INSIDE THIS ISSUE

Superintendent....….……… .... 2

Curriculum ............................ 3

Technology ........….……… ...... 4

Transportation.......…........ .... 5

Human Resources …….…… ... 5

Around BTPS ………………. ..... 6

Around BTPS …………………. .. 7

Around BTPS………………… .... 8

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Superintendent’s Memo

For the Week of November 2nd– 6th, 2015

COMMENTS ABOUT THIS NEWSLETTER?

Please send your comments or

suggestions to jody.wolosiak@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

FROM THE SUPERINTENDENT...

Email: jody.wolosiak@btps.ca

Answer the question on page

six and have your name

entered for a prize!

I am dedicating this week’s memo to progress at E.H. Walter School and the school rebuild! As you may or may not recall, a moderniza-tion of this school was the number one priority on the BTPS Capital Plan. During the 2014-2015 school year we received the great news that the E.H. Walter School was approved for a rebuild. A rebuild of a school means that a brand new building would be constructed rather than a modernization of an existing building. This project was also unique in that the community of Paradise Valley became involved in the project to raise funds to expand the gymnasium and add some ancillary space to increase the approved size by over 350 square me-ters. Construction of the school started in the Spring of 2015 and it is progressing as expected. We all had a chance to view the time stamp video of the school progress at Celebration Day, however it has ad-vanced even further since then. I had a chance to visit the school last week, it is really starting to take shape. The exterior walls are begin-ning to take shape and the construction company, OML, is working hard to close it in to allow for work to continue over the winter months. I thought that I would share some of the photos that I took during my visit to allow you to see some of the progress that is taking place. The extra-large gymnasium, collaborative learning spaces, stage area are becoming more visible and it is exciting to see progress. The plan is to have the school ready for the beginning of the 2016-2017 school year. I know that the school and the community of Para-dise Valley are excited to see their new school becoming a reality.

Take care,

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

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

Mr.Anhorn’s

new office?

CURRICULUM

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November Learning Network Ses-

sions can be found here - of particular

note is the 2015—2016 Teacher Talks

Series. This FREE, two part Webinar Series of guided professional

conversations is a collaborative initiative between the Learning Net-

work Educational Services and the Alberta Teachers’ Association.

This year, the series focuses on “Enhancing Teacher Professional

Practice Project-Based Learning — Alberta Students Engage, Ex-

plore, Create, and Share”.

Preparing to Remember

Veteran’s Week November 5 - 11, 2015

- Postcards for Peace provides an opportuni-

ty for youth to send postcards to express messages of thanks to those

who served Canada in times of war, military conflict and peace or to

still-serving Canadian Armed Forces mem-bers. This learning activi-

ty allows youth to actively remember the sacrifices and achievements

of Canadian Veterans.

- How We Remember Contest (grades 4— 12) asks students to con-

sider what we should remember, whose experiences should be com-

memorated and how, what the ethical dimensions of remembrance

are, and if heroism, sacrifice and injustice should all be commemo-

rated in the same way? Great questions for deepening understanding

and inquiring into the practice of holding Remembrance Day cere-

monies in our schools.

- REMINDER: The Memory Project is a nationwide bilingual project

that connects Veterans and Canadian forces personnel with the op-

portunity to share their stories with Canadians in classrooms and

community forums.

Memory Project Speakers are available for bookings and are a mean-

ingful way to bring an authentic voice into your classroom.

Celebrate Take our Kids to Work Day

Wednesday, November 5, 2015

This Wednesday, BTPS celebrates Take Our Kids to Work Day, a na-

tionally celebrated day where grade 9 students from across Canada

are hosted by parents, friends, relatives and volunteers at workplaces

across the country. The program supports career development by

helping students connect school, the world of work, and their own

futures. Thank you to all the coordinators, students and employers

for making this valuable learning experience possible for BTPS stu-

dents!

FNMI TEACHER RESOURCES

Have you considered incorporating a

tribute to Aboriginal Veterans in your

school’s Remembrance Day ceremo-

ny this year. This video offers a pre-

liminary overview of Canadian Abo-

riginal Veteran's contributions. One

idea may be to search the war regis-

try/ tribute list for Aboriginal Veter-

ans from your community. To access

this resource, and for many more

strategies on to honour the contribu-

tions of Aboriginal Veterans, please

take a look at our BTPS FNMI site

under the link for Aboriginal Veter-

ans.

Edmonton Public Schools FNMI

team collaborated with the Aboriginal

Veterans Society of Alberta and East-

glen High School’s Aboriginal Studies

30 class to film the stories and expe-

riences of four FNMI Veterans. You

can share these powerful stories with

your students this November by visit-

ing here.

For more information, or assistance

with FNMI integration into your

school/ classroom, please email

Mabyn.Grinde@btps.ca

Upcoming FNMI PD Events:

November 24, 2015 , Admore

FNMI Cross Curricular Infusion

Grades 1 – 4

Register Here

November 25, 2015, Ardmore

FNMI Cross Curricular Infusion

Grades 5 – 8

Register Here

FROM THE SUPERINTENDENT (FROM PAGE 1)

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TECHNOLOGY

DIGITAL CITIZENSHIP:

ELEMENT 9 DIGITAL

COMMERCE

As the new holiday cybercrime season rolls in, it's a good idea to look at the scams of last year, which will be recycled with a few small updates. Black Friday Deals Black Friday and Cyber Monday are the busiest on-line shopping days and the bad guys are out to get rich with your money. Don't buy anything that seems too good to be true. Complimentary Apple Watch Watch out for the too-good-to-be-true coupons that offer compli-mentary watches, phones, or tab-lets on sites all over the Internet. Don't fall for it. Make sure the of-fers are from a legitimate compa-ny. Postal Deliveries Watch out for alerts via email or text that you just received a pack-age from FedEx, UPS or the US Mail, and then ask you for some personal information. Don't enter anything. Think Before You Click. Fake Refunds There is a fake refund scam going on that could come from Amazon, a hotel, or a retail chain. It claims there was a "wrong transaction" and wants you to "click for refund" but instead, your device will be infected with malware. The Grinch E-Card Greetings Happy Holidays. Your email has an attachment that looks like an e-greeting card, pretty pictures and all. You think that this must be from a friend. Nope. Malicious e-cards are sent by the millions, and especially at the office, never open these things as they might infect your workstation. The Fake Gift Card Trick Internet crooks promote a fake gift card through social media but

what they really are after is your information, which they then sell to other cyber criminals who use it for identity theft. Here is an exam-ple: A Facebook scam offering a complimentary 1,000 dollar Best Buy gift card to the first 20,000 people who sign up for a Best Buy fan page, which is a malicious copy of the original. The Charity Tricksters The holidays are traditionally the time for giving. It's also the time that cyber criminals try to pry money out of people that mean well. But making donations to the wrong site could mean you are funding cybercrime or even ter-rorism. So, watch out for any com-munications from charities that ask for your contribution, (phone, email, text, and tweets) and make sure they are legit. It’s a good idea to contact the charity to make sure the request did in fact come from them. It is safest to only donate to charities you already know, and refuse all the rest. The DM-Scam You tweet about a holiday gift you are trying to find, and you get a direct message (DM) from another twitter user offering to sell you one. Stop - Look - Think, because this could very well be a sophisti-cated scam. If you do not know that person, be very careful before you continue and never pay up front. The Extra Holiday-Money Fraud People always need some extra money during this season, so cyber fraudsters are offering work-from-home scams. The most inno-cent of these make you fill out a form where you give out confiden-tial information like your Social Security number which will get your identity stolen. The worst of them offer you work where you launder money from a cyberheist which can get you into major trou-

ble. The Evil Wi-Fi Twin If you bring your laptop/tablet/smartphone to the mall to scout for gifts and check if you get it cheaper somewhere online. But the bad guys are there too, shop-ping for your credit card number. They put out a Wi-Fi signal that looks just like a complimentary one you always use. Choose the wrong Wi-Fi and the hacker now sits in the middle and steals your credit card data while you buy online. When you use a Wi-Fi con-nection in a public place, it is bet-ter not to use your credit card.

HELPDESK:

Volumes are at normal levels. Technology continues to been un-derstaffed until Derek gets trained and comfortable with taking tick-ets. Please continue to contact us on this issue and with any of your technical problems using BTPS equipment so we can deploy solu-tions faster and track problems to become more proactive. When creating a ticket separate each problem to a new ticket, this al-lows for easier assignment of the problem and tracking.

Reminder: Do not call the main central office switch board as they are not trained to help with tech-nology. Email us at:

techhelp@btps.ca tech problems

sishelp@btps.ca for PowerSchool

PowerTeacher problems

Phone 780-806-2053

Text 780-806-9228

Twitter hashtag #btps28

BTTube: Use your asset tag number on all tick-ets!

Heather @JR Rob-

son

The winner from last’s week ??? is

Maureen Myer @ WES.

Congratulations Maureen!!!

Thank you

to all

60

staff members who participated!

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HUMAN RESOURCES

Contemplating Retirement? The BTPS Board of Trustees has approved the Teacher Retirement Transition Strategy for the

2015/2016 School Year. Click here for the complete package.

Policy Updates

Sent out for feedback - 09/22/15

202.1AP Student Attendance

Central Services—L/R—Robin Hood (Dallas),

Roughrider Fan (Sascha), Dead Rock Star (Faye),

Spider Girl (Carrie), Gladiator Goddess (Donna),

Batwoman#1 (Crystal), BatPay (Pam),

Minion (Stacy) & Batwoman#2 (Jody).

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When

is

“Take your

kids to

work day”?

Answer here

???? OF THE WEEK

AROUND BTPS….

www.homewoodhealth.com

1-800-663-1142

EMPLOYEE and FAMILY

ASSISTANCE PROGAM

FOR 2015-2016

How to make mailto: links open in Gmail instead of Outlook

Go to Gmail, and you should see an icon in the address

bar that looks like two overlapping diamonds. If you click the icon and select "Use Gmail," Gmail will be used

to handle your mailto: links in the future. (This icon doesn’t always show.)

OR If you don’t have the icon mentioned above, go to the

three bars in the top right corner (Customize and con-trol Google Chrome) and choose Settings / Show ad-vanced settings… / Content settings / Handlers [make

sure that the button beside ‘Allow sites to ask to become default handlers for protocols (recommended)’ is

ticked] then choose Manage handlers… / and in the next window, choose mail.google.com from the drop

down menu and then Done.

AROUND BTPS….

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Scott Conrad, the site foreman for OML, took the E.H. Walter

grade eight class and I on a tour of the new school construction site

as part of the Science 7 Structures and Forces unit.

Submitted by: Michelle MacDonald

Below is one of our Sup’s Memo

winners, Ms. Amber Fehr, from

E.H. Walter. She loves her

new glass water bottle and is re-

minded of our mission everyday!

Submitted by: Amber Fehr

Irma staff—Gru and his minions! Submitted by: Shelly Sinclair

Results as of October 30, 2015 @

AROUND BTPS….

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Fire Prevention Week

The Fire departments of Amisk, Czar and Hugh-

enden shared information on Fire Safety with each

Amisk class. The students had the opportunity to

try on the firemen's gear and watch the fire truck

demonstrations. The students also explored the

rescue van. It was an incredible afternoon.

Thank you to all the volunteers!

Submitted by: Colette Johnson