday.

Upcoming and Weekly Assignments

Hello H2 Div 2.,

There are some recurring assignments that are weekly:
 Spelling and Word Work: Due every Monday.
-Tasks include a spelling sort, a writing activity to contextualize the vocabulary, and a spelling quiz.
-Students will take a blue binder home each weekend
-** Handouts are now available down the assignments tab.

Article of the Week: Due every Wednesday
- Tasks include reading, annotating, and responding to non-fiction texts.

Upcoming Projects:
The Personal Timeline Project is due on  Friday, September 29th.
**Please look down the assignment tab for a project description and rubric.





Welcome New Families!

Dear New Families in Division 2,
Today your child brought home a letter from the teachers. If possible, we would appreciate it if you could bring in your classroom supplies on the list below by Friday, September 15th.
If you have any questions, please be in touch. Here is our welcome letter:
_________________________________________________________________________________
  
Dear grade 6/7 students and parents of division 2,
We have been busy planning for an amazing year and we are both very excited to work together with your children. In order to let you know a little bit more about how the classroom will work, please read this document and keep it handy for the entire school year.

Our Philosophy
We are community- focused and want our classroom to be a great place for all students. As such, we will spend the month of September building a positive classroom environment through games, activities, and collaboration.

Our class motto is “Be brave, be kind.”
“Be brave” means take risks in your learning, embrace mistakes and what they can teach you, stand up for yourself and others.
“Be kind” means accepting differences of opinion, showing respect for yourself, your peers, and your teachers, and encouraging others when they are trying new things.

General Curricular Goals and Areas of Focus
Ms. Holms and Ms. House work together on most subject areas. They also talk regularly about the progress students are making and chaperone field trips together.

Generally, only Ms. Holms will be teaching Science and only Ms. House will be teaching Social Studies. Neither will be teaching PE this year; the prep teacher will be doing that.

All other subjects are integrated on all days, thus taught by both teachers. For information about what will be specifically covered in first term in each subject area, please attend our goal setting conferences at the end of September.

Genius Hour and the Core Competencies: This project Compliments the Core Competencies, an overarching theme that is part of BC’s redesigned curriculum. Once a week, students will work on their own passion project. This will begin with an inquiry question and end with an oral “TED Talk” on their experiences. Students will learn to think creatively and critically, to manage their own time and expectations, and to learn reflect on their mistakes.

Math and Growth Mindset
Research shows that there is great value in middle school children learning about brain research in order to better understand how flexible and capable we are in growing our abilities, particularly in math. This year, we will be using youcubed.org, a math website out of Stanford University, to build our students’ math confidence and awareness of their abilities based on brain research. We will also continue to use JUMP Math as our foundation and CEMC Problems of the Week, a program from the University of Waterloo, for our weekly group problem solving challenges. We feel that this three-pronged approach will allow all our learners to gain confidence and be challenged.

Youcubed.org has great parent resources for those who are interested in learning more about current math trends in middle school.


Assessment and Reporting: Fresh Grade, A Digital Portfolio and Assessment Platform
Fresh Grade is a digital portfolio application that allows students to digitally upload written, drawn, recorded, and filmed assignments. Students will learn to comment constructively on each other’s work and teachers will assign, evaluate, and provide individual feedback. This allows us to minimize the waste of paper and the loss of assignments. Parents and students have access to the child’s portfolio. Parents, we encourage you to view progress regularly by loading the parent app on your phone.

School Supplies:
The school provides very basic materials for all students including writing implements, most art supplies, calculators, and paper.
We are requesting that you provide the following items for your child:
o   a water bottle
o   a binder (1.5" width)
o   8 dividers
o   a pencil case
o   a student Gmail address*: (for in-class work on the IPad, classroom blog accessibility, and the sharing work with group members)
o   a USB stick for project work
o   a box of Kleenex
o   1 fineliner pen and 1 sharpie for art
o   headphones for IPad use
o   optional:  basic geometry kit (protractor and compass)
o   a Compass card for BC Transit: we will be travelling on public transit for most field trips. Available at Shoppers or Safeway for purchase.

