Well, we did it! The final week of distance learning is upon us and the kids have been amazing! I am so proud of how the kids, and adults, adapted to this new style of learning. The weather is looking beautiful this week and I hope everyone has a chance to be outside and enjoy the sunshine.

I have assigned the children a few different tasks this week including a variety of virtual field trips since we missed out on our year-end trip to camp, as well as a rock painting craft. Just a reminder, students have been asked to place their completed rocks in the front garden of the school, closest to the front doors. I reminded students that there is a lot of construction happening at the school in the next several weeks, so the area near the front door of the school may be quite busy with trucks and workers. Please be careful when approaching the area and be socially distance while there.

I wish everyone a healthy, safe, fun and relaxing summer. I wish we had a chance to celebrate together all the hard work students and families have done, but unfortunately that is not possible this year.

See you in September!

Hello Collins Bay Families,

We have now received the go-ahead for families to pick-up student belongings at the school. We are of course obligated to follow a protocol that has been put in place by the Limestone District School Board, in consultation with Public Health. Most importantly, we will ask everyone to maintain a 2 metre distance at all times. If possible, please wear a mask and gloves.

Please carefully read the information below regarding coming to the school to pick-up student belongings, which will occur using the following schedule:

Pick-Up Date: Thursday, June 11th, 2020

Student Last Name Begins With:

A, B 9:00 am – 10:00 am
C, D 10:00 am – 11:00 am
E, F, G, H 11:00 am – 12:00 pm
I, J, K, L, M, N 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm
O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, X, Y 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm
**Graduates
10:00-11:00 am

**Mrs. Corsi will be available in front of the school at this time to take a picture with any graduating students, while respecting distancing requirements. Graduates will first enter to collect their belongings and pick up their diploma, and then have the picture taken after exiting.

Other Important Information:
Parents/children will initially enter through the REAR door of the school, as the larger parking area at the rear will allow for better flow. Once items have been collected, parents/children will exit through the FRONT door, and walk back around to the parking area in the back, unless they walked to the school.

Everyone entering the school must assess whether they have any symptoms of COVID-19 or any other acute respiratory infection. Active Screening symptoms include: Fever, new or worsening cough, difficulty breathing or shortness of breath, other symptoms of an acute respiratory infection (e.g., fatigue, headache, sore throat, runny nose), diarrhea or vomiting. If you have any of these symptoms, please do not enter the school. Before entering, everyone will also be asked if they have travelled outside of Canada in the past 14 days, and if so, they will not be permitted in the school.

Social distancing practices must be followed at all times – in line to enter the school, in the school building, and in the parking lot.

Please keep numbers to a minimum – one adult, or one adult plus one child if possible (if you have more than one child who attends the school, you may bring them all at once if necessary to gather belongings).

The sole purpose of this visit is to collect belongings. We would kindly ask that families not play/visit with others while at school, but to come, get your belongings, and leave as quickly as possible, in the interest of everyone’s health and safety.

It is not necessary for you to come and pick items up at this time, if you don’t feel the need. Anything left behind will be made available again in September. Please do not pick up items for other parents/children at this time.

Please use this opportunity to return any school property your child may have at home (library books, etc.). Tables will be set-out for this purpose. Note: you do NOT need to return borrowed electronic devices at this point, unless your child no longer needs it for online learning

Bathrooms and water fountains are NOT to be used while families are in the school collecting items

If you cannot make it to the school for your scheduled time slot, one additional opportunity will be provided the following week, on Tuesday, June 16th from 12-1 pm. To request a visit during this alternate time slot, please email Mr. West (westa@limestone.on.ca), as there will be limited availability.

Once again, we thank you for your patience and cooperation throughout this process.

Sincerely,

Aaron West
Principal
Collins Bay Public School

Good morning,

This week the time for our class meeting has been changed to 10:30 a.m. Wednesday May 27th. It has been so nice seeing some of the students and getting to hear in person how they have been doing. I am so proud of all the students and how they have adapted to the new learning format. Students should continue to progress through the work at their own pace and send me questions whenever they have some. They can do this by sending me a message right on the assignment page. I check the Google Classroom regularly throughout each school day and try to respond in a timely manner.

I am also happy to hear that everyone is staying active, enjoying time with family and learning some new skills around their home like cooking, gardening, painting and even some building! Well done everyone!

Stay safe and take care.

