March 25, 2020
Dear parents and students,
Our mid-year pivot into distance learning begins tomorrow, and it’s my hope that we can have a smooth and soft start to this changed model of learning. As a staff, we’ve prayed that parents and students will be able to make a relatively smooth transition, and we ask for your prayers for staff as well.
I would like to invite you to two helpful events to further introduce our model that may be of help. I encourage you to join us in our:
Sincerely,
Mike Vander Deen
Principal
Our mid-year pivot into distance learning begins tomorrow, and it’s my hope that we can have a smooth and soft start to this changed model of learning. As a staff, we’ve prayed that parents and students will be able to make a relatively smooth transition, and we ask for your prayers for staff as well.
I would like to invite you to two helpful events to further introduce our model that may be of help. I encourage you to join us in our:
- Providence Online Opening – Thursday, March 26, 9:00 am: We’ll formally make the transition to online learning with an opening devotion and prayer, and then we’ll provide a live, online orientation for students and parents about online learning. If you can’t join us live, we’ll record this opening and post it for you later.
- PRC Town Hall – Thursday, March 26 (tomorrow), 8:00 pm: join me on Zoom for an overview of our distance educational program and success tips for students and families. We also plan to record this and post it later if you can’t join us on Thursday evening.
- Modified instruction designed for distance learning:
- Clear and linear learning – to be straightforward, clear, and linear in learning activities, with work delivered to students in time-budgeted, defined chunks (modules) so as not to overwhelm
- Essential curriculum – focussed on the key content and the most important skills
- Reasonable expectations – we will be flexible as students and parents adjust to the new format; this is new for everybody
- Tech-flexible format:
- Microsoft Teams platform for all student-teacher communication, providing a streamlined and singular workflow for students to keep it clear and organized. No email, no phone texts. We want to keep it all in the same place.
- On-demand video, content that can be watched as needed, and not live instruction
- Scheduled online assessments and assignment due dates to keep students on pace for completion
- Tech support for parents and students through computersprc.helpdesk@gmail.com
- Connections and community:
- Daily office hours for students if they would like live interaction with teachers, via Microsoft Teams, either by chat, screen share, or video
- Weekly school devotions, first day of the week, live at 9:00 am or recorded for viewing later
- Continuing communication by our weekly newsletter, The Providence Post, by email, starting April 3.
- A quick check-in with parents from a teacher on the phone in the first few days to see how your family is making the transition
- A short survey on Thursday of next week to students and to parents to understand how our work is being received and what we can do better
- Regular check-ins with students by discussion group teachers by April 3
- As time goes on, we hope to host a couple distance community events to continue to maintain school community and connection, and to get people outside and active!
- Parents
- Make sure that all the students in your home are getting online and started in their work. It’s like getting your kids to the bus stop – teachers and students can take it from there.
- Two-way communication with teachers. We will seek to communicate regularly with you, and we also want to hear back from you. We can help you if we know how. If you have questions for teachers, email or call them directly. If you need to contact the school for other reasons, we ask for you to email office@providencrc.com as we won’t be able to answer the phone regularly.
- Students
- Commit and expect to continue with full-time studies. Don’t take extra shifts at work or make other arrangements that you would not otherwise do if school were running normally.
- Be ready to use Microsoft Teams. Miss Petrusma has put together a helpful video to get you started.
- Stay on top of your daily work. It would be easy to get behind, and the work will start to pile up. So, budget and protect your time.
- Talk to your teachers. We plan to be available for you now just like we were available for you at school. Teachers are on Teams ready to help. Bring us your questions, and we can set up a video conference, live screen-sharing, or chat. Office hours are 9:00 am – 12:00 pm daily, and in that block, we’re committed to being immediately available, unless we’re meeting with another student. During other parts of the day, we will be generally available, but we might be tied up with recording lessons, etc
- Commit and expect to continue with full-time studies. Don’t take extra shifts at work or make other arrangements that you would not otherwise do if school were running normally.
Sincerely,
Mike Vander Deen
Principal
March 18, 2020
Dear parents and students,
While there is still much to do to prepare for online distance learning at Providence, we do have some preliminary information to share with you now. This memo includes a lot of important information, so I recommend that you print it out, and ask that you take the time to read it through to the end.
Sincerely,
Mike Vander Deen
Principal
While there is still much to do to prepare for online distance learning at Providence, we do have some preliminary information to share with you now. This memo includes a lot of important information, so I recommend that you print it out, and ask that you take the time to read it through to the end.
- We are planning to start online learning on Thursday, March 26. Staff will be spending the first three days next week doing some professional development on distance learning and then making the transition. It’s hard to know how long we will need to do distance learning, so we are preparing for the long haul and hoping that we can be back together at school on April 6.
- We will be using Microsoft Teams as our online classroom. Staff and students already have access to Teams as part of our Office 365 platform, and students were given an email account (studentlastname.firstname@providencerc.com) and password at the beginning of the school year. So, go ahead and check out Teams already now if you would like to gain familiarity with the program. Students will likely not see any of their courses yet, but as we get closer to March 26, you should be seeing your courses show up in Teams. An introduction to Teams is included at the end of this letter.
- Our school’s use of Office 365 gives license to every student to download the Office 365 software (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Teams, Outlook, OneDrive, etc.) on up to five personal devices. Each student is also given 1 TB of online cloud storage.
- It is important to ensure that each student can access their accounts before we start online learning. Please check as soon as possible, and if you have trouble accessing your account, contact Mark Koopman at computersprc.helpdesk@gmail.com.
- We recognize that access to the internet may be a challenge for some families, so we are planning on asynchronous e-learning, which means that lessons will be recorded and shared on Teams. At this time, students will not be required to join any live events online. This will give students some flexibility as to when they watch the lessons and complete any assignments.
