Ms. Kassam's Humanities Blog

These are certainly some uncertain times, and we appreciate your patience as we continue to be about our daily business of teaching and learning. This week, students spent time developing the big ideas about why Japan transitioned from the Edo Period to the Meiji period, and its impact on the Japanese people. Currently, students are in the process of writing letters to the Emperor to persuade him to either maintain isolation or to open Japan's borders. This assignment is posted in their Google folder. Next Week: Monday: Letter to the Emperor due - printed Tuesday to Thursday: Drumheller Overnight field study - fingers crossed Friday: PD Day - no school for students Have a great weekend!

It was lovely to see so many parents for interviews this week. Thanks for taking the time to meet with us. This week, we found our Zen working on haiku poetry and Japanese art. We also tweeted about our understanding of Japanese worldview during the Edo period. Next Week: Monday: Haiku, Three Japanese Cities chart, and Read Theory to the end of #28 are all due. Thursday: Pi Recitation competition at lunch Friday: Pi activity and eating pie...yummy! Have a wonderful weekend!

Sorry I missed last week's update - crazy yearbook deadline. From last week - Narratives and Persuasive Paragraphs were returned to students and they were asked to make edits to improve their writing. Please ask your child to share the assessments with you, if you'd like. This week - students presented plays about their novels to the class, participated in Socratic seminars and have begun to develop some very excellent Haiku poetry. Teen Book Cloud TeenBook Cloud (Gr7-12) All CBE students and staff have access to a paid subscription for TeenBookCloud, which is a curated database of e-books and other digital content for Middle/Junior/High Schools. The collection features over 1000 titles, including Graphic Novels, enhanced e-books with full audio narration and highlighted text, classic literature, national geographic videos and more. https://www . teenbookcloud.com/ auto_login.aspx?u=calgarycbe&p=sd19  username: ca lgarycbe password: sd19 Next Wee...

Short Week! And a dance and Science Olympics mixed in. Quick update: We watched part one of a documentary and we did a Close Reading Activity. There is no school tomorrow, Friday, or Monday - 5 days off! For Tuesday, please ensure: - Novel chapters are read (Puppeteer to the end of 11, Chrysanthemum to the end of 14, and Nightingale to the end of 12) - Read Theory to the end of 25 - Close Reading activity Have a most wonderful looooong weekend.

A full week of school this week! Update: Social Media featured prominently in our class this week. Students are creating a 'post' from the voice of their novel study main character. We've revisited the task many times to build a better understanding of how to stay true to voice and to understand character motivations and feelings. The task sheet for this assignment, along with a checklist and rubric, are in the Google folder for the class. Students also gave presentations on the multitude of social classes present in feudal Japan. It was surprising to them that peasants weren't the lowest class in Japan, when that was certainly the case during the Renaissance.  We also talked about what we could infer about Japanese worldviews based on their class system. Reminder to please send in signed Report Card envelopes and Drumheller forms. Next Week: Monday: Social Media posts and typed up Island Reflection are in the folders - completed (no more class time) Tuesda...

January is in the books! Update: Report cards went home on Thursday. Please return signed envelopes right away. This week we developed our own island nations and established the ten most important worldviews to guide our island. We then, suddenly, met people from other islands and had to figure out what to do with these people who were so very different from us, and had different values and beliefs. I was super impressed with what I observed going on in both classes around this work. This will lead into our study of Japan from the 1600's to the 1900's. Next week: Please have Read Theory completed through to #22. Finish your assigned Japan novel chapters. Finish your Island Reflection. We will assign our Science Olympic colours and begin working on our flag. Have an awesome weekend!