Best TA Ever.

I look like the proud father of 14 grads... now THAT is a scary thought. 

Are You Good Roommate Material?

Please complete the following roommate test.
We will discuss the questions and results in class.

Expanding Horizons Post-Graduation

Here are a number of the links we discussed in class. Please explore them to know more of the opportunities that you have after graduation.

Canada International Work Experience
Rotary Youth Exchange
Explore - Summer Language Program
Canada World Youth
Katimavik

Grade 12: Well, What Do You Know?

As many of you have been focussed on classes, exams, grad, and post-secondary planning lately, it may have dawned on you that your days in high school are numbered. Before too long you'll be moving on, so why not take some time to pass along the knowledge that you've gleaned. No, I'm not asking you to teach grade 12 Physics, but think about the informal high school knowledge and skills you've gained throughout your four years! 

Advice to Incoming Grade 9 Students

Your assignment is to write an advice column style post on your class blog in response to one of the questions below. Your post should respond to the question with practical suggestions for actions that will lead to a healthy solution of the concern. You may wish to use specific examples to clarify your advice, but please do not use real people's names.

Questions from grade nine students: (choose one)

• I'm not super outgoing, how can I feel more comfortable at Maples?
• Maples seems really big, how do I learn where I'm going? Where should I stay away from?
• I don't want to makes mistakes. What things should I not do in high school?
• I want to make the most of high school. What things should I get involved with?
• Are the exams really as hard as they say? How do I get ready and do well? 
• What are the best things about high school?
• What are the worst thing about high school? 
• Grades are important to me. How much do I really need to study to do well?
• What's the deal with spares? What really happens in that time?
• If you could go back in time to beginning grade 9, what would you do differently?

I.C.E. - Inspirational Career Exploration

Here are the unique topics chosen by our unique students:

GIAN - Fire Fighter

ZHAIRA - Registered Nurse

DREDEN - Chef

SIMRAN - Psychologist

AMAN - Lawyer

RICHARD - Film Director/Producer

ANGELO - Software Developer 

BRITTANY - Fashion Designer

VICTORIA - Social Worker

ASHLEY - Architect

TYSHANA - Health Care Aide

MATTHEW - Computer Programmer

KURT - Pharmacist

ANTHONY - Chiropractor

SAMANTHA - PowerPoint - Pediatrician

FREDIESON - Doctor

ALYZA - Hair Stylist

SHAQ - Police Officer

KENNETH - Fashion Merchandiser

As well here are the guidelines for the project, as brainstormed by the students: (assisted by Mr. H)

Description: Students will research and present to the class information pertaining to one career field or job of interest. The form of the project is up to the individual, but must be publically shared with the class in some fashion. Regardless of the form, the content of the project should cover:

• The name of the job
• A description of the jobs duties and responsibilities (pictures can help too)
• Important skills required in performing the job
• Requirements to be in the job (school, training, or certificate)
• Salary expectations of the job (starting, average, or peak salary)
• Associated jobs or careers (before or after this job)
• A statement explaining their personal interest in this job. 

Stay tuned as the projects will be posted to this website in the future!

Due Date: Thursday, May 10, 2012

Job Offers!

Congratulations to the winners of our mock job interviews:

Samantha Tran was hired by MYAC as summer program coordinator,
Dreden Gomez was hired by Best Buy as shift supervisor, and
Fredieson Tumambing was hired by Borland Construction as time sheet accountant.

Thanks to all who applied and best of luck in your future interviews!

Mock Job Interview Dates!

Mr. H couldn't remember if we had finalized this date, so in the interest of getting this activity done, please be advised!

As you know, we have been conducting mock job interviews and the last day is fast approaching. The last job interview session will be for the position of Time Sheet Accountant at Borland Construction and will take place during TA Tuesday, December 13th at 10:10. All students who have signed up to be interviewed for this job should be prepared for that time.

