From
the desk of Mrs. Samson....
February 26, 2010
Dear Parents,
The Western Ottawa Community Resource Centre is currently offering a number of sessions for children, teens, and parents regarding a variety of topics. For students, some topics will include: self esteem, stress management, emotional safety, healthy living, body awareness/body image, relationships, and social agression. For parents, some topics will include: youth mental health and keeping up with technology. The attached brochures will provide you with more details about the sessions and provide you with registration information.
We hope these opportunities will be beneficial to some of our GMS families.
September 2009
Welcome to Science and Technology!
Letter to Grade 7
Letter to Grade 8
I hope you had a wonderful summer and are ready to come back to school. I am very happy to be taking over our S&T room at GMS and am thrilled to tell you of all that has happened in our room over the summer. I have had a great team in with me to prepare the room for this year. In addition, Mr. Adams and his team have been in to paint the room in order for this fresh start! In addition, I am pleased to welcome Mrs. McNaughton into our room. She will be team teaching with me as our Science and Technology teacher throughout the week. We have worked hard over the summer to put together activities that we hope will engage and interest all of our students. We have a great plan in store for the year! Some news you should know about include the following:
This year, some students will have the opportunity to complete their work in our renewed Computer Room. This was formerly the robotics room. We have one computer installed in the computer room and I am hoping to be able to acquire one or two more for some students to use during the year for project development and design, research, or special projects. We have gone through all of the scrap wood and sheets of wood from last year to determine what we need and what we currently have in stock for the students to use. At this point, we are in great need of donations of wood/woodworking supplies and gently used tools. Should parents have any wood ¼ or 1/8 inch plywood, dressed spruce, cedar, or pine I would greatly appreciate any donations (nothing pressure treated please). In addition, I will soon be posting a link on our website to a list of items our tech room is currently requiring. The list will include various gently used tools, supplies or other resources we will need to complete our design/tech challenges throughout the year. Please check the website again soon for the list if you are able to part with any of the items. The students and I will be so grateful for anything parents are able to contribute. We will be continuing with the Road Warriors activity that the Grade 8 students have completed in past years as well. This project will require a 9 volt battery, a D cell battery, a balloon, and a connector.
The GMS website will be home to a variety of new information about the program I have developed for this year. Each grade level will have its own page consisting of the grading scheme, rubrics, project outlines, etc. Information will be updated in coming days and will continue to be updated throughout the year, so please check it out and review our goals and plans! On the website students and parents will be able to see how their year in S&T will look, how they can achieve their marks, and how their final marks for each term will be calculated. Test and assignment due dates will be posted on the door of the S&T room, on the bulletin board in the S&T room, and also will be announced frequently, in advance, of the final deadlines.
I am very pleased to be taking over the S&T program and to work with Mrs. McNaughton. I realize that Mrs. Walker was a member of the GMS team for a long time and that her program was very valued in our community. I will work very hard to continue to provide a program that students will enjoy and where they will learn the expectations outlined in our curriculum in a hands-on, challenging, creative, and fun way. I would also like to integrate a woodworking component into our program during non-peak learning times (e.g. before the winter holidays, near March break and the end of the year). As soon as students have completed each of their required components of the program for each term, they will be given the opportunity to complete a woodworking project (or more) of their own. This may consist of a plan they have brought from home or something I have available in the room. The goal of this is to teach the finer skills of woodworking in hopes that the final project(s) each student completes is something they would bring home and put on display or make use of regularly. In most cases I hope to be able to provide all the materials required for the projects, but for larger projects students may be required to have some of the materials brought in from home.
I look forward to working with the students at GMS in the Science and Technology program. It is going to be an exciting year of new beginnings!
Sincerely,
Angela Samson |
