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INSIDE THIS ISSUE
Superintendent………………… 2
Curriculum ............................ 3
FNMI Teacher Resources ..... 3
Technology ........................... 4
Question of the Week……...… 5
Transportation……………….. .. 5
Around BTPS .......………… ..... 6
The Teacher Effectiveness Support Team day held last week, is a wonderful example of Buffalo Trail Public Schools commitment to maximizing student learning through supporting effective teaching. Teachers from across the district gathered at Wainwright High School to engage in their second day of collaborative work with their peers for the 2014/2015 school year. Once again, we were provided with a morning key-note address by Garfield Gini-Newman, a dynamic presenter who has a deep understanding of effec-tive curriculum design and nurturing 21st century competencies in students. Garfield’s work with BTPS is focussed on creating powerful learning opportu-nities through sustained inquiry. These learning opportunities foster student intellectual engagement, a deep understanding of concepts, and attainment of 21st century competencies as per our district goals: BTPS Goal #1: Students are intellectually engaged in their learning. BTPS Goal #3: Instructional design enables students to attain the 21st century competencies.
Superintendent’s Memo
For the Week of December 1 - 5th, 2014
COMMENTS ABOUT THIS NEWSLETTER?
Please send your comments or
suggestions to [email protected]
We’d love to hear from you!
BUFFALO TRAIL PUBLIC SCHOOLS
1041 10A Street
Wainwright, AB T9W 2R4
P: 780.842.6144
F: 780.842.3255
www.btps.ca
Twitter: BTPS#28
Continued on next page
MISSION: Buffalo Trail Public Schools is committed to maximizing student learning,
in a safe and caring environment, supported by a highly effective team.
FROM THE ASSISTANT SUPERINTENDENT...
Email:[email protected]
Answer the question on page four
and have your name entered for a
prize!
FROM THE ASSISTANT SUPERINTENDENT (FROM PAGE 1)
2
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December SES meeting:
The December SES meeting will be held on December 9, 2014 at the North Training Lab (J R Robson).
Start time 9:30am – until 4:00pm.
The meeting will be comprised of the following embedded Professional Development:
1). BTPS “Tech Talk” – please remember to bring all of the information that you will need to have and/or have reference to, in developing/discussing your “Google” Behavior checklists and experiences in the last month with the Tech and SES group.
2). Alberta Health Services presentation in the afternoon.
Please be sure to bring your fully charged laptops, your smiles, and enthusiastic SES attitude!
SES Staff, please remember that if you are not able to attend, please notify Gayle at [email protected], immediately. For the rest of Crystal’s article, please click here.
Requests for Garfield’s services have taken him from Asia to the Middle East, Europe, the Caribbean and across North America, so we are very fortunate to be able to host him in BTPS this year. Many thanks to the TES Team Committee: Rebecca McCullough, Vince Artymko, Allison Moroz, Jill Schmidt and Barry Scinski. This group toiled over the TES Team survey data from last year to create a learning design for the TES days that responded to the voices of teachers from across BTPS.
Teacher comments from November 24th:
We have been inspired to undertake an ambitious collaborative project!
I appreciate the balance between new learning and collaboration time.
It is nice to have someone present in the morning and then have them work with you in the afternoon. An overarching question is important for students to have direction, and teachers too.
Set up a culture of learning in your classroom.
World renowned researcher Vivian Robinson (2011) states, “Effective professional development is a collective rather than individual endeavor because the work of teaching all students to succeed is a collective endeavour.” As I visited classrooms on the TES Team day, I felt very proud to see the outstanding collective efforts of our teachers to help all students succeed (BTPS Goal #2: All learners’ needs are met).