RSS - Feed Your Head

RSS stands for RDF Site Summary, but is more commonly known as Really Simple Syndication. It is a webtool that is changing the way in which people read on the Internet. RSS allows a user to subscribe to receive all new updates to a webpage. Using an RSS feed means that a person does not need to visit their favourite websites in order to see what's new. It's kind of like "following" a website. RSS can be a very effective way to stay on top of blog content that matters to you.

Google Reader is a service offfered with your Google account which can act as your RSS feed organizer (and reader). To access Google Reader, just log into your Google account and click on the Reader feature in the "more" menu. Once you are logged in to Reader, subscribe to a minimum of 3 feeds (from different sections) from this extensive list.  Remember that the number of feeds you subscribe to will determine the amount of reading that will be delivered to your reader.

Who's Ready for School?

Hello TA (and anyone else who happens to stumble across this),

If you are unaware (or in some sort of denial) school starts this week! In fact, the grade nines have classes starting tomorrow (Wednesday). You, in your senority of being grade eleven students, are expected to be in my room Thursday, Sept. 8th at precisely 9:00 AM. I have lockers, agendas and words of wisdom for you all before you head to classes.

If you need to get a hold of me before Thursday, call me at the school 631-5849 ext. 3229 or email britt[dot]hainstock@7oaks[dot]org.

See you soon!

Mr. H

Locker Clean-up!

Well, it's that time again. Time to pull the moldy sandwiches and unwashed gym clothes out of your locker! When you are done this ghastly task, you need to return your lock to Mr. H. When he receives your lock, you will receive an amazing cinematic prize*!

(* limited one per customer, not valid with any other offers, opinions of "amazing" may vary, Mr. Hainstock reserves the right to keep and use any and all unclaimed prizes for his own enjoyment over the summer)

Next Week! Pride in Maples Collegiate

Hey hey TA,

We'll be discussing this more on Tuesday, but here's the line-up for next week's GSA planned activities.

- Mister H

Maples Gay-Straight Alliance is thrilled to be organizing the 1st Annual Pride Week from Sunday June 5th – Friday June 10th. They have a variety of activities and fundraising opportunities going on throughout the week that they would love for all of you to get involved with.

Monday, June 6th - Banner & Buttons: A banner will be set up by the Maples office for anyone to sign who wishes to show support for equality and the LGBTTQ* community.

Tuesday, June 7th - Cookies & Cream: We will be selling rainbow ice cream and cookies in front of the Maples office.

Wednesday, June 8th - “I Wanna Hold Your Hand” Day: Inspired by London’s “A Day in Hand” Project. We invite students to join us in holding hands with their friends to generate awareness on issues regarding homophobia, biphobia and transphobia.

Thursday, June 9th - T-Shirt Day: Wear an orange shirt to be included in our school wide rainbow picture!

Purpose of a Blog?

The three main purposes of writing are:

To inform
When you are writing to inform, you are presenting information that the reader is interested in. Writing purely for the sake of information should avoid bias and be objective.

To persuade:
Persuading writing usually tries to convince the reader of a fact or point of view. This kind of writing can include reasons that support an idea, or rather information presented with bias to convince the reader of the writer's view.

To entertain:

Writing designed to entertain creates and emotion in the reader. Entertaining writing is usually funny, interesting, or even sad. It is created so that the reader will enjoy what is written.

Links: Check out these sites and decide the purpose of each:

http://www.bloglockers.com/
http://engadget.com/
http://lifehacker.com/
http://gizmodo.com/
http://kimjongillookingatthings.tumblr.com/
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/
http://popeater.com/
http://redstate.com/
http://www.slashfilm.com/
http://www.eurogamer.net/
http://www.michaelmoore.com/blogger/mmflint/
http://weblog.greenpeace.org/
http://www.1000awesomethings.com/

Welcome: Where Are You?

Good [insert time] class!

This is the new blog home of Mr. Hainstock's TA!

To make the most of our blogs we need to know when to find each other, so please post your blog's URL as a comment to this post. Please include your first name!