THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO
Hi all,
I wanted to say thank you for such a wonderful and bizarre year. In 30 years you will be about my age and I will be, hopefully, retired. At that point, when I look back on my career, this will be a special class, not just because of Covid-19. You are all a creative and critical thinking group with an amazing amount of potential and I really do hope that you will keep me updated on how life is going. Wherever you or I end up, I will always be your grade 7 teacher and, I will always be there to support you. Best of luck!
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There are two things I will need you to review. The first is a document that explains how we will be proceeding with school. As I have mentioned before, we are doing something new and there is a feeling out process that needs to take place. In this document, you will find the general scope of what we will be trying to do over the next several weeks.
The second document links to what will be an ongoing assignment. We are living during what will be a defining moment in history. This virus has the potential to change the way that people interact with each other, work, and many more things that I am sure I haven't thought about.
Please read it in advance of our "meetings" that will be happening today and tomorrow. I will be sending out invitations to email for meetings beginning at 11am today. You will be in groups to go over the plan. If you are not able to make the meeting, please let me know using the RSVP tool. The calls in Teams should only last about 10-20 minutes. Please be on about 5 minutes before your scheduled call time in case I am running ahead.
Please find here the letter to parents and the PDF of the instructions to connect to MS Teams
Hello Division 1 Parents, I hope that you are keeping well during this challenging time. I am sure that you have many questions about what will be happening for the remainder of the school year. As you know, schools have been closed to in-class instruction for an indefinite period of time and just two days ago, Dr. Bonnie Henry and Minister of Health Adrian Dix ordered that social distancing protocols will continue through the month of April at least. I know that many of you are working from home, which can be challenging on its own. You also have the complexity of having one or more kids at home with you as well. This is something I understand all too well as we just welcomed our second child, Darian, on March 21st. Our eldest is four in June. He has had his entire world turned upside down with his school and friends being ripped away from him. And while I am sure you are all, just like me, feeling the pressure and frustration of this experience, much more concerned about the well-being of your children. Since we are all in this together (yet apart), I want to be as flexible as possible. Some of you may be wanting your child to have significant amounts of work, some may want none, some may have to share technology, some may simply feel overwhelmed with everything that is going on. The staff have been communicating throughout spring break to ensure that we are able to provide what our students and your families need. I will be using my class website to communicate with students and parents and we are also looking at other technology that would allow me to connect through various means. I know you are looking for concrete answers about what will be happening and we are working on that. I would ask your patience and that you direct your child to the class website in the meantime as I will try to post some interesting articles, activities and questions for them daily as we set things up. You may be interested to know that as we studied the spread of this virus back in February, our class was able to identify the exponential spread that was happening and why it would be problematic to have a spike of infections. They are a curious and enthusiastic groups of learners and I feel very fortunate that our learning journey will continue, even if it will be different from what we may have intended. If your child receives Learning Services support, your case manager will be reaching out to you shortly. Ms. Toms and Mrs. Inglis are also looking forward to connecting with you. If you have any questions, concerns or comments, please don’t hesitate to contact me. If you would like, I am happy to schedule a time to speak with you directly. Thanks and Stay Safe, Michael Western Carisbrooke Elementary [email protected] I am very excited to be in a new room with a class of only grade 7s. This year we are going to be doing some great learning in a variety of areas and regularly combining with the other grade 7 class for activities and other learning.
The best way to get a hold of me is via email at [email protected] or comments here on the website. Parents, I look forward to meeting you in the coming weeks. If you would like to set up a time to visit the class while in session, please let me know and I would be happy to arrange a time to have you. I want to thank each and everyone of you and your parents for making this my best year yet. I have so many good memories when I think of this year and for those of you in grade 7, I hope you will check in from time to time and let me know how you are doing in high school. For the grade 6s, next year is going to be another amazing year. Of that I have no doubt.
I will try to post pictures from the year over the next couple of weeks so check back at some point in the summer for some great reminders of just how much fun we had. Have a great summer! Hi Parents and Students,
Welcome to my class blog. I am hoping to use this as a tool to keep you updated with important class information. Students will often post questions here about homework and other items and this has been helpful in getting answers from both me and other students. If you have any questions, comments or thoughts about what how to best improve this blog, please let me know by contacting me by email at [email protected]. Thanks, Mr. Western |
Mr. Western
I am a teacher in North Vancouver who is passionate about education. I recently finished a MEd in Educational Leadership. Archives
June 2020
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