Sunday, September 25, 2016

ICT Newsletter

Grade 9 has completed studying Types and Components of Computers. We have discussed the uses and differences of mainframe computers, desktop computers, laptops, PDAs and smartphones. The ways CPU and the main memories, RAM and ROM, function were challenging for students. They can distinguish between RAM and ROM in terms of being volatile, permanent and random.
Operating systems were explored in Graphical User Interface (GUI) and Command Line Interface (CLI) forms. Computer software was detailed further to application software such as word processing, presentation authoring, image editing, database and graphical modelling.
Moreover, input devices were studied in ICT class. The types of input devices explored are:

  • Pointing devices: joystick, mouse, tracker-ball, touchpad
  • Typing devices: keyboard, numeric pad, touchscreen
  • Sensors: light, pressure, temperature, proximity, motion
  • Readers/Scanners: bar code reader, optical character recognition, optical mark recognition, chip reader, magnetic strip reader
  • Audio/Visual: microphone, webcam
Uses of optical mark recognition on exam papers, joystick in video games, tracker-ball by disabled people, microphone in digital music editing and sensors in shopping malls are discussed in class.

Thursday, September 22, 2016

GP test information

You will have a chapter test next Friday
What will be on the test-
All the vocabulary from the first chapter is fair game
You will have to identify perspectives, issues, causes, consequences in a passage
You will need to know about questions asked in surveys
Questioning – what type of question(s) needed for what type of information you want
What is a suitable question for an Individual Report ( need to be able to identify it)
Questioning diagram – be able to create a question diagram (like the ones we did in class and you did for HW)
You will need the FULL two periods so please be on time! Also you will need to write in complete sentences, using RAPPER!!

Unit test - Physics

Hi all,

There will be unit test on Tuesday, Sep 27.
Study hard.

Good luck!

HW for GP

Section 1.3 – read and do activities :
1 (1b), 2 (1), 3, 4 (1), 5 (1 choose 1 topic), 6 ( one that is assigned to you) 
For Activity 4 (1) – where it says look on pg 9, it means pg13

For Activity 5 (1) – List of questions should answer the questions from the box above it.

Monday, September 19, 2016

Physics September Newsletter

Dear parents and students,

This is Mr. Doymaz, physics teacher.
As you know the grade 9 students started the IGCSE program this year. This will be a bit more challenging than the middle school program.
At the end of the 2 years they will be sitting for the exams.
We offer combined science program where students will take a combine exam for the physics, chemistry and biology classes. With the other two science teacher we will work together to make sure that they are ready to get high scores at the end of this program.

Our aim is to complete the physics topic by the end of this year so that students can find some time to revise the units and practice the past papers at the beginning of next year.
Here are the topics we will cover this year.

Physics
P1. Motion
P2. Matter and forces
P3. Energy, work and power
P4. Simple kinetic molecular model of matter
P5. Matter and thermal properties
P6. Transfer of thermal energy
P7. Waves
P8. Light
P9. Electromagnetic spectrum
P10. Sound
P11. Electricity
P12. Electric circuits

Please note that we may not go in this order and some topics.
Assessment:
During the physics classes students will be given homework assignments and take quizzes. At the end of each unit they will take unit test. There will be some investigations and class activities which will be considered as class work.
Here is the categories and weights.
Classwork - 10%
Homework - 20%
Quiz - 30%
Tests - 40%

As you might already noticed that students are given assignments on our first topic called Motion.
It is recommended for all the students to review daily.
I am looking forward to having a great year.
Please feel free to get in touch at any time.

Best regards

Monday, September 12, 2016

Grade 9 Family Picnic Reminder

Hello Grade 9 parents,

The HJIS Family Picnic will be taking place on Thursday September 22nd. If you would like to attend, please fill in the RSVP form by tomorrow (Wednesday September 14).

Thank you!


Mr. Chris

LA Newsletter - September

This month in LA, we have completed (and will complete):

- Skim reading and reading for detail
- Selecting points for summary
- Making notes using paraphrasing
- Looking at writers' language choices
- Start reading 'Of Mice and Men'

Thank you! Feel free to email me at chepburn@horizon.ac.jp, or check my Google Site, if you have any questions.


Mr. Chris

Sunday, September 11, 2016

GP HW

Section 1.1 – read and do activities :
1, 3 (1-2),4(1a,b, 2, 3) Reflection Questions on pg. 8
For Activity 3 – part 1- also tell me what information you can find on each of those websites listed.


Section 1.2 – read and do activities :
3 either 1 or 2
You will need at least 5 sentences for causes and 5 sentences for consequences 

Friday, September 9, 2016

GP Newsletter

Welcome to GP Grade 9!!!!

 I am very excited to be able to teach the grade 9 students again this year! This class loves to debate and discuss so I am hoping we will have a lot of fruitful discussions! The students will spend the year reading, researching, writing and do activities related to global topics. We will spend most of this year practicing and honing our skills so that next year, the paper writing and projects will be a piece of cake! Please ask your student to see the syllabus (Cambridge one) for more specific information on what they will be doing over the course of the next two years.

Thursday, September 8, 2016

GP Homework

The interview ppt is uploaded to the General Information folder on Google docs. Your homework is to finish copying down the two question mistakes we didn't get to. This should be put in your notebook.

The interview should be put in a google document in your shared folder (the folder shared between you and I only). Please title/label the document Interview (with the date you did the interview on). Ex: Interview 9/10

Friday, September 2, 2016

Biology Newsletter/September

Our first topic in Biology is ''Food Tests'' The molecules that make up the bodies of living things are introduced in this topic, and will be referred to in all of the subsequent units.

This unit starts by considering the molecules from which living organisms are made, and then looks at food sources for animals and their necessity to build up the structure of their bodies, and also to supply energy.

This unit also provides opportunity for students to improve their practical skills. Practical work  in this unit includes :

  • Extraction of chlorophyll from leaves
  • Starch test
  • Benedict's test
  • Lipid test
  • Protein test

Scientific Enquiry work focuses on:
  • use techniques, apparatus and materials (including the following of a sequence of instructions where appropriate)
  • make and record observations, measurements and estimates
  • interpret and evaluate experimental observations and data

Thursday, September 1, 2016

Chemistry Newsletter

Dear parents I hope this year will be full of joy and education.

     We started to learn about Particles and experimental techniques
The concepts and practical skills introduced in this unit will be revisited in future topics.
This unit contains a considerable amount of practical work and introduces a variety of practical techniques that future units will build on. The unit starts by focusing on the variety of purification techniques available to chemists.

These are the core topics that students will learn:

-        -   Properties of solid liquid gas
-        -   Changing phases
-        -   Physical changes and chemical changes
-        -   Methods of separation
Simple distillation
Fractional distillation
Filtering
Crystallization
Paper chromatography


At the end of this unit, students will have Basic knowledge on particle theory.