As we are at the halfway point in the school year, I will be updating student credit checks detailing your progress in the graduation program showing the courses and required assessments completed, courses you are registered in and what remains to be complete to meet graduation requirements. I am working on the grade 12s and then the grades 11s and 10s to ensure our students intending to graduate have a clear picture of their educational plans.
REQUESTING NEW COURSES
As you finish a current course or are 80+% complete, full time students can email me with new course requests. All grade 10, 11 and 12 courses are now open. 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. 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. We plan that the latest courses will be added this school year is March 1 but recommend students have all courses added by mid-February. EBUS does run Summer session every year, registration will open in early May. More information will come by newsletter closer to May.
WHAT ABOUT?
Lots of new things to being a full time 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 scholarships and a grad ceremony at EBUS?
This year EBUS has scholarships and bursaries available for our full-time students who meet graduation requirements by June and the requirements listed in our EBUS Academy scholarship booklet. The booklet is released in the homeroom and our website by early February, and the deadline to apply is April 15. Scholarship winners are announced at our grad ceremonies. We strongly recommend all students who will graduate by June apply for any scholarships they are interested in as we often have scholarships not applied for each year.
EBUS is planning to host grad ceremony Saturday June 1 and have booked Van Deusen Gardens near Vancouver, Saturday June 22 in Kamloops, and if there is enough interest, a ceremony Saturday May 25 in Vanderhoof, our hometown as well. To participate students need to be approximately 75% complete all grad required courses by the end of April. Notices to all grade 12 students will go out in February, so watch for a future email. If you have questions contact your academic advisor.
2023-24 WELLNESS PROJECT JANUARY GROWTH MINDSET
What better way to start a new year than with an improved mindset, one that focuses on growth? One way to do this is to examine your thoughts. Not every thought is your friend, and we can cultivate our minds like a garden by pulling the weeds of unhelpful thoughts, and cultivating, focusing on and even planting helpful thoughts. Give it a try to start off the new year!
UPCOMING IMPORTANT DATES
- January 11 school assembly link on dashboard
- January 15-26 grad assessment session
- January 19 date for students to aim to finish semester 1 courses and email cmushumanski@sd91.bc.ca to request semester two courses
- February 9 Pro D – teachers unavailable, courses open
- February 19 Family Day – EBUS closed, courses open
- March 1 deadline to request new courses – sooner is better
- March 1 work submission deadline
- March 15 report cards published
- March 23 – April 7 Spring Break EBUS closed, teachers not available but courses open
- April 26 Pro D – teachers unavailable, courses open
- May 10 Pro D – teachers unavailable, courses open
- May 20 Victoria Day – EBUS closed, courses open
- June 14 year end work submission deadline
- June 28 EBUS closed for the school year
- 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.
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 3 times a year; December 15, March 15, June 28, and for summer session courses only, September.
As I get asked this often, if your student plans to finish their course(s) in a quarterly fashion, meaning by the end of term 2 on Jan 19 or by the end of semester 1 on January 19, students should be complete. And for students working in a linear fashion to complete by the June deadlines, they should be about 50% 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 and 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, the next newsletter will be Friday February 2.