The Grade 6s started the week with an introduction to Roman civilization in the form of reading the Romulus and Remus foundation myth and answering insightful questions aimed at assessing prior knowledge and encouraging critical thought. The next activity asked students to review the WebQuest site based on the Roman Empire and then splitting into groups of two to analyze and identify the positive and negative aspects of the Roman Empire. The Grade 6s will continue this activity next week and then start working on their role plays to further differentiate their understanding and engagement with the Roman Empire.

This week in grade 7 Individuals and Societies continued to explore the different types of government and political systems by looking into different opinions and how people can develop different ideologies. The students then took a deep dive into the similarities and differences within government systems to develop a clearer understanding of how they function by completing individual stations. The students worked on their critical thinking and communication skills.

This week in grade 8 Individuals and Societies class students have begun their second unit on “Our World’s Natural Resources”. Students explored the concepts of needs, wants, and resources, and sustainability. They then did a comparison study of their needs, wants, and resource use and compared it to people around the world. This allows students to develop different perspectives and how their environment can affect or influence their situation. The students used their critical thinking and communication skills.

This week in grade 9 Individuals and Societies class they have started their second unit on “The Medieval World”, also known as the “Middle Ages”. The students began by brainstorming what they think of when they hear “Medieval World” before exploring general background information about the period. To help them understand how the world was viewed, idea’s, practices, and beliefs, the students analyzed, and interpreted different images for meaning and what they tell us about the Medieval World. The students used their critical thinking and social skills in I&S class this week.

Grade 10: This week students covered some key concepts that are important for understanding WW1, such as Colonialism, Arms Races, and a Balance of Power. They finished up their poster creation activity (in which they represented their knowledge of a major power in WW1 via timeline or infographic)  and started a unit summative, a inquiry led investigative presentation about an aspect of WW1 that interests them.

Psychology

This week the Grade 111 Psychology students explored how we learn the values and norms of our own culture and other cultures through enculturation and acculturation. Students analyzed a study conducted by Torres on how acculturative strategies can impact acculturative stress. They worked in pairs to create a mind map illustrating the connections between Torres' study and acculturation.

This week the DP2 Psychology students began their unit on their second option topic about abnormal psychology. They learned about the multi-store model of memory and biological factors that influence our memory production and recall. They replicated a memory experiment conducted by Peterson. Lastly, the class began discussing the working memory model and comparing and contrasting it to the multi-store model.

Global Politics

Grade 11: This week students reviewed the key concepts of unit 1, like Legitimacy, Sovereignty and Economic Cooperation. They reviewed slides, discussed the concepts and their understanding of them, and reviewed content with a Kahoot quiz. Students also utilized the iceberg model to practice identifying underlying systems and patterns and trends in global politics issues.

Grade 12: This week students started covering unit 4 of the course, Peace and Conflict. We explored contested meanings of peace, and also the concept of positive and negative peace, and some liberal theories of how peace can be built and maintained, such as through economic cooperation and interdependence. We read and explored excerpts from Martin Luther King’s Letter From a Birmingham Jail in order to understand the origins of the positive vs negative peace debate and the moral arguments underpinning them. Students also continued working on their IA’s which are due in early January, and held check-ins to update the teacher on their progress.

Business Management

Grade 11 Students worked on various aspects of Costs and Revenues, Fixed Variable, Direct and Indirect Costs. This will prepare them for creating and understanding Balance sheets and profit and loss accounts.  Additionally, they practiced making spreadsheets with simple formulas.

This week, grade 12 students completed their presentations on the 8 different motivation theories they learned. Leadership and Motivation theories are popular topics which come up I the exams for DP and New Brunswick students. Next week we start the final unknit of the course on Operations management.

Our Grade 6 students have been diligently working on the final stages of their Unit 1 Summative Assessment, specifically focusing on Criterion C. This criterion involves the creation of a video where students articulate and explain the Design Cycle. Additionally, they have been putting the finishing touches on their Criterion C portfolio, showcasing their design thinking and decision-making processes. Students demonstrated effective communication through the creation of their explanatory videos. They expressed their understanding of the Design Cycle coherently, ensuring clarity for their audience. Creative thinking was evident in the way students approached the design of their videos and portfolios. They applied innovative approaches to convey their understanding of the Design Cycle, making the content engaging and visually appealing.

As the grade 7 students approach the conclusion of Criteria C, the excitement is building as they put the finishing touches on their boat creations, set to make a splash in next week's science class as part of an interdisciplinary unit (IDU). The diverse array of boat designs reflects each student's unique ownership of the design process, promising an intriguing showcase of creativity and innovation. Anticipation is high to see if these boats will live up to the expectations set by the class. It's been a fantastic week of hands-on learning in the design lab, where students have truly immersed themselves in bringing their ideas to life.

Grade 8 students are currently immersed in the reflective phase of the Rubber Band Car unit, navigating through criterion D. This stage prompts them to ponder not only the development of their skills but also the ingenious ways they can put themselves to the test in each strand of the criteria. Delving into testing methods and scrutinizing results, the students are also making meaningful connections with their specification tables. This reflective journey serves as a valuable tool, enabling them to assess their own performance and draw insights that go beyond the immediate project, laying the groundwork for making constructive changes in future design units and even in real-world scenarios. It's an exciting phase of self-discovery and skill refinement for these budding designers.

