Sunrise East Alternative School
727 Templeton Drive, Rm. 222/223
Vancouver,BC, Canada, V5L 4N8
 phone 604-713-5858
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Wow Time Flies

3/30/2020

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Since the move from the AR Lord Annex to Templeton Secondary, the utilization of this website had diminished greatly. When we arrived at Templeton Secondary, we no longer had workstation for each student and the digital aspects of our program have actually declined over the last 4 years. 

Now, with the learning from home situation we currently find ourselves in, that is going to be changing dramatically. At this time I am feeling kind of lucky that the website is actually still up and running. Who knew?

Looking forward to getting some assignments posted and linked between here and Microsoft Teams site as soon as possible. Who knows, maybe we will see some students developing their own websites at home as a means of demonstrating some of their learning?

​Stay tuned.
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It has been a while..

11/18/2018

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Some days it is incredibly challenging to believe how fast time flies. From location changes, to program changes, to incredible staff turnaround (retirements, transitions and moves), sometimes it is near impossible to keep up. 
One thing that works for me is to write stuff down, so here it goes. We are up and running again as a Grade 8 and 9 Alternative School. While we anticipated more Grade 8's this year, it turns out our program is running 75% Grade 9 and 25% Grade 8. We adapting in real time (as alternative programs are apt to do).
I am fortunate to have got about the best imaginable new teaching partner in Mr. J. Caswell!. He balances some of my peculiarities quite nicely (he may agree or disagree as per his choice). One thing is for sure, he is tireless in his effort to create a safe place for all students in both our program and school as a whole. As the Templeton SOGI lead and sponsor of our Pride Club he has shown great leadership for the students we serve.
​
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Out of Limbo, into the Light

10/9/2016

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Well it has been almost 2 years since Sunrise East was closed and folded into EastSide alternative program. Perhaps the Phoenix is a not the best example, but the Sunrise Program has risen if not from the ashes, then at least from the shadows and back into the light. Keeping up a website that was no longer relevant was a rather low priority. That has all changed now!

With the renaming of our current program in its new location, the website is back up and running and receiving a long overdue cyber dusting and updating. Looking forward to improving the website over the next couple months and getting back into the swing of regular updates and additions.
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Christmas Wish Lists in the Online Age

12/15/2014

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Someday someone will need to plot the average expenditure on technology over Christmas and the prevalence of smart devices among the masses. This year I have taken to simply snapping  picture of items on my "most desired list" and messaging it to the appropriate beneficiaries. 
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April Fools Day.. a day of unknown origins...

4/1/2014

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Today's assignment was to find the origin of April fools day... perhaps a bit of a prank in itself. It would seem that most of the stories of origins could in themselves be pranks


I think many of the classics still remain the best. I loved reading about the BBC spaghetti tree episode. This morning I got a call from my son asking why I had gone to work on Saturday, and maybe it is the withdrawal from Spring Break, but it actually had me thinking I had missed a couple of days. There was also the 1857 invitation to watch the "Bathing of the Lions" at the London tower.

I looked up a bunch of the "youtube" variety but most of them were lacking in originality or creativity.

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Romeo and Juliet... A return to the classics.

3/4/2014

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In order to start this rant in with a vein of honesty, let me start by saying it has been a while since I fully visited Shakespeare in our classroom setting. It had seemed overwhelming and near impossible to keep students interested. This year I decided to try it again after a summer trip to "Bard on the Beach'.

We turned it around a bit this year, watching the movie version starring Leonardo and Kate (if you don't know them by first name, then the last names won't help either). Student were able to follow the key points of the story and for the most part enjoyed the story. Lively discussion around marriage, parental consent and family conflict followed. I was happy that the story had managed to generate interest.

We then moved over to reading the play proper. The integration of technology in the form of individual workstations for each student was key in this regard. Each student was able to read the play along with a modern translation thanks to sparknotes wonderful website. From the readings, students were asked to write a summary of each act in their own words and pick a line(s) from each act to comment on.  We are now almost at the end of the assignment and it has gone wonderfully!

