Hello Everyone,

This week we were to finish off chapter 3. We looked at the emergence of humanism and how it shifted from the ideas of the medieval period where nobles or the church decided what was acceptable and why, to justifying that people could be educated and make those decisions themselves. We looked at worldview through Halloween imagery  and Christmas through a traditional Alpine folktales of Krampus. You have been given a large amount of time to work on and complete your chapter 3 assignments. Next week we will be looking at chapter 4, the nuts and bolts of the Renaissance ideas and how they are applied.

Have a good weekend.

Hello Everyone,

We had a good start back to school this week after some time off for thanksgiving. I hope that you enjoyed your break and that you are ready for the next chunk of time leading up to winter break. This week we talked about the Canadian election and some of the impacts that it has. We talked about the difference between first past the post and rep by pop styles of elections. We continued to work on the specific skills such a research and expression of ideas. We also worked on the importance of planning and organisation through not only your calligraphy project but also through the buoyancy project in math/science with Ms. Wilson. We talked about how critical thinking while creating and throughout the design process will help to catch many simple and normal errors that everyone makes. We also continued to discuss chapter 3 in the in textbook which focuses on Humanism. The key parts Humanism is that it is focus in Europe on the ability and the authority of humans to think about, devise and create things on their own without justifying it to any other greater authority. Please continue to work on your chapter work, chapter 3 workbook, and your vocabulary.
Have a great weekend.  

Hello Everyone,

This week we started working on Chapter 3. We have finished the background story providing context to the end of the middle ages and the start of the Renaissance in Italy. We are now starting to explore what the changes and ideas of the Renaissance are. We started talking about Humanism. This is an idea, with the word coming from Latin, around the importance and value of human thought and reason. Looking back at what the ancient Roman and Greeks wrote, the Humanists started to copy their approach to thinking and looking at the world. Hence the name re discovery or rebirth referring to the ideas and thoughts of Ancient Rome. We will continue to look at this idea and explore now of the new/old ways of thinking when we return after break.
You have some vocabulary and some workbooks about chapter 3 to keep you busy. Also we will ensure to complete the Calligraphy project when we return.

Have a good restful week.

Hello everyone,

I hope that you enjoyed this interesting week. We finished off looking at chapter 2 in our textbook. This covered the silk road, the rise of trade and the importance of the Italian City States. This week your chapter 2 research and your geography questions were due on Friday. We also had a small test on chapter 1 and 2. I asked you to be reflective after the test about how you did, and after you received your mark to think about the things you can do to build positive habits moving forward. This includes asking for assistance and help or being critical about how to engage with the work. As we move forward I will be working with each of your to help devise and refine positive and focused work and study strategies.

Have a great weekend.