INSIDE THIS ISSUE

Superintendent .................... 2

Technology ........................... 3

Curriculum ........................... 4

Human Resources ................. 5

Around BTPS..................... 6-9

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COMMENTS ABOUT THIS NEWSLETTER?

Please send your comments or

suggestions to jody.pollard@btps.ca

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

E: central_office@btps.ca

www.btps.ca

Twitter: BTPS#28

Superintendent’s Memo

For the Week of December 19th - 23rd, 2016

FROM THE SUPERINTENDENT...

Email: jody.pollard@btps.ca

MISSION: Buffalo Trail Public Schools is committed to maximizing student learning,

in a safe and caring environment, supported by a highly effective team.

This week marks the last week of classes before the traditional

Christmas Break. Schools are very busy places and our recent cold

weather snap has made them even more interesting. We found this

parody by Joyce Luke on the very famous poem, “Twas the Night

Before Christmas” and thought you would enjoy it.

Twas the Night Before Christmas

For Teachers

By Joyce Luke

'Twas the week before Christmas and all through the school

Not a pupil was silent, no matter what rule.

The children were busy with paper and paste;

The mess that they made with it couldn't be faced.

The teacher half frantic and almost in tears,

Had just settled down to work with her dears,

When out in the hall there arose such a clatter

up sprang the kids to see what was the matter!

Away to the door they all flew like a flash;

The one who was leading went down with a crash.

Then what to their wondering eyes did appear

But a green Christmas tree! (To decorate I fear!)

When the teacher saw this, she almost grew sick.

She knew in a moment it must be Old Nick!

She ran to the door (all her efforts were vain)

But she shouted, and stamped, and she called them by name;

"Now Tommy! Now Sandy, Now Judy and Harry!

Stop Billy! Stop Robert! Stop Donny and Sherry!

Now get to your places get away from the hall

Now get away! Get away! Get away all!

As leaves that before the wild hurricane fly

The pupils, pell mell, started scurrying by.

They ran to the blackboard and skipped down the aisle;

Their faces were shining and each had a smile.

No question this week.

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FROM THE SUPERINTENDENT (FROM PAGE 1)

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First came a basket of popcorn to string

Then came the Christmas tree (menacing thing).

As the tree was brought in there arose a great shout;

The pupils were merrily romping about.

The state they were in could lead to a riot;

The teacher was sure, if allowed, they would try it.

Her nerves how they jangled! Her temples were throbbing!

The rush of her breath sounded almost like sobbing!

The lines of her face were as fixed as a mask;

It was plain that she didn't feel up to her task.

The look in her eye would have tamed a wild steer,

But the children ignored it; they did every year.

A tear from her eye and a shake of her head

Soon led me to think that she wished she were dead.

She spoke not a word but went straight to her work,

Strung all the popcorn which broke with a jerk.

But at last it was finished and placed on the tree;

Then came the bell and the children were free.

Their shrill little voices soon faded away

And peace was restored at the end of the day.

As she looked at the Christmas tree glistening and tall,

She smiled as she whispered,

"Merry Christmas to All"

We hope that you enjoy your time with family and friends over the break. If you are travelling please

travel safely! On behalf of the Buffalo Trail Public Schools Board of Trustees and the entire Central

Services team, we want to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Take care,

Marwayne Jubilee

TECHNOLOGY

Evergreen for Students

On Friday, Dec 9th the entire technology team met at our Edgerton facility to unbox, inventory, enroll and prepare 300 Chromebooks and wire 11 carts for delivery to the schools. We completed all of this work in one day and the devices are now ready to be delivered to the schools. The following schools are expecting delivery of the new equipment.

WES 4 carts ,100 Chromebooks and 26 iPads Delnorte 20 Chromebooks Clandonald 5 Chromebooks, 2 iPads Hughenden 1 cart, 20 Chromebooks and 20 iPads Dr. Folkins 1 cart ,26 Chromebooks KES 3 carts, 60 Chromebooks and 24 iPads KHS 2 carts, 60 Chromebooks In April of next year, we will be replacing all of the classroom and office machines in these same schools.

Exam Accounts

With the invention of the exam accounts for google, we have linked the old windows exam accounts with the new google ones in Active directory. This does not mean they operate together, it is just they are controlled from the same part of the network. A few weeks ago we locked the accounts for security purposes which locked both the windows accounts and the chrome accounts. Some schools use these accounts as part of their summative evaluations and so it is important to let techhelp know that you would like accounts unlocked. If you unlock the account it is the schools’ responsibility to make sure they have controlled the

password and cleaned out the archives stored on the account.

Diploma and Provincial Achievement Exams

The written portion of the ELA 30-1,30-2 and Social 30- and 30-2 are being written on January 16th and 17th. Please make sure your students are prepared to write if you are using one of our exam accounts by making sure they have done at least one trial before exam day. Each school’s Principal or designate has a person that is responsible for the use of these accounts.

Helpdesk

Please continue to contact us on this issue and with any of your technical problems using BTPS equipment so we can deploy solutions faster and track problems to become more proactive. When creating a ticket separate each problem to a new ticket, this allows for easier assignment of the problem and tracking.

