INSIDE THIS ISSUE

Superintendent/HR .............. 2

Technology ............................ 3

Curriculum ............................ 4

Transportation ...................... 5

Extras .................................... 6

Around BTPS......................7-10

COMMENTS ABOUT

THIS NEWSLETTER?

Please send your comments or

suggestions to jody.pollard@btps.ca

We’d love to hear from you!

BUFFALO TRAIL PUBLIC SCHOOLS

1041 10A Street

Wainwright, AB T9W 2R4

P: 780.842.6144

F: 780.842.3255

E: central_office@btps.ca

www.btps.ca

Twitter: BTPS#28

Superintendent’s Memo

For the Week of January 15th - 19th, 2018

FROM THE SUPERINTENDENT...

Email: jody.pollard@btps.ca

Question of the week, Page 6

Win a great prize!

Buffalo Trail Public Schools is once again proud to host the Annual Superintendent’s Public Speaking Event on April 27th, 2018! This is the seventh year that we have been able to bring students from across our jurisdiction to share their talents and compete for the scholarships provided! Last year’s winners included: Grades 4,5,6 Gold Medal – Ethan Warawa – Dewberry Silver Medal – Kennedy Campbell – Edgerton Grades 7,8,9 Gold Medal – Toren Stockman – EH Walter Silver Medal – Tyson Rudolf – Delnorte Grade 10,11,12 Gold Medal – Justine Eddleston – EH Walter Silver Medal – Gavin Veilleux – Mannville

We are excited to announce this year’s topics. They include: Elementary Division Open to students currently enrolled in Grade

4, 5 or 6 - Speech Length: 2-4 minutes

Topics: 1) Vegetables – Friend or Foe? 2) If I had a super power, what would it be and why.

Junior High Division Open to students currently enrolled in Grade

7, 8 or 9 - Speech Length: 3-5 minutes

Topics: 1) Funny things about the English language… 2) Through my eyes: The world 50 years from now…

Senior High Division Open to students currently enrolled in Grade

10, 11 or 12 - Speech Length: 5-7 minutes

Topics: 1) How does the media influence public opinion? 2) Are rural communities important to Alberta’s

future?

MISSION: Buffalo Trail Public Schools is committed to maximizing student learning,

in a safe and caring environment, supported by a highly effective team.

SUPERINTENDENT CONTINUED…..

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Our schools will be hosting local com-petitions to deter-mine the school representatives at this annual event! Many thanks to all who work so hard to make this event possible. See you at JR Robson on April 27th, 2018!

Last week the Board concluded the school tours. We travelled to a number of schools over the two days and the Board members had the opportunity see and hear about the buildings and some of the exciting work that is being done to meet our BTPS Mission. Many thanks to the school rep-resentatives who hosted us and provided us with a tour of the schools. When the Board is in the process of capital planning

or making decisions about how to allocate IMR funds, their tours through the school will be valuable information.

Take care,

HUMAN RESOURCES/PAYROLL

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Get your 2018

updates here!

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TECHNOLOGY

BTPS STUDENT TECHNOLOGY SURVEY: Thank you to all who participated. We had 551 Div. 1, 529 Div. 2, 615 Div. 3 and 415 Div. 4, students complete the survey. This represents 54% of our students, which is massive increase!

ALTERNATE TO NETFLIX: BTPS subscribes to Criterion- on demand, which allows you to stream movies from inside our network on BTPS machines without worrying about copyright. The link is below.

https://www.criterionondemand.com/

GREAT FREE TOOL FROM TEXTHELP:

Texthelp has released the premium Equatio product to all teachers. This product allows all forms of math to be done digitally. Xay used this product in his latest Random EdTech email focusing on a math unit. IN order to get access to this product follow the steps below. When it asks for district admin, please use the email xay.saysana@btps.ca

Step 1: Add Equatio to your Google Account from the Chrome Web Store here

Step 2: Fill out the Free Teacher Activation Form here

DIGITAL CITIZENSHIP:

THINK BEFORE YOU CLICK.

WINDOWS 10 UPDATES:

This week we had machines update in the middle of the working day and our network saturating causing extreme slowdowns. This was similar to what happen a few months ago. Over the Christmas break news broke of a major chip security problem called Meltdown and Spectre. All operating software companies were scrambling to release update to patch the hole. BTPS network policy allows for these types of updates but controls when they happen. Unfortunately unknown to us Microsoft forced these updates automatic and unstoppable which overwrote our policy. This is why your machines were updating and rebooting without warning. Below is an excerpt from Forbes.com article Windows 10 essential Updates have serious problems

“The fact it (Microsoft) made Windows 10 security updates automatic and unstoppable means that even if users were aware of the problem in advance they had no way to protect themselves other than disconnecting their computer from the Internet.

Up to date computers are important, but working ones are even more so.

As such, while the potential scale of damage Meltdown and Spectre can create is vast, we are already seeing the fallout from companies racing one another to rush out patches can be devastating as well…”

https://www.forbes.com/sites/gordonkelly/2018/01/10/microsoft-windows-10-problem-meltdown-spectre/#38e0f7db19b5

We apologize for any interruptions but we were as surprised as you when this started happening.

Reminder: Do not call the main central office switchboard , as they are not able to help with technology.

Problems with Technology email - techhelp@btps.ca

Problems with PowerSchool or PowerTeacher email - sishelp@btps.ca

Phone - 780.806.2053 Text - 780.806.9228 Twitter hashtag #btps28 BTTube:

Remember your asset tag number on all tickets!

