Principal's Message 2023/24
Dear Discovery Trails Online School (DTO) community,
It is my pleasure to welcome you, or welcome you back, to our third year as a school and our second full year under our new name of Discovery Trails Online School! We are very excited to continue building upon the foundation that was laid by our staff, students, school council, and community members last year as we create a vibrant, engaging school! Our school council is looking for members to join and new families are welcome to become part of the council and help support our work. In collaboration with the school council, this year we are going to be expanding upon our “Activity Day” events and intend to have one in-person event or activity each month starting with Terry Fox run in September and concluding with our Discovery Trails community picnic in June.
Being online provides an opportunity to remove barriers to learning and ensure that learning is universally accessible for all of our students: our philosophy is to meet the students where they are at and live the aspiration that “If you don’t learn the way we teach, we will teach the way you learn.” Online learning also offers some challenges which means that our students are most successful when they are able to fully engage with their online lessons, come to class prepared for learning, maintain an organized workspace, and be able to work independently. Fortunately, these requirements are all skills that can be taught and practiced, and we will be working with our students to support their ability to work in the online environment.
I am looking forward to working with our Discovery Trails community over the coming year as we continue to build a vibrant online learning community. I welcome parent feedback and will be sending the Principal’s Newsletter “Tales of the Trails” to all of our families. A response to this newsletter will come directly to my in-basket and so I invite you to send your thoughts and suggestions as we build this community together.
All my best,
Bob Rodgers