June 18

IB 20

I have finished marking your Paper 2 essays, so you can swing by Room 111 to pick them up any time during exam break. Also, outside of my room I have posted IB 20 History marks. These are your marks heading into the tomorrow's final exam. The final exam counts for 20% of your final mark, so the posted marks can change. Also, after the final exam, marks will be standardized.

June 13

IB 30/35

You wrote your Social 30-1 Part A today. Hopefully you are happy with the WRA I and WRA II. The next challenge is preparing for Part B, the multiple choice part of the exam. If you want to take some practice tests, please drop in to Room 111 between 8:30 am and 3:00 pm (I have a lunch break in there too) to try your hand at some past Diploma Exam multiple choice questions.

June 11

IB 30/35

Last day of class. Please remember the important dates for your Social 30-1 Diploma Exam:

• Social Studies 30-1 Part A is on Wednesday, June 13th from 9am to 12 pm
• Social Studies 30-1 Part B is on Tuesday, June 19th from 9 am to 11 am in the Main Gym

I am supervising sequestered students tomorrow in the Main Theatre for the English Diploma Exam but after that if you want to come and see me and ask me questions by all means you can find me in Room 111. I would still really love to have you all sign my black yearbook (some of you didn't get a chance to sign it today). You can also drop in after you write your Part A to test yourself against past Diploma exam multiple choice questions (old Social 30 questions).

IB 20

Lots of "housekeeping items" to take care of on the last day of class. I gave back some marked assignments, and homework assignments as well. I will have your Paper 2 essays marked before June 19th. You will be writing the Final Exam on Tuesday, June 19th from 1-3 pm in the Auxiliary Gym. The final exam is 100 multiple choice questions, with questions from all 8 units this year. If you missed class today, you might want to get the exam "blueprint" from a classmate. This exam will account for 20% of your final mark in IB 20. STUDY!!

June 8

IB 30/35

We covered the concept of illiberalism today with a film study of a very useful case study of illiberal action in a democratic society: the FLQ Crisis of 1970. As you watched today's film you should have completed the film study worksheet. Make sure that you have complete answers to the worksheet! On the wiki under Unit 3 you will find notes on the Emergencies Act, the Anti-Terrorism Act and the USA PATRIOT Act. These are all useful examples. I also posted an op-ed piece from the Edmonton Journal on the post-9/11 "war on terror" and how it is linked the curtailing civil liberties that might be worth a read. Please study this weekend! I also posted essay outlines and more importantly sample essays on the wiki under Diploma Exam Review. This is very important! These sample essays will give you ideas of case studies and evidence for your own essays.

IB 20

All of today's class was spent with TOK presentations on the moral dilemmas that were introduced in yesterday's class. If you were away when the groups were assigned, you need to go to the IB 20 wiki this weekend, choose a moral dilemma and write a response to one of the moral dilemmas and hand it in on Monday. You can find the moral dilemmas on the wiki under TOK, along with an introduction to TOK PowerPoint presentation. Your Canadian and American comparative government assignment was also due today. If you forgot to hand it in, please send it to me by e-mail. Your IA planning booklets are due on Monday, June 11.

June 7

IB 20

After the fire drill we started looking at TOK. I delivered a short PowerPoint presentation on TOK, and then broke you into small groups so you could receive a moral dilemma. Each group will do a TOK presentation on their moral dilemma in class tomorrow. The presentations are to be no longer than 5 minutes. Make sure that your presentations address the questions at the end of each moral dilemma. You must also address the WOKs in your responses to the questions, and how the WOKs impact the situation. You must also create and come up with some critical questions that you would ask the class about the situation. These critical questions will later be referred to as Knowledge Issues. The format for the presentation could be PowerPoint, Prezi, overhead, skit, or a combination of these methods of presentation. Please remember that your Comparative Government Assignment is due tomorrow.

IB 30/35

You wrote your Trial Diploma Exam today, which took most of the period. Please make sure that you look at the Unit 3 documents on the wiki that pertain to restrictions of civil liberties, for example: the October Crisis, the Emergencies Act, the Anti-Terrorism Act, and the USA PATRIOT Act. We'll be looking at the FLQ Crisis tomorrow.

June 6

IB 20

You wrote a short quiz today on the Canadian and American political systems. Please remember that your comparative government assignment is due on Friday. I finished the "American Expansionism" PowerPoint presentation today and we had an opportunity to watch a segment from the "Story of Us" series on Western expansion. I also talked a little bit about your Final Exam and gave you some tips for studying.

IB 30/35

We focused on the major writing assignment on the Social Studies Diploma Exam today, the WRA II. I went through some essay outlines, and I have posted them on the wiki along with some others. I have also posted some sample essays as well. You can find these sample essays on the wiki on the Diploma Exam Review page. It is HIGHLY recommended that you check them out. I also recommend that you look at my previous post (scroll down to find it) that gave you links to Samples of Student Writing that are published by the Alberta Government. You have your Trial Diploma Exam tomorrow.

June 5

IB 30/35

We wrote a couple of weekly quizzes at the beginning of class, and then we did some small group brainstorming around a sample WRA I assignment. The WRA I had an economics theme to it, and had different perspectives on the degree to which government should be involved in the economy. The first source (the Reagan quote) lent itself to breaking the quote into three different parts and then you launch into a neo-conservative critique of Keynesian economics. The second source was maybe open to more interpretation, but it seemed that the cartoonist was advocating for government intervention in the economy to "prime the pump". Make sure that you always use STICS for cartoon interpretation. The third source was from a modern liberal perspective on trickle down economics, so it was critical of supply side economics and its approach and would advocate for an interventionist approach. Clearly, Source 1 and Source 2 did not share perspectives on the degree to which government should intervene in the economy whereas you could make the argument that Source 2 and 3 shared a common perspective. Tomorrow we'll look at WRA II preparation. Please remember that you are writing a Trial Diploma Exam on Thursday. I've posted a Social 30-1 Diploma Exam Study Guide on the wiki under Diploma Exam Review, I strongly recommend that you use it for review purposes.

IB 20

We watched a video from the United States History series entitled "Expansionism", which you should have taken notes from. I also started a PowerPoint lecture on American Expansionism, which I will finish tomorrow in all likelihood. We should finish this topic up tomorrow so we can proceed to do some TOK before the end of the semester.