September 16, 2020

Welcome to Grand Erie Virtual Academy

Dear Families,

Sago. Good afternoon. This is a message from the Grand Erie District School Board’s Virtual Academy. We would like to take this time to thank you for your patience and support as we work through the process of organizing a new virtual school.

By Friday courses should be available on the BrightSpace platform for your child to enter. There may be some independent on-line work to begin, without teacher support, what we call asynchronous learning.

On Monday, teachers of Week #1 classes will begin to instruct their classes for 220 minutes each day. All students of the Virtual Academy are expected to be online each day, with their teacher, for the prescribed 220 minutes. Students are also expected to spend a further 75 minutes of online time each day to independently complete assigned curriculum expectations. Students should do the following tasks in preparation for the beginning of virtual courses.

1. Try their usernames and passwords as they may have changed over the summer.
   If students have difficulties, contact their homeschool who can provide them with the correct ones.
2. Ensure they have a proper device, laptop, tablet or computer. Survey requests for devices have been sent to the homeschools for pickup, but should you still need one from the Board, you will have to go through the Homeschool to complete a request.
3. Have your child log on to BrightSpace and work through the Orientation Activities to
   re-familiarize themselves with the learning platform.

Once again, thank you for your patience through these anxious times. We plan to deliver a robust and authentic learning opportunity for your child.

Kind Regards,

Mr. Dave MacDonald

Mr. Greg Carruthers