Good afternoon Parents and Students,

By the end of today, students will hopefully have completed the following:

1. Submitted their letter introducing themselves to another student for the Great Canadian Mail Race.

2. Read two articles from the Scholastic Learn at Home Website – one for Week 1, Day 1 and one for Week 1, Day 2 – and completed an activity for each one from the “Daily Reading Quests” lists. I have not asked you to submit any of these yet, but you should still be completing one per day.

3. Read for a total of 60 minutes on Epic.

4. Signed into Microsoft Teams and posted a message in the Division 4 chat.

Students, it is important that you complete each daily assignment as you get into the habit of learning at home. You can usually complete them at the time of your choosing. Next week, I will be giving you more activities to do – you want to make sure you are ready for them.

I check the Microsoft Teams chat several times throughout the day, however the best time to ask me questions on there is between 10AM and 2PM every weekday. If you are in contact with others in the class who have not yet logged into Teams or are forgetting to check FreshGrade or mrdocksteader.blogspot.com for assignments, PLEASE remind them to do so.

Talk to you tomorrow, and take care.

It’s Tuesday morning, everyone!

By now, you should have handed in your first assignment – your letter telling another Grade 6 student about you. It was due yesterday at 3PM.

It seems that the FreshGrade website is having a difficult time keeping up with the increased number of users. If you cannot login to submit an assignment on time, don’t panic! Try later at night or earlier in the morning, and submit it when you can. If you cannot log onto FreshGrade, be sure to check mrdocksteader.blogspot.com.

Today, do the following:

Read a new article from the Scholastic Learn at Home website from Week 1, Day 2, and complete one of the activities from the list posted yesterday.

Read a book on Epic for 30 minutes. Parm, Portia, Khushpreet, and Prabhkaran all did this yesterday. Well done, you four!

If you haven’t already done so, log on to Microsoft Teams and say “Hi” in the chat.

Bye for now. Stay safe.

Good Monday morning, everyone!

Starting this week, we will begin to explore some of the digital tools we will be using to help us continue to learn during these unusual circumstances. Please complete the following tasks this week:

1. Visit the Scholastic Learn at Home: Grades 6-9 website. Bookmark this website, as you will be visiting it often.

https://classroommagazines.scholastic.com/support/learnathome/grades-6-12.html

In the Week 1 section, pick one article to read per day from the selection provided. For example, pick one article from Week 1, Day 1 on Monday. On Tuesday, choose and article from Week , Day 2, and so on.

Once you have read your article, complete one of the activities from the following list:

I will ask you to submit some of your work on FreshGrade throughout the week. 

If parents or students wish to learn further, read additional articles and complete additional activities from the choices provided each day.

2. Log onto the Microsoft Teams website and leave our class a message.

https://login.microsoftonline.com/common/oauth2/authorize?response_type=id_token&client_id=5e3ce6c0-2b1f-4285-8d4b-75ee78787346&redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fteams.microsoft.com%2Fgo&state=b281c7c8-ba66-43ff-b40d-61dc67a356d3&&client-request-id=1bbfec79-1641-45db-b50c-f5963354f4c7&x-client-SKU=Js&x-client-Ver=1.0.9&nonce=d46d0ff4-006c-43c6-9215-060e6156affa&domain_hint=

When you first visit the website, enter your student e-mail (your student username followed by @surreyschools.ca). You should be redirected to the Surrey Schools website, where you can log in using your district username and password.

3. Log onto Epic!

https://www.getepic.com/sign-in
Class Code: ikp3703
Pin: The four numbers of your student password

Choose a book and read it for at least 30 minutes each day.

REMINDERS:

Remember to submit your letter for the "Great Canadian Mail Race" on FreshGrade by 3PM today.

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.