Division 13 Class Blog

Dear Div 12 students and families,

We hope you are all doing well this weekend.  We thank all the families and students for working so hard with us during the past few weeks.  There has been so many new changes in the way we interact through technology.  You are all amazing!!  We should have shared the information with you already, but all this tech learning is still pretty new to us too. (crazy steep learning curve🧗🏻‍♂️ 🤪 for everyone)

All students in Burnaby have access to Office 365 with a Burnaby School District student ID and password.  Office 365 has the applications: Microsoft Teams, OneDrive and Microsoft Word that Division 12 students can use to do their work, submit assignments and also interact.

We already are using Microsoft Teams, but this week we will be using OneDrive, which is a digital space to save and share our work with each other.  It is an excellent way to share and learn from each other, especially during this time when we really miss being together.  The following 6 steps will show you how to get access:

1. Go to the Taylor Park website and click ‘Office 365” (see arrow)

2. Type in your student ID and password when you log into TEAMS. (See arrow)

3. The next screen you will see all the Office 365 applications available for our students.  You will notice that you can access the Teams application or Microsoft Word here as well.  This week we will be using OneDrive (see arrow) and students can save their work in this digital space.  Through shared folders in OneDrive students can see everyone’s work in one place and it is a valuable way of sharing and learning from each other.

4.  When you click ‘OneDrive,’ you will be taken to ‘Files.’  We have created a ‘3rd Term Folder’ for each student and all the contents saved here is automatically shared with both teachers.  All work stored in this folder will be visible to Mrs Malito and I.  However, in order to find the “Division 12 Fitness Folder” you will need to click “Shared” (see arrow).

5. You will be able to see the “Division 12 Fitness Folder.”  Click this folder. (See arrow)

6. For one of the assignments next week you will have to upload a video and a writing piece into this folder.  You can click “upload” (see arrow) to upload your video and the writing piece.  All students and families are reminded to be respectful to the gallery of work that will be uploaded by our class to this folder and that this shared work is for class use only and cannot be posted or shared on social media. 

We are so glad that we can be on this learning journey with you,

Mrs Malito and Ms Sim

PS:  More information about Burnaby School District and downloading Office 365 can be found here:

https://learn.burnabyschools.ca/office365

How to hand in assignments in TEAMS ‘Assignments’ 

1. Check 0365-Taylor-Park-Div-12 and click “Next” on the bottom right corner
2. Click the assignment you want to submit work 
3. Look for ‘My Work’ and click ‘+ Add Work’ 
4. You can submit work by ‘Upload from this device’ if you want to send a photo or  
5. You can submit by clicking ‘+ New File’ (Word Document, PowerPoint Presentation or Excel)  
6. You can save your work and add more work if you need to.  When you are ready click ‘Turn in’ at the top right corner 

OneDrive: Accessing the student’s shared folder with Ms Malito and Ms Sim 

1. In Assignments: Each student has a 3rd Term Folder in their OneDrive which is a shared folder with Mrs Malito and Ms Sim.  All work stored in this space is shared only with teachers. 
2. Ms Sim has started an ‘Interactive journal’ with students in her small groups.  Students can journal in this shared ‘Word Document’ and also put little assignments that Ms Sim assigns during her small group times.  Everything should automatically save in this folder if the students are signed with their Microsoft Office school account.  Of course, students can also write in a journal book and you can take a pic and send an email as well. 

Thank you again families for all your patience, enthusiasm and support!  We know this is a lot of technology information and online resources.  We are learning as we go and trying to find the best ways to work with our students and sometimes tweeking things as we go.

Yours Truly,

Mrs M & Ms S

Dear Division 12, 

It has been brought to my attention that we need to be reminded about our Digital Citizenship learning from first term of school.  During this third term will be using technology as a tool for learning, sharing and connecting with each other.  We are so glad that students are able to share and comment through the Microsoft TEAMS application, through our Division 12 Class blog website and through Zoom.  There are so many fun emojis we can use to communicate as well.   

Please remember to always use kind words to encourage and support one another when we communicate online.  Microsoft TEAMS ‘posts’ may seem like a ‘chat’ tab, but it is actually a place where we post meaningful thoughts, photos, reflections and writing.  Posting is a way of sharing and expressing ourselves, but also a way for us to encourage and support one another other.  Please post responsibly and thoughtfully and do your best to check your spelling, capitals, punctuation and read over what you wrote again before you click ‘send.’   

An excellent example of a thoughtful post is Clarissa’s photo and writing entry about Rock Monsters.  Another example is when a classmate sends photos and writes a comment or caption about it.  We can give a thumbs up to click that we saw it or that we like it.  Below you can see that Clarissa has 2 thumbs up for her post!👍 

If you would like to meet with your friend or share personal information about playing video games  together, please do that over your home phone or share through Messenger (we have heard that some of our students are communicating this way).   Mrs Malito and I read through your posts and give ‘thumbs up’ to meaningful and thoughtful posts.  If you notice a great post you can also respond by giving it a ‘thumbs up’ too! 

Practising Digital Citizenship is an important part of our learning journey for third term and we are excited to share and learn more together as the weeks progress.  In small groups we will also be talking more about the importance of digital citizenship and proper posting etiquette (manners) on our TEAMS, ZOOM or Class Blog site.  If you have read my post and understand it, I would be so happy to get a thumbs up from you! 😄👍 

Hugs,

Mrs Malito & Ms Sim

Potato plants after Spring Break -Mar 26

Potato plants one week later outside Ms Sim’s house -April 2

Potato plants on April 9

Dear Division 12,
You will not believe how much our potato plants have grown!  Please take a look at the two photos.  The first photo was taken when I loaded the potato plants into my car right after Spring Break. The second photo was taken just 1 week after being outside in my yard.

