March 2009 Newsletter

From the Principal

Ever wondered how you could make $250 an hour?

Now that I’ve got your attention, I’d like those of you in grade 11 and 12 to be looking at our scholarship opportunities as each of our scholarship pays out $500 and will likely take you a couple of hours to complete. The general categories are Trades/Technology, Arts/Humanities and Academics. For more details, please check out the secondary/scholarship portion of our website (due date is April 15).

Report cards demonstrated that many of you are doing well and sticking to your completion rate timelines. For those of you falling behind, please remember that it is never too late to get busy and start submitting. We pride ourselves on supporting students in a variety of challenging learning situations so please, pick up the phone and give us a call. We have the following professionals ready and willing to help: clerical, tech support, administration, academic advisors, homeroom teachers and special education teachers.

Exciting News

Apprenticeship programs for Auto Technician and Collision Repair soon to be offered by SCIDES.

We are in the final stages of building an articulation agreement with an accredited trades college.  Students who register with SCIDES in Auto Tech 11 will be eligible for Secondary School Apprenticeship and have the opportunity to ladder into an apprenticeship program.  Stay tuned for more breaking news in our next issue of the ‘ focus’. 

Graduation

Mark it on your calendar!

Our Graduation Ceremony will be held at the historic Quilchena Hotel, Friday June 5th.  Please contact our grade 12 homeroom teacher, Al Rasmussen, for details.

Earth Science 11

SCIDES is pleased to offer this course as of March 2009.  Please visit our web site to see the complete course outline.  This could be your next science course!

Virtual School Society Conference:

We are presenting at the VSS conference in April.  One of the themes at this years’ provincial conference is collaboration and sharing.  We are pleased to be able to present with our two sister schools, North Coast and Fort St. John, our model for grade 8 & 9 students.  Students from each of the three schools have had the opportunity to come together for live virtual classes for Social Studies, Math, English, Science and HACE.  Reportedly, students have enjoyed their time together and have found their courses much more engaging.  They have had a lot of fun making new friendships from around the province.

Daily Physical Activity

Sometime early in November, all students were sent information about DPA.  All students must report their daily physical activity to their homeroom teacher.  Students in grades K – 9 must document 30 minutes a day.  Students in grades 10 – 12 must document a minimum of 150 minutes per week.  Recording calendars are available from our website: www.scides.com.  Go to the Student Area to access our DPA material.  Secondary students also have the choice of using a DPA tracker from the LearnNowBC site: www.learnnowbc.ca 

Daily Physical Activity is a requirement of graduation.

Provincial Exams

Provincial exams are offered at the following times:

April 16 – 17  (paper and electronic exams)

May 19 – 20  (electronic exams only)

June 17 – 25  (paper and electronic exams)

Please contact your homeroom teacher for course specific information.  Remember, it is your responsibility to let us know when you are ready to register for the exam.  You must write the exams at a secondary school in your community or contact us for other possibilities.

News from our Parent Advisory Council

PAC President:  Sarah Watters

I am writing to you today to invite you to become involved in the SCIDES Parent Advisory Council (PAC).  All parents and guardians (as defined in the School Act) of students registered at SCIDES are eligible to attend.  We meet once a month via teleconference.  The next meeting is Monday, April 6th at 7:00 p.m. Contact Al Mackay-Smith (Principal) for teleconference details.

The Parent Advisory Council’s primary mandate is to promote effective communication between home and school. At the meetings we have a chance to hear about what’s new at SCIDES - often this includes a discussion on new and upcoming technology that our children have an opportunity to work with.  We are also exploring the idea of creating a parent information site to provide a sharing forum.

As a parent new to the distance education format (my youngest is working on grade 9) I am realizing the importance of timely and meaningful communication and support from the SCIDES community.  As the PAC President I hope to encourage more people to add their voice and experiences to the SCIDES PAC.

Please stay tuned for details on a “blog” that will allow parents an opportunity share thoughts and ideas.

November Newsletter

Message from the Principal:

We are off to a fantastic start to the 2008-2009 school year. Our enrollments continue to be steady and the fax machine just never seems to stop.

Our school goals this year are built on the concept ‘Building Success, one step at a time’. Our elementary goal is to ‘Increase student’s ability in reading for meaning’. Our secondary goal is to ‘Increase the success rate of students in grades 8 – 12’.

We continue to add more ways to help students succeed. Homeroom teachers are communicating with students via email, phone and Elluminate to provide that personal connection that we know is so important for students.

We encourage you to call your homeroom teacher any time that you have questions. For specific questions about course assignments, please call and leave a message for your markers. Everyone on our team is willing and eager to assist you. Please feel free to contact me if you any questions or concerns.
Al MacKay-Smith

What's new at SCIDES

Auto Tech 11:
We are quite excited about this new pilot course that we are offering online. Our students use a world-class multi-media resource for Automotive Technology theory called CDX Global. Students also can get hands-on experience in work-place settings.