- We also recognize that access to devices may be a challenge for some families as well, so we are offering the school Chromebooks for loan to families. We have a limited number of Chromebooks – approximately one Chromebook for every two families. So, please only sign out a Chromebook if it is truly needed, and with a maximum of one for each family. Please also note that Chromebooks have some limitations to their function – they require fulltime Wi-Fi access, and you can only use the web-based Office 365 apps (about 80% function of desktop versions). We do require that you take full responsibility for the Chromebooks as you borrow them –you will be responsible for full costs of repair of any damage. Chromebooks will be given out on a first come, first serve basis, and can be signed out using the www.schoolinterviews.ca website, as described below.
- Many students will need to come to Providence to get their books and belongings and to sign out Chromebooks. We ask for your cooperation in helping protect the health of staff, who plan to use the school building during the closure for their work. We plan on doing this in the following ways:
- We ask that you book a ten-minute visit to the school between 9:00 am and 3:00 pm on Monday, March 23 or Tuesday, March 24 by clicking here or visiting www.schoolinterviews.ca and using event code: “dg2dp”. This sign-up is also where you would indicate if you will be signing out a Chromebook.
- If anyone in your family is self-isolating (anyone is unwell, or if anyone has been out of Canada in the past 14 days), we ask that you remain in your car. Once you arrive at school, call or text Mrs. Wattel at 519-614-8382, and we will bring the books and belongings out to you.
- If you are not self-isolating, we ask that you wash or sanitize your hands once you enter the school, gather your things, and then quickly move on. If you have any questions or concerns along the way, feel free to reach out to me or the teachers. We’re not going anywhere…. we’ll be ready to serve you in any way we can.
Sincerely,
Mike Vander Deen
Principal
March 13, 2020
Dear parents and students,
As you know, yesterday, the Ontario government announced their plan to close all public schools from March 14-April 5, 2020 to help slow the spread of the COVID-19 virus. The Providence board met last night, and we have decided to move all classroom instruction online for full-time studies. We do this out of concern and love for our neighbour – we want to participate in our community’s efforts to help slow the spread of the COVID-19 virus.
After the March Break, Providence will be closed from March 23-25 in order to allow teachers some professional development around online learning and to prepare to move classes online. By Thursday, March 26, we intend to begin full-time, online classes, with the expectation that all students will be participating.
Over the last 48 hours, we have been hearing of schools around Canada and the US taking similar action, and the staff at Providence have been discussing what it would look like if Providence needed to move online for a period of time. We recognize that this transition will present challenges for both students and for teachers, but we have been very impressed with the flexibility and the willingness of staff to move in this direction. We are committed to overcome obstacles to continue our educational mission.
Over the March Break, we will further develop a plan for how we intend to implement this transition to online learning. We know that there are a number of questions that you may have. You’re welcome to send these questions to us for consideration in our school plan. Please recognize that we may not be able to respond to each of your emails individually. We will present this plan by March 20.
We thank you for your patience and collaboration as we continue to support your sons and daughters and their learning.
Just 48 hours ago, the possibility of our present situation seemed very distant. Just an hour before the government’s announcement, you received an email from our principal indicating that we were expecting and planning for school to continue on as usual. We were surprised by how quickly things changed. And yet, we are thankful for the confidence and comfort that we have because of our trust in the sovereignty of our faithful God. It is our prayer that God will bless our efforts, that students will continue to grow, and that we will understand more deeply what a great comfort it is to find refuge in the shadow of the Almighty.
“He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High
will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.
I will say to the Lord, “My refuge and my fortress,
my God, in whom I trust.” Psalm 91:1-2
Sincerely,
The Board
Providence Reformed Collegiate
As you know, yesterday, the Ontario government announced their plan to close all public schools from March 14-April 5, 2020 to help slow the spread of the COVID-19 virus. The Providence board met last night, and we have decided to move all classroom instruction online for full-time studies. We do this out of concern and love for our neighbour – we want to participate in our community’s efforts to help slow the spread of the COVID-19 virus.
After the March Break, Providence will be closed from March 23-25 in order to allow teachers some professional development around online learning and to prepare to move classes online. By Thursday, March 26, we intend to begin full-time, online classes, with the expectation that all students will be participating.
Over the last 48 hours, we have been hearing of schools around Canada and the US taking similar action, and the staff at Providence have been discussing what it would look like if Providence needed to move online for a period of time. We recognize that this transition will present challenges for both students and for teachers, but we have been very impressed with the flexibility and the willingness of staff to move in this direction. We are committed to overcome obstacles to continue our educational mission.
Over the March Break, we will further develop a plan for how we intend to implement this transition to online learning. We know that there are a number of questions that you may have. You’re welcome to send these questions to us for consideration in our school plan. Please recognize that we may not be able to respond to each of your emails individually. We will present this plan by March 20.
We thank you for your patience and collaboration as we continue to support your sons and daughters and their learning.
Just 48 hours ago, the possibility of our present situation seemed very distant. Just an hour before the government’s announcement, you received an email from our principal indicating that we were expecting and planning for school to continue on as usual. We were surprised by how quickly things changed. And yet, we are thankful for the confidence and comfort that we have because of our trust in the sovereignty of our faithful God. It is our prayer that God will bless our efforts, that students will continue to grow, and that we will understand more deeply what a great comfort it is to find refuge in the shadow of the Almighty.
“He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High
will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.
I will say to the Lord, “My refuge and my fortress,
my God, in whom I trust.” Psalm 91:1-2
Sincerely,
The Board
Providence Reformed Collegiate
