The final week of the semester totally snuck up on me. Yup. Here we are. I feel like September was yesterday. As I write, students in my English class are working on their Romeo & Juliet culminating presentations. It’s truly an awesome thing to watch. Students are invested in their work and I am pretty excited for presentations.

ENG2D – Grade 10 English will perform their Romeo & Juliet culminating presentations on Thursday and Friday. Next week, we’ll wrap up the course and complete an exam review. The exam for the course is on Friday, January 26.

ICS2O – Grade 10 Computer Studies students are also completing culminating projects. It’s so awesome to see the problem-solving and collaboration in this class as individual creative programs come together. There are choose-your-own-adventure type stories, a calculator, a slot machine, and other games being invented. I’d like to express my appreciation to this group of students for helping bring this new-to-GCHS course to life.

So, we will work our way through the final seven class days of the semester and then BOOM! — semester two begins. Wow.

2017!

Happy New Year! The new year also means the approach of the end of the semester. There are less than three weeks left of regular classes before exams begin. This is the final push for students as they complete regular classroom tasks and begin course culminating work and exam preparations. 

In ENG2D – Grade 10 Academic English, we have one final act of Romeo & Juliet to complete, which will occur before the end of this week. Next week, students will complete a Unit Test and Culminating Tasks, which will include a group performance piece, (the acting of a small part of the play) and an independent writing piece. The work will allow students to consider the play’s characters, plot, and conflicts as well as the impact of the play’s themes.

ICS2O – Grade 10 Computer Science students have been assigned their Course Culminating Assignment. This assignment requires students to create an original piece of programming in a language studied in class. The program can be a game or other software, but it must show strong knowledge of a programming language. The outline and requirements of the assignment are included here:

ICS 2O – Culminating Assignment – Outline
ICS 2O – Culminating Assignment – Planning Form
ICS 2O – Culminating Assignment – Activity Log

I’m looking forward to seeing what students create with these final course assignments in both English and Computer Science. These are very creative, hands-on students and we’ve had some great work throughout each course.

A reminder that if students would like information about their progress in a course, it is advisable that an appointment is made to come and see me. Thanks!

Enjoy all of 2017!

Well, here we are, two days before our much-deserved and hard-earned Christmas Break. From December 21 to January 3, I hope you, your family, and your friends have a fantastic holiday season. When we come back in the new year, (2017!?) we will have three weeks to complete the semester before we move on to Semester Two.

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and Best Wishes in 2017 from Mr. Wilson (and his Special Elf, Tessa)