We packed a lot into a four day week!

1. The Vancouver Writers Festival was amazing!  We attended the session Steampunk to Punksville with Susin Neilsen and Arthur Slade.  There will be a student post about the presentation posted next week. But we were thrilled with the presentation, that we got our books autographed and that both authors tweeted us back!
2. Some of our grade 8’s attended the Vancouver Writers Festival on Thursday and saw two different presentations.  They attended Words and Images and Flights of Fantasy.
3. We have been reading our school wide read since September and are approaching the final chapters.  We have been reading “Every Soul A Star” by Wendy Mass.  We have made labyrinths on the table tops and walked them with our fingers.  We talked about the most recent exo-planet discoveries.  We have a contest ongoing until MONDAY for students to make a poster, poem, song or ?? about the novel.  Whatever you are submitting is due on Monday.  Next week, check out our post about Unusals Day.  We are looking forward to a portable planetarium visit, walking a labyrinth, exploring SETI, a Star Party, skyping with Wendy Mass, working in the Art House, gold panning, and building a sun dial.
4. Ms. Abbot, Ms. Moody, and Ms. Sullivan met with the other MACC teachers,  administrators and Mrs. Pearce on Monday afternoon to work on finalizing the Vision Statement and Guiding Principles for MACC.  We have been working on formalizing the program after piloting the program.
5. Ms. Sullivan is continuing to work through executive function skills with the grade 8’s as they work on their Points of Pride project.
6. Ms. Abbot and Ms. Moody’s classes are finishing up their geography projects. We are looking forward to seeing the finished products this week.  Students was been looking at the environmental and geographic features of a country and are looking at how those feature impact human settlement.
7. Several MACC students attended We Day on Thursday as well.  We haven’t heard about their experience yet, but are hoping they might share in a post about the experience.
8. Thank you for participating in the Parent – Teacher – Student Conferences on Thursday evening.  We always find these meetings to be valuable and informative.  We appreciate the time to chat with parents and students about the transition into the school or the new school year.
9. On Friday, teachers participated in a Province Wide Professional Development Day.   Ms. Sullivan attended a conference with Dr. Stuart Shanker.  Ms. Abbot and Ms. Moody are attending conferences in November, so spent the day collaborating with teachers from the other two MACC sites.  They synergy of working with other teachers is a wonderful opportunity and some the the seeds of our discussions will hopefully bear fruit later this year.
10. There will be a very timely and informative presentations on Monday by Jesse Miller (social media consultant).  MACC has participated in his presentations for the past two years and find the information he presents and discuss have a direct impact on how students use social media throughout the year.  We would encourage parents to attend the evening presentation in our multi-purpose room (7-8:30pm).  Students will be attending the presentation on Monday morning and we will be encouraging this conversation to be ongoing throughout the year.