Teacher Letter

My name is John Bearcroft.  I’ve been teaching for thirteen years.  I teach a class of grade 8 students for most of their subjects (Language, Math, Science, History, Health, Physical Education, Drama, Dance and Visual Arts).  I live outside of Newmarket, Ontario about half an hour’s drive north of Toronto, Canada.  I am married with two beautiful little girls (aged seven and three) and a dog named “Alfie”.  In my spare time, I like to play golf, go running, or play Ultimate Frisbee depending on the season.  In the summer, I spend time at my family cottage and work on renovating my house.

Looking forward to meet all of you.

wl3

Class Letter

Our grade 8 class has 35 students. Our class is very ethnically diverse, with students from almost every continent. We are pretty technologically adept.  We are encouraged to bring our laptop computers to class, and if we do, we are allowed to use that instead of our notebooks. Our class is a great place to learn and a friendly atmosphere.

Our school is named after a great Canadian hero, Terry Fox.  In 1980, he attempted to run across Canada to raise money for cancer research.  Our school is 6 years old and has about 400 students from Kindergarten to grade 8 (aged 4-14). Terry Fox Public School has lots of extra-curricular activities such as, sports, music (band), clubs, and important student leadership roles. In the classroom, we sometimes use technology like computers, smart boards and projectors. Our school is quite multicultural with ethnicities from around the world representing more than 20 languages.

Our beautiful town called Newmarket is wonderful. With a population of approximately 87,000 people, I guess you could say our town is a little on the small side-but that doesn’t matter to us!  It is located approximately 50 kilometres north of Toronto.  Our town has most of the amenities that we need including stores, public parks, pools, and skating rinks.

We are excited to learn along with you in this project.

wl3