In our thrilling grade 9 IB MYP Design class, students are currently deep into the creation of animal habitats. As they progress through the week and approach the conclusion of Criteria C, the excitement is noticeable. They are meticulously adding the final touches to their animal habitats, eagerly anticipating the culmination of the unit in next week's class. The journey has been a showcase of creativity and resilience as they've faced and conquered challenges, demonstrating a tenacious spirit in bringing their unique habitat designs to fruition. Each student has embraced the ownership of their design process, resulting in a diverse array of habitats that promise to captivate with innovation. The class is eagerly looking forward to seeing these habitats in action, wondering if they will live up to the expectations set by the class. It has been an exhilarating week of hands-on learning in our design class, where students have fully immersed themselves in the process of bringing their imaginative animal habitats to life.

This week in grade 10, we continued to code Java programs using the ‘for’ loop. With some experience using loops, it is time to show students how to map out a programming solution. One way we do this is using a flowchart. A flowchart is a diagram that depicts a computer algorithm or set of instructions used to solve problems or perform tasks. We started by introducing flowcharting symbols and then working together to create the flowchart diagram for that coding problem.

This week in grade 11, we continued exercises using the bubble sort to rearrange our data items. We also began to work on object-oriented programming (OOP) concepts. We began by understanding what an object is and how it is used in computer science. Part of this understanding is how objects are represented and how to create unified modelling language (UML) diagrams of our data items.

With the first draft of Internal Assessments (IAs) being completed, we turned our attention to the last major topic in grade 12 computer science. In this last topic, we began studying networks by looking at the type of computer networks that are typically used in organizations. The network that most students are familiar with is a LAN, a local area network, which is what we use in school. Students will learn about LANs and several other networks such as WANs, VLANs, WLANs, SANs, PANs, and P2Ps.

K1 (Yani Wang)

This week in our German class in K1 we learned something about Christmas. First, we learned German words related to Christmas, such as Christmas tree, Santa Claus, candles, garlands, etc. Since this Wednesday is the traditional German holiday Sankt Nikolaus. So, we introduce Nikolaus. We read about how he shared gold with the poor. And made handmade Christmas socks. Classroom games include painting a beard on Nikolaus with flour, memory cards about Christmas items, etc.

K2 (Yani Wang)

Our theme in K2 German class this week is celebrating Christmas. First, we used picture cards to learn a lot of Christmas-related vocabulary, such as Christmas tree, Christmas candles, reindeer, sleigh, etc. Then we learned some traditional customs of Christmas, such as Advent, Nikolaus, etc. We learned the German song "Lass uns froh und munter sein". And the students used different materials, including colored paper, colored pens, stickers, and sand to make a painting about Nikolaus.

We continue learning about numbers, this week the numbers are 9 and 10.

K3 (Yani Wang)

The main content of this week’s K3 German class is about Sankt Nikolaus. We read an introduction to the life of Nikolaus. Learned that he was a Turkish-born bishop who was loved throughout his life for sharing and giving. In Germany, December 6th is celebrated as Nikolaus Day. As a traditional custom, children will wash their shoes and leave them at the door of their house, waiting for Nikolaus's gift at night. We also learned the German song "Lass uns froh und munter sein" related to Nikolaus and made a handmade "bishop's hat".

This week we learned the new German letters C and D. And started to learn the spelling of simple syllables, such as BA, Ca, etc.

PYP German

 (Sascha Wandkowsky & Robert Jordan)

G1: This week in our Grade 1 German class, we started off by reviewing the vocabulary from the previous week. This served as a great refresher for the students and helped them recall the words they had learned.

In the latter part of the week, we introduced new words to the students, focusing on nouns and verbs with double consonants. We also read texts about togetherness and friendship, which were followed by writing exercises and other tasks related to the texts.

G2: This week in our Grade 2 German class, we focused on the cursive script for the letters ‘g’ and ‘j’. The students practiced writing these letters in cursive, which helped improve their handwriting skills.

We also worked on the pronunciation of the long ‘i’ sound, represented by ‘ie’ in words. This was followed by reading poems, where the students tried to read quickly and experimented with different pronunciations. They also acted out the poems and completed accompanying writing exercises, which made the learning process more interactive and fun.

G3: This week in our Grade 3 German class, we began by reviewing categories and the definite and indefinite articles. This review helped to reinforce the students’ understanding of these fundamental concepts.

Later in the week, we introduced new topics, including singular and plural forms of nouns, and noun endings such as “-ung”. We also read texts about family experiences with siblings and grandparents. These readings were accompanied by writing and comprehension exercises to enhance understanding. We concluded the week with a reading test based on the chapter we finished reading, which allowed the students to demonstrate their progress.

G4: This week in our Grade 4 German class, we focused on identifying nouns and understanding different categories of nouns. This exercise helped the students to classify and understand nouns better.

We also discussed nouns as countries and locations, which broadened the students’ geographical knowledge. We read texts about families and luck, followed by writing and comprehension exercises. These activities not only improved the students’ reading and writing skills but also enhanced their understanding of the topics.

G5: On Monday the German PYP students led discussions on various controversial topics with basic pro and con groups.

On Tuesday and Wednesday the students wrote stories around a picture with a depicted soccer match and read their texts in class. They decided afterwards on their favourite story. This task led to some remarkably creative stories, with students using various topics and not just sports.

On Thursday and Friday, we were looking for synonyms to expressions in various contexts.