Please estimate (smart guess) how many centimeters (cm) tall our tallest potato stem has grown in the second picture and respond in the comment section by Wednesday, April 15th. You will not be able to see anyone’s estimates until Wednesday!  I will announce which student’s estimate is the closest and they will receive a virtual star.🌟

From,
Ms Sim

🏆ANNOUNCEMENT: Clarissa is our virtual star winner!🌟 Way to go for having the closest estimate!

Dear families of Division 12, 

Wow, almost everyone has responded to our letter on our class blog!!  We loved reading what everyone did with their family during Spring Break.   We also hope that everyone had a chance to watch our video messages that we filmed together through Zoom.  The teachers and staff at Taylor Park have held all staff meeting through this application and we can’t wait to meet this way with our students.  Thank you so much for all your encouraging messages and for those of you who even sent some photos through email.  Meeting and connecting through Zoom, our blog and email can be convenient at times, but we have learned that it will never replace seeing you all face-to face, and we truly miss that the most right now! 

To promote classroom interaction and continue building on social development and curricular learning we will be using Microsoft Office Teams and our ‘team’ is called O365-Taylor-Park-Div 12.  We have attached the student guide for Microsoft Office Teams to the email that was sent to families.  Please look at the first page of the guide to download the program on the computer or device that your child will be using and log in with your child’s username and password.  We will be emailing parents separately with their child’s username and Office Teams password.  When you log-in, click ‘Teams’ on the left if you are using computer and on the bottom if you are using an ipad or tablet, please post a ‘hello’ message that you have logged in successfully.  Or even better, you can share a photo of what your family did together this over the long weekend!  If you log-in through a computer it should look like this with your child’s initials in a circle on the top right corner:  

We plan to have weekly scheduled Zoom meetings, but for next week we would like to meet on Tuesday at 11am with the whole class. For our first meeting we would like to meet with our whole class and get everyone connected.  The B.C. government has funded and secured access to the Zoom platform for the province’s K-12 schools and we have been advised by administration that Zoom will be secure for our students.  We are receiving training to ensure safety measures are in place, and will be using the ‘waiting room’ feature to admit only those recognized, we will be monitoring the sessions and using a password.  Recording the sessions will not be permitted by participants.  The link for our first Zoom meeting will be sent to families by email.  You will need to click “join a meeting” and enter the meeting ID and password.  If you cannot make this meeting, please do not worry, there will be more to come.  As the students enter the Zoom conference, the ‘mics’ will be muted.  Please look for the ‘mic’ and ‘video’ icon and ensure the ‘video’ icon is on so we can see you.  As more students join in we will be muting all the mics so that each student will have a chance to speak.  Another note, look for a gallery mode icon (waffle or 9-little squares) and the students will be able to see more people on the same screen at the same time, usually more for desktop computers and less on an ipads and tablets. 

We know it  has been difficult and challenging to practice social distancing for the past few weeks.  Our new vice-principal Diana Sakic shared a great quote at a recent staff meeting.  “Although every day may not be good, we can find something good in every day.” We would love our students (and families😀) to take a moment to reflect and share something they are thankful for when we meet on Tuesday.  We can’t wait to see all the students and listen to their voices.  

We know this is a lot of information and we thank you for reading our long email.  Please try and sign into our team ‘O365-Taylor-Park-Div 12’ on Office 365 Teams with the student IDs and password and we look forward to the Zoom meeting on Tuesday morning.  If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact us by email.   You will be receiving another email with your child’s Microsoft Office Teams user ID and password shortly. 

Yours truly, 

Mrs Malito & Ms Sim 

 PS: we are sending this email to all the parent emails we have received.  Please let us know if you would like the email correspondence to go to just one parent.  Also, we have the new online resources that have been linked to our website.  The ID and passwords for those sites will be shared with the students next Tuesday. 

Flowers outside Ms Sim’s home

Dear Divison 12,

Life has changed dramatically over the past few weeks and it is hard to believe that we are not in class with all of you and learning together.  We really miss all of you and look forward chatting with each one of you soon.  We as teachers are fiercely learning too and trying to find creative new ways to connect with all of you and also ways for you to connect with each other. 

Even though we cannot be together in our Division 12 classroom at Taylor Park at this time, this third term we will continue our learning journey together.  We have a feeling this term may be one of our most memorable terms yet!! 

The past 2 weeks we have had a lot of family time and we are sure that you all did something special or interesting together with your family. Ms Malito’s family played the card game called ‘Spoons’ a lot (the one Clarissa taught the class🤣) and Ms Sim made her family go on daily walks to admire spring flowers, rain or shine.  Mr D said he took walks in the park, did a few hikes, played scrabble, watched a few documentaries, and even cooked a few new food recipes with his family! Wow!

Please share with the class one activity that you and your family did together during Spring Break.  It would be so great to write and share with each other what we did!😀

Love your teachers,

Mrs Malito & Ms Sim

ps: if you forgot your student login ID and password, please email Ms Sim (Jinny.Sim@burnabyschools.ca).  Reminder: after you log-in, click “Leave a Comment”  which is underneath the blog entry title.  Share your activity and click “post”.

Dear Division 12,

     We will be going on a field trip to the Reifel Migratory Bird Sanctuary in November.  Every student in our class will become an expert in one bird that is local to this area.  Students will research about their bird, the food they eat, the habitat they live in and why they are important to our ecosystem.  We will share our learning  with each other so that we can learn about the many different birds that live in our ecosystem.  Why is the diversity of birds important to our environment?

     Please share the name of the bird you have chosen to research on and a special fact about your bird in the comment section of this blog entry.  We are excited to visit the Reifel Migratory Bird Sanctuary and hopefully see the birds that we have researched on.  Fingers crossed for a nice sunny day on November 12th!

From your teacher,

Ms Sim