Mrsgo.vsb.bc.ca/schools/hamber/Documents/winter2014NewsletterOnline.… · Servings Per Year 3 Page 3ULQFLSDO·V0HVVDJH ... +RPH(FRQRPLFV 5RERWLFV ... blocks of English. Grade 8 Orientation

Mrs.Chan

HAMBER ETERNAL DRAGON STARTS THEIR 26TH SEA-SON WITH A SURPRISING WIN!

On the early morning of October 26, a group of enthusiastic dragon boat paddlers formed a cheer squad for the first Rock ‘n Roll Vancouver Half Marathon. With some clever and encouraging signs, noisemakers, and pompoms, they cheered on the hoards of runners at the 2 km mark. Marcus Leeson led the group in an awesome dance to our team theme song. With a lot of high fives, loud cheering, and passionate energy, the group won the marathon’s best cheer squad along with some prize money! The money will be used to support the team’s racing and practice fees. Special thanks go to Anika Cheng for making some amazing posters, Julianna Chow for lending us the fantastic pompoms, Will Chen for being a great sound crew and Olivia Chan for organizing and creating a winning cheer squad! Of course a shout-out to the rest of the crew for waking up so early and cheering and dancing for over 2 hours—all of you were incredible!

The team is currently training new recruits every Tuesday and Thurs-day with land practices and Friday on the water. This year’s coaches are Dominic Lai, Jessica Tan, Coco Lau, Brendan Anderson, Russell Lee, and Shamus and Aidan Menard who are all alumni of the team. They are dedicated to transforming the team into great paddlers, and we greatly appreciate their willingness to spend so much time, effort and expertise in training the team. The team is eternally grateful for their commitment to them as a team and as individuals.

Last winter, over 24 Hamber students tried out for the False Creek Racing Canoe Club’s World Club Crew junior dragon boat team entry. Nineteen of these Hamber paddlers survived the try-outs and made the final cut to represent Canada at the 2014 World Club Crew Championships in Ravenna, Italy. The rest of the junior team members were from various schools in the Lower Mainland. This team had the best performance overall and won all 8 gold medals in the Junior A division and 2 silver and 1 bronze in the Junior B division. They made the club (FCRCC) and Canada very proud on the world stage. Congratulations to all!

HAMBER ETERNAL DRAGON STARTS THEIR 26TH SEASON WITH A SURPRISING WIN!

Ms. ChanApplied SkillsDepartment Head

The Eric Hamber Dragonboat Team

Table of ContentsServing Size 1 SeasonServings Per Year: 3

Page

Principal’s Message

2014–2015 Calendar

Counselling Department

English Department

Learning Commons

Science Department

Modern Languages

Special Education

Physical Education

Home Economics

Robotics

Extracurricular ActivitiesBusiness Education & Design

45678

910

11

1213

14-1516-17

18

The start to this school year was delayed far longer than any of us would have wished for; however, once classes were underway, teachers and students together adopted a “down to business” approach from the first days and have been working hard to make up for missed days.

It has been gratifying to see that all of the extracurricular activities that add so much to students’ positive experiences at school have continued unabated this year. Intra-murals are going strong, we have close to

70 clubs active in a variety of ways, the Fall sports season is wrapping up – congratula-tions to the Girls’ Field Hockey team who are City Champs and who had an outstanding experience at the Provincial Champion-ship tournament – the Basketball season is about to start, Fine Arts performances are underway, and Student Council events such as the Halloween Dance are proving to be very popular.

Although we were not able to have the traditional Grade 8 Camp this Fall, we have already begun planning for this event to occur in the Spring. Meanwhile, Student Council and our Peer Counsellors did a great job organizing the “Hamber Amazing Race” to help our newest students get to know one another and have a great time together.

It is important for students to maintain a healthy balance of these kinds of activities with their academic commitments. Parents can support their children by regularly reviewing their progress and ensuring that they establish consistent routines for completing homework. If students are ex-periencing difficulty in any of their subjects, they should speak with their teacher and/or counsellor to find out about the availability of extra help.

Report Cards will be issued on December 17th and

parents are invited to

attend

Parent Teacher Interviews on January 14th to get more information about how to support your children. Details about how to register online for these interviews will be provided on the school website and in a notice included with Report Cards.

The unexpected death of Social Studies teacher, Mr. Ted Ancell, was a great shock to all of us in the Hamber community. Our condolences go out to his family. It has been gratifying to see Hamber staff and students express their appreciation to Mr. Ancell’s family for all of his fine work over the years in support of our students and it has also been a comfort to see how our school family has pulled together to support one another in this difficult time.

I hope that the Winter Break will provide all of you with the opportunity to rest, relax, and spend time with family and friends.

Mr. GrantPrincipal

Alex Grant, Principal

MessageFrom the Principal

Winter 2014 Newsletter 4 5 Eric Hamber Secondary School

Mr. Smith has organized a retreat for the Peer Counsellors to go to Camp Stillwood for a retreat to do some offsite training for one night. At Hamber, the peer counsellors are placed into applied skills, skills, learning assistance and other classes to meet with Grade 8 students and check in on them. On Tuesdays each week they receive a training class. They are trained to break confidential-ity and go to Mr. Smith or another counsel-lor as needed.