 *If you are not comfortable with your child creating an email account, please speak with us.
Our Policy on the Use of Personal Devices:
While we welcome the use of personal devices for many of our projects, we expect students to keep their devices turned off and in their school bags during school hours unless the teacher asks for students to use them. Devices are not to be kept in students’ desks nor used for personal correspondence with family or friends during class time. It is your child’s responsibility to take care of their own device.

We respect that families make their own decisions about technology and that you may or may not want your child to have their own device. Our class has access to 15 Ipads and many computers for project work so it is not necessary that your child come to school with a device.  

Student email addresses for in-class work:
This year, we are also asking all students to create a Gmail account. This allows them to store their work online and there is much less chance for lost assignments. Additionally, many of the apps we use require an email for signup. We will keep these email addresses confidential and suggest that you choose a user name that does not identify your child by name if you are worried about online security.


Field Trips:
Whenever possible, we like to explore beyond the classroom. In addition to our on-site opportunities with Earth Bites (thank you PAC) where we are in our school garden to learn about local foods and sustainability, here are some of the major field trips we are hoping to do this year.

The Vancouver Art Gallery: In order to learn about Canadian artists and to participate in art workshops where we learn specific techniques for landscape and portraiture.

The Vancouver Writers Festival: To learn about the writer’s craft and to participate in discussions with YA authors.

The Museum of Vancouver: We will uncover the science of archaeology by investigating artifacts from ancient cultures, participating in a simulated field dig, and examining a real mummy in order to learn about the process of mummification.

The Richmond Olympic Oval: From Ancient Greece to present day, the Olympics are a global event. We are hoping to travel to the Oval to learn about the history of the Games, try the simulators for various winter sports, and enjoy time being active together.

Mixed Nuts Dance Performance: With our buddy classes, we will attend a dance performance of Arts Umbrella's version of the Nutcracker, "Mixed Nuts".
Evans Lake Camp: Students will be heading to Evans Lake Camp with Mr. Turner’s class at the end of May 2018.  This connects nicely to Environmental Sciences, and Health and Physical Education.

The Amazing Race: In the spring of 2018, combining communication, creative thinking and problem solving skills, students will embark in teams on a daylong amazing race across the city that will put them to the physical, academic, and collaborative test (parent volunteers, we’ll need you for this one!). This is our most anticipated day of the year!

Agendas, The Class Blog, and Housekeeping:
All students will be receiving an agenda book. In order to continue to develop their organizational skills, students are still responsible for writing their assignments and other information in their agendas and for keeping track of field trip forms.

Our class blog is: https: https://div2cavell.blogspot.ca. Please sign up to receive emails when we update the blog. We post assignments, deadlines, field trip information, and other important class information on here regularly.

All students will be responsible for keeping our class clean and organized. Desk areas and the cloakroom are tidied daily by all students and the chalkboards and common supplies are cleaned weekly in groups. This is all of our classroom, and we want it to be a pleasant, organized place in which to learn.
                    
Email Communication with your teachers:
The best way to reach one or both of us is by email (addresses at the beginning of this letter). We will respond when possible during the work day but will not be checking emails after 5 pm or during weekends. If you have concerns about your child’s learning, we prefer a meeting or a phone call. For any urgent matters, please call the school directly.

Homework Policy:
We hope that you share our thinking that students should generally use after school and weekends to engage in other types of learning such as sports, arts, hobbies or family time. We encourage families to set aside time to read and review depending on your child’s needs. Homework is assigned to our students if they are not able to complete work previously taught in class. However, larger projects will require research and additional time at home.


We sincerely hope that your child will have an engaging and enjoyable year!

Geniuses at Work: Here is a list of our inquiry questions for 2019-2020

Genius Hour Questions 2019-2020 ·       What impact does a healthy free lunch program (nutrition) and schools being built closer to stu...