Upcoming Events

Wednesday, May 23 is Tropical Day

Resources

Further to my email sent out of Friday, there is a new location for TAG resources:  the closet between the upstairs staffroom and the janitor room.

Inside you will find math game kits and packages of Drug Facts books.  Resources should be signed out on the white board (located behind the door in the closet) and returned promptly so others can use them.  

Please note that the math game kits are labeled with house letters on them, but anyone can sign out any of these resources.

Health and Career Curriculum

This week we start our last unit on substance misuse prevention.  I have included this pre-test along with an answer key:

Drug Facts Pre-Test

Drug Facts Pre-Test Answer Key

Each of the True/False questions on the pre-test is followed by a page number.  The numbers correspond to the pages in the Drug Facts booklets located in the new TAG closet.  (There are 15 booklets per packages so students can share with a partner).

Consider having students work with a partner to do the pre-test and then find the answers to the questions in the booklets.  Perhaps students could be assigned to look up particular answers and share them with the class. 

What's Happening May 14-18

Upcoming Events

Friday, May 18 is Pro-D Day

Wednesday, May 23 is Tropical Day

Career Curriculum

As we wrap up the career curriculum,  some of our grade 9 students are starting to think about summer jobs.  I've had a couple of students ask for help with resumes, so it seems timely to end the unit with a resume lesson.

I've included two handouts:

A Sample Resume

A Resume Template

The first link is just a sample resume for a student with no work experience.  The second link is a bit of a template where students can start to write down the information they would include in their own resume.  

While our grade 8 students might not be job-focused, this exercise might get them thinking about the volunteer opportunities or odd jobs they can do to make their resumes look better next year.

To motivate students to do this activity, you could offer a mock job and offer it to the best resume.  The job could be "Candy Eater for a Day" or "iPod Listener for a Day" or "Movie Picker for the Week."  Have fun coming up with a job that suits your group.

What's Happening May 7-11

Upcoming Events


Wednesday, May 9 Jersey Day
Friday, May 18 In Service Day
Monday, May 21 Victoria Day
Wednesday, May 23 Tropical Day


Career Education


Last week I posted a few lessons that continue into this week.  Check out last week's post to access the lessons.

What's Happening April 30 - May4

Upcoming Events
Tuesday, May 1 Leadership gone for Youth Day of Caring
Friday, May 4 Some grade 8s gone for Leadership training
Wednesday, May 9 Sports Centre Day (aka Jersey Day)


Thank You
Thank you to Katherine, Brett and Deb for getting back to me about curriculum and textbooks.  If you haven't touched base with me, please let me know where you're at and if you have any missing textbooks. 


Career Curriculum
I've tried to keep it simple and interesting.  The following link has about 3 days worth of lessons in it.  Please read through it and if you have any questions, please ask.
3 Career Lessons

The last page of the lessons has a link.  Here is the link again so you can just click it from here (be sure to read the lesson so this link makes sense).
Holland link for lesson

What's Happening April 23-27

Upcoming Events

Thursday, April 26 Wild West Day - break out Western wear!

May 1 Youth Day of Caring - Leadership kids gone for the day

May 4 Spring Play Day - Grade 8 students selecting leadership     

                                     gone for the afternoon

May 9 Jersey Day - wear your favourite sports jersey

Important Questions

Do you ever feel like you’re talking to yourself?  Maintaining a blog can be a little bit like that.  I have a few questions, and I’m really hoping that TAG teachers will get back to me by email this week:

1.  Where are you?  Are you still working on sexual health curriculum or are you tracking with the latest curriculum updates on this blog?

2.  Do you have any of the Health for Life textbooks or Teacher Guides in your classroom?  Have you checked your shelves just in case a different teacher put them there?

3.  Since there are limited numbers of the Health for Life textbook (especially since a number of them weren’t returned in June) would it work for grade 8/9 classes to share 10-12 textbooks when necessary?  If you think this could work, I’ll make up packages of textbooks for teachers to sign out.

Health and Career

To continue our discussion about careers and career exploration, I have included a couple of different handouts/activities. Thank you to Kevin Chow and other TRU masters students for sharing these:

Male and Female Jobs

Burger Jobs

What's Happening April 17-20

Thank You
A big Thank You to Randy for sharing a number of great games with us during our Pro-D.  Now that the weather is warming up, feel free to hit the field and try out your new repertoire.  Of course, many of the games can be played right in your classroom as well.  




Health and Career Curriculum
We are finally moving on...to looking at Career Education.


This week we are keeping it to a simple introduction.  
Start by asking students to look up the following occupations of the past:  cooper, fuller, and badger.  Perhaps one student could look it up on your classroom computer and report his/her findings to the class. Ask Which of these occupations might still be practiced today?


To continue this discussion, I have provided a handout here:
The Changing World of Work Interview Assignment
The handout instructs students to interview an adult about the world of work - specifically how that world is changing.  Ask students to talk to a parent, grandparent, neighbour and then share their findings with the class.  Even if students don't interview an adult, they may be able to brainstorm ideas as a class.


This exercise is adapted from the Health for Life textbooks.  We will probably start to use the textbooks next week.  I will work on trying to find an effective way to manage their distribution and use.  

What's Happening April 10-13

Upcoming Events
Friday, April 13 Report Card Marks Due
Monday, April 16 InService Day


LIVE Tickets and PBIS
At our April staff meeting we discussed the use of LIVE tickets and areas of concern we would like to target.


Please use LIVE tickets to reinforce arriving to class on time. That can be as easy as giving each on-time student a LIVE ticket as they walk through the door.


Other areas of concern were language and litter in the hallway.  Consider asking students to pick up a piece of litter in the hallway on their way into the classroom and then rewarding them with a LIVE ticket for their help.


In TAG this Week
Assembly Follow-Up
It doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that audience behaviour at Brock's Got Talent was less than stellar.  While the experience is still fresh, please take time to discuss it with your class.


Discussion could include brainstorming with your class "Acceptable" and "Unacceptable" behaviour using a chart on the board.  Students might provide examples of how to respond to different performances; for example, the difference between listing quietly to an opera singer and laughing with someone doing a stand-up comedy routine. Use the Matrix to review school-wide expectations.


Where Are We?
All over the place.  Some are still teaching sexual health while others are exploring service learning.  Starting next week, I'd like to get us focused on the CAREER part of the curriculum.  


If you're looking for something to do on this short week, I've provided some small teambuilding challenge activities.  Thanks to Judy Martin for grabbing this resource at the district Pro-D day.  


The Paper Tower challenge requires 20 sheets of paper per team:  start by challenging your teams to find 20 pieces of recycled paper in their binders or in the recycle bins.
Paper Tower Challenge


The second set of mini challenges require a few additional materials.  Be sure to have a look at the materials list to see what you need.  I would be able to find a few of the unusual materials for you if let me know in advance.
Mini Challenges


Consider doing these challenges in our classroom first and then challenging another TAG class to a mini competition.


Have Fun!