Dear families,

We had another great day at school today! They spent the morning with Ms. Paulich as I had my Admin time. I went out early to greet them and to say hello before the day began. Seeing them and connecting with them makes my heart so happy!! When I saw them in the hallway later, they looked flushed and happy after getting some good exercise! They also had their first lesson on growth vs fixed mindset. Both Ms. Paulich and I feel so strongly in developing a growth mindset and look forward to watching them work through challenging tasks and learn by making mistakes. See challenges as opportunities for creativity and growth!

In the afternoon with me, we read silently. I thoroughly enjoyed listening to some of your children read. I noticed they already have some great reading strategies! Then they wrote me a story. I am so looking forward to sitting down to read them! We ended our day in the computer lab learning about how to be good digital citizens. We also learned how to write an email to me. So for students who wish to bring their own devices, we will be returning to the Computer Lab this Friday! I asked all students to memorize their login information. This helps to keep their usernames and passwords safe and private if the only place someone can find it is in our brain and not on paper!

Everyone has done amazing so far in terms of being on time! Thank you! We know that sometimes being tardy cannot be avoided. If our class has come into the school already, please send your child through the main doors. Please ask your child to check in with Ms. Nickell before going to class. Thanks!

I registered for an account for Epic School. This will give your child access to thousands (over 14,000!) of high-interest books to read at school and at home. My students last year absolutely LOVED Epic! 

Students will sometimes use this during school, 7am-4pm local time, Monday to Friday. During school hours, students can log in to Epic School from school or home with their Class Code, and read between 7am-4pm. (A gentle reminder to send some earbuds with a microphone, please. Thank you!)

Epic Free: Students use after school, after 4pm local time, Monday to Friday and weekends
After 4pm local time, students can access a selection of books on Epic Free for up to 2 hours/week, after parents sign up with an email address. Parents, you will be sent an email inviting you to sign up. After that, students can simply log in to Epic using their class code to access both Epic School and Epic Free. Their reading experience will switch seamlessly between the two experiences, depending on the time of day!

Should you have any questions, please feel free to ask! Students will have access to physical books from our school library and classroom library as well. Thank you to Ms. Papapanagiotou for delivering so many books to our classroom!

Looking forward to seeing your lovely children tomorrow!

As always, we are both here to support you and your child so feel free to reach out should you have any questions!

Sincerely, Ms. Chan and Ms. Paulich

Dear families,

We had such a great first day of school! I know there can be a lot of uncertainty as you send your child back to school so I hope this helps give you a glimpse into our day together. Click here to watch a video recap that runs through our day. If you don’t have time to watch, here are a few of the highlights:

• Thank you for sending school supplies and Parents and Partners Information forms!
• We had our Community Circle time in the gym to learn each other’s names and play “Would you rather”.
• We have 3 essential questions:
  • Will you do the right thing? – character-based learning
  • Will you do your best? – pursuit of excellence
  • What will you do for others today? – service
• FAIL = First Attempt In Learning (It’s ok to fail. We learn from mistakes. Growth mindset!)
• Graffiti art to practice our letters in preparation for our name tag art. video 1 video 2 video 3
• Mystery Doug
• Ishi, a book by Akiko Yabuki about optimism and choosing and sharing happiness!
• Rock, Paper, Scissors tournament. This was to demonstrate to them that we all need cheerleaders!

Not mentioned in the video but we talked about safety throughout our day and washed our hands numerous times!

I absolutely adore your children!! Thank you for sharing your child with us this year!

The weather looks like it is turning. Click here to learn more about our West Coast recess and lunch hours.

We are looking forward to having another great day tomorrow! Ms. Paulich will be their teacher in the morning and I will see them in the afternoon.

Sincerely, Ms. Chan and Ms. Paulich 🙂

Dear Families,

We had a great first meeting on Friday during our Orientation Day! After washing our hands, students got settled by reconnecting with friends and drawing on their “graffiti” paper.

Then we did an activity called Milling to Music. While the music was played, they walked around (or milled around). When the music stopped, their partner was the person closest to them. They chose one of these on the list to share. After a couple minutes, music played again which indicated it was time to mill around. When the music stopped, they found a new partner to share something about themselves again. We did this three times and it was great to see them smile as they reconnected and made new connections! (Staff did this activity too last week!) This is a great activity for students to share ideas. We will be using this strategy again this year!

