Updates for this week (March 30 - April 3)

Hi Room 20 Parents and Students,

I connected with many of you today either over phone or email (you all should have received an email - please let me know if you did not) to gather some information about your access to online learning. Our official platform for online learning will be up and running by next week and will likely be mainly through Google Classroom. At the bottom of this post I have included links to some how to guides for the Google platforms we will be using. You should also have received an email from the school with a bit of information about these sites.

All students have Google accounts already - the same username and password that they use for their school email and Google Drive are what they will need for Google Classroom and Meet. Most (possibly all) room 20 students know their Google usernames, and I included them in the email I sent you on Monday, March 16. If you need it resent to you, please email me (siwinston@cbe.ab.ca) and I'll pass it on to you. Students set their own passwords and I do not have access to them. If a student has forgotten their password, let me know, and I can get submit a request for it to be reset. Most of our class was on Google Drive typing their stories in March, so I don't anticipate too many username/password issues.

For this week, while teachers are working on setting up the new online classrooms, please continue using the resources that were sent to you before the break. The expectation set by Alberta Education is 5 hours of work per week, so try to get in that habit this week, and of course feel free to do more. I have been checking in on your Mathletics and CommonLit progress and will continue to check progress and give feedback / assign work throughout the week. I have all your stories marked and am currently considering the best option for sending the feedback to students. If you're one of the six students who didn't hand your story in before outdoor school, the time is now! You will be hearing from me next week if it's still not finished and shared with me Google Drive.

Here are the links to help you get started with Google Classroom and Google Meet.

BHS Parent Info about Google 

Using Google Classroom

Using Google Meet (chat and video chat)

Using Google Chrome (web browser)

CBE Google Tech Support

We're still figuring things out, but email me any questions and I will do my best to find you an answer. More info will be coming your way later this week for sure.