Welcome to Ms. Petrou's Webpage!
This website is designed to communicate to parents, students, friends and our other family members what we're learning about in class. Each tab above shares an aspect of our classroom and has information to help make the learning experiences at school that much richer.
Student success is dependent on the consistent involvement and collaboration between the student, parent/guardian and the teacher.
As we prepare students for Secondary education, Intermediate students are expected to be proactive with their learning by developing goals and to put into place methods of accountability. Students are strongly encouraged to use their personal agendas as their primary source for being organized throughout the school year.
Students are encouraged to take advantage of the opportunities to work closely with their Intermediate teachers through extra help sessions before and/or after school.
Our classroom strongly promotes Tribes learning, a process whereby students commit to 4 simple guidelines:
1. Attentive listening
2. Appreciation/no put-downs
3. Mutual respect
4. Safety
Reading:
Students are encouraged to independent read at home and to "think about their reading" by:
- Making connections - text-to-self, text-to-text, text-to-world
- Predicting what might happen next
- Sharing how they feel about the story/characters
- Evaluating the book - who would they recommend it to and why? What do they like/dislike about the author's craft?
- Inferring why particular events in the story occur and the meaning behind the text?
Discussion at home about books, newpapers, world issues helps to increase students' knowledge base and deeper thinking.
Learning Buddies: Every Thursday, our class spends one period per week working with students in kindergarten to grade 2 to develop their reading and writing skills. This is a great opportunity for grade 8's to demonstrate their leadership skills and is an excellent experiece they may want to include on their resumes!
We are currently reading a science fiction novel called, The Giver. Students have been summarizing each chapter in their Chapter Grids, filling out their deeper thinking on their Think Marks, and recording new vocabulary on their Portable Word Walls. Ask your son/daughter about some of the themes in the novel such as: the importance of the individual, the importance of memory, utopic vs. distopic societies and be sure they provide proof from the text! Ask, "how do you know?"
Writing:
Students are writing their resumes. Students should follow success criteria created in class, as well as, refer to their samples which are stored in their english binder.
Assignments:
Resume due: Mon., Nov. 5th
Crossword due: Mon., Nov. 5th
We are using the Math Makes Sense textbook and supplementary resources by math guru, Mariam Small . To check out the textbook website, click here. This year we are also building students ability to solve problems and work with open ended questions. Please click on the Four-Step Problem Solving Model to see what we are working on in class.
We are on our third unit: Geometry
Once tests are sent home please review with your child, sign and return to school the next day.
Homework:Translation and Reflection assignment due: Mon., Nov. 5th
*Please be sure to check the student agenda for the most recent homework assignments as it is updated daily!
Online Math Help
The Durham District School Board in partnership with the Ministry of Education and the Independent Learning Centre is pleased to bring the Homework Help program to students. This program offers free math help for students in Grades 7, 8, 9 and 10. Tutoring is available from 5:30pm-9:30pm, Sunday through Thursday. The site has been re-launched for the current school year. Grade 7s will need to register (teachers can provide OEN numbers,) and grade 8 students who have already registered can login as they did last year. Get started!
Please remember to bring your sketchbook to every Art class.
Sketchbook are to be collected during the week of January 21st for marking.
Spartan Day - Wed., Nov. 7th in the morning. We will be walking to Dunbarton, so please dress for the weather.
Boomerang Lunches are continuing at Altona, which means all lunch and snack waste brought to school is returned home. This is to encourage students to use reusable containers and to compost unfinished food or peels at home. Let's each take part in reducing our ecological footprint!