Lisa
STUDENT EDUCATION SERVICES
CURRICULUM FNMI TEACHER RESOURCES
FEATURES:
Competition is open: Teachers: Encourage Aboriginal youth to submit to the contest. Participants have a chance to win up to $2,000 and have their work published or exhibited. Help your students enter the largest and most recognized art & creative writing competition in Canada for Aboriginal youth. Use online teaching tools to help students during the creative process. Students can enter the contest online or by email, mail or fax.
http://www.our-story.ca/teachers/
Literature Lists: Provided by the Central Alberta Regional Consortium (CARC), these FNMI literature lists for K - 6 Social Studies are especially useful and come complete with bibliographies and teacher ideas.
https://sites.google.com/a/btps.ca/fnmi_support/classroom-resources Now accepting applications for 2015: AFOAPotashCorp Aboriginal Youth Financial Management Awards are open to Aboriginal youth in grades 11 and 12. Deadline is Dec 1. Winners receive scholarships and participate in a special Youth program designed to introduce youth to careers in Aboriginal finance and management. http://www.afoa.ca/afoaen/About_Us/Awards_Scholarships/Abo_Yth_Awards/en/01_About/08_Awards_Scholarships/03_Abo_Yth_Fin_Mgmt_Conf_Awards.aspx?hkey=9e78c605-d6b8-456b-9d74-07a554c50849
If you have any questions regarding this, contact [email protected]
Reminder – BTPS’s FNMI support site:
https://sites.google.com/a/btps.ca/fnmi support/
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PD Opportunities:
Learning Network: December 11, 2014 – Webinar - ICR15-58 - Teacher Talks 2014-15 Enhancing Teacher Professional Practice The Art of Questioning in the Critically Thoughtful Classroom Presented by Nate Deboer: Register Now
Of Interest:
New PGP online tool at ATA website: The ATA has recently made updates to the ‘Professional Growth
Plans’ self-paced tutorials. They have also launched the ‘Online Professional Growth Planning Service” (OPGP) which is an online tool that makes it very easy for teachers to create their own PGP which gets saved to their member-ship account. For more information, visit: http://www.teachers.ab.ca/For%20Members/Professional%20Development/Teacher%20Professional%20Growth/Pages/Index.aspx
2015 CTS Conference held this year at Fort McMurray April 9 - 11, 2015. Activities planned during this confer-ence include keynote addresses from industry stakehold-
ers, hands-on workshops in multiple cluster areas, tours of oil sands facilities including reclamation projects, informative sessions related to current CTS and CTF education, and, of course, social events. Details: http://2015.ctscouncil.com/
Math Resources:. Curriki is a website where teachers can find free to use learning and teaching content from diverse content providers and educators from around the
world. Check out CurrikiGeometry - a project based learning course. Or check out the home site here: http://www.curriki.org/welcome/
GO BACK
TECHNOLOGY
Web Page Announcement The selection committee spent the morning of Nov 21st putting three website companies through the paces to see if there was a fit for us. The committee overwhelm-
ingly selected Breeze for Teachers by Dreamstalk from Medicine Hat, Alberta to partner with BTPS to
design and host our new web page and web communi-cations. Please click the links below to see some of their schools divisions in Alberta. http://www.fmpsdschools.ca/ Fort MacMurray schools
http://www.crps.ca/ Canadian Rockies
http://prrdweb.com/ Prairie Rose
http://www.plrd.ab.ca/ Prairie Land
http://www.nlsd.ab.ca/ Northern lights
Thank you to our committee consisting of Bob Allen, Faye Dunne, Jody Wolosiak, Bruce Pugh, Anita Sawyer, Dave Sherbinin, Curt Orbeck , Chrysti Mannix, Valerie Warchola, and Cody Machney, for their time and collective ideas.
BTTube New this week are videos on Email alerts, Introduction to Google Part 2, Using WE Video and Chroma key, An-ecdotal Checklists, Google forms, and Subscribing and unsubscribing to calendars.
