September 2021 Guardian Newsletter

Welcome Message from the TEMS Management Team:

Jay

Director

Sara

General Manager

Alex

Principal

Emma

Guardian Manager
Another school year has begun, and we are so excited to welcome back our students and staff. After a long season of lock-downs and learning at home, we are finally able to meet again in person; we still need to wear our masks, practice social distancing and personal hygiene measures, but it is so good to see everyone face-to-face and not through a computer screen! 

Something we all learned while staying at home last year is that community -- real, meaningful community -- is necessary for our mental health and well being as people. This year, TEMS will be focusing on some core values of community building through our TEMS Themes and Community Days as we continue to build our strong, supportive school family. 

It is also important to remember that for the first half of the school year, we will still be using the Quadmester system. That means that courses are run faster and students have only 2.5 months to complete a full course. It is a challenging time, but we know our students can do it! Remember, if you need help with your courses please let your teachers or managers know. 

Lastly, a warm welcome to our new staff members: Jeremy (Homeroom Teacher), Kat (AMP Teacher), and Peter (Assistant Residence Manager)!

Let's have a great year TEMS!

In this edition:

Welcome Back
to TEMS

By Justin K.

TEMS Orientation Weeks

By Chanwoo P.

Back to School

By Sungmin K.

TEMS Community-Building Days

By Hyeonji J

Welcome Back to TEMS

By Justin K.
Welcome back to TEMS. Summer break has finished. How are you feeling? Good or sad? Well, don't worry because this year is a new start, if you study hard this year we will get vacation again. 
This year is new because we have some new teachers and we can go to TEMS, so if you need help during study you can ask Kat, she is a new teacher. Kat is good for science and English. Also at TEMS, we have another new teacher to help us; his name is Jeremy. He can help with English and he is always kind to us. If you need to get a tutor or volunteer hours, you can ask Emma or Sara. Both teachers are very kind. 
I know this quad is hard for all students because we are going school every day, but you can do it! Also, on Fridays we can get volunteer hours or we have an activity. I hope you guys are enjoying the activities.

TEMS Orientation Weeks

By Chanwoo P.
In September, students need to adapt to Canada’s culture, so TEMS made some activities in the first week of September. Our TEMS teachers’ made some activities such as neck game, wolf game and lego game. These games brought a lot of fun to students, and our English skills were able to be returned to their original state. Another point to consider is that there are new teachers in TEMS, whose names are Kat and Jeremy. It brings a lot of familiarity between their teachers and students because of these games and activities. Now students can focus more on their study or assignments, and they also can get excellent marks more easily.

Back to School

By Sungmin K.
School has changed a lot from the past due to the COVID-19 pandemic that started two years ago. Right after the pandemic began, all classes were held online. After that, when the new semester began, we took turns taking online and offline classes. However, as the pandemic became more serious, all classes were changed back to online. And again, now all students are being vaccinated and going back to offline classes again. 

There are several pros and cons of online and offline classes. The pros of online classes is that there is no effort going to school and we can wake up a little later in the day. This was physically comfortable. However, the cons are that there are many students who cannot meet their friends and cannot concentrate on class. There is also a point that it is difficult to ask questions about the class because you cannot meet the teacher in person. 
The pros and cons of offline classes are exactly the opposite of the pros and cons of online classes. The pros of offline classes is that you can meet friends and participate in classes easily. The cons are that it is physically uncomfortable compared to online classes because you have to go to school. For these reasons, some students prefer online classes and others prefer offline classes.

TEMS Community-Building Days

By Hyeonji J.
TEMS had our first Community-Building Day on September 24th, 2021. What is a Community-Building day? It is a day designed to help build our communities not just in TEMS but throughout Waterloo by performing various activities. There are three key components that make up community building days, which are Education, Application, and Extension. These will be learned and practiced in a specific topic for each month. 
The topic for September was “Perspective”. Last Friday, we focused on the Education section. First, we got a glimpse of the idea of ‘perspective’ by watching a short video. In it, there were 7 blind people who each got a chance to touch a certain area of an elephant. Each of these men said different things about the elephant. For example, the blind man who touched the tail said, “ The elephant must be a thick rope.” and the other said, “The elephant is definitely a carpet”, after touching its big ears. They argued about who was right and wrong until a wise man informed them to combine all of their examinations. This taught us that communicating and listening to others is very important. After this, the TEMS students had time to read two case studies and observe different points of view and further acknowledge the importance of understanding and communication. After having discussions within groups about the two stories given to us, we presented our opinions about the situation in the case study and solutions we came up with. It was an amazing experience, and I am looking forward to future events. 

Thanks for reading!