Abbotsford Virtual School

Infobox Education in Canada
name= Abbotsford Virtual School


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streetaddress= 33952 Pine Street
city= Abbotsford
province= British Columbia
postalcode= V2S 2P3
areacode= 604
phone= 859-9803
fax= 854-1463
email= [e-mail]
url= http://www.avs34.com
schoolnumber= 3499101
schoolboard= School District 34 Abbotsford
superintendent= Mr. Des McKay
trustee=
affiliation=
principal= Mr. Brad Hutchinson
viceprincipal= Mrs. Mary Stobbe
administrator=
staff= 12
fundingtype= Public
schooltype= Distributed Learning
grades= K-12
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founded= 2006
enrollment= 334
enrollment_as_of= 1 May 2008
lastupdate= May 8, 2007

Abbotsford Virtual School (abbreviated as AVS) [ [http://www.avs34.com Abbotsford Virtual School - A LearnNowBC School, part of the BC Learning Network - Helping families learn at home. ] at www.avs34.com] is a Distributed Learning school that provides collaborative educational programs for Kindergarten to Grade 12 students and any BC resident wanting to complete courses to graduate. Abbotsford Virtual School (AVS) offers Virtual courses, as well as "any pace, any place" courses. Virtual courses are teacher-paced, semester-based courses which operate like a regular high school course BUT delivered through the Internet. Teachers and students remain connected through the semester via email, text message, Skype^TM, and Elluminate^TM.

"History of Abbotsford Virtual School"
Abbotsford Virtual School is an amalgamation of three Abbotsford School District school programs: W.J. Mouat Virtual School, Rick Hansen eSchool and Abbotsford Electronic School. In 2001-2002, Des McKay (now Superintendent, former Principal of W.J. Mouat) and Rob Comeau (current Principal, W.J. Mouat) lead a school-based initiative with several teachers at W.J. Mouat Secondary School [ [http://www.mouatonline.com W.J. Mouat Secondary School ] at www.mouatonline.com] to teach courses in an online environment. Three courses were created: Principles of Mathematics 11, Chemistry 11 and CAPP 11/12. The success of these courses allowed for expansion to 17 courses by 2004-2005. Student success rate for completion was in the 90% plus range. Rick Hansen Secondary School developed several online courses in a different format obtaining high success rates as well. Abbotsford Electronic School spawned from home-based learner programs in Abbotsford to a thriving multidimensional home-learner support school. Nearly 300 students were enrolled by 2005-2006. Principal Don Martyn of Abbotsford Electronic School helped to amalgamate the three programs into Abