July 25

Social 30-1

You wrote the Unit 3 Final Exam today. I posted the results on PowerSchool today. We did some position paper preparation for the Diploma Exam today, and worked on the Unit 4 social protest movements Google Doc. Don't forget that you have the Trial Final tomorrow. It is a 60 question multiple choice test. The study guide for this test is the Diploma Exam study guide that is in the back of your Social 30-1 course books (pages 305-314).

UPCOMING KEY DATES:

• Trial Final Exam is on Friday, July 26th (the study guide is in the back of your Social 30-1 course books)
• Social 30-1 Diploma Exam Part A (written component) is on Friday, August 2nd (9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.) at Lord Beaverbrook
• Social 30-1 Diploma Exam Part B (multiple choice) is on Thursday, August 8th (9:00 a.m. start) at Lord Beaverbrook

June 9

IB 30/35

I gave you back your results on the Trial Final Exam, and your mark going into the Diploma Exam. We played some Kahoot games too. I'll see you tomorrow at 9:00 a.m. for our flex class review of Social 30-1 writing assignments. You should be going through the Diploma Exam Review page on the wiki, and reviewing all of the PowerPoints on the wiki from all of the units. If you haven't done so already, go through the Unit 1 and Unit 2 review Prezis.


Key Dates for IB 30/35 students:

• Social 30-1 Diploma Exam Part "A" is on Tuesday, June 14th from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m., if you take the extra 1/2 hour (you will write this on computer, your assigned computer lab is listed off outside the Business Office bulletin boards)
• Social 30-1 Diploma Exam Part "B" is on Friday, June 17th in the Main Gym from 9 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.

Social 10-1

We finished off the movie "Contagion" today. I also finished off some housekeeping items: asking for booklets back, having you fill in your scantrons for Part B of the Social 10-1 Final Exam. Please remember that Part B of your Final Exam is on Thursday, June 16th in the Main Gym from 1-3 p.m..

Social 30-1

I gave you back your results on the Trial Final Exam, and your mark going into the Diploma Exam. We played some Kahoot games too. Please study this weekend!!


Key Dates for Social 30-1/30-2 students:

• Social 30-1 Diploma Exam Part "A" is on Tuesday, June 14th from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m., if you take the extra 1/2 hour (you will write this on computer, your assigned computer lab is listed off outside the Business Office bulletin boards). 30-2 students will have less time to write than 30-1 students. Your will have 2 1/2 hours to write.
• Social 30-1 Diploma Exam Part "B" is on Friday, June 17th in the Main Gym from 9 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.

July 30

Social 30-1

Today was your last day of summer school. You wrote your Trial Final Exam and we finished up with the WRA I presentations after the break. You have considerable time off to prepare for the Diploma Exam. Make sure that you go back through all of the course content that we covered. Please DON'T re-read Perspectives on Ideology! I think that you should review all of the PowerPoint lectures that I went through. You should also make sure that you go through all of the notes and activities in the Social 30-1 workbook. Please review the sections on how to write a WRA I (pages 292-293), how to analyze political cartoons and other images (pages 294-296) and the "Recipe for Success" on the WRA II (pages 297-299), and the propaganda techniques (pages 300-302). There is also a VERY detailed Diploma Exam Study Guide at the back of your 30-1 study booklets, from pages 303-312. Go through the multiple choice questions in the yellow booklet that I gave you at the beginning of July, it will really help you out. Check out the review Prezis that are on the Social 30-1 wiki under Unit 1 and Unit 2.

Here are the dates for your Diploma Exam:

• Social Studies 30-1 Part A is on Thursday, August 6th (9:00 am to 11:30 am; you can take an extra 1/2 hour to make it a 3 hour exam. This is strongly recommended, then you have 1 hour for the WRA I and 2 hours for the WRA II)
• Social Studies 30-1 Part B is on Friday, August 7th (9:00 am to 11:00 am)

Please remember that you are writing both parts of the Diploma Exam at Viscount Bennett Centre. Please keep in mind that it may take you longer to travel to this school than it did getting to Churchill. 

It was a pleasure having you all in class this summer! You all made it enjoyable coming into work in July! Please post on the wiki what the WRA I and WRA II looked like, I'm curious.

May 31

IB 20

You wrote your Paper 2 on Authoritarian and Single-Party States today in class. For your IB Exam next year, you'll have to be able to write this type of essay in 45 minutes. After the Paper 2 exam, we started watching a video called "Understanding Canadian Government". We'll continue with this video on Monday. Enjoy your long weekend!

IB 30/35

You wrote your Economics Final Exam today, and the results were very good! You'll learn how you did on Monday. For this weekend make sure that you keep studying Unit 3 material. Check the wiki for Unit 3 materials (PowerPoints and handouts). Also on the wiki please check out the section entitled Diploma Exam Review. I put a Social 30-1 Diploma Exam Study Guide there (it's about 9 pages) and a detailed chart that compares the old Social 30 essay prompts to the new Social 30-1 essay prompt. I have a theory that they are recycling old prompts for the quotes that appear in the new 30-1 prompts. It's worth a look anyway. You will be writing more "weekly quizzes" next week along with a Political Systems Exam and a Trial Diploma Exam.

The text-based source for the WRA II is written "in-house" by test-makers in Edmonton. In other words, they don't quote famous people like Aristotle, Kennedy, Gorbachev or Reagan. The text-based source would look something like this:

• "Rights and freedoms are essential to a democracy; however, there may be times when a temporary suspension of rights and freedoms is necessary to guarantee the preservation of democracy."   (January 2010 WRA II essay prompt)
• "No country should seek to extend its policy over any other country or people; rather, every country should be left free to pursue its own goals. Every country should be unrestricted, secure, and confident in pursuing these goals, regardless of the country’s size or strength." (January 2011, WRA II essay prompt)
• "Society achieves its finest expression through the self-interest and freedom of individuals. When we adopt these principles, we will lessen the need for government to interfere in our lives." (January 2012, WRA II essay prompt)

Remember, the essay question itself NEVER changes from semester to semester, the text-based source does. The essay question is always: To what extent should we embrace the ideological perspectives in the source?

I will see you at the Graduation ceremony tomorrow, and the banquet as well. Please be safe on Friday!

Please bring a photo of yourself to class next week. I'm going to start making a keepsake book for my IB classes from year to year, so you get to be the first group in it! We'll take a class photo next week so I can put that in the book too.