The "Raise Your Voice" video contest

The Environmental Youth Alliance is kicking off a new competition designed to get youth thinking about pressing environmental issues and sharing their ideas for a better future. This year they are asking youth aged 16-24 to submit a short video essay in response to the question: “Should bananas be available in Vancouver in 2025?”

They want to hear your thoughts on the future of this popular fruit and how its inclusion in our diets impacts the health of our environment and communities.

Grab a camera and start to debate your plate!

The contest winner will be awarded a $1000 scholarship to support their entrance into a post-secondary program with an environmental focus. Submissions can be made by youth aged 16-24 who are BC residents.

The contest runs from March 7th - May 7th 2011.

For more information about this contest you can visit E.Y.A.'s website (click here). You can also call Claire at 604-689-4446 for more information.

Course Planning 2011: The "Typical" Grade 10 Timetable

While no timetables are 100% identical, the grade 10 timetable is actually more "rigid" than that of the grade 9s. A "typical" grade 10 timetable would contain the following 8 courses:

• a Language Arts 10 (regular, enriched, adapted, mini, modified)
  
• a Social Studies 10 (regular, enriched, adapted, mini, modified)
• a Science 10 (regular, adapted, mini)
• a Math 10 (Apprenticeship and Workplace Math 10, or Foundations of Math & Pre-calculus 10)
• PE 10 (PE 10 Boys, PE 10 Girls, or PE 10 - Outdoor Education option)
• Planning 10 (Planning 10, Planning 10-Drama)
• Language or Elective
• Elective

Students who are taking a course outside the regular scheduled time (e.g. jazz band) may take an additional elective course (i.e. a ninth course). Students who sign up for online course(s) are expected to take a full 8-course load at Templeton as well.

For students in the challenge program. Successful completion of your course (Science 9 Challenge or Math 9 Challenge) would give you the course credits for grades 9 and 10 science and/or math. Therefore, when signing up for courses, you would choose a science and/or math course at the grade 11 level. For science, the options include physics, chemistry, biology, astronomy, and science and technology 11. For mathematics, the options include apprenticeship and workplace math 11, foundations of math 11, and pre-calculus 11. Each of these courses have different post-secondary implications - it is very important that you consider them, and plan ahead. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask me.

Course Planning 2011: Graduation Requirements

It is important to understand the graduation requirements as you plan to choose your courses for grade 10 and beyond. Therefore, I have decided to go over this information first before talking about actual courses available for you to choose, and how to choose these courses.

To graduate with a dogwood diploma, all students are expected to complete 80 course credits. At Templeton, all full-year courses are worth four credits each, which means, in order to graduate, you have to complete 20 required and elective courses at the grades 10, 11, and 12 level. The required courses include the following:

• Language Arts 10, 11, 12 (12 credits)
• Social Studies 10, 11/12 (8 credits)
• Science 10, 11/12 (8 credits)
• Mathematics 10, 11/12 (8 credits)
• PE 10 (4 credits)
• Planning 10 (4 credits)
• Applied Skills or Fine Arts 10/11/12 (4 credits)
• Graduation Transitions (4 credits)

In addition to the above 52 required credits, students need to complete 28 elective credits (i.e. 7 full-year courses). Of those 28 credits, 12 credits (3 courses) must be grade 12 courses, while the other 16 credits (4 courses) can be grade 10 or grade 11 courses.

Students who are taking academic courses at the grade 11 and 12 level can use one of the courses towards their elective credits. For example, if a student takes biology 11 in her grade 11 year, and biology 12 in her grade 12 year, Biology 11 would count as her science 11 credit, while biology 12 can be used as one of her grade 12 electives.

For more information about B.C.'s graduation requirements, you can visit the Ministry of Education's website (click here).

Please don't hesitate to contact me if you have any questions and/or concerns regarding this.

Course Planning Information

Starting next week, I will be coming into your science class to begin course planning work with you for the 2011 - 2012 school year. Please make sure you are present for these very important classes.

You may notice that the course planning calendar has already been released at the Templeton's website. If you want to view ahead of time what courses are available, and prepare questions for me ahead of time, that would be super.

The course planning calendar can be found by clicking on the following link:
Click here

March's Lunch Envelopes are Due

Lunch envelopes for the month of March are due Thursday, February 17. Please have your completed lunch envelopes ready, and drop them off at the box in the main office.

Late submissions may result in you not having a lunch card on March 1. Please submit your lunch envelopes as soon as possible.

Hot lunches for the month cost $70. For students in families with financial difficulties, a $35 fee is recommended. If you have any questions, please talk to me, or Mr. Mustapich, the vice principal in charge of the school lunch program.

Parent-teacher Inteview forms due

This is a reminder that parent-teacher interview request forms are due tomorrow morning (Thursday, February 3) at 10:00 a.m. Completed forms can be placed into the big box located in the waiting area in the school office.

Alternately, you can fax the form to the school. The school's fax number is 604-713-8983.

Appointment schedules will be returned to students on Tuesday, February 8.

On February 9 (Wednesday), students will be dismissed at 1:44 p.m. Teachers may be available in their classrooms until 3:00 p.m. for informal meetings. If you want to schedule a meeting during this time, please contact the teacher directly to schedule for a meeting.

Parents who are not scheduled to meet with the teachers can still attend the parent-teacher interviews. The school will try to work to allow you to meet the teacher you wish to see.

Principal's List and Honour Roll

The student lists for Term 1's Honour Roll and Principal's List have been released! Grade 8 and 9 students who wish to check whether you were on the honour roll or principal's list can come to check for your names. The lists have been posted on my door.

In case you are not aware, the following are the criteria for students to be on the principal's list and the honour roll:

Principal's List: students who achieve a 90% and higher average, with no marks below 60%, on all eight (or more) courses.

Honour Roll: Students who achieve an 80% - 89% average, with no marks below 60%, on all eight (or more) courses.

Congratulations to Templeton's young scholars! Keep up the great work!