Student Council: Stand up and Lead! **NEW INFORMATION ADDED***

hello Intermediate students: Are you interested in developing your leadership skills? Do you want to help make Cranny one of the best places to grow and learn? It's time to put your ideas and passions into action!

We are now accepting applications to join and lead one of the four student council committees this year. There are many formats you may submit your application in:

- a one page essay 
- a one minute video
- 5 powerpoint slides 
- a poster or some sort of visual

You should clearly state, in your application, why you are the person for the job. Basically, you are going to try to convince us (wow us!) that you have the passion and the desire to contribute to the Cranny community.

 Please speak to your homeroom teachers, or to Mr. Huang, Mrs. Belligero, and Ms. DiMarco if you would like to find out more about the Student Council and committees. Looking forward to seeing your applications!

APPLICATIONS DUE ON: WEDNESDAY, October 9, 2013

all 'paper' applications can be submitted to Mrs. Belligero in room 201
all 'digital' applications should be uploaded to Gapps and shared with Mr. Huang (chien-ming.huang@gapps.yrdsb.ca)

Math POTW - Preserving the Catch!

                                                             Math Problem of the Week
                                                                 Preserving the Catch!
Mr. Milette and Mr. Huang are going ice fishing this winter. They have a container to store their fish in. The container must be frozen completely with water the night before leaving for the fishing expedition, so that it thaws just in time to store some fish a few hours later. The rectangular container has a base of 9 cm by 11 cm and has a height of 38.5 cm. Assuming that water expands 10% when it freezes, determine the depth to which the container can be filled with water so that when it freezes, the ice does not go above the top of the container.

Friday Activity - Stranded!

Great job today again everyone on another effective and successful Friday Intermediate community-building activity. Today's challenge was to think critically about which 4 items your team felt would be most important /necessary if stranded on a (somewhat) deserted island. We saw a variety of different selections, from matchboxes to tarps, and from mirrors to books on edible plants. The best dialogue though, came from the creative and elaborate justifications that groups shared regarding each of their four selections. It is always fun and engaging to "think outside the box"!

As we perform theses activities, please remember that our purpose is to build a more effective sense of community in and between our classes, and within and around the school. Remember to allow and encourage all group members to "have their say", and that differing opinions doesn't necessarily mean wrong opinions. 

Math Problem of the Week - POST your answers/ideas/thoughts/solutions as a "Comment"

                                                        Math Problem of the Week
(Below is a challenging math problem, who can correctly solve it by showing all work and explaining their thinking? Please share, discuss, and read all students' comments)

In football, the player who kicks the ball is referred to as the punter. During a recent football game, the punter, Khan Bootit, kicked the ball five times. His longest kick was 44 yards and he averaged 35 yards per kick. Each of his 5 kicks was a different whole number distance.
Determine the minimum possible distance of Khan’s shortest kick.

"The Marshmallow Challenge" Reflection - Equal Participation

We had another great week of intermediate community building in the four classes. All four teachers were quite impressed with the level of conversation regarding our "marshmallow challenge" debrief and reflection. We centered these conversations around the social and collaborative skill of "equal participation". Effective group work relies HEAVILY on equal participation. Please watch the TEDTalk below regarding collaboration and effective group work. Isn't it interesting that the study found that kindergarten students often obtained the best (and most creative) results?

Please post your replies and comments to our intermediate blogs. Discussions are not just welcomed, but encouraged!

Meet the Intermediate Team!

Hello parents and guardians,

We are pleased to have you visit our school this evening! Although we are only a few weeks into the school year, we have already begun to establish effective classroom routines and have been jumping head first into some interesting and exciting content. Grade 8 students performed a fun and engaging science experiment on viscosity, while the Grade 7s explored pure substances and mixtures with their "Deodorizer Labs".

We look forward to continuing our interactive and engaging program throughout this school year. Feel free to drop by this BlogSpot throughout the year to see what's happening here at Cranny.

Please read the following attachment on how you may support your child in reading:
http://www.fortheteachers.org/Printables/Parent_Help_Reading.pdf


Sincerely,
The Cranny Intermediate Team

The Marshmallow Challenge!

Wow, what an amazing job everyone did today on The Marshmallow Challenge. This team-building activity was initiated so that we could inter-mingle the different 7/8 classes. I must say that on behalf of the intermediate teachers we were THOROUGHLY impressed by the level of participation and cooperation in each of the groups.

Special props to our winning team with an amazing structure height of 62cm! Way to go Jimmy, Pulkit, Steven, and Sophia!

Stay tuned for more upcoming exciting Friday activities that will encourage us and inspire us in strengthening our intermediate community! 

Interesting Links for Science (both macro and micro) & Space Enthusiasts

Hello all,

So this is my first time blogging with our newly minted (yet always awesome) MCES Intermediate blog. Be sure to visit the blogspot often, as us intermediate teachers will be working hard to keep you engaged and coming back for more!

Beyond just visiting the blogspot, you're encouraged to provide comments and feedback regarding posts. HOWEVER, we are all part of the digital community and we are all required to consider online netiquette when commenting. Please be respectful of others when commenting and always "think before you post". Re-reading and reviewing your posts before publishing them, even just once, often gives your brain enough time to critically consider what you'll be publishing. 

Here are two wonderful links regarding the subject heading of my post. After reading my class profiles and student surveys I noticed that many students are interested in science, and space in particular. Enjoy!

Mr. Milette

http://www.htwins.net/scale2/

Real Life Math & Math Inquiry

Our focus in Math education has shifted from skill-focussed training to making connection between Math concepts/skills to real-life scenarios.  We believe that this shift is beneficial to learners of all types and levels; not to mention making learning more fun and relevant to our life.

Math inquiry requires learners to keep an open mind, ask questions, confer with partners, participate in solution seeking, and focussing on the process.  There are always more than one way to solve a problem!

Let's take a look at the example below (watch video to about 1:52 mark into the clip only) and consider this question.


We will be using this simple math question as a conversation starter and establish our norms and expectations in:

• How to buzz like mathematicians
• How to solve a problem
• How to learn and support each other in a Math community

Let's talk about Math~

Take a look at this video below:


Can you answer this question? What are your thoughts after seeing this clip? Let's talk about Math. Let's face it, many people do not like Math naturally: some of us are terrified by the thought of it (myself included during my middle school days.) Does Math have to be public enemy #1? Do we need Math? Why do we have to take Math in school? We are hoping that we will address all these questions this year when we learn and explore Math together, as a learning community. now check this other video out:

Welcome to the Intermediates!

Hello all, welcome back!

We are ready to embark on another school year of learning and growing together!

To start it off, we'd like to invite all intermediate students to complete this Math attitude survey before Friday this week.

We are looking forward to see you all in classes today!

happy first day back!

#back2school2013