The greatest challenge has been around originality. Convincing them that I don't desire to read a reworded interpretation of sparknotes has been tough but it is happening. Developing the belief that their ideas, interpretations and feelings are both valid and desired has been the focus. I have found that letting them know that there is no "correct" reading (at least in our forum) has allowed most to take the risk of providing original thought. Still it has been tough to let go of the "is this right?" mindset for many, including myself on a few occasions. 

I believe it is the relentless search for marks which drives students away from what they really  think and pushes them to what will bring the most reward in terms of marks. More on this next time... time to get back to it.
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GeoCaching... who knew?

2/4/2014

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So jump back a couple of months ago and I am picking up my sons from school or a play date (sorry for the lapse of memory). As we walk back with their young friends and their friends parents, one of the parents asks "Do you geocache?". Not knowing what the question actually meant I simply answered "Not that I am aware of, what is it?". Well rather than an elaborate expression they simply showed me an app on their phone that utilized GPS and web access to demonstrate a significant number of nearby "caches" or little hidden containers. With the internet provided clues and some GPS coordinates we were able to find two such treasure troves in just under an hour. The kids were amazed to say the least but I was completely intrigued. This was fricken awesome! It had me imagining myself as a cold war, deep cover agent in the Soviet sector of Berlin. I was attending a dead drop and leaving a message for other agents in the field. I was to take all measures to avoid detection by "muggles" (ok, muggles is not a word Forsyth or Dieghton would have used, but it is the geocache equivalent of counter-intelligence agencies). 

I was instantly hooked. I went home and began an online research of the topic. The simplest source for information turned out to be geocaching.com. I subscribed as a free basic member (username Sunriseeast), uploaded a free app to my phone and began my own adventure. Since downloading the application, I have been able to find some caches with my class in Vancouver and a few more caches in Ladner with my children. We are now planning to make our own caches with each group respectively. I can't wait to add updates as to how this is all progressing. Our adventuring will definitely increase as the weather improves with spring.
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When your online presence lags behind....

1/10/2014

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Update, update, update... the yell is heard in our class regularly. If you are going to have a website up, then keep the dang thing updated. This is not to be confused with the obsessive updating that is social media and "status" but the is the general online equivalent of doing laundry and cleaning toilets.  More specifically, delete or or archive links to events past, remove items that are clearly out of date and generally keep your stuff organized!


I am thinking that the current trend of professional home de-clutterers may eventually have an on-line equivalent. A niche market if you will, where people are payed to come in and not design new web-sites but rather prune and revitalize stale and past-their-expiry-date sites. I guess this may well be a New Years Resolution of sorts for myself.  I am also going through and making the fonts bigger on this site in order to avoid a long overdue trip to the optometrist. Denial is a powerful force!
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Summer to do list...

6/26/2013

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Well the plan to update to Google Apps for Education has begun in earnest. It is a bit bewildering at this point the amount of things to get done prior to September for the start of the 2013-2014 school year, but a least there is a target to aid in the goal.

So far the most interesting thing has been setting up the actual sunriseeast.ca domain itself. Learning a lot about DNS and MX and other such interesting terms. Who knew mail forwarding was no longer something you simply did when you moved out of an apartment?

On the more fun personal side of summer, I am looking forward to spending a bunch of time chasing around my sons. Boundary Bay Beach and Diefenbaker Park will be two very popular destination for our family this summer. You have to love fires on the beach and water park fun!



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Family Day..Numero Uno in BC!

2/12/2013

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Picture
Well yesterday was BC's first ever family day, that is unless you happen to be an employee of the federal government, and then you are already part of a much bigger family anyway so I guess it doesn't really matter. Anyway our family headed down to Boundary Bay Beach for a scavenger hunt of epic proportions. Unfortunately the weather was not so inclined to favor epic scavenger hunts on the beach but it was a beautiful day in its' own right, regardless of the weather. For dinner we headed over to the grandparents house to celebrate the Lunar New Year with some take out Chinese food and lots of little red envelopes and other goodies. All in all, I am now fully converted to the idea of family day. February was in need of a holiday to break the gap between New Years and Easter, and now we have one. Thank you oh giver of fun Liberal leader C. Clark for making me believe you care.. if only for a nanosecond.

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Sunrise East Alternative School is a part of the Vancouver Board of Education Alternative Schools Programs