Week of May 11-15, 2020

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🙏Prayers and Spiritual Guidance

Mother's Day Prayer

This Sunday is Mother's Day and we would like to wish all staff who are mothers, grandmothers, and mothers-to-be a blessed and joyful Mother's Day. 
 

In Praise of Mothers


God of love, we thank you for the gift of our mothers: 

Mothers who labour to bring us into this world, 

Mothers to guide us on life's journey, 

Mothers to teach us how to pray to you.

We praise you, God, for mothers who listen to us and cry with us, 

Who applaud our progress and laugh with us,

Who want the best for us, who dream with us,

Who love us always.

We thank you God,

for the gift of mothers. 


Amen.


Here are some other Mother's Day prayers and blessings from the CARFLEO website.

A Tribute to Mothers:

                 

                 


Join us in Praying the Rosary📿

During the month of May, let us continue to honour and celebrate Mary, the Mother of God.  In honour of Mary, join us in praying the rosary every Friday at 10 a.m., this month.  Our Google Meet nickname is str-rosary.  If you are unable to join, but would like to express special intentions for our prayers, please email me.

Daily Reflections

These daily reflections are a great way to start your day. Feel free to share them with your students on your class VLE.

Monday, May 11 - “All the Diamonds” CARFLEO
Tuesday, May 12 - “Come and Follow Me” CARFLEO
Wednesday, May 13 - “Visio Lectio Divina” CARFLEO
Thursday, May 14 - “Rain Down” CARFLEO
Friday, May 15 - “One Bread, One Body” CARFLEO
😇Check out the 3 Minute Retreats on the Loyola Press Website.

Here are the Weekly Prayers for Week 6 of Distant Learning.


💻EdTech Support and Resources

G-Y-R Framework

Whenever we decide to use a particular digital tool with our students, remember that we are guided by the following framework to ensure the safety and privacy of our students using the tool.  D2L and all G-Suite tools (i.e. Google Classroom, Google Slides, etc.) are all GREEN tools.  However, Google Chrome Extensions and Add-Ons are YELLOW tools.  This doesn't mean that we can't use them.  However, for YELLOW tools, we need to review the terms of services and privacy statements, to ensure there is no exploitation in terms of advertising or third-party use.

If you are going to use a YELLOW tool, be sure to obtain parental consent using the following letter.  

Here is the link to the parent letter created by the 21C Committee which already contains the information for some digital tools.

🖱️Click on the G-Y-R Poster below to access the board distance learning resource for this.





Guardian Email Summaries in Google Classroom

🖱️Click HERE to understand how Guardian email summaries work in Google Classroom.

Providing Feedback to Students

Click on the image to access the slide presentation created by Michelle Bulger.



Google's Applied Digital Skills

Applied Digital Skills offers free-curriculum, with engaging videos and practical projects that teach technology skills to students (middle and high school) as well as adult learners.  This is part of their "Grow with Google" initiative.  

As we start to plan for our course CPTs which will replace our final exams, applied digital skills may be a great option for some our course CPTs (or perhaps part of them). This may be a great option to keep students engaged and interested in completing the CPT, as well as help to develop their 21C competencies (i.e. communication, creativity, collaboration, critical-thinking)

Check out this blog post by Eric Curts on Google's Applied Digital Skills which offers a very thorough explanation and detailed points about what to expect from Google's Applied Digital Skills.






Quizlet - Create Digital Study Sets 


This is one of my favourite formative digital tools.  Quizlet allows for teachers to create interactive digital flashcards to help students learn concepts in their course. It is a free digital tool.  Students do not need to create an account to access the study sets you create for them.  Simply go to www.quizlet.com and create a teacher account using your Google account.  Once you have created a study set, you simply share the link to the interactive study set with your students in your VLE (i.e. D2L or Google Classroom) and they can now begin to master the concepts they need to in your class.  You can also organize your study sets into folders for each subject you teach.  Another great feature of Quizlet is that it allows you to include images into the flashcards for prompting purposes or for better concept retention.