Reminder: Do not call the main central office switch board as they are not trained to help with technology.

Email us at techhelp@btps.ca tech problems sishelp@btps.ca for PowerSchool or PowerTeacher problems.

Phone 780-806-2053 Text 780-806-9228 Twitter hashtag #btps28 BTTube Remember your asset tag number on all tickets!

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Answer here

ARLENE PARKER

No

question this

week. Merry

Christmas!

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CURRICULUM

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First Nations, Métis and Inuit

TEACHER RESOURCES

Image — Stew Pidaso for the Facebook group, Nêhiyâwêwin/Cree Word of the Day, Nov/11

The National Film Board of Canada has some great short films, perfect little “breaks” for the week before Christmas holidays.

The NFB project, BREAD, examines the practice of baking bread and highlights how it connects to our cultural and emotional wellbeing. Many families celebrate the holidays together by sharing a meal, how might you use interactive storytelling to break down barriers and transcend cultures in your classroom? The short animation film, How People Got Fire, takes place In the village of Carcross, in the Tagish First Nation. Neighbourhood pillar Grandma Kay tells the local children the tale of how Crow brought fire to people. In this film, past and present blend, myth and reality meet, and the metaphor of fire infuses all in a location that lies at the heart of this community’s spiritual and cultural memory.

This short animation, Christmas at Moose Factory, by acclaimed First Nations filmmaker Alanis Obomsawin, creates a charming study of life at Christmas time in Moose Factory, an old settlement mainly composed of First Nations families on the shore of James Bay. There are many other, wonderful NFB short films celebrating the season including the classic The Sweater, Léon in the Wintertime and Noël Noël and more here. “Merry Christmas” in Plains Cree (y-dialect) from Arok Wolvengrey To more than one person: miyo-manitowi-kîsikanisik! [mee yo MUN toe kee sig GUN sihk]

Have a Merry Christmas!

Teen Health and Wellness is a web resource that pro-vides middle and high school students with up-to-date, nonjudgmental, straightforward curricular, and self-help support. Articles are correlated to provincial standards and this resource is FREE when accessed via your school’s LEARN ALBERTA account. Topics cov-ered include diseases, drugs, alcohol, nutrition, mental health, suicide, bullying, LGBTQ issues, and more.

Teen Health and Wellness wants YOU to join their "It's Your Cause Video Challenge! Choose a Teen Health & Wellness topic you feel passionate about by creating a video PSA (public service announcement). Competition open to students ages 13—18, and submissions meeting require-ments will be published on Teen Health & Wellness. This would be a great CTF/CALM/ Health/ Learning Commons project! You can find m ore info here (and view previously created videos). Deadline for submis-sions is May 1, 2017.

Sylvia Malo, the elementary math consultant with the Learning Network, has been working with div I and II Math classes in BTPS schools this year. One of the Math re-sources she recommends is the book Good Questions for Math Teaching: Why Ask Them and What to Ask, Grades K-6.

SAMPLE STRATEGY: Questions that encourage students to do more than recall known facts have the po-tential to stimulate thinking and reasoning.

Gr.4 number strand: A number has been rounded off to 1200. What might the original number be?

Gr. 2 number strand: What numbers can you make that are below 100 and have a “6” in the tens place?

Gr. 5 number strand: Represent the number 247 in as many different ways as you can, with materials/ ma-nipulatives and numbers.

Wishing you the joy of family, the gift of friends, and the best of everything in 2017.

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PAYROLL

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HUMAN RESOURCES

For staff updates, click the logo.

Payroll Changes Effective

January 2017

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Here is our fabulous Technology Team unboxing and enrolling 300 Chromebooks

and 11 carts for the schools last Friday.

AROUND BTPS

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AROUND BTPS

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Lily, the Grade 2 elf at Irma

School was up to her regular

mischief this morning. She is sure

keeping the students on their

toes!

SUBMITTED BY: Jennifer Falle

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AROUND BTPS

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Vermilion Elementary School held their annual Floor Hockey

Game with the Grade 5/6 All-Stars facing off against the

Staff. There was a Teddy Bear Toss after the first student goal,

and we collected 180 stuffed animals to be donated to Santas

Anonymous. The 5/6 All-Stars won the game in a shoot-out in

front of a packed gym!

Submitted by: Colin Beecroft

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AROUND BTPS

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On December 8th, Hughenden Public School’s Chemistry 20 students traveled to Del Norte School in

Innisfree to do a titration lab with their Chemistry 20 vidcon peers. This was a great opportunity to do a

hands on collection of data and learn the skill of titration that they will continue to refine as the course

continues. Students worked in cross-school groups. Thank you to the Students' Union for offering us

hot lunch as well! Several students then traveled to Mannville School where they joined the delivering

high school math course with Mrs. Snyder. HPS students enjoyed the math lesson that they were part

of...lots of positive chatter was heard about their scavenger hunt.

Submitted by: Susan Reynolds