June 21

Why are you spending time reading this? You know what you could be doing right now? STUDYING! Here are some hyperlinks that may help you:

• LA Part "B" (2000)
• LA Part "B" (2001)
• Social Studies (1998)
• Social Studies (1999)
• Social Studies (2000)
• Social Studies (2001)

June 20

During class today, I divided you into pairs to analyze sample questions from past Social Studies Provincial Achievement Tests. With your partner you were to analyze each question, determining the answer and indicating WHY it was the right answer. You were also expected to discuss why the other alternatives were incorrect. Then you had to present to the class the questions you had analyzed and why you selected certain answers to the questions. The results of this were quite good, with 9A only getting 4 questions wrong and 9B getting 6 questions wrong.

Keep studying!!

June 17

Today, we played a review game on key terms from the Canada, USA and USSR units. I also gave you back your writer's workshop folders, and the mark sheet for this project. If you did not get a mark sheet back from me, and you were in class today that means that you did not hand in your folder, and you have received a mark of zero for the Writer's Workshop project.

Notice to parents: I have sent home a slip of paper with students from 9A and 9B detailing their Humanities marks from Term 1, Term 2, Term 3, and the Term average. The term average is the student's mark that they have heading into their Provincial Achievement Tests. In order to get into English 10-1 or Social 10 you need a mark of 65% or higher. I would like a parent or guardian to sign these slips of paper by Monday. I will be making phone calls to student's parents that have not signed the mark sheet.

Notice to students: STUDY!!

June 16

I'm sorry that I'm posting so late at night, but I was at the school until 7:35 getting your marks ready for tomorrow.
I booked the laptops today so that you could do some more studying online today. You also did another reading test practice.
I'll see you tomorrow with your final marks going into the Provincial Achievement Tests.

June 15

Today we wrote another practice test with about 21 questions on it in preparation for your upcoming LA Part "B" Provincial Achievement Test. I gave you some time as well to work on your flash cards. These flash cards are due tomorrow. The flash cards cover the key concepts and ideas from all three Social Studies units (Canada, USA, USSR). Please make sure that you have this completed because it is a very large homework check!

Also, it looks like I will be able to give you a final mark for Humanities this week. What it will look like will be a slip of paper with your Term 1, Term 2 and Term 3 marks in Humanities, with the average mark of the three terms. This average mark is the mark that you will be taking into the exams next week. Please remember that ALL of your work from the three terms amounts to 85%, and your Final exams count for 15%. You should be studying every night!!

Here are some links to past Provincial exams, namely LA Part "B":

• 1998 LA Part "B" exam
• 1999 LA Part "B" exam

Please keep in mind that some material has been removed from the provincial website due to not having permission to publish material online.

June 13

I had the laptops booked today, and I gave you some class time to find some answers to questions from the review booklet. You need to buy index cards, since the binder rings came in this morning. Please make sure that you transfer your questions and answers onto the flash cards.

We also did some preparation for the LA Part "B" Provincial Achievement Test by doing some practice readings and questions.

June 10

I frantically went through the answers to the USSR unit today with you. I did not finish all of them in class. With both classes I did about 30 of the review questions, and I assigned the rest of the questions for homework for Monday.

Have a great weekend!

June 9

Today you wrote the Canadian Test of Basic Skills for Ms. McKen, which took the better part of two class periods. You also watched the last video in the Canadian history series.
Don't forget that you must have either your USA or USSR part of your study guide complete for tomorrow.

June 8

You wrote your Canada Unit Finals today in class, and you got your results back for these tests as well. I was pretty pleased with the class averages with both 9A and 9B. I would like to see some of you improve your marks more still. Don't be satisfied with just a 60 or 65%, strive for more! I'd like to see our class averages for the Provincial Achievement Tests be higher than today's class average! Don't be complacent, don't take a holiday. You have to keep working hard and studying and reviewing for these upcoming Provincial tests EVERY night! You'll have 8 weeks off this summer, after June 30th is when your holidays start, so keep working until then.