We also took the opportunity to share a little about ourselves and played some guessing games to do so! It is important for students to get to know their teachers better to help build our new relationship. We are so looking forward to getting to know them better throughout the year! If you haven’t had a chance yet, please fill out the Parent as Partners Information Form (a hard copy was sent home on Friday) or fill out the online version. Thank you so much for your time in sharing valuable information! We will have Parent-Teacher Conferences on Wednesday, September 23 and Thursday, September 24 so please save the dates! There will be an early dismissal at 1:45pm on September 24. More information will be shared soon.

Reminder: Late students are to enter through the front doors to sign in at the office.

We would like to welcome Ms. Hara to our classroom too! She is an EA in our room this year.

Here’s what I tweeted out last Friday! Loved how they left feeling happy!

Such a fantastic uplifting week @gilmoreSD41! Met my Ss today & had so much fun! ❤️ them already! So many shared how happy they were during our circle time at the end. #heartwarmed They left with a gift: Welcome. One of my most favourite words! Here’s why! https://t.co/13GFJ4GCWj pic.twitter.com/SNCLM0XfCy

— Livia Chan (@LiviaChanL) September 12, 2020

We are looking forward to a wonderful start to our school year tomorrow! We will be spending time getting to know each other, building relationships, and our classroom community. We will be regularly reminding them about health and safety protocols. Every morning, please do a DAILY health check before sending your child to school. Ask the following:

• Do you have a sore throat, cough, congestion, fever, nasal drip?
• Are you experiencing nausea, vomiting, or diarrhea?
• Are you not feeling well?
• Is anyone in your home ill?

Thank you for sending your child to school only if they are feeling well! Here’s to an amazing year as we work together!!

Sincerely, Ms. Chan and Ms. Paulich

[Sorry, families of Div. 6. I realized this morning that the notification didn’t go out as I wanted yesterday afternoon.]

Hello families! Welcome to Division 6!

I am absolutely thrilled to be your child’s teacher this year! My name is Livia Chan and I am also the new Head Teacher at Gilmore so Marianna Paulich will be their teacher too when I have my Admin time. She is absolutely thrilled to be your child’s teacher too!! I am so excited to be joining the community here! Since the first day I walked in, everyone has been so very welcoming. Quite honestly, it felt like home almost immediately! It has been such a joy meeting everyone. I truly feel blessed to be placed here for my first assignment as Head Teacher! I have heard so many great things about the community!

Orientation Day – Friday, September 11 @ 10:30 to 11:45am
Students are asked to line up at the front side doors (south side, to the right of the main doors to the school). We will be spending some time getting to know each other and reviewing the health and safety protocols. There is no need to bring any school supplies on this day. Your child will bring home two things: (1) School supplies list, click here. (2) Parent questionnaire. If you prefer to fill this out electronically, click here to go to our online form. Thank you for your time!

Please note: Division 6 will be in the same cohort as Division 5, Ms. Reuter’s class.

Get to Know Us
Click here to view an introduction video! Please watch it with your child. You will learn a little bit about our class this year too.

Don’t have time to watch the video? No worries! You can watch it later! Here are the highlights:

• We are so excited to meet your child and you!
• BEFORE coming to school, please do a daily health check.
• Bring plenty of clothing to stay warm as we will have windows open and they will be going outside regardless of the weather.
• Bring your own laptop or tablet (iPad) and bring earbuds with a microphone to be used for educational purposes. Please be reminded that they are responsible for their own equipment. Clearly label, please.
• We are both passionate about building relationships and a strong community centered around respect, safety, kindness, and a growth mindset. We do this by building on our character, developing a drive for excellence, and an understanding of how we can be of service to others.

Have more time and want to get to know Ms. Chan even better? In June, I was a guest on Teach Better Talk, a podcast for educators. Click here to listen or click here to listen to my most recent on the Define YOUniversity Podcast! Feel free to visit my professional blog at livchan.com, too.

Communication
We are always here as a resource to support you as we are partners in your child’s education. We all work together! Please feel free to reach out! You have been added as a subscriber to receive notifications when a new post is published on this blog. Please take a look around!

Both Ms. Paulich and I are SO very excited to be growing and learning with your child in our classroom community and working together with you to support their learning. Thank you for all that you do at home! Anytime you have any questions or concerns, please contact us at Livia.Chan@burnabyschools.ca or Marianna.Paulich@burnabyschools.ca. Please feel free to leave a comment!

We will both see you tomorrow!!

Sincerely, Ms. Chan & Ms. Paulich