Monday, February 02, 2015

February 2

All Social 30-1 and Social 20-1 students: Please make sure that you go on the wiki today!


We didn't start with any course content today, other than getting everyone logged into the course wiki, telling you about the blog, and mark breakdowns for 30-1. Please send me an e-mail message if you can't access the Social 30-1 wiki. You do have a homework assignment tonight though. You must write me a friendly letter to introduce yourself to me. In the letter you should write in paragraph form and use it as an avenue to demonstrate your writing ability. Some topics or themes that you might want to write about would include:

  • your family
  • favorite sports
  • hobbies
  • extracurricular activities that you're involved in this semester
  • favorite TV shows, movies, music
  • academic goals for this semester
  • what other courses you are taking this semester
  • future goals after high school



We didn't really start with course content today. I went through the course outline, talked about mark breakdowns for the course (how you will be assessed), talked about my classroom rules and expectations (see below for more details), and assigned your a friendly letter assignment. Your friendly letter is due tomorrow. Please write on the following topics:
  • your family
  • favorite sports
  • hobbies
  • extracurricular activities that you're involved in this semester
  • favorite TV shows, movies, music
  • academic goals for this semester
  • what other courses you are taking this semester
  • future goals after high school



I think that I have very simple, straight-forward classroom rules and expectations. I will be discussing these in class tomorrow, but here's a quick recap:

  • Please be on-task during classroom time (visit later)
  • No cell phones (as per school policy; unless otherwise instructed); if your parents really need to get in touch with you, they should call the office. Please don't bring cell phones to class, or if you do, please remember to turn them off!
  • Please don't listen to music on MP3 players or iPods during class time, unless I have given you permission to do so.
  • Be polite. You should be listening during class lectures or when your classmates have questions to ask (you might have some of the same questions).
  • Be on time. If you are late, please enter the classroom quietly and apologize for being late. If the door is locked, I have started the lecture or there is a class presentation in progress; I will open the door and let you in as soon as possible.
  • Clean up after yourselves. Please don't leave garbage on the floor. I like my classroom fairly neat and tidy.
  • Don't bring junk food to class. Healthy snacks only. Or you could always wait until lunchtime.
  • You may chew gum in class on the following conditions: don't chew like a cow, I don't want to see the gum or hear you chewing it, that's just gross.
  • Late assignments: 10% is deducted for every day an assignment is late. If you have an excused absence, then there is some flexibility with this rule.
  • Please make sure that a parent or guardian calls the school to have absences excused. If you miss a test due to an unexcused absence you will be assigned a mark of "zero".
  • I will be contacting parent/guardians if you have unexcused absences.
  • Please adhere to the school's academic honesty policy which is on the back of your course outlines.
  • Please do take holidays or time off in January, because this could potentially interfere with Diploma Exams or school-based exams.
Here are some simple rules that I have established for using the blog, and some other informational items:

  • Please post on the blog anonymously.
  • If you feel the need to identify yourself, or clarify which grade you're in, please use your initials and your class and section (for example, K.G. in Social 20-3).
  • Some of you may have your own Blogger accounts. Please don't post on this blog using your Blogger ID, otherwise you may have people visiting your blog that you may not want to see what you're posting.
  • Please be courteous, polite and respectful when posting comments on the blog. Don't be rude to your classmates on the blog.
  • Please be patient with my response time.
  • Please post comments and questions on the blog prior to 10 p.m.
  • Between 6-8 p.m. I am usually not online.
  • Please do not post links to questionable materials.
  • Inappropriate comments will be deleted. Please don't do this, it's a waste of my time, I could be doing more productive things, like answering questions that you may have

No comments: