President's Report	by Shelley Wilcox
October 21, 2005 Regional Conference
Using a Blended Approach to Online Learning in an Urban Classroom	by Scott Parker
Computers may not hurt kids grades, despite Sun reports	by Alan Zisman
Now, again and always a Treasurer	by Glen Holmes
BCEdOnline a real and virtual success	by Shelley Wilcox
BCeSIS - the startup	by James McConville
Benefits of your CUEBC membership	by Wayne Ulian
Time to put a Tiger on your school’s desktops?	by Alan Zisman
Integration of Technology and Science	by Kevin Amboe
CUE's new and 10% improved website	by Chris Rozitis
Pre-owned PC's: something sustainable?	by James McConville
Supporting adult learners with ICT	by Ray Steigvilas
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by Shelley Wilcox, wilcox_s@sd36.bc.ca

Spring is upon us and change just keeps coming to our schools.   As we begin to integrate graduate portfolios and assess the changes in the reporting policies, teachers are reacting to the ongoing pressure to implement new structures and new curriculum.   When the uncertainty of the election is added to these pressures, teachers are struggling to sustain their morale.   In this climate, it is critical for us to support each other in our work environments.   Sharing expertise, knowledge of both the curriculum and technology as well as innovative methods for dealing with assessment can help teachers function in the classroom.   To help to meet the ongoing needs of teachers to extend their skills, we are developing a new web site to provide professional development for teachers and to share information about special events and conferences as well as ongoing programs.  If you have contributions to assist your colleagues, we encourage you to contact Chris Rozitis our web master at crozitis@vsb.bc.ca.

The focus of CUEBC is on providing regional conferences for our members.   At the recent "Building Global Learning Communities Conference" on eLearning, the executive members were able to connect with colleagues around the province.   A number of delegates volunteered to recruit their colleagues and prepare proposals for conferences for the following regions of the province:   the Island (Nanaimo and Port Alberni), the Okanagan, the Kootenays and North (Fort St. John) /Central regions (Prince George) of the province.   We encourage all groups to send in their proposals as soon as possible.   At the recent PSAC council, a motion was passed to encourage PSAs to partner to host conferences in order to receive regional grants.   CUEBC would welcome proposals partnering with other PSAs throughout the province.  We will advertise all of these events as soon as dates and themes are finalized.   Please contact Shelley Wilcox if you need further information.   The application for regional conferences sponsored by CUEBC is included with this newsletter.

We encourage everyone to acquaint themselves with the recent developments in your area of the new British Columbia Electronic Student Information System (BCeSIS).   This provincial system includes extensive data bases, electronic grade books and attendance systems.  Serious concerns have been raised around issues of privacy of personal information, the difficulty of data entry in the grade book and proposals for training and supporting the new systems.   Acquaint yourself with your district's position in terms of entry into the system, online attendance, grade book policies (some districts are continuing to use the older systems such as Intergrade) and training policies.   Larry Kuehn recently wrote an article availble on the BCTF web site on this topic and we encourage members to become informed on this important issue.

While technology will always involve challenges, this tool is becoming more essential to ongoing activities in the classroom and for administration.  Report cards, online attendance, report writing including spreadsheets, databases and web components are becoming routine elements for teachers and administrators.   CUEBC will continue to support members as they learn how to use these applications and to integrate the use of technology into instructional practice.  If you have suggestions for professional development or instructional modules helpful for colleagues, please contact our proD coordinator Wayne Ulian or our web master Chris Rozitis.   We appreciate Wayne Ulian's leadership on the executive as our proD coordinator and my apologies for not mentioning his role on the executive in the last newsletter.  Our thanks to James McConville and Chris Rozitis for their innovative new look for our newsletter and web site. We are fortunate to have so many talented people on our executive offering leadership to colleagues across the province and I encourage you to get to know the executive members as they travel to the conferences in your communities.