1. Welcome to Team 3 Hints and Ideas for a successful Gr. 8 Year

2. Introductions Anne Shaw (Math, Science, French) Dana Asher (Math, Science, French) Julianna Chiew (English, Socials, HaCE) Carolyn Muxworthy (Student Services) Jen Coghlan – maternity leave until February (English, Socials, HaCE) Jane Harbert (Student Services) Wilf Lim – covering for Ms Coghlan until Feb. (English, Socials, HaCE)

3. Frightening Conclusion By: Hiam Ginott I've come to the frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element in the classroom. My personal approach creates the climate.  My daily mood makes the weather. As a teacher I possess a tremendous power to make a child's life miserable or joyous.  I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration.  I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal. In all situations it is my response that decides whether a crisis will be escalated or de-escalated and a child humanized or dehumanized.

4. Keys to a Successful Year 1. Stay involved with your Child’s education 3. Communication between home and school 2. Working together to help your child be successful – get them ready for Gr. 9! (rested brain is an active brain, healthy eating, hydrated) • Emails • Phone calls • Notes in Agendas • Web site – update pages 4. Success Club – before and after school 5. Homework • All questions assigned are completed • Ready for marking at assigned time • Work is at school

5. Typical Schedule

6. "What does thinking look like?" Learning to think about what you're reading (Rebecca Wigod, Vancouver Sun Published: Wednesday, September 26, 2007) Reading Power has five parts: Connecting, questioning, visualizing, inferring and transforming. • A boy reading a story is connecting with the text when it reminds him of something he knows or something that has happened to him. • A girl reading a story is questioning when she thinks, "I wonder why that's happening" or "I wonder what's going to happen next.“

7. "What does thinking look like?" 3. Visualizing means seeing pictures in your head when you read a story. An eight-year-old boy who has just spent a long car ride listening to an audiobook of Gary Paulsen's Hatchet, tells his mom, "That was the best movie I've ever seen." When she reminds him, "That was a tape," he protests: "But I saw the whole thing in my head!“ 4. Inferring must be done when children read a story in which the author doesn't supply every last detail, and so they must come up with the rest. 5. The fifth part of thinking -- the most complex part, transforming -- happens when a story or a book changes the reader's way of thinking. As Ralph Waldo Emerson once put it, in a quotation, "The mind, once stretched by a new idea, never returns to its original dimensions."

8. Process Counts! • Plagiarism – in all subjects the process (thinking, learning) is important, we need to help students be aware of acknowledging and honoring the resources they use (text, pictures, ideas) • Copying – showing their own work not just having a friend solve it for them and taking that as their own • Takingresponsibility for their own learning – seeking help, organizing time, problem solving and being proactive

9. Assessment • Before, during and after lesson, a lot in class (teacher observation), ongoing process, students assessing themselves as well as submitted work and evidence of knowledge obtained. • Your son/daughter should be able to tell you what they are learning and why it is relevant in their world.

10. Questions? Please email us if you have any concerns or questions.

11. Thank you for taking the time to read through our presentation. Thank you for staying involved with your child’s education, it makes a big difference.