June 7

We watched a couple of videos in the Canadian History video series today. The two videos combined covered the years 1973-1988.
Please don't forget that you have your Canada Unit Final tomorrow. Study hard! Also, tomorrow is the last day that I will be accepting any Writer's Workshop pieces.

June 6

I gave you some class time today to work on your "Putting It All Together" review booklets. Next, we covered another Technology Journal prompt and had a brief discussion about the topic. I also collected your Writer's Workshop projects. Please remember that you MUST study for your Canada unit final, it's on Wednesday. Study hard! Good luck!

June 3

Sorry, it's been a bad week for blogging. Of course, one day I couldn't blog because we were doing our "unplug from technology challenge". That having been said, I do apologize for being a little negligent with keeping this blog up-to-date.
Today in class, we covered the review questions from the Canada unit. Please take those questions and answers and put them on the index cards that you have purchased. Here are some hyperlinks that may help you with some of the harder questions:

• Economic Principles of the Mixed Economy
• Automation, Specialization, Mechanization
• Private Sector and Public Sector

Please don't forget these upcoming important dates:

• Writer's Workshop is due June 6th
• Canada Unit Final is on June 8th

May 31

In case you missed it, the month of May has passed us by very quickly! Now we are getting into "crunch time", the month of June, and all of the studying and review, and writing of exams that goes with it.

Today we did another Technology Journal entry (#5), and had a short discussion on this topic. Next, we worked on starting to answer some of the review questions from the "Putting It All Together" booklet. Finally, we wrapped up by watching another 30 minute video from the Canadian history series, this time it was "Optimism and Uncertainty: Canada (1955-1964)". While you were watching this video you were supposed to be taking notes on the video.

As I stated in the previous post, you need to working on your Writer's Workshop EVERY day. You also need to be studying for your Canada Unit Final!!

Upcoming important dates:

• Writer's Workshop is due on June 6th
• Canada Unit Final is on June 8th

May 30

Today we did three different things: Technology Journal #4, Key Terms Pop Quiz #2, and I handed out the review booklet called "Putting It All Together". It is EXPECTED that you are doing homework for me every night! You MUST be working on your Writer's Workshop projects, and you MUST be studying for your Canada Unit Final!

Here are some upcoming important dates:

• Writer's Workshop (6 projects) is due Monday, June 6th
• Canada Unit Final is on Wednesday, June 8th

May 27

Both classes had their last class time to work on Writer's Workshop material. You will not have any more class time to work on these projects. Please remember that all six (6) projects are due on Monday June 6th. For the rest of the day, you were able to enjoy the fantastic weather and the Sports Day activities.

May 26

Today, we did Technology Journal #3 and a discussion about the topic posed in the question. I also gave you some Writer's Workshop time. Finally, we watched a 30 minute video entitled "Canada: Land of Promise (1945-1954)". You were required to take notes on the video while you watched it, and then we talked about some of the key economic developments, technological developments, issues in society, and developments in society that occurred during this time period. Tomorrow will be Sports Day if the weather is nice, but I will still see both 9A and 9B.

May 25

Today I gave you another technology journal topic, and we discussed the topic as a class. I then gave you some time to work on Writer's Workshop projects. I think that you should be working on a Writer's Workshop project tonight for homework. I think that you should have at least 3 projects finished by now. Please remember to review your key terms from the Canada unit, it will be useful.

May 24

Today we started something new: a technology journal prompt. We then discussed the technology journal topic. I also gave you time to work on your Writer's Workshop projects.

May 19

The "big day" finally arrived. You wrote your LA Part "A" exam today. These exams will be marked by Grade 9 teachers in the school and then they will be sent off to Edmonton to marked once again by different teachers. You were very lucky to have option classes in the afternoon. I hope that you all did well on the exam.

Please have a fun long weekend. Get some rest! Please don't forget to review for your other Provincial exams, which you will be writing next month!

May 18

I'm way too tired to blog tonight....
If you were in class today, you know what happened, if you weren't then please remember that LA Part "A" takes place tomorrow. You must check in to your TA at 9:30 tomorrow morning. Sleep well tonight, you're going to need your brains to be well-rested for tomorrow.