Following this pilot phase, we hope to be able to offer this course to more students. Please contact Al MacKay-Smith for further details.

Daily Physical Activity:
Daily Physical Activity is a new Ministry of Education requirement for all students. Students in K-9 must participate in DPA for a minimum of 30 minutes per day. Students in Grades 10 – 12 must participate and record 150 minutes per week. If you are a full-time student with SCIDES, you will have received information regarding DPA with your report card.

French/German/Spanish:
What is a tape recorder? This is a question that we have often heard from our students. Thanks to Ian Gordon, our Grade 11 homeroom teacher, all of our ‘tape’ resources have been transferred to CD.

Students taking French and Spanish also receive a FirstClass email account so that they may send their oral component via a voicemail attachment.

Online or Paper?
Many of our courses are offered in a paper based format as well as online supported. Online supported classes are offered via FirstClass.
This program allows you access to an online classroom where you can easily download your assignments and word-process them.

Also included in the classroom are tips for assignments, study hints for tests and direct email contact with your marker and home room teacher.

Don’t be afraid of trying the online option. You still receive all of the paper-based material; the advantage is that you can do your assignments electronically. Feedback and turn around time for assignments is much faster than snail mail.


Upcoming Events

Holiday Events For Our Students: 

We are offering a choice of four free events for our elementary and secondary students and their families. We have 35 seats available for students. Please call Jocelynne Brunet, 1-800-663-3536 ext. 1224 to reserve seating.

THE NUTCRACKER: Kelowna Community Theatre, Dec. 12, 11:30 a.m.

SEUSSICAL, THE MUSICAL: Kamloops Sagebrush Theatre, Dec. 3, 10:30 a.m.

WILDLIGHTS: BC Wildlife Park (Kamloops), Dec. 13, 5 p.m. to 9 p.m.

BEST CHRISTMAS PAGEANT EVER: Kelowna Community Theatre, Nov. 29, 1:30 p.m.

Join the PAC: Parent Advisory Council

If you want input into how SCIDES runs, join the PAC, the Parent Advisory Council. Our next meeting is Dec. 15, and we want to invite all parents to join us. We meet by phone, teleconferencing from home. Please call Al Mackay-Smith, at 1-800-663-3536, ext. 1200.

Grade 8 & 9:  Staying Connected!

Grade 8 & 9 students are being offered a wonderful opportunity to do their core courses online with teachers and students from three regions in the province. Distance education schools from North Coast (Terrrace), Northern BC, and SCIDES have partnered together to offer Math, Science, HACE, Social Studies and Science using a virtual classroom program called Elluminate. 

Students meet once a week for live lessons and discussion.  This semester, we offered Math and English for both grades 8 and 9, as well as HACE 8.  Next semester we will offer Science and Social Studies.  If you would like to participate, please call one of our program advisors.

 Scholarships and Bursaries:

SCIDES offers three scholarships and one bursary.  The three scholarships are: top academic student, top trades and technical student and top student in the arts and/or humanities.  We also offer a bursary for citizenship.  Each of these awards is $500.00.  Details can be found on our website.

 

Check out this website for an online database of scholarships offered in B.C.:

http://bcawardsonline.sd61.bc.ca

Universities and colleges are now accepting applications for the 2009-2010 school year.  You can apply online for entrance as well as residence now.

SCIDES Term 1 Secondary Honour Roll:

Honour Roll                                    Principal's List

Logan Turner (Gr 8)                  Kayla Fagg (Gr 11)                  Josef Zarif (Gr 12)

Jasmine Watters (Gr 9)                 Sarah Lassaline (Gr 11)                 

Taylor Schneider (Gr 10)               Ryan Williams (Gr 11)                  Merit List

Gillian Wong (Gr 10)                  Jesse Savage (Gr 12)                  Ayla Aljam-Oppenheim (Gr 9)

Gabriela Carvalho (Gr 11)              Trista Blain (Gr 12)                Jackson Cook (Gr 9)

                                    

 

News from our Parent Advisory Council

PAC President: Sarah Watters

I am writing to you today to invite you to become involved in the SCIDES Parent Advisory Council (PAC). All parents and guardians (as defined in the School Act) of students registered at SCIDES are eligible to attend. We meet once a month via teleconference. Contact Al Mackay-Smith (Principal) for teleconference details.

The Parent Advisory Council’s primary mandate is to promote effective communication between home and school. At the meetings we have a chance to hear about what’s new at SCIDES - often this includes a discussion on new and upcoming technology that our children have an opportunity to work with.

As a parent new to the distance education format (my youngest is working on grade 9) I am realizing the importance of timely and meaningful communication and support from the SCIDES community. As the PAC President I hope to encourage more people to add their voice and experiences to the SCIDES PAC.