Welcome to December, Team!

I had the opportunity last week to listen to Leah Goldstein share her experiences and advice to our grade 7-12 students. I hope those of you that attended her presentation enjoyed the session as much as I did. I want to thank Kira Jaremco (JR Robson) and Danica Tennant (Provost) for introducing Leah and and Harlee Bensmiller (Dewberry), Ethan Kipps (Dewberry), and Ava White (Provost) for giving the thank you to her. Our students always do such a great job of public speaking. I also want to thank staff who gave up instructional time to participate in this event with their students. The news release about this event is here. She has a documentary coming out in a month and I am looking forward to seeing that. Her messages to us resonate with me: “Never give up.” “Work hard, people are watching.” “You don’t need a special gift in order to excel as we all have the gift of hard work.”

Bri and I also had opportunities to meet with our Learning Commons Facilitators and Admin Assistants. We appreciate being able to network with our staff in our schools and share learning with each other. We are fortunate to have amazing staff supporting our schools.

Bri, Linda Koskie and I also had a fantastic interview with Savio Joseph who participated in our BTPS podcast. You can listen here. He is a magician, mentalist and hypnotist which is a job that we do not encounter very often. It was a very fun conversation. I hope you share our podcast episodes with our students.

Our schools are busy with activities, events and celebrations for the holiday season. I am looking forward to attending some of the concerts and festivities in the schools.I see many of our schools who donate to food banks, adopt a family or children’s gift programs as we know that this time of year is challenging for many people. Thank you for all you do to make this time of year merry for all your students and families.

Kade George from Marwayne Jubilee School is doing our Christmas message radio ad. You can listen here and hopefully you catch him on the radio. Our students do an amazing job representing BTPS and sharing messages for us.

I hope December goes well for you all! My goal is to hold off on Christmas goodies as long as possible. Once I start, it seems not to stop until we return in January!!

This or That - Christmas Songs.

Take care,

Rhae-Ann

Criterion-on-Demand enables professors, teachers, researcher and students to access a large variety of features films on-line, at the click-of-a-button.

www.criterionondemand.com

username: 920002

password: Bufftr

More information on the series and FAQ

All staff are invited to register! Staff will need to use the code LEGACY-BTPS when registering

HiTech Bracing Ltd. will be joining us in person at Vermilion Elementary School, Wainwright High School, and Central Office on Thursday December 15, 2022. Join us and get measured on the spot by HiTech Bracing for compression socks! Book a time slot below:

Vermilion Elementary School - 8:00am - 10:00am - Sign up here

Wainwright High School - 11:30am - 1:30pm - Sign up here

Central Office - 2:00pm - 5:00pm - Sign up here

ASEBP covers $250 for compression socks. Make sure to check your coverage as this rolls over January 1st!

The Career Education Task Force is listening to Albertans across the province to determine how to innovate and strengthen career education programming for students and employers. The task force would like to hear from students in grades 7 to 12, parents, teachers, career counsellors, post-secondary educators, employers and young adults through in-person and online engagement sessions and online surveys.

To register, visit: alberta.ca/career-education-task-force.

PSBAA photo contest is open to all residents of Alberta – including students, teachers, parents and school community members. Photos must relate to people or subjects connected with K-12 public school education in Alberta.

Please note the deadline for submissions is May 1, 2023. Just a reminder there are three prizes up for grabs: $300 (1st place); $200 (2nd place), and $100 (3rd place).

If you have any questions, please email Troy Tait at ExecutiveDirector@public-schools.ab.ca.

Please see attached information below for additional information.

If you prefer, you may also submit your photos to Bri at Central Office and she can submit them to PSBAA on you/your school's behalf! bri.blackie@btps.ca

Greetings! My name is Kanae Nobori. I was born in Mie, Japan. I had worked as an English high school teacher for 6 years in both Mie and Osaka. I came to Canada to improve my English skills but also to expand my horizons by learning more about other cultures and understanding other peoples' way of life. I hope it enriches my life as well as others that I teach.

I am sharing my knowledge of my culture and learning more about the Canadian way of life at E.H. Walter School until March. Kerri Nutbrown connected with the International Internship Programs to bring me to their school and has set up a schedule for me to work in K -12. I also recently taught at J.R. Robson School for two days. I really enjoyed their hospitality! By sharing my experiences of Japanese culture , I would like to expand students' worlds. I am teaching Japanese language, calligraphy, foods and origami. Through these experiences, I would like to share the differences and similarities between Canada and Japan. I expect it would be helpful to them and my own professional development.

I would like to thank the Buffalo Trail Public School Division for welcoming me and especially Mr.Saretsky and Mrs. Nutbrown for welcoming me so warmly at E.H. Walter School. - Kanae

Wainwright High School Student Council held a Grand Reopening of the WHS Student Parking Lot on November 17.

Thank you to WHS, BTPS Maintenance and the Town of Wainwright for all the time and resources that were put into upgrading our Student Parking Lot.

Photo courtesy of Star News.