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CURRICULUM

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What does your school

have planned? Preschool-K: Bears theme on

Pinterest: https://goo.gl/HBhjyV

Kindergarten Grade 1:

Free games: https://goo.gl/apLLF5

https://www.kindergartenworks.com/

common-core-standards/never-ending-

story/

High School Ideas

https://goo.gl/hzGeFX

https://www.bespokeclassroom.com/

blog/2017/4/23/5-pixar-short-films-to-use-in-

secondary-ela

A Poem a Day for 30 Days! :

Jr. Sr. ELA

http://www.theliterarymaven.com/2016/04/

National-Poetry-Month-middle-school-high-

school.html?utm_source=bronto

Grade 2-6

Have a

Book Fair!

Similar to

science

fair but

focus on

books!

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TRANSPORTATION

Final notices are being sent out to parents to remind them that bus fees must be made or payments scheduled before the Christmas break. Buffalo Trail Public Schools only charges transportation fees for optional transporta-tion services; and therefore, a fee is required as the requested service is not funded. Please make sure you have called our office to schedule a payment plan or to make your final payment. We do not want to disrupt the trans-portation service provided to your family.

I have had several conversations recently with bus drivers who are struggling to get children to under-stand why they have to wear or carry with them proper winter attire. It is not implausible with our Alberta winters that a bus may get stuck or break-down and children will have to wait on the bus for a period of time. Please make sure you are re-minding your children/students to dress appropri-ate for winter conditions. Schools, please put a reminder in your monthly newsletters. If neces-sary, the principal after talking with the student and the parent, can suspend transportation ser-vices until children are dressing appropriately. Having teenagers I understand the struggles, but we are not asking them to wear the winter clothes, just have it with them. You can talk to your bus driver about leaving it on the bus so it is there in case of an emergency. Wearing a t-shirt on the bus in the midst of winter is not acceptable. Thank you for your cooperation.

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EXTRAS

Who did the EH Walter

Trojans defeat to win

the District

Championship?

Answer here.

RITA WALZ @ PROVOST PUBLIC

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AROUND BTPS - ELF DAY AT KES

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AROUND BTPS - ELF DAY AT MARWAYNE

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"The MJS Grade 6 and up elves have been busy crafting and decorating the Learning Commons".

Submitted by: Carmen Smart

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The EH Walter Trojan's Sr Girls Volleyball team had an excellent season this year. We took home several gold medals at various tournaments throughout the season. Our team won the district championship defeating St. Jerome's in a close three set battle in Vermilion during the tournament final. The girls then went on to win the Silver medal at the Zone Championship which we hosted in Paradise Valley. We went undefeated throughout the tournament and lost the gold medal match to the Provincial host Ecole-Lacs from Bonnyville. Next, the Trojans moved on to provincials where the girls had several hard fought battles. Our biggest win came against the heavily favored Boyle team who ended up finishing second overall in the tournament. The girls fought hard at the provincial level and represented EH Walter and BTPS proudly. Our whole division should be proud of our local athletes. All of our teams in the division continue to grow in talent and depth which helps all of our teams reach new levels of sporting excel-lence. Keep up the hard work girls!!!

Submitted by: Darrin Richter

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AROUND BTPS

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Science in Motion from Telus World of Science visited the Amisk School in November. From Chilling Out to Bubble Bubble to Boats & Buoyancy to Gravel & Grit. All students K-gr3 were engaged in hands on learning. Thanks to the Amisk Parent Council for supporting this program.

Submitted by: Patti Hovde

Amisk School after school Cooking Club (for the month of November) wrapped up with a lot of success. The 32 students had a blast making lots of differ-ent foods from mini pizzas, shake a pud-dings, fruit kabobs, sheep cookies, and more! We even finished off by making ham and egg cups for all the students in the school.

Submitted by: Patti Hovde

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AROUND BTPS

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The National ROCKS & RINGS Program at the

Amisk School– Introducing the game of curling

right in our Gym. On November 28th, all of the

students had the opportunity to participate in

the Rocks and Rings

program. They had a chance to learn a little bit

about curling and how to play the game by

using floor curling rocks and real brooms.

Hurry Hard!

Submitted by: Patti Hovde

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AROUND BTPS - IRMA SCHOOL

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Irma School’s grade 1 and 2 classes wrapped up their Superflex Academy Pro-gram on Wednesday. Miss Courtney ran the pro-gram through Wainwright on Wellness. This pro-gram was awesome and showed students how to be a good citizen and great friend to others in their class. A big thank you to Marian Fischer for sewing capes for the students to wear!

♬ Mrs. Caouette conducted her last concert with the Irma band students on December 13. She will be

greatly missed as she pursues other professional opportunities in the New Year. The students in grades

5 – 12 helped to spread Christmas cheer through their amazing performances. ♬

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Edgerton Public School held their annual Christmas Door Decorating Contest this week. This year's theme was Gingerbread Houses. Congratulations to Mrs. Watson's 3/4 class for taking home this year's trophy!

Submitted by: Mandy Leskow

Below - This fantastic bunch of support staff colleagues at WES partnered with others in our school family to bring every child in our school a hot Christmas meal on December 15. Special thanks go out to our CUPE local for their unending support and for their donation through the "CUPE in the Community" grant!

Submitted by: Bruce Pugh

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Loretta's Retiring... JR Robson staff and students clapped out Loretta just prior to her retirement from JR after 14 .5 years.

Submitted by: Heather