As we come to the last school day of 2022, I want to thank you all for choosing EBUS as your school this year. Many are new but a number of you have been with us for years, and regardless of the time as a full time student here, we appreciate you all and the efforts you are making this year. I hope you all have a safe and restful holiday over the next two weeks and come back energized for learning in 2023.
EBUS will be closed from the end of the day Dec 16 and will reopen Tuesday Jan 3. During this time, courses are open, but there are no teachers scheduled to work, set up tests, mark assignments or answer questions. Often after a holiday like this, teachers come back to a higher than normal email and marking load; we appreciate your patience as we try and catch up as quickly as possible after the break.
As a full time student with EBUS, I have emailed you each a credit check detailing your progress in the graduation program showing the courses and required assessments completed, courses you are registered in and what remains to complete to meet graduation requirements. If you did not get an email, please let me know and I will send that.
REQUESTING NEW COURSES
As you finish a current course or are 80+% complete, full time students can email me with new course requests. Be sure to put the full student name and the specific course you are requesting, like English New Media 10 or Foundations Math 11. We do not automatically add new courses at the end of January for the beginning of Term 3. As students complete or drop courses they finish or are not interested in taking, that frees up a seat for another, so it is in all students’ interests to not have inactive courses on your dashboard and to finish courses as soon as you can. To drop a course, use the “drop course” button on your dashboard, but be sure to let me know first so I can check the implications of that on your graduation status. The latest courses should be added this school year is March 1 but recommend students have all courses added by mid-February.
The term 2 end date is January 27 but if a student is not finished a course by that date, not a problem at all, keep working! There are no late marks or penalties to continue, and once finished, students can request new courses to finish by June 15.
IMPORTANT – REQUIRED GRADUATION ASSESSMENTS
REQUIRED GRAD ASSESSMENTS
Students graduating under the 2018 graduation program will need to complete a total of 3 assessments to meet graduation requirements; Literacy 10, Numeracy and Literacy 12. These assessments must be written in person under the supervision of a teacher and are written in high schools across BC.
Students need to complete these only one time.
EBUS will help our fulltime students find a seat a local high school for the January and June sessions. You can get all the details at https://ebus.ca/welcome-package/grade-10-12-homeroomnews/graduation-assessments-provincial-exams/
For students looking to write in the January session, EBUS can help you find a school close by for you to write in. You can register for that at www.ebusgradassessment.weebly.com between October 4 and December 15. Late requests will be received by we cannot guarantee a seat will be found in time for the January session.
For the required graduation numeracy and literacy assessments, all BC students will need government issue photo ID. A BCID card or a public school ID card will qualify. If you need a school ID card please send a current colour photo to ebusresources@sd91.bc.ca well in advance of your assessment date.
We appreciate that COVID will be a big factor in both student comfort in writing during the set sessions and also schools welcoming our fulltime students into their cohorts. Our guidance at this time is to register for the session you plan to write in, and we will work with our students, partner schools and the Ministry of Education to deal with this grad requirement safely. If there are challenges in finding seats for various reasons, the more requests we have issues with to bring to the Ministry, the more likely we can find creative solutions to this grad requirement.
WHAT ABOUT?
Lots of new things to being a fulltime online student. And often you only realize the questions you have after you’ve been in the learning trenches for a bit to then see the things you don’t know.
Sooo…what about my transcript?
All high school students should be familiar with their Ministry of Education transcript, the official record of high school courses successfully completed. This record only shows courses and grad assessments successfully completed; failed, incomplete or withdrawn courses are not recorded there.
Your transcript is created by the Ministry about 2 weeks after you finish your first grade 10, 11 or 12 course. EBUS sends marks to the ministry 2 times a week, so if you finish a course and disappears from your dashboard, it should show up on your transcript about 10 school days later.
As this is a Ministry of Education service, you will need to create an account called a BCeid, and then access your account. Instructions on how to do this are found in the homeroom on your dashboard. Look for the topic “Creating a Student Account with the Ministry of Education” For students wondering if they wrote their grad assessments, you will find that on your transcript as well.
I recommend students check their transcripts 1-2 times a year as there can be errors or courses missing. If you find something amiss, send me an email and I will look into it.
MENTAL HEALTH MINUTE
Over the years we have collected a number of free online resources to help with mental health. I encourage you to email me if you have a great free resource not listed here!
UPCOMING IMPORTANT DATES
- Dec 15 deadline to apply for January grad assessments register HERE
- Dec 19-January 2 Winter Break, teachers unavailable, courses open to students
- Tuesday January 3 2023 EBUS reopens
- Jan 23-27 required grad assessments register HERE before Dec 15
- Jan 27 end of Term 2 – all work handed in on or before will be marked for report cards
- Thursday Feb 9 school assembly 10:30am link on your dashboard
- Friday Feb 10 Term Two report cards available
- Friday Feb 10 Professional Development Day – EBUS staff unavailable, courses open
- Monday Feb 20 Family Day – EBUS staff unavailable, courses open
- March 1 deadline to request courses for this school year
- SPRING BREAK March 20-March 31 EBUS staff unavailable, courses open
- Note that Term end dates are guidelines for students to finish courses, if you do not finish by the November or January term end date, continue with your studies without penalty and finish the course(s) as soon as possible. New courses are not automatically added at the Term change, students must request them as they finish current courses.
You can find the full year school calendar at
PARENT ACCESS
Parents, you can access your student’s progress and report cards on the EBUS parent portal: https://my.ebus.ca/parentportal/login.php We recommend parents log in with their student at least once a week to stay actively engaged in their learning and progress. Students, you can access your report cards from your dashboard, look for the A+ icon in the upper right-hand corner. Report cards are published 5 times a year; November, January, March, June and for summer session courses only, September.
As I get asked this often, if your student plans to finish their course(s) by the end of semester 1 on January 27, students should be about 75% complete. And for students working in a linear fashion to complete by the June 15 deadline, they should be about 40%+ complete at this time.
PHONE APPOINTMENTS
Currently I am working from home. To book a phone appt with me, use https://tinyurl.com/yyrbnz7p and select the appropriate amount of time you need when you are available for my call. My calls will show up as SD91 for School District 91. EBUS Academy as also set up Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) phone calls so I now have a phone number you can reach me at! I am available at 1-250-567-4413 ext 7409. Booking a phone appt is the easiest was to ensure you will reach me, but I will answer calls during the workday when available.
Keep well, wishing you all a restful Winter Break, and the next newsletter will be Friday January 6 2023.