Happy Friday, Parents and Students of Division 4!

At this point, I have managed to connect with many of you. Thank you to those who have responded to my messages. I will continue to try to touch base with those whom I have not yet heard from.

On Monday, I will post additional information about what students can do throughout April 6-10. There will be a lot to learn in terms of becoming familiar with new websites and resources, so the plan is to start simple and slowly introduce more concepts as time goes on. Next week will primarily focus on reading, but include some additional skill-building activities.

I have posted the students' first assignment on both FreshGrade and my blog. I look forward to seeing how it goes!

Have a great weekend everyone. Take care and stay safe.

Hello everyone!

This is your first assignment. Below, you will find a letter I received just before Spring Break from a student at another school. Read it carefully. Note the different details and information they provided about themselves. Your task is to write a letter that you would send to a student at another school, telling them about yourself. You may write it by hand, or type it out. Pay attention to the way in which the letter is formatted when you are creating one of your own. Have a family member or friend proof read it, then make any necessary changes. When finished, post it on your FreshGrade account.

Good afternoon, everyone.

This week is almost over. By tomorrow, I am hoping to have established contact with all parents and students. Parents, if you are in touch with others who have students in my class, please ask them to reach out to me if they haven’t already done so. Students, tell your friends to log into their district or FreshGrade accounts. If you have parents who haven’t already e-mailed me, please remind them to do so. It is very important that everyone is aware of all that is happening as we move forward.

Speaking of all that is happening, please rest assured that while these first few updates have been long, I am doing my very best to ensure that the learning to come is as straight forward, uncomplicated, and as easy to manage as possible. Once we have all connected and everyone is aware of the plan, fewer updates should be necessary. Thank you for bearing with me through this first initial set-up and connection process.

Tomorrow, I plan on posting the first assignment to this blog by 3PM. I will provide a link here through FreshGrade. It will be a short writing piece, which I hope students will be able to post to their FreshGrade account by Monday. Please be on the lookout for it.

Have a great evening, and take care.

Hello once again, Parents and Students of Division 4.

I hope that you are all well and continue to stay safe. For those who are wondering, my friends, family and I are all in good health. Thank you for your concern.

Yesterday I expressed my intentions to touch base with students through their district e-mail address. The district website itself has been consistently slow during the past couple of days, likely as a result of the increased traffic from both teachers and students. I will be sending out e-mails to students this afternoon. Students, please either respond to that e-mail (if it is possible for you to do so), or comment on this message on your FreshGrade account.

I have access to all of the student district account usernames and passwords. Students, it is important that you know what your username and password are, as they are required to log onto any websites linked to our district, such as FreshGrade and Office 365. I previously had you write this information down in your planners, which you should have with you. If you do not know your username or password, please tell your parents so that I can get this information to you as soon as possible.

Speaking of websites that require students to log in using their district associated user name and password, it is possible that I may be meeting virtually with small groups of students using “Teams” on the Office 365 website. This will likely take place once a week, and is designed as more of a “check in” with students to see how they are progressing with assigned work and to answer any questions they may have.

What at-home learning might look like for the next little while is beginning to take shape, however it is important to keep in mind that it will likely continue to change and evolve as time goes on. At this moment, I am planning on providing a weekly plan of activities for students to do and complete, providing some resources to help them do so (likely posted throughout the week), and hopefully checking in with students at least once per week. As this begins, the primary focuses will be on reading, writing, numeracy, and health.

There are still many parents I am hoping to connect with before the week is over. For those of you who have already gotten back to me, thank you! If you haven’t already done so, please reach out to me either through FreshGrade or by responding to the e-mail I sent out yesterday.

That’s all for now. Take care and stay safe.

Greetings Division 4 Parents and Students,

This afternoon, I will be sending an e-mail to all parents who have provided e-mail address to either myself or the school. Please check your inboxes to see if you received this message. If you did, please respond to it with a brief message of your own so that I know that it reached you. If you did not receive a message in your e-mail inbox, please contact me either through FreshGrade or via e-mail here.

Provided that I am able to access the district’s overloaded website later tonight, I will attempt to send all students an e-mail to their district account tomorrow. Furthermore, I hope to provide a bit of information about what ongoing learning my look like for students in the next little while.

Continue to stay safe, and take care.

Greetings Students and Parents of Division 4!

I hope you and your loved ones are all safe and well as we continue to navigate the uncertainty of the unusual circumstances in which we are currently living.

In an effort to make it easier to communicate and share important information regarding on-going learning for students, and the ways in which parents can provide support, I have set up this blog. Here, you will find updates about how I will engage with you, so that we can all continue to engage in learning.

In addition to updates, I will also post links to helpful resources and website. You will also be able to translate the page into another language using the "Translate" option, and locate older posts under the "Blog Archive" heading.

If you have not already had the opportunity to read the latest letter home to parents, you can find it on the school's website underneath the "News and Other" heading and clicking "Newsletters." You can also access it by clicking here.

As mentioned in the letter, the priority during this first week of off-site learning will be to establish communication with parents and students. Therefore, this week I will be attempting to touch base with you all via e-mail, or by phone. If you could respond to the message I send you so that I know you received it, that would be much appreciated.

While I am sure many of you will have additional questions, we are continuing to explore effective ways to teach and learn remotely in these conditions. I will be happy to answer questions in due time when I have more concrete information to share.

Students, you are encouraged to check your student e-mails through the district website, entering the username and four-digit password that begins with a "." that you would use to access your FreshGrade account (ex. username: j.smith / password: .0001).

As we move forward, I will primarily be using FreshGrade alongside this blog to communicate with you for the immediate future, so please bookmark these sites and try to check them at least once a day after 3 PM.

If you need to reach me, you can do so via e-mail here.

Thank you, and take care.