March 31, 2020

As we oragnize ourselves this week, it will be important for the children to set up a space to work which is relatively clean and free of distractions. A clear workspace will be a big help as they try to concentrate on their work. Your student’s job today is to find a place in your house where they can work and clean it up and gather together what they need to be successful. I would love to see a picture of your student in their work space. Please take a picture and email it to me at kevans@highroadacademy.com. This is a fun way for us to get into the habit of emailing back and forth! I have created another silly video for the kids to help them get started.

Monday, March 30, 2020

I promised you one post a day for me this week in order to not overwhelm any of us. This post is a letter from the school. Tomorrow I will begin phoning each family. Stay tooned!

Dear Parents and students,

Welcome back. Usually, at this time, we would be welcoming you back into our classroom with sunny smiles, laughter and fun tales of holiday exploits filling the air. However, these are not usual times. Recent events have created lots of uncertainty and unknowns in our world.

One thing we do know is that God is great and powerful. He is someone who is always faithful. Even during this time, where plans seem uncertain and ever changing, we know He has a plan for us.

We have drawn a lot on our faith in God these past few days as we have begun to plan for what your child’s education will look like in the coming days and weeks ahead. Hopefully, this post will begin to provide you with some information on some of the things we are working on, providing you with some comfort and clarity. 

We want you to know that:

1. School will continue – Teachers are hard at work preparing materials and activities to students to work on at home. Recognizing that there are many things vying for your attention on the homefront, we are trying hard to not overwhelm you. However, we do not want to just send home busy work but rather activities that are still strongly connected with the BC curriculum. 
2. Establishing a routine is important – One of the best things for your child is establishing a routine that you can follow as much as possible. Therefore, a suggested daily schedule will be sent home to help with building those all important routines into your day. Children like knowing what is going to happen each day and what the expectations are.   
3. Connections with your child are important to us – We are thinking and praying for our students. We miss their smiles, their unique personalities and their energy. We have built relationships with your child during this year and want those relationships to continue even at this time. We want your child to know that we are still here thinking of them and knowing that they are still important to us. Throughout the week, we will be contacting you and your child – on a scheduled basis – using a variety of methods (phone, email, and video conferencing).
4. Technology can be a powerful tool for remote learning but may be difficult – Bringing a number of technology tools to work in delivering content, activities and materials to your child can make for a different kind of dynamic learning experience. However, we recognize that families have differing abilities in accessing technology at home. Over the next few days, you will be contacted and asked to complete a short survey which will help us to determine the needs and capabilities of families in accessing technology. At the Intermediate level, there are plans to send our Chromebooks home with each student so that they have equal access to a tool commonly used at school. 
5. Students may need items from school – Elementary students use a wide variety of tools to complete work. In order to facilitate learning at home, some of these items will need to be returned to you. The Office and Admin are developing plans to provide families time to collect supplies from classrooms. This will allow you to have access to some common materials including pencil crayons, markers, scissors, rulers, paper, some duotangs, etc. Cognizant of the virulent nature of the Covid-19 virus, we are working on a way for parents to pick these materials up while maintaining the social distancing guidelines put out by Public Health. A schedule will be released by the office of pick-up times for your child.
6. Primary content and activities will be distributed through your child’s classroom blog. Intermediate students will continue to use Google Classroom to get their materials, activities and content.
7. There are many things we don’t know yet – We are working hard to answer as many questions as possible as quickly as possible and will strive to keep you updated as soon as we know more information.

We want to thank you for your patience during this time. God proclaims, 

Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you,  I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

You and your family are in our thoughts and prayers. We look forward to continuing to work closely with you, even in the face of these challenges.  

It’s time to get ready for school!

Hello, Students and families!

With the emails coming frequently from the school, there is tons of information to process for us both! Let’s take it one baby step at a time and know that we are going to get this thing moving slowly, but surly. I know that we both need to learn some new technology and that can be scary! We can do this and do it well! I don’t want to fill your in box with information, but for the coming week, I will be sending you one post a day as we work together to get started.

I will be creating some short, silly videos for you to share with your student and then have a small organizational job for them to accomplish that day. This is my first scary technology to learn: how do you embed videos into your blog? This is my first attempt! I hope it works and makes your kids smile.

Please share this video with your Grade one peep!

Good Morning, Friends!

I hope that you were able to find some interesting ways to have fun over Spring Break! I also pray that there has been great peace for you and your family knowing that God is in control of all things. Things have been very quiet for me and I am eager to get back to work!

I know that you must have so many thoughts, questions and concerns about how the school year will finish up. I have those same questions. I know that our Admin team has been working so hard to put a plan in place and that they have given up much of their Spring Break thinking about us and how we can make a shift to online learning.

I have no answers for you today, but I want you to know that my heart is for you and your children and that I desperately wish to be back in the classroom. I will do everything in my capability to continue to support you and serve you and your family as we navigate these uncharted waters together.

One thing I do know is that my department will be meeting online on Monday to start working through our process and what the immediate future may look like. I will update you each step of the way.

I am praying for you and loving your children from afar as I hunker down by myself to self-isolate. How wonderful will it be to see each other again?!

Blessings,

Kim

Corona Virus

There was alot of fear and worry about the corona virus from my little peeps today and alot of incorrect information. It is a challenging time for them as they are hearing things that they do not understand, but know is scary.

I have tried to encourage them with the following statements:

• God is in control of all things.
• God has given you smart parents who will take care of you and do their best to keep you safe.
• You need to have peace that God and your parents are working to keep you safe.
• As a child, their only job is to make sure they thoroughly wash their hands as often as they can.

Please take a moment tonight and encourage your little ones. They are hearing information that may or may not be correct and they are trying to make sense of it. Also, please give them the facts that you feel are appropriate for their age group. I am not teaching to it as I do not want to scare them, but I am trying to correct some of the crazy things that I am hearing. It is a troubling time, but God has this in control!

Grandparent’s Day

Grandparent’s Day is coming up on Wednesday, April 15, 2020. I will be sending an invitation home with each student today. If you have two sets of Grandparents and would like another invitation, feel free to let me know!

Spelling List

I will introduce the words on Monday, March 9th and test them on Friday, March 13th.

call, row, salt, belong, bring, bite, get, send, coat, tell, how, yard, low, other, men

Provincials Up date

Our Senior HS boys are second in the province after their provincials this weekend. We are so proud of how hard they have worked!

Provincials!

Our senior boys basketball team has made the provincial championships this year! We are the number one ranked team in the province and will be battling it out this weekend in Langley for the championship! In order to support our boys as they get ready to play this weekend, we are adding a few casual days.

Thursday, March 5 – Knight Day K-12

Friday, March 6 – Red/Knight Day – students may wear Knight wear or anything red in support of our school colours.

As usual, casual days are voluntary and students may wear their uniforms if they prefer.

Sick!

Good Morning! Your student may have told you yesterday that I was sick and not at school. To be honest, I have never been this sick before in 19 years of teaching! I seem to have caught a terrible cold/cough combo. I am sorry for any inconvenience that this may cause you and the unsettlement that having a TOC may have on the children. I will do my best to get better quickly and back in the classroom. One thing I know for sure is that you do not want me spreading these germs around. I hate being sick!