Talk to Yourself...

Hi everyone,

A couple of weeks ago, our class had an opportunity to do an activity.  We began by watching the following video on facing adversary, and developing resilience skills.

We talked about how the little voice that we hear in our head sometimes puts us down.  We discussed these comments that we sometimes think to ourselves, and worked on finding ways that we could change what that voice says.

Our students came up with a fantastic collection of "rebuttals" for their little voices.  Hopefully we can access these positive approaches more and more frequently and develop that growth mindset that we are trying to foster in our classroom.  With practice, our students can rise above doubt and achieve anything they set their minds to :)

Talk to yourself the way you would talk to someone you love.

Let's enable our students to approach situations with more positivity!

To my students:  you've got this :)

Miss Skelton

Course Selection for High School

Hi everyone,

Today, Mr. Shank visited our school to speak to our students about their course selection for Grade 9.  During this presentation, our students were given the following information that relates to them graduating from Grade 12 in 2019:

Compulsory Credits to be completed:
- 4 credits in English (1 credit per grade)
- 3 credits in Math (1 in grade 11 or 12)
- 2 credits in Science
- 1 credit in Canadian History
- 1 credit in Canadian Geography
- 1 credit in the Arts
- 1 credit in Health and Phys. Ed.
- 1 credit in French as a Second Language
- 0.5 credits in Career Studies
- 0.5 credits in Civics

Minimum of 40 Hours of Volunteer Hours
- non-profit organizations
- no payment received
- working for a family business for "free" does not count

OSSLT - Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test
- taken in Grade 10
- can be written as many times as necessary in order for student to pass

Mr. Shank also spoke to our students about the pathways that are available to them (Apprenticeship, College, University), and how their marks help determine whether they go into Academic, Applied, or Locally Developed classes in Grade 9. Students are not required to choose only one of these three choices - they can have a mix of various levels.

More information will be available at the Parent Information Night on Thursday, January 15, 2015 at Bradford District High School. All families are strongly encouraged to attend.

We've been reminding students about how important their learning skills with regards to their decisions for Grade 9.  Students with a good work ethic and typically good learning skills tend to be more successful in Grade 9.  We encourage students who struggle with their learning skills to work on them this year, while they have the support of teachers who know them and can help.  Next year, there will be a lot of change, and trying to revamp work ethic at the same time can be very overwhelming. We want to help our students to be fully prepared for what they face in September!

Have a great day,
Miss Skelton :)

Day 2 Done!

Hi everyone,

I just want to extend a special thank you to our fabulous students - what a great first two days!  Today our focus was on learning skills, and we participated in several learning activities that reviewed this year's expectations.  The students did a great job discussing the concepts of perseverance, organization, responsibility, collaboration, independent work, initiative, and self-regulation.  The following pictures show the result of some of our brainstorming and work today:

"Perseverance" brainstorm

Quotes used for discussion groups

Creating a new perseverance quote

Creating a new perseverance quote

Creating a new perseverance quote

Creating a new perseverance quote

Creating a new perseverance quote

Perseverance quotes - generated by our students

Learning Skills - brainstormed appropriate ways to demonstrate each

Tomorrow, we'll be starting our Math and Language programs, followed by a bit of Art and Drama in the afternoon. We'll also be giving students some information about Kandalore - paperwork will be coming home in the next few days.

Remember to sign up for Remind!
Have a great evening,
Miss Skelton :)