Here are some resources you can explore to help you become more familiar with this amazing tool:

Creating new study sets can take time.  So, why not simply use the search feature in Quizlet to access already made study sets.  Once you find one that you like, you can make a copy and customize it for your subject and your students.  Here are some already pre-made study sets I found on Quizlet in various subject areas, simply by searching:
Need an assignment idea?  Have your students create a study set based on all the key concepts they learned throughout your course or a particular unit and have them share the links with you.  Students will be able to show you a true understanding of the concepts they learned based on the information they include in their study sets.  

Do you have a tech question?  Jeanne Buckley and Lisa Loffredi are available every Thursday to assist you.


You can also ask your tech questions in our online chat using Google Hangouts.  Just click HERE to access the STR Tech Support group chat.



📚Library Resources


A ST. ROBERT TEACHER SUPPORT SITE HAS BEEN CREATED FOR YOU. IT WILL BE UPDATED FREQUENTLY. ACCESS THE ST. ROBERT LIBRARY WEBSITE FOR MORE RESOURCES.


🧠Staff Wellness

New Beginnings Seminar:  Grief and COVID-19 Seminar

New Beginnings, a ministry of Catholic Family Services of Toronto, is offering a seminar on grief and COVID-19.

Here is what the seminar is about:

"The effects of COVID-19 have deconstructed our society, as never seen before in modern times. We are no longer able to go to our places of work, our places of recreation and even our places of worship have been closed. During this time of transition, we cannot help but ask ourselves certain questions: "Will my family and I be safe?" "Will the economy return to normal?" "Is the future changed forever?" COVID-19 has also impacted they way we grieve and mourn. The good news is that, we can in fact, do something about it... and we can do it from home! In this brief seminar, we explore the topic of grief and how we can adapt and work through it."

Keynote speaker:  Arcangelo Limanni, MRE
Location:  Online via Zoom
Date & Time:  Thursday, May 21, 2020 @ 7:00pm
Registration:  https://gcvd19.eventbrite.ca

Happy Teacher Appreciation Week!

Did you know that this past week (May 4-8) was Teacher Appreciation Week?  While our frontline healthcare workers are doing a tremendous job keeping us safe, and scientists and medical experts are working around the clock to find a cure for COVID-19, know that you are also making history.  Never before have teachers been asked to teach from virtual environments.  Know that what you do everyday during this time matters in the lives of your students and that you are continuing to provide a sense of "normalcy" in a time when there is none.  Keep up the amazing work you do, but always remember to take care of yourselves, too!

              

                     


👀Article Worth Reading:  4 Ingredients for Human Well-Being

🧠Newsworthy News

Congratulations Christina!

Christina Li, a grade 10 student, received the Provincial Award and  $100 in prize money for the Michael Smith Challenge ( a Science Challenge) that she participated in February 2020.  Thank you to Gabriela Ciobanu for sharing this news!

Beautiful Artwork

Thank you to Laura Rogers for sharing this beautiful artwork by one of our grade 11 students, Kylie Lu, to honour and thank our frontline healthcare workers.  What is so amazing about this artwork is that Kylie has never taken art prior to this year.  You would never know by looking at the artwork.

   

Stay in Touch - Letter Writing to Seniors




    


Newly Elected Presidents of our Student Government Councils


I would like to announce the newly elected presidents of our Student Government councils for the 2020-2021 school year:

ARTS COUNCIL:  Kito Lam
CHAPLAINCY COUNCIL:  Christina Li
ENVIRONMENTAL COUNCIL:  Ernest Wong
FRENCH COUNCIL:  Aditi Sandhu
STEM COUNCIL:  Priscilla Fung
SOCIAL JUSTICE COUNCIL:  Maggie Li
STUDENT ATHLETIC COUNCIL:  Rosaria Leo
STUDENT COUNCIL:  Ania Avadenei



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