Helpdesk Volume is at normal levels. Remember a ticket is not closed if you feel the problem is not fixed. You can comment back to your assigned technician through the ticket. Please continue to contact us with your technical problems using BTPS equipment so we can deploy solutions faster and track problems to become more proactive. Reminder: Do not call the main central office switch board as they are not trained to help with technology. Email us at: [email protected] - Tech problems [email protected] - PowerSchool
Power Teacher problems
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Phone: 780-806-2053
Text : 780-806-9228
Twitter: hashtag #btps28
BTTube:
4
The winner from last’s
week ???
is @ Nicole Cusack @
Mannville.
Congratulations Nicole!!
Thank you to
everyone who participated.
Pink shirt day is
on Feb.25,2015! It is an Anti
Bullying Campaign.
Wainwright Elementary School - vote here!
Provost Public School will get
a Real-time visit by Olympian
Sam Effah! Click here for more
information.
GO BACK
PAYROLL & BENEFITS
TRANSPORTATION
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NEW:
BTPS WEBSITE FOR BUS CANCELLATIONS:
Please remember that all bus cancellations are posted on the BTPS website. You can click on the icon “Bus Cancellations” on the bottom right hand corner of the website. You may have to scroll down on some screens to see it. If you click this link, all bus cancella-tions that the Transportation Office is aware of, will be posted. http://www.btps.ca/
PROPER WINTER ATTIRE FOR SCHOOL BUS TRAVEL:
It’s that time of the year again folks where the possibil-ity of getting stuck in a snow bank is a reality. Not just in rural Alberta, but even in the towns these days too! Please remind students that they need to be dressed properly for the winter weather. Having children my-self who say it’s not cool to bundle up I know the struggles parents have to get their children to dress properly, but they should carry mitts, toques and a jacket with them in case of emergency. Most rural bus drivers will let them leave them on the bus or they can just pack it in their back packs. It is better to be safe than sorry. Please remind your parents in your next newsletter. Students can be written up with a miscon-duct report and referred to the principal if they contin-ue not to dress appropriately. We appreciate the sup-port. Thank you
REQUIRED IMMEDIATELY: BUS CONTRACTORS AND SPARE/TEMP DRIVERS NEEDED:
Kitscoty Bus Routes:
VR-K1, VR-K3 & VR-K6
The Board is now operating VR-K1 and VR-K3, but the bus routes are open if a contractor would be willing to take them over.
We have a contractor who is considering bus route VR-K6, however, they cannot commit to taking on the bus route if they cannot find a full time driver. Unfor-tunately, the parents of VR-K6 have to drive their children to school at this time and this is challenging for some families. We really need someone to step up and commit to driving this bus. If you know of anyone, please have them call me asap at 780-806-2051.
If you are interested in driving the bus on a full or part-time basis in your local area, please call me at 780-806-2051 and I can put you in contact with a local bus con-tractor.
DRIVE SAFE AND STAY WARM!
Chrysti Mannix, Director of Transportation 780-806-2051 or [email protected]
AROUND BTPS…..
How many of our
BTPS students were
recognized at the
RAP Celebration in
November?
COMMUNICATIONS NOW - December Issue
6
AROUND BTPS….
GO BACK
Several Grade 9 students, along with
"astronaut" Luke Almberg having fun
as they learn about space technology
at the Telus World of Science.
Hughenden Grade 9 students
Brandon Buxton, Seth Holte, Luke
Almberg, Deklan Lunde, Karsten Axley
and Rhys Kuzyj are wearing spectro-
scopes as they analyze cylinders of
gaseous elements to determine spec-
trums and composition.
On November 7th Grade 9
students from Hughenden, Hardisty
and Irma Schools participated in a
collaborative field trip to the Telus
World of Science in
Edmonton. Many learning
outcomes were reinforced in a fun
space filled learning day.
On November 6th, Mark Wight, Village
of Hughenden maintenance foreman,
is explaining the process of water
treatment to deliver high quality water
meeting or exceeding Government reg-
ulations. The information Mark provid-
ed complimented various learning out-
comes for the Chemistry 20 students.