I sent an email out to all families today about potential Google Meet meetings with students. I need consent from all parents for students to participate. Please watch for the email, it may have gone to Junk Mail for some people as it is coming from my board email address (morrowv@limestone.on.ca)

It’s hard to believe,  but we are almost at the end of our fifth week of distance learning. I miss the students very much and hope that we will get a chance to end the year together. I have enjoyed reading the letters students write to me each week and I’m happy to hear that everyone is staying active, healthy and enjoying the time with their families. The children, and parents, have done a great job mastering the technology this new way of learning has made neccessary in order for our learning to continue.

Just a few updates about how feedback is being given in our Google Classroom:

• I try to give a comment for most assignments handed in with something positive and something to work on for future assignments
• Students should always read the feedback and try to apply it. Maybe even write down a goal on a sticky note and place it beside their workstation to help remind them. (ex: Feedback: Next time, try to remember to use capital letters at the beginning of all sentences and a final punctuation at the end of each complete sentence; Sticky Note – Goal: capitals and periods!)
• Math and science feedback: I have been trying to send copies of Answer Keys back to students, so they can correct their work. It is important that they review the Answer Key in order to correct their thinking

Again, please complete all work at your own pace and when you can. There are no due dates for any of the work as I know all family situations are different and I do not want to put any stress on anyone.

If you have any concerns or questions about any of the work posted feel free to contact me at morrowv@limestone.on.ca

Stay safe.

This morning, I sent an invite to most parents inviting them to our Google Classroom. This means that once you accept my invitation you will receive a weekly email with updates about how your child is progressing, work that has been assigned, handed in and work that is incomplete. If you did not receive an email it is because the option to invite you was not available to me or your child has not signed into the class. Again, please feel free to email with any questions or concerns as we continue with this new format of learning.

Congrats! We made it through our first week of distance learning! It may have been a bit bumpy, I know it was for me, as we are all trying to figure out how to use the new format. I noticed that some students have not completed any work and if that is the case that is fine, but for those students who have been working, but not handed in any work I thought I would share this video.

I think some students may be “Sharing” their work with me instead of hitting the “Turn In”  button. When I go into the teacher view of the classroom I can see the work as it is being completed, and some of it appears to be done, but it wasn’t turned in.

Also, starting Monday any parent who has joined the class will be removed and only students will remain. Instead, I will invite each parent to the classroom which means you will start getting emails summarizing your child’s work, including information about missing work, upcoming work, and class activity.

We now have only 1 more student to join! Well done!

Happy Easter and enjoy the weekend.

We now have almost the whole class signed into our Google Classroom! Good job. If you are still having issues check out the information the board sent out. (sorry for the poor quality of the image)

Also, some students have had difficulty opening assignments once they are in Google Classroom. It is important that you make sure they are still logged in to their account. In the upper right hand corner of the screen there should be a coloured circle with a letter in it (ie. mine is pink with a V). When you scroll over it it should display your child’s email/username. If not, then they are logged in as someone else and need to switch accounts.

Hope this helps.

If for any reason you continue to have difficulty you can contact me at morrowv@limestone.on.ca or the board has an ITS Virtual Service Desk at 613-417-3559 Monday-Friday 7:30 am to 4:30 pm.

First of all, I wanted to give a virtual high five to all children and parents that got logged into our Google Classroom! Way to go! I know it was a frustrating process for many, so thank you for taking the time to work through it. Also, I wanted to make sure that everyone understands that all of the work  posted in the classroom is not mandatory and I have not assigned any due dates so that you can complete the work as you wish at your own pace. This is a stressful time for everyone and the health, both mental and physical, of everyone is the most important thing right now.

With respect to the amount of work, if you are choosing to do it, the guideline right now is an hour of work a day, with a total of 5 hours a week. At this point, I really am not sure how much work that will be for our class, as students work at very different paces. So, I will continue to adjust as the weeks go by and seek feedback from the kids near the end of the week.  My goal is to provide enough, but not overwhelm anyone.

Also, thank you for your patience as I post assignments and we find little issues with some. This is a learning process for me as well and I am doing my best.

I have had some parents ask me about their child’s belongings and how they can retrieve them from the school. I forwarded this concern on to Mr.West and he said that at this time the board’s concern is for everyone’s safety and on delivering school curriculum to the students. So, no steps have been made to allow students to retrieve their belongings at this point, but if school doesn’t resume in May they till develop protocol for collecting items.

Take care and stay healthy.

Tomorrow is the first day of our distance learning program. Not many students have signed into the class so far, so that can be your first task. Instructions on how to do that were in a previous post. Or, you can go to:

www.classroom.google.com

and enter the class code: vdwegrg

They will also need their limestone login.