Grade 8’s attended a recent welcom-ing event at the school organized by Mr. Smith, Ms. Super, Mr. Bains, Mr. Mirani and Mr. Grant and assisted by the student council and peer counsellors. The Grade 8’s participated in teams in an amazing race format, then finished up with a pizza party and movie night.

Guidance classes have begun for Grade 8, 9 and 10 students out of the physical educa-tion classes.

Ms. Gates’ Grade 9’s and Ms. Kartsonas’ Grade 10’s have been using the brand new Mind Check resource called, “Stop wonder-ing, start knowing- mental health school video resource.” The DVD depicts students from the Lower Mainland in first person tes-timonials about anxiety, panic attacks and depression. Students are discussing these mental health conditions and making plans for themselves to reduce stress. Each stu-dent has received resources to take home.

Grade 8, 9 and 10 students have also had a lesson provided by Kelly Melseness our SACY worker about drugs and alcohol education.

Grade 10’s participated in Take Your Kids to Work Day on November 5th in order to get a taste of a future career.

Ms. Kartsonas will have a job share counsellor on Wednesdays this year to assist with her work as the team leader of the VSB critical incident team.

Our Grade 10, 11 and 12 counsellors have recently attended a SFU event. They will also attend a Langara and UBC presentation in November and December.

Grade 12’s had an important assembly hosted by Mr. John Lam our career informa-tion assistant and Mr. Clive Smith the grade twelve counsellor along with Mr. Grant the principal. The assembly focused on important dates for Grade 12’s to be aware of, and explained the process for applying to college and university. All Grade 10, 11 and 12 students are advised to subscribe to Mr. Lam’s blog HamberTupperCareerCentre.wordpress.com for automatic updates with post- secondary admission, volunteer work and other opportunities.

Ms. Kartsonas attended the Ameri-can Universities event at West Point Grey Academy where fifty top US schools were in attendance. Grade 10 and 11 students from five public schools recently attended Hamber to write the PSAT exam. This exam is a precursor to the SAT exam and is a good predictor of the SAT 1 scores.

Ms. Gates and Ms. Kartsonas recently at-tended the Kelty pinwheel series on suicide safety planning at the Kelty Mental Health Center at Children’s Hospital. They have both been involved at the district level work-ing with revision to the Vancouver School Board’s guidelines for intervening with potentially suicidal students in elementary and secondary schools.

Kamal Arafa Vicky Huynh Waverly Jang Duva Karunakaran Gigi Lai Alex LeeSandra Lin Josephine Liu Mikaela Luke

Nick Milum Rosie Qi Tiffany QuonJohn Segui Dylan Shi Kathryn Shum Jennifer Wijaya Julian Woo Onyx Yu

Peer Counsellors this year:

Counselling Department

Ms. KartsonasCounsellor

With the start of a new school year, there have been big changes in the Hamber Library Learning Commons. After seven years as Department Head, Mrs. Joan Muir shelved her final book and retired in June. Her legacy at Hamber is substantial, and includes the creation and evolution of our Library into a Learning Commons. Congratu-lations, Ms. Muir, and enjoy your retirement! Stepping into her shoes as Teacher-Librar-ian Department Head is Ms. Stephanie Lemmon. Ms. Lemmon is joined by Mr. Rick Appel, who works part-time in the Library Learning Commons and also teaches two blocks of English.

Grade 8 OrientationThroughout the first month of school, the Library Learning Commons was busy doing orientations to welcome the new Grade 8 students. Students came with their English teacher to have a tour, to learn the rules

The Library Learning Commonsof this space and to understand intel-lectual integrity when doing research. They learned to use efficient strategies for note taking, creating a Works Cited page and navigating websites and databases in research. Students were also encouraged to sign out a book using their GOcard. Students are reminded books must be renewed or returned after two weeks.

National School Library Day was celebrated on October 27th across Canada. Canada is a fortunate country to have school libraries in all schools. At Eric Hamber, we celebrate reading every day with 20 minutes of silent reading. This year we also celebrated with a contest! All stu-dents who checked out books on October 27th were entered into a draw to win a $20 Chapters gift card. Congratulations to Gr. 8 winner Cedar Vasara, and we thank all Hamber readers for their love of reading!

ClubsThe Library Monitors Club is organized by Ms. Lemmon and Mr. Appel, and has approximately 50 members. Each Library Monitor does one shift of 15-30 minutes a week working in the library. The Hamber Reads Club (sponsored by Ms. Lemmon) is a book club in which students suggest books to read and discuss. The club met in October, did a “wild card” sharing and selection of books, and are off reading until our next meeting in November. New members are always welcome!

Ms. LemmonLearningCommons

Winter 2014 Newsletter 6

Mr. Appel and Ms. Lemmon in the Halloween spirit

Eric Hamber is fortunate to have such a rich and diverse Modern Languages Department. Very few schools in Vancouver are able to sustain four separate language programs. Do you know which languages are offered at Hamber? French, Spanish, Mandarin, Japanese and we have over 40 blocks of language classes!

•French:Mr. N. Francis, Ms. S. Mohammed, Ms. S. Leechik-Belonio, Ms. A. Manetta, Ms. S. Calman and Ms. R. Munteanu

•Mandarin: Mr. X. Pu and Ms. C. Tan•Japanese: Ms. S. Hashigasako•Spanish: Ms. T. Goolieff

We send best wishes to Ms. N. Buonassisi (French) and Ms. M. Lin (Mandarin) who are currently on maternity leave. As well, welcome to Ms. S. Calman who is filling in for Ms. Buonassisi and Mr. X. Pu who is teach-ing Mandarin this year in place of Ms. M. Lin. Finally, great to have you Mr. N. Francis! He was able to add one more block to his teaching load with a French 9 class.

Spanish ProgramMs. T. Goolieff is happily back to teaching a full load of Spanish this year. Grades 10, 11, 12 and Beginner 11 are all using a new program called Avancemos. This textbook uses much more of a communicative approach than the previous textbook and was a needed resource improvement for our Spanish classes. Thanks for your support Modern Languages Department and Mr. Grant!

Grade 9s are just getting started in their exploration of the Hispanic World. Check their maps in the background! Spanish 12 is diving into España and using a cultural exploration to perfect grammar such as com-mands, direct object pronouns and the subjunctive tense.

Modern Languages

Ms. GoolieffSpanish Teacher

7 Eric Hamber Secondary School


ENGLISH DEPARTMENT It is always exciting to form new relationships with students in Sep-tember. It is especially interesting to learn what students did during the summer, particularly in continu-ing to boost their reading, writing, and speaking skills.

Hamber’s Sustained Silent Reading programme is a great opportunity for students to not only have a quiet time to read their favourite books, but a great way for students and teachers to share their literary tastes. It is always exciting to see what students are reading and how they make their reading choices. At the start and end of a block rotation students are invited to speak about their book(s) – why it was selected, what did they most enjoy about it, and would they recommend it to their peers. Many students say that they do select a book based on another student’s recommendation – this was probably one of the reasons why The Hunger Games, Game of Thrones and Twilight grew in such popularity. At the moment some students are definitely impressed with John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars, Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson Series, and Veronica Roth’s Diver-gent. Interestingly, some students

have not given up on the classics. It is always heart-warming to see students engrossed in such novels as The Great Gatsby, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, or Pride and Prejudice.

As a teacher and role model, I (Ms. Panesar) like to share my

book choices with my students too. I finished reading Joseph Boyden’s The Orenda over the summer and at the moment I have Cervantes Don Quixote sitting on my desk, waiting to be re-read. It was momentarily set aside to for David Hedaris’ Holidays on Ice and Quixote definitely needs to be taken home to be finished!

In our classrooms we read, appreciate and analyze a variety of excellent novels. The World

Literature Class has been reading Homer’s Odyssey (an epic that looks like a novel!) and exploring ancient Greek culture and myth. They will proceed on to The Alche-mist by Paulo Coelho and focus on philosophy. My English 12 students will be working on George Orwell’s

In late October, Mrs. Leechik-Belonio’s Creative Writing 11 students got into the spirit of Halloween. Before having an intense discussion about the reportedly haunted places in Vancouver, the lights went out and the eerie music resonated throughout the classroom. These creative writers huddled in cozy groups (some brought their own pillows!) to share their own imaginative, scary stories. They brought their chilling narratives to life by embracing the ancient art of story-telling. Our special Halloween class wrapped up with a montage of world renowned Stephen King’s Pennywise the Clown and all its old school, spooky glory. Happy Halloween!

English CreativeWriting

Nineteen Eighty-Four and Albert Camus’ The Outsider. The grade 11s finished William Golding’s im-mensely dark Lord of the Flies and the Grade 10s will be soon enjoying the highly satirical Animal Farm. Many second novel assignments later in the year will allow students to choose a book from a list of more recently acclaimed writers. Popular choices include The Help, The Kite Runner, and The Road. Another exciting addition to our novel choices will be books written

by aboriginal writers sharing their unique stories.

The English Department is excited to be planning a speech contest for term two– the Oratori-cal – for the grade 10s and 11s. We also hope to have some well-known members of the Vancouver commu-

nity come judge our two events. Another exciting event for

Hamber students will be the Poetry in Voice Contest – this a Canada-wide poetry recital contest which our Challenge, Studio and senior students will be participating in. More information will be given in our next newsletter!

Ms. PanesarEnglish

DepartmentHead

Ms. Leechik-BelonioEnglish Teacher

Photo courtesy of Ms. Leechik-Belonio

SCIENCE DEPARTMENT

Hamber Science Department Begins Cloning PlantsAt Hamber we can now clone exotic plants such as the Orchids, Venus Flytraps, Sundews, and tropical pitcher plants! A generous donation from a local nursery has filled countertops in a science room in the new wing with boxes of equipment, chemicals, and culture bottles containing cloned carnivorous plants.

You have probably seen plants for sale at the supermarket like poinsettias, Or-chids, or Boston Ferns. Did you know that

these plants are produced in biotechnol-ogy labs from a small amount of tissue? We now have the ability to do this at Hamber.

The techniques in cloning are very similar to those used in the Microbiol-ogy Unit in Biology 11. Cloning begins with a seed or a small amount of tissue from a leaf, stem, or root. Sterilization with biocides (bleach, peroxide or other chemicals) kill off bacteria and fungi. It is then placed on nutrient gel in petri dish or baby food jars with growth hormones

added. The trick is to find the right combination of hor-mones. Hormones called Cytokinins will cause the plants to multiply while Auxins will result in root formation. With the correct recipe, one plant can be cultured indefinitely and produce thousands and thousands of descendants.

When the flytraps are out of dormancy in the spring, we will remove them from the nutrient gel and plant them in real soil. More importantly, we will give away these plants to students who have helped in cloning. So join the Science Challengers Club that meets every Tuesday at noon as they undertake this exciting opportunity!

Christina CheungStudent


DeCeMBeR05 End of Term 105 Fall Footlights 7:00 pm06 Fall Footlights 7:00 pm10 District Mini-School Testing10 Winter Band Concert 7:00 pm17 Term 1 Report Cards Distributed (Homeroom at 9:45 am)18 HIP Day (Class Begins at 9:40 am)18 Challenge/Studio Application Deadline18 Winter Strings Concert at 7:00 pm19 Winter Assemblies and Last Day of Instruction Before Winter Break20 – 04 Winter Break

JANuARy05 School Reopens07 PAC Meeting in Staffroom 7:00 pm14 Parent–Teacher Conferences (Early Dismissal at 2:03 pm)19 Professional Development Day (School Not in Session)20 Grade 7 Parent Information Evening in Auditorium 5:00 pm – 6:00 pm22 Grads of 2020 Day 9:00 am – 12:30 pm22 – 24 Winter Drama Show: 100 Lunches 7:00 pm27 Winter Drama Show: 100 Lunches

7:00 pm28 HIP Day (Class Begins at 9:40 am) 28 Block Rotation – 3, 4, 1, 2

FeBRuARy04 PAC Meeting in Staffroom 7:00 pm09 Family Day (School Not in Session)12 - 13 Musical: Grease 7:00 pm17 First Offers for Challenge/Studio19 Professional Development Day (School Not in Session) 19 Acceptance Deadline of First Offers to Challenge/Studio20 Musical: Grease 7:00 pm24 Chamber Choir Concert (at Magee) 7:00 pm24 Second Offers to Challenge/Studio26 Acceptance Deadline of Second Offers to Challenge/Studio26 Junior/Intermediate Choir Night26 HIP Day (Class Begins at 9:40 am)27 Senior Wind Pop Concert (at St. John’s Shaughnessy) 7:00 pm

MARCH03 Intermediate Band and Choir Con-cert (at Holy Trinity Anglican) 7:00 pm06 Last Day of Instruction Before Spring Break07 – 14 District Closure15 – 22 Spring Break23 School Reopens

25 HIP Day (Class Begins at 9:40 am)

27 End of Term 2

APRiL01 PAC Meeting in Staffroom 7:00 pm02 Spring Footlights 7:00 pm03 Good Friday (School Not in Session)06 Easter Monday (School Not in Ses-sion)08 Term 2 Report Cards Distributed (Homeroom at 9:45 am)14 Senior Choral Concert (at Holy Trin-ity) 7:00 pm17 Block Rotation – 4, 3, 2, 127 Professional Development Day (School Not in Session)29 HIP Day (Class Begins at 9:40 am)

MAy14 Fashion Show 7:00 pm18 Victoria Day (School Not in Session)20 PAC Meeting in Staffroom 7:00 pm


JuNe19 End of Term 325 Final Report Cards Distributed25 Last Day of Instruction26 Administrative Day

2014/2015

The Eric Hamber Skills Development/Learn-ing Strategies Centre continues to actively support student learning. We welcome to our team, Ms. Mysuria (Skills teacher) and Ms. yiu (Resource teacher), who are strong proponents of adapting individual learning styles and equipping students with goal-setting, organizational skills, time management, and self-advocacy strategies. Current students are targeting on ways of improving academic and lifelong success with the teaching support of Ms. Lew, Ms. Mysuria, and Mr. Tso. Our learning environ-ment is also bolstered by an astute and aware team of school and student support aides, Ms. Beugh, Ms. Demosthenes, Ms. Graham, Ms. Locascio, and Ms. Nathanson and, when available, student Peer Tutors. As a team, we strive to help students engage in their coursework and reach their learning potential.

The Jr. LAC district program has had an exciting start to the year. We’ve caught up on current news and issues around the world like the Ebola outbreak, the Northern Gateway Pipeline controversy, and Virgin Galatic’s quest to bring tourist closer to space travel with the construction of their

new Spaceship Two. We’ve also had the great opportunity to attend the Writer’s Fes-tival in Granville Island and listen to authors share their creative thoughts and personal readings on their latest novel. The Jr. LAC class also had their first cooking class and I’m happy to say that everyone’s fingers are still intact. Fruit Salad with whipped cream were enjoyed by all!

The Sr. LAC district program has settled into their academic subjects. Students are working hard on both modified and adapted self-paced programs. Of particular interest, students in the LAC English class are completing a unit on the Holocaust. The class is learning about the topic through novel studies, diaries, a variety of other materials and field trips. The Sr. LAC class has enjoyed cooking with Ms. Ho and is proud of the Halloween cookies they have baked and decorated.

The Lifeskills district program at Hamber is a specialized program for medically fragile secondary students who are physically de-pendent. Each student has different needs and goals. The program aims at providing an enriched environment through visual and auditory stimulation.

The LA/LS district program is off to another good start for the new academic year. The class is getting settled

into various routines. Some activities that the LA/LS class have participated in include field trips, cleaning up the school garden and picking apples from the trees in the garden. The LA/LS class looks forward to the rest of the term.

EducationSpecial

Ms. MacElhoneStudent Learning Support


Mr. OvergaardPhysical EducationDepartment Head

Pe Department

The Eric Hamber Physical Education De-partment would like to acknowledge the generosity of the family of the late Ms. Nora Mcdermott. Our new gymnasium floor looks amazing and will be enjoyed by countless Hamber students for years to come! Thank you McDermott family for your tremen-dous generosity in support of our Hamber students!

Our third annual Griffin Cup competition is underway! This coveted prize is awarded to the winning house (composed of grade 8/9 PE classes) after a yearlong inter-class competition highlighted by intramural activities (handball, basketball, volleyball, and ultimate) and grade wide events including the indoor and outdoor track meets.

Other Griffin Cup activities occurring this term will include Grade 8 Basketball intramu-rals, Grade 9 girls Handball, and of course the indoor track meet. We are looking forward to all the great activities planned for through-out the year!

Here are the results from activities :

Timmy Chin (top), Beza Chanyalew (left), and Jibran Hills (right) baking cookies in Ms. Ho’s class

Grade 9 Boys Handball Champions: Mounties

Grade 8 Co-Ed Ultimate Champions: Millionaires

Ms. ChanApplied SkillsDepartment Head

HOME ECONOMICS

Home Economics UpdateAnother batch of Grade 8s have completed their classic Hamber duffle bag after learning the fundamentals of using a sewing machine. The Term 1 Home Economics 8 students are now in the foods lab learning the basics of kitchen safety, sanitation, measuring and nutrition. They will experience magic of baking their own pizza and the classic mac and cheese. The LAC foods class are developing their kitchen skills and making breakfasts. The class looks forward to many more cooking adventures. Our Eric Hamber junior chefs in MFDN10 have discovered various forms of preservation including freezing and canning. Then they moved into baking some quickbreads like the delicious and healthy raisin bran muffins. Next stop is a unit on nutrition that will feature a buffet of healthy snacks and the planning of healthy, balanced breakfasts. Yummers!

The Senior foods students perfected their knife skills, chop-ping up locally farmed fall vegetable into various salsas. With Global Gourmet as the theme this year, the students ate their way through France with dishes like soufflés, crepes, gougére and cheese tastings! Now these global gourmets have sailed to Italy via the kitchen for some homemade stuffed agnolotti pasta, risotto, olive oil tastings and tiramisu! Buon appetito! The textiles lab is always a place of action and we welcome twelve District Fashion Design students who are learning the ropes of produc-tion and pattern making to produce their own collection for the annual fashion show in the spring. The Textiles 11 students have completed the designer garment bag with its many different compartments that a runway model would love to have. The Textiles 10 have finished their stuffed bears and have produced either a skirt or a pair of pants. The “blood hounds” aka super enthusiastic Textiles 10 students have gotten into production of their second pair of pants and will be working on their jackets as the rest of the junior students will be finishing up their first skirt or pants. Congratulations to the “bloodhounds” for their enthusi-asm and drive! Could there be another Ralph Lauren or Tom Ford in the making?

Applied SkillsThe Applied Skills department would like to welcome 2 new teach-ers to the team. Mr. Brian yu is in the Tech Studies area and brings a strong passion for Tech Studies and robotics to our school. He is teaching Applied Skills 8, Electronics 10, Tech Ed 10 and Carpentry & Joinery 11-12. Ms. Stefanie Schoenfelder brings her enthusiasm for teaching in the Business Education area. She is teaching Applied Skills 8, Electronic Desktop Publishing 11 &12, Accounting 11 and Financial Accounting 12.

The department also welcomes UBC student teacher Braydon Ng who will be under the tutelage of Mr. Peter Halim and Mr. Brian yu in the Tech Studies area. He loves to work with wood and is ready to start working in all areas of Tech Studies. He will be returning to

Hamber in February for his 10 week practicum.The department is currently working together on updating the

Applied Skills pages on the school website. Please stay tune and see the transformation in the new year.

Help Hamber get new knives for the Food Lab!Students, Parents and Staff of Eric Hamber! The Home Economics De-partment needs your help. Safeway is doing a promotion, for every $10 you spend at their store they will give you a stamp. Safeway will exchange these stamps for Professional Henckel knives! We are collecting as many stamps as possible in order to replace our 1960’s knives!! It’s so easy. Just collect the stamps at the cashier and deliver them to the mailbox of Ms. M. Woods, Ms. N. Ho, Ms. J. Chan or Ms. A. Lee. The promotion is running from now until February 12th, 2015. Thank you so much for your support!


VEX-IQ Robotics CompetitionOur Gr.8 Students won the first VEX-IQ Robotics Competition of the season, taking home A divisional title: Team Work Challenge Winner. See picture above.

New to Hamber this year:The VEX IQ Challenge, presented by the Robotics Education & Competition Foundation, provides elementary and middle school students with exciting, open-ended robotics and research project challenges that enhance their science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) skills through hands-on, student-centered learning. The VEX IQ Challenge fosters student development of the teamwork, critical thinking, project manage-ment, and communication skills required to prepare them to become the next generation of innovators and problem solvers.

See more: http://www.roboticseducation.org/vex-iq-challenge/

The VEX-IQ League of B.C. is a competitive robotics league. Teams consist of students from Grades 4 to 9 (ages 8 to 14) whom compete in cooperation for the title of B.C. Championship team. Every year in April, one team from B.C. will be representing our region (Team Canada) at the VEX-IQ World’s Robotics Tourna-ment in the United States.

See more: http://vexiqbc.com/

See Mr. Yu in Electronics or email him at [email protected] for more details.

Mr. YuTech EdTeacher

ROBOTICS

Gerard Cirera (12) and Stanley Shi (11) and their Robotics creation

The Business Education 10 students have been using their creative and innovative thinking skills as they complete their submissions to the NFTE’s World Series of Innovation Challenge, an international competition where students work in groups to come up with a new, innovative product or service to address a market niche and for a chance to win a prize of $2500. A few of the challenges include developing a new beverage for Coca Cola, a small business app for Go Daddy and an app to improve school life for Microsoft. Last year, two groups from Hamber won a prize and we’re hoping to repeat the success this year! If any of our ideas make it to the finals, we’ll need your help in January 2015 with voting, so stay tuned!

The Marketing 11 students have been working on develop-ing promotional ideas and being prepared to work in our school store, The Griff. The Griff allows the students to practice what they learn in class and is opened everyday at lunch in the cafeteria to provide Hamberites with a variety of healthy beverage and snack items as well as school supplies and Hamber gear. Do go on down and help them practice their customer service skills!

The Marketing 12 students executed a successful Griff Reopening the last week of October with “Horror Week” at The

Griff. With a week full of different themes and activities, The Griff was relaunched. They are now teamed with Enactus from UBC to develop, produce and market a new sustainable product. They will be competing against five other Lower Mainland schools with their business idea, marketing strategy, execution and sales. We will end with a final presentation at UBC in February 2015 when a winner will be determined. Stay tuned as they will need your help in January.

BCIT Case Study ChallengeHamber business students have earned a spot to participate in the BCIT Case Study Challenge again this school year in January 2015. Students from 10 Vancouver and Burnaby schools will be prepar-ing their case studies in January and then coming together at BCIT for a full day of fun and strategic competition.

Ms. HayesBusiness EdTeacher

Business Education & Design


Ms. SchoenfelderBusiness EdTeacher

In Business Education we have a large range of courses with wonderful educators teaching each!

• Ms. Hayes: teaches Marketing 11 and 12 along with Business Education 10.

• Mr. Albrecht: teaches Economics 12 and Applied Skills 8. • Ms. Schoenfelder: is the newest member to our Business Education

department and she teaches Accounting 11, Financial Accounting 12, Web 10, Applied Skills 8, along with all of the Electronic Design and Publishing courses.

In Electronic Design and Publishing 11 and 12 students use their creativ-ity to construct original pieces of artwork. This year’s senior graphic design group have been working hard on a variety of different assignments. One in particular is the annual “winter escape” beach girl illustration. This as-signment takes students away from the cold and allows them to immerse themselves in creating a bright illustration – while our days are getting darker and colder. See Faith Chow’s vibrant illustration shown above.

EDP 12 students have been utilizing their Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign skills to produce this year’s newsletters. They have also started to refine their Illustrator skills from last year to construct their own individual Initial Logo and Business card. See Karmen Leong’s work on this page.

This year’s Web 10 students have been learning the backbone of coding webpages. They have learned the basics of HTML and CSS. Everyone has

demonstrated a great start to the world of webpage coding and design. Students in Web 10 have also just started to explore the wonderful features and tech-niques of Adobe Photoshop. Check out our Spring Newsletter to see their work!

Finally, in Ms. Schoenfelder’s room, her Applied Skills 8 students are becoming their own Entrepreneurs and are exploring the world of business hands on! This project is known as the HAMBERmall. It allows students to create their own businesses from the ground up. Starting with a partnership agreement and ending with a 3D store model. This project is student centered and allows students to take ownership of what to sell and the best way to attract their target market. Check out Justine Ma and Anita Nguyen’s innovative Store Model on Grand Opening day.

T


HAMBER’S REACH FOR THE TOP TEAM MADE IT TO THE NATIONALSMany of you probably don’t know that the two matching trophies in our trophy case are in fact the product of one of our school’s youngest competitive teams: Reach for the Top—a trivia quiz game for Canadian high school students. Despite only having a team for a mere two years, Hamber became the 2014 BC Provincial Championships in both the Junior and Senior categories, and are currently the seventh place team nationally.

Although Hamber swept Junior Provincial tournament, the final game of the Senior tournament was very tense and exciting. We faced off against our arch-rival, Churchill, defeating them by a mere two points.

The nationals, held in Toronto in May, was an enjoyable experience—we all enjoyed seeing the sights and sounds of the city. The

top teams were from Ontario, which has over 500 Reach teams (in comparison to BC’s 30). The tournament, while long, also allowed us to meet people from across Canada. We even tied the then-reigning national champions--one of their closest games of the day!

A big congratulations go out to our 2014 national team members: Hector Rathburn, Chris Sims, Zak Vescera, Sarah Sheppard, Jared Pattison and Ben Moir. Thanks also go out to David Zhang, our coach, Jerry Liu, our statisti-cian, and Mrs. Dowle, our sponsor.

The Reach for the Top club is back this year with the help of Ms. Koblbauer and Ms. Ngo.

SEAMS OF LOVE CLUB

These student members have been busy doing quality control on

hundreds of BC Tourism vests that were altered and fixed. These repurposed vests will

be donated to the homeless through the Union Gospel Mission—just in time to keep those less

fortunate a little warmer in the winter. The club is cur-rently producing cosmetic bags that will be donated to

downtown eastside women in December. The Vancouver Aquarium recently donated their old uniforms that will be

refurbished and donated to those less fortunate. This club is spreading care and love one seam at a time!

Ms. J. ChanApplied SkillsDepartment Head

Mrs. DowleScience

Department Head


Extracurricular ActivitiesTEDxYOUTH@HAMBERSCHOOLHamber’s very own TEDx event, TEDxYouth@HamberSchool, was held on November 14th. This independently organized TEDx event, operated under license from TED, featured ten Hamber speakers and performers: Jasper Chapman Black, Pascale Higham-Leisen, Hiro ito, Duva Karunakaran, Zoe Luke, Zak Vescera, Simon Zhao, Sanaria Aljaf, Jonah Lee-Ash (Grad ’14), and Seven Taviss.

The theme of this TEDx event was “Amp It Up”; it was a call for volume, passion, celebration, and things that deserved to be sung that often go unheard. The ideas and passions of everyone in at-tendance lit up the night. Attendees were exposed to a multitude of ideas worth spreading and given the opportunity to discuss them over dinner. Couldn’t make it to the event? The live talks and performances presented will be uploaded to the TEDx YouTube channel before winter break!

The event would not have been possible without its seven-stu-dent planning committee and its teacher sponsor: Meghan Chen, Cherry Chun, Wilson Hsu, Alice Lee, Josephine Liu, Mikaela Luke, Tiffany Quon, and Mr. Mirani. We would also like to extend a huge thank you to our volunteers and sponsors, and everyone else who helped make TEDxYouth@HamberSchool possible. We hope to see you again in the near future, and that you will “amp up” what you believe deserves to resonate!

COMPASSIONATE LEADERSHIP CLUB SPREAD CARING

The Compassionate Leadership Club is taking action to help those in need locally and glob-ally. Ten of its members were fortunate to attend 2014 WE DAY at Rogers Arena on October

22. They bought back the theme of empowerment and are ready to show the world that youth can contribute to positive changes in our society—locally and globally. Halloween

provided the theme for two projects. The Halloween Polaroid photos helped to raise funds to complete building a well in Asia, and club members went trick or canning on Halloween

eve to collect canned food for the Vancouver Food Bank. Please support the club in their future activities and perhaps join them in making positive change. The club meets every

Tuesday at lunch in room 139 or see Cherry Chun, the club president.

Tiffany QuonLead Organizer


Clockwise from left: Pascale Higham-Leisen (12), Simon Zhao (11), the TEDxYouth@HamberSchool Planning Team

DECEMBER05 End of Term 105 Fall Footlights 7:00 pm06 Fall Footlights 7:00 pm10 District Mini-School Testing10 Winter Band Concert 7:00 pm17 Term 1 Report Cards Distributed (Homeroom at 9:45 am)18 HIP Day (Class Begins at 9:40 am)18 Challenge/Studio Application Deadline18 Winter Strings Concert at 7:00 pm19 Winter Assemblies and Last Day of Instruction Before Winter Break20 – 04 Winter Break

JANUARY05 School Reopens07 PAC Meeting in Staffroom 7:00 pm14 Parent–Teacher Conferences (Early Dismissal at 2:03 pm)19 Professional Development Day (School Not in Session)20 Grade 7 Parent Information Evening in Auditorium 5:00 pm – 6:00 pm22 Grads of 2020 Day 9:00 am – 12:30 pm22 – 24 Winter Drama Show: 100 Lunches 7:00 pm27 Winter Drama Show: 100 Lunches

7:00 pm28 HIP Day (Class Begins at 9:40 am) 28 Block Rotation – 3, 4, 1, 2

FEBRUARY04 PAC Meeting in Staffroom 7:00 pm09 Family Day (School Not in Session)12 - 13 Musical: Grease 7:00 pm17 First Offers for Challenge/Studio19 Professional Development Day (School Not in Session) 19 Acceptance Deadline of First Offers to Challenge/Studio20 Musical: Grease 7:00 pm24 Chamber Choir Concert (at Magee) 7:00 pm24 Second Offers to Challenge/Studio26 Acceptance Deadline of Second Offers to Challenge/Studio26 Junior/Intermediate Choir Night26 HIP Day (Class Begins at 9:40 am)27 Senior Wind Pop Concert (at St. John’s Shaughnessy) 7:00 pm

MARCH03 Intermediate Band and Choir Con-cert (at Holy Trinity Anglican) 7:00 pm06 Last Day of Instruction Before Spring Break07 – 14 District Closure15 – 22 Spring Break23 School Reopens


27 End of Term 2

APRIL01 PAC Meeting in Staffroom 7:00 pm02 Spring Footlights 7:00 pm03 Good Friday (School Not in Session)06 Easter Monday (School Not in Ses-sion)08 Term 2 Report Cards Distributed (Homeroom at 9:45 am)14 Senior Choral Concert (at Holy Trin-ity) 7:00 pm17 Block Rotation – 4, 3, 2, 127 Professional Development Day (School Not in Session)29 HIP Day (Class Begins at 9:40 am)

MAY14 Fashion Show 7:00 pm18 Victoria Day (School Not in Session)20 PAC Meeting in Staffroom 7:00 pm


JUNE19 End of Term 325 Final Report Cards Distributed25 Last Day of Instruction26 Administrative Day

2014/2015Calendar


On the evening of November 12th, 2014, Eric Hamber Secondary lost one of its longest servingteachers on staff. Edward Ellis Ancell joined the Eric Hamber staff in December 1999 and workedfor 15 years in the Social Studies Department. During his time here he taught over 3600 studentsin Socials 8, 9, and 10. Prior to Mr. Ancell’s arrival at Eric Hamber, he taught at VancouverTechnical, Prince of Wales, Windermere and Gladstone. Before that, Mr. Ancell taught seniorsocial studies for the Central Okanagan School district in Kelowna.

Mr. Ancell showed his unique awareness for teaching as he taught Social Studies at the juniorsecondary school level. He became the resident ‘expert’ in the Department for issues pertainingto Social Studies 8-10. Students of all ages and abilities came to realize Mr. Ancell’s uniquegifts as an educator and his keen awareness in supporting academic success in all students. When not in school, Mr. Ancell was an avid motorist and was often seen in his Volkswagenconvertible, Volkswagen van, and even his Harley Davidson motorcycle. Yes, Mr. Ancell rode amotorcycle! He also enjoyed dancing to music with family and friends. Mr. Ancell also furtheredhis own interest in environment studies. He was often seen supervising members of theenvironmental club Friday afternoons as they carried out their environmental tasks of recyclingschool materials.

Mr. Ancell left us far too soon—too soon for him to enjoy his well-earned retirement. He was always willing and prepared to go the “extra mile” for his students.

Edward Ellis Ancell1944-2014

Mr. Ancell was a great teacher and a great friend. You will be sadly missed by so many of the Eric Hamber Education Community. Goodbye, old friend!

KL ES | SC JC | EN SC | SL NP | NP KN | EN BM | BM SL | SL HE | HE JC | CW SHC

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Selina Chau

Ms. Schoenfelder

S y d n e y L o p e s

ChiChi Wei

Eve SuenNick Partridge

Bardia Mazkouri

Ti�any Quon

Jessica Cheung

Hayley Eng

Sophia Cho Koki Norimatsu

Emilio Navarro

Karmen Leong

THE NEWSLETTER CREW

PAGE CREDITS:

Administrative Editor: R.Mirani Managing Editor: Ms.Schoenfelder

Printed in Canada by tr trades reProduCtion Ltd.

Special Thanks : Chloe Stark & Tiffany Quon