Principal’s Message:
Today, I would like to key in on the school rule of “Respect”. Respect is realizing that something is valuable and regarded in such a way. Obviously, this encompasses many different topics. Yet, in school, as in life, most of our conflicts key around the ideas of respect. Are we respecting others? Are we respecting property? Are we respecting our parents? Are we respecting our teachers? Are we respecting ourselves? Are we respecting authority? And are we respecting God? We often tell our kids that just because you are emotional, doesn’t mean you get to be disrespectful, and this lesson is one that is a lifelong lesson. We talk to our students about making sure this encapsulates every part of our life. How are we interacting with our classmates? Physically? Mentally? Spiritually? How are we talking about our classmates? What does our social media presence look like? How do we conduct ourselves in text and email communication?
As we walk through life, it is our great goal that our students are “Flourishing Learners, who Delight in God, and are Inspired to Serve”. In order to do this, they must have resilience, and as we talked about today, respect. Next week, we will look at our third school rule of responsibility, and how that factors into this too.
Announcements:
Council of School Communities
Last night, BGSD held its annual Council of School Communities. During this virtual round table discussion, students, staff, senior administration, and parents were able to talk about three priorities of BGSD, and the strengths and weaknesses of each of these.
One thing that I heard resoundingly, was how excited parents were to get back into the building to help out, renew our strong communities, and be together. I want to say that I am also excited for these opportunities to come back! As things start to roll out, my only caution is that we do not get ahead of ourselves and that we are patient with our staff. As restrictions are lifted, we are doing what we are allowed and able to in the steps laid out for us, and as we get clearance to bring more opportunities back, our staff at CCS is excited to do just that.
I also want to extend a huge thank you to the two Grade 9 students and two school council parents who attended on behalf of CCS. You were well-spoken, thoughtful, and displayed the respect, resilience, and responsibility we expect of our students and community. Mrs. Chapman and I were very proud of how CCS was represented at this community event.
Masks/Tests Distribution
Over the past weekend, the remaining student masks and Rapid Test Kits were delivered by the Government of Alberta. While the mask mandate on students has been lifted, we will be sending out this second supply of masks and kits to those families who previously requested it by the end of this week.
Virtual Student-Led Conferences – February 24th
A student-led conference is a meeting with a student and his or her family and teachers during which the student shares his or her portfolio of work and discusses progress with family members. The student facilitates the meeting from start to finish. Student-led conferences can be implemented at all grade levels, K–9. Preparation for a conference creates an authentic purpose for good organizational and communication skills. The structure builds students’ sense of responsibility and accountability for their own learning, and it helps to hone their understanding of what it means to meet learning targets.
Successful student-led conferences require changes in the roles that teacher, student and parent have played in traditional parent conferencing. Teachers become facilitators, students become leaders and parents become active listeners and questioners.
What this will look like in a virtual context:
K-3 – Homeroom classes will create student portfolios for students to take home. Inside a student portfolio would be student work that has been recently completed for a variety of subjects. It could/would show a collection of assignments/assessments/project /art pieces etc that have occurred in classes. We then would have teacher “office hours” from 4:30 pm – 6:30 pm. During this time, teachers will be on “Google Meet” awaiting for parents to come into the meet. The meet would/could also have an experiment or game set up that the students could take their parents through how it works, but mainly an area where parents and students can pop in to ask the teacher any general questions.
Gr. 4 – Gr. 6 – Students will be asked to create a digital portfolio that includes a personal statement, reflection on academics, spirituality, celebrations, and goals. The “knowledge portion” will have students take a look at their PowerSchool marks, and reflect on how they can continue to grow throughout the rest of the year. We then would have teacher “office hours” from 4:30 pm – 6:30 pm. During this time, teachers will be on “Google Meet” awaiting for parents to come into the meet. The meet would/could also have an experiment or game set up that the students could take their parents through how it works, but mainly an area where parents and students can pop in to ask the teacher any general questions.
Gr. 7 – Gr. 9 – Students will be asked to create a digital portfolio (example included) that includes a personal statement, reflection on academics, spirituality, successes, and challenges. It would give an opportunity for students to highlight some of the work they have done, and how it has moved them towards a goal they have established. We then would have teacher “office hours” from 4:30 pm – 6:30 pm. During this time, teachers will be on “Google Meet” awaiting for parents to come into the meet. The meet would/could also have an experiment or game set up that the students could take their parents through how it works, but mainly an area where parents and students can pop in to ask the teacher any general questions.
Teacher Role: To organize the conference environment and guarantee success. This includes guiding ‘portfolio’ collection, training students to walk through the folio with parents, and setting up the google meet situations. The teacher would guide students on how to take their parents through the process.
Student Role: Through all stages of the student-led conference process; preparation, implementation, and evaluation, the student becomes the key participant. The student becomes responsible for working with the teacher to identify strengths, identify learning needs, and collect evidence to validate learning. In student-led conferencing, as students prepare to conference with their parents, they engage in a self-reflection process about their achievement and future goals.
Parent Role: Parents become partners in learning when students led a conference. The opportunity for parents to have one-to-one time with their child focused on learning and achievement is important to the conferencing process. The parent’s role is to listen.
Preschool Registration is OPEN
Preschool registration is now open for the general public.
Registration opened up at 10:00 am yesterday. If you would like to register your child or have a friend who is looking to do so, please complete or pass on this link.
If you have any questions or concerns, please contact Lisa Gatzke at [email protected] or Amber Falk at [email protected].
Volunteers
As you may have read, we are now able to have some volunteers in the building during school hours. While I know this is exciting, teachers are being asked to ensure that their helpers have specific learning tasks to do in the classroom when they are here and to limit the number of visitors that are in each class to one person.
Celebration
We continue to do weekly virtual assemblies, which we call Celebration. Celebration will be held on Wednesdays for the month of February. An invitation with the link for Celebration will be sent out via email on Tuesdays.
Spring Program Request
We are now in the thick of planning for Shrek Jr. The Musical this March 23-24, 2022
Special thank you to all that have donated wood and paint over these past few weeks! Because of your generosity, we now have enough for our production.
We are asking for a little more help from the community to provide supplies to help keep our costs down.
BUILDING SUPPLIES:
NEWSPAPER – We will be using a lot of newspapers for paper mache. If you have any, let me know or drop them off at the school.
PEX AND PVC PIPE FOR OUR DRAGON – We are constructing a giant dragon for the drama out of PVC and PEX piping. If you have any of these items laying around the house that are not being used, we would greatly appreciate them.
Any of these items can be dropped off at the school.
Just a quick note, Grade 8 Parents, Construction Day is February 26. More information will be made available to you soon.
Dress-Up Days!!
Twin Day – to celebrate February 22, 2022 (02-22-2022), we are going to have a twin dress-up day! Students and staff can choose a friend and dress alike for the day!
Pink Shirt Day – Wear a pink shirt to raise awareness about bullying prevention and healthy relationships.
100s Day – help us celebrate making it through 100 days of school by dressing up in your best 100-year-old outfit.
Virtual Book Fair
It’s time for our school’s Virtual Book Fair! Join us from March 7 to March 20, 2022. Shop online from over 450 items! Best of all, purchases still support our school for more learning resources. You can preview books via the following link. (Note: you cannot make purchases until the online store is live on March 7) .
Covenant Christian Scholastic Virtual Book Fair
Lost & Found
In order to continue to limit the number of visitors in the school this year, we will continue to post a photo of our Lost & Found each week in the Chronicle. If you see an item that is your child’s, please have them pick it up the next day or email the office and we will make sure it gets home with them. We will only be holding items until the next Chronicle.
Athletics:
Basketball
As you probably heard, junior high athletics are now back on! Basketball games have begun this week! However, spectators are not allowed at this time.
If your child is on one of the basketball teams, please complete the permission form on PowerSchool and make payment as soon as possible. As the season has been shortened this year, the fees have been reduced to reflect this. The fee for the junior team will be $50, plus a $10 jersey rental fee. The fee for the senior teams has been reduced to $62.50 with the jersey rental fee of $10 as well. IF you made a payment previously, you will see an overpayment on your account and that can and will be used for future fees.
LSCE Update:
Executive Meeting Update
The sixth Society Executive meeting for the school year was held on Monday evening, February 14. Here are some of the takeaways from our meeting:
AGM May 11 (save the date): We will have our Annual General Meeting on Wednesday, May 11 at 7:00 pm. Further details will be provided in future issues of the Chronicle.
Special Society Meeting March 8 canceled: – We have canceled the special meeting of the Society we had planned for Tuesday, March 8, 2022. We will present for your approval the budget and plans for the replacement of the school parking lot and an addition to the front of our main entrance at our AGM in May.
Fundraising Opportunites
Our spring fundraising options are here! We will be offering Stawnichy’s Mundare Products and Purdy’s Chocolatier.
Orders and payments for Stawnichy’s are due Friday, March 18. Orders and payments for Purdy’s are due Friday, March 25. Payments can be made over the phone by credit card or by e-transfer to [email protected]. Pick up of all orders is scheduled for Tuesday, April 12.
Please download the letter below for more details and keep an eye on The Chronicle for specific pick-up times. Easy to access links are below and can also be found on the Covenant Christian School Fundraising page on Facebook. No paper order forms will be available. Any questions can be sent to [email protected].
Please also save the date for our 2022 CCS Golf Tournament which will take place on June 26. Registration is not yet open but mark your calendars!
Stawnichy’s Mundare Product Order From
Purdy’s Chocolatier Order Form (https://fundraising.purdys.com/828991-93619)
Calendar:
February:
- 21 – Family Day
- 22 – CHANGED to Dominos
- 22 – Twin Dress Up Day
- 23 – Pink Shirt Day
- 24 – Student Led Conferences
March:
- 1 – Hot Lunch – KFC
- 2 – Early Dismissal @ 2:30 pm
- 2 – 100s Dress-Up Day
- 7-20 – Scholastic Virtual Book Fair
- 8 – Hot Lunch – Boston Pizza (Pasta)
- 11 – PD Day
- 15 – Hot Lunch – Subway
- 18 – Stawnichy’s Order and Payment Due
- 22 – Hot Lunch – Dominos Pizza
- 27 – Purdys Order and Payment Due
- 28 – Spring Break Begins
Community Events:
Please click on the image below to learn more about community events in our area! Also found under our Parents menu on the website.
Odds & Ends:
Sign In/Out Form:
In an effort to reduce the amount of shared touched surfaces, we will be using a QR code that you will need to scan with your phone for signing in and out of the school. You can also use this link if you are in your vehicle and need to sign out a student but can’t scan the code. This means that students/parents/visitors can scan the QR code when entering or leaving the office/school to sign in or sign out on their own phone/device.
Parents will also be able to sign their kids out from their vehicle in the parking lot when they arrive to pick them up for appts. etc. please use the link above if you can’t scan the QR code. We do ask that parents pull into a spot (not bus lane) where you can contact the office to let them know you have arrived and we can make eye contact with you
from the staff/office door. Students must also stop by the office before leaving the school. At that point, once a connection is made, we are able to send students out to you.
Facebook Page:
Check out our Facebook page by clicking here.
