April 27, 2020

Good morning folks,

I hope we all had a good week. The weather yesterday was amazing. I got to go on another hike with my family, and we had a great day walking around the Trinity Bay area. I can’t stress enough how big of a difference it makes to my mood and energy levels to get outside in the sunshine. Let’s all hope for more! Alternatively, you can always set up a campsite in your house, like my boys did! We even roasted marshmallows on a Coleman stove in the yard!

I’m super excited to see so many hopping aboard the Google Classroom train. Keep on signing up because we’re not quite there yet. In the meantime, I’ll keep on posting and anyone is welcome to join at any time.

Grade 8 Sciences: You folks should be working on submitting the second section of revision (Carnet 2 with the curved mirror diagrams) or carrying on with the newly posted notes and videos for Section 3 this week. If you haven’t noticed, I made some ray diagram tutorials for you - on my YouTube channel - and linked to our Google Classroom. 

Grade 9 Sciences: You folks should be on the third section of electricity - I’ve posted some videos and notes for you to check out there, on my blog and on GC. Your section 2 revision can be submitted at any time for some marks! Please don’t forget to show your workings with all of those formulas - Units are important.

Sciences Humaines 9 - You have the Chapter 6 Google Form up and ready for your action. Those who are done, I’m posting the introduction to chapter 7 this morning to my blog and classroom.

SantE 8 - There’s a drug assignment posted on the blog - submit the completed version if you’d like a grade on anything. 

Lastly, it’s very important that you use your school Google (NLESD) account, as much as possible for communication. By doing so, it streamlines the user experience with regards to access to my documents and prevents the accidental SPAM classification. 

Stay safe, stay active, stay in touch!

Monsieur Thorne

April 20, 2020

Good morning everyone,

Welcome to another Monday in quarantine. I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter week and that you took advantage of some of the nice weather we had. This most recent stuff can stop though… :)

I’m working on the last installment of the Optics unit in gr. 8 and the last installment of the Electricity unit in gr. 9 this morning. Those new links should be active shortly. Timeline wise, the plan is to close out these two units this week.

For Sciences Humaines, there is a Kahoot link posted in google classroom and I’ve put a screenshot of the pin there in the Sciences Humaines 9 section. Big shout out to Madame Houlihan for helping me out with this. I’ve been occupied with Science resources and it’s nice to have another teacher help me out on the creative end of Sciences Humaines. Please give this a go -the kahoot challenge closes on Thursday at 12PM (lunchtime). Much like Sciences, the plan is to close out Chapter 6 this week. There will be an electronic (optional) quiz ready for Friday in the form of a Google form. 

Just a friendly reminder that the cutoff for mark upgrades for this reporting period is today. To me this deadline seems very superficial, so don’t panic. Gradebook, as you know, is a live thing and marks can be continuously updated until the end of the school year. 

That’s it for now! Take care and talk soon.

Monsieur Thorne

Happy Easter Week - April 13, 2020

Happy Easter! Happy Monday!
It's great weather out there today. Updates for the third chapters of both grade 8 and 9 Sciences units coming at the end of the week.
Something interactive is in the works for next week, as well.

Get out and enjoy the sunshine while you can! :)

-Monsieur Thorne

April 6, 2020

Good morning folks,

Happy Monday! 

Just providing you today with a little update for this week. I hope some of you had the chance to see our staff video. You can still find the link here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2pTOOukBunE&feature=youtu.be 

Last week we were working our way through WW2 Chapter 6 of grade 9 Social Studies. I hope you took the time to watch all the great videos that were procured from YouTube by myself and Madame Houlihan. If not, no worries! They’ll remain there for you to check out on your own time.

Keep in mind that the best way to learn, in my opinion, is to watch the videos, read the associated pages in the text, and then attempt to recall the material. 

Grade 8 and 9 Science, you should be seeing a few new video links posted. 

Particularly, Grade 8: you should see a link to a how-to type of powerpoint/google presentation for making ray diagrams. 

Grade 9: You should see the link for circuit diagram construction through our PHET site. 

Remember there are no tests, so it’s no stress. Just attempt it! If you don’t remember an answer, go back to reread or rewatch something. If you feel you understand, move on to something else. 

OR Take a walk. Learn an instrument. Exercise! Make your family a meal. Try new food! Create art! Phone a family member. Phone a friend. 

It’s nice out today! :)

Have a great week. Good luck with it. And as always, stay safe and be in touch if you have any questions or just want to say hi! 

Bye for now.

March 30, 2020

Good morning everyone,

Happy Monday. I’m making this a weekly thing, if you haven’t noticed already. I hope you’re getting adjusted to life closer to home for the time-being. It’s very important that we all continue to do our part by keeping our distance from each other,  and listening carefully to government regulations.

This week, I’m posting the answers to section two (and section one) of the Optics unit for Gr. 8. The answers to section two (and section one) of the Electricity unit for Gr.9, as well as the completed copy of the notes for our Sciences Humaines 9 carnet.

I’ve heard from a few of you now, but I’d love to receive more email from you guys, whether that’s questions that are curriculum related, or just saying hi and filling me in on what you’ve been up to, and things you’re doing to stay occupied in social isolation. 

Talk soon!

Monsieur Thorne

March 23, update!

March 23, 2020

Good day everyone,

I’m here in my living room this morning. Drinking coffee out of my Saints mug.

It was a strange week with all of the updates and impromptu plans that we’ve all been putting into place or taking part in.

I hope everyone has been finding the silver lining of being forced to stick around your home base. I’ve been keeping positive and being as active as possible.

I’ve been eagerly waiting for more direction from our school district in terms of the curriculum, and I’ll be updating you (and my website) as soon as more information is available. In the meantime, I just wanted to let you know the plan, as it stands for now.

So, essentially, the plan is for the district to deliver as much of the curriculum as possible, remotely, and available at your own pace. However, it’s very understandable that some of us aren’t ready to move forward with academics just yet, and that’s OK. Approach this stuff when you’re ready and don’t feel obligated to do anything you’re not ready to tackle. Family is the most important thing right now. Regardless, if you ARE ready to move forward, our school’s Science carnets are available on my website, and I’ll release them a little at a time, so provide some sort of timeline for you. When we left school, we were just beginning the properties of light. You’ll notice that the slides for those are now up on my website, and by the end of this week I’ll be posting the answers to the first section of our module carnet. If you want to access the textbook online, you can view it here, for free! 

Again, as your teacher, I’m telling you that I’m very aware that academics may not be at the top of your list just yet. However, I’m just a message away if you want to get cracking, and the resources will be available to you. 

Cheers for now, and take care of yourself and your loved ones. 

Mr. Thorne

Hi everyone!

Hi folks,

I hope everyone is doing alright at home. We never got to say goodbye, and we never got more fish yet for Rm.123. However, we'll be OK ☺.

While we get used to the new normal, I want to stress to you, my students: stay calm, don't worry; we will get through this together. 

While we may roll out our curriculum in a different way, you are still a student of MDJH and you still have a community of support through myself and ALL of your teachers. 

Please check on each other often, email me with good news stories, and reach out to people who you think would like to hear from a friend or family member. 

Stay tuned to my blog, as I'll be using this, my "website" (yup I used quotation marks there.. quoting myself) to roll out anything school related. Don't forget about our school website: mdjh.info, and our Twitter account @mdjh. It's also a good idea to keep an eye on your school email.

We'll be in touch.

Mr. Thorne