Capacity Cafe is an event put on by the School Aged Child & Youth (CYMH) wing of Vancouver Coastal Health. They do a fantastic event where students from other schools act like a panel giving perspectives on issues that relate to your children. All of the parents listen in silence while the facilitators ask the questions and the students respond.

This is a fantastic empathy building experience that I did myself a couple years ago. Space will definitely be limited so act fast!

One of Van Tech's former superstar grads (Aydin Quach) who now has a really great and active role in Frog Hollow is hosting an event on exploring post-secondary options (from the perspective of all sorts of different options - universities, colleges, trades, gap years, employment, etc.). Time is also spent on resume building, application process, and much more!

Here are the details and how you sign up! I definitely recommend Aydin and all the work he does with Frog Hollow. Please note that this is a Saturday, not a school day :)

Families are, of course, part of the front line of mental health support for our kids. There are two parent sessions coming up I wanted to share. One in January and one in April. Definitely worth considering the is signup when this group organizes it!

​Info on signing up is inside the poster!

Holiday Hampers are back for the 2019 year. This is the annual collection of items and money so that we can support our own Van Tech families that have it tougher. The last four years we've supported over 100 families and this year's target is 103, just the same as always.

So you're asking yourself, how can I help!? Two great ways!
1. We're collecting both food and non-food items (see attached list) in student's 2-2 class. We have a yearly competition for this. If the student doesn't have a 2-2 class then they can bring items to the office. We're collecting from December 2nd until December 16th. We deliver the hampers from the 18th to the 20th.
2. We collect money that we use to make gift cards and buy additional items we need for the hampers. And what's awesome for parents and families is that we can give a tax receipt for any donation $20 or over!

I'd love to help and get a tax receipt, how do I do it?
​1. Send your student with a cheque to drop off to their 2-2 class or Mr. Van. It needs to have your full address on it. A tax receipt for the 2019 tax year is then mailed out in January of 2020.

2. Go to the VSB Donation page and make your donation online.
Link: https://vsb.schoolcashonline.com/Fee/Details/1869/196/false/true
Important! You need to choose a "Fund Destination" of "S-Vancouver Technical".
And in the "Message: (optional):" you should type "Holiday Hampers".

A MASSIVE THANK YOU TO ANYONE WHO CAN HELP :)

The jump from Science 10 to Chemistry & Physics 11 has been a BIG one. I've asked some of the teachers about what availability they have to help and I was really impressed with what Ms Mak, Ms Han, and Ms Yaghmour were offering. I've posted it here and also put it outside my office door. Encourage the kids to go! This is great practice for building relationships with teachers when they get to post-secondary too.

The time has come for the annual Parent-Teacher Interviews. I've just this afternoon got the memo about how to sign up and I've attached it here in both photo and downloadable form. Key info:
1. Sessions will happen like last year with one afternoon session and one evening session.
2. Families can sign up for a maximum of 4 teachers at first, and then more will become available as spots permit closer to the date.
3. The event date is Thursday, November 7th and will happen in the cafeteria and auditorium, as per usual.

Every year many of the post-secondary institutions invite counsellors to come learn about their updated admission requirements, new programs, and tell us what's new and great. This year SFU (who presented last week) shared their slides that has a bunch of information about admission. I think it's really valuable, so I'm sharing it out here. It speaks to the importance of grade 11 marks, more so than ever starting next year. This is also in line with what UBC was saying when they presented the week before.

Not sure if they want this info out to everyone, but I always want to share good info with my students and families! Scroll through below or download the whole thing at the bottom of this post. Cheers.

In the 3+ years that I've been at Van Tech Secondary, I think this presentation has been the one that has grabbed the students the most. And just like two years ago, we're bringing back Darren Lore, more commonly known as "The White Hatter".

Whether you've seen him before or never before, come see him present! It's quite captivating and he'll be doing a special show we've set up just for parents. It's in the Van Tech auditorium! See the poster for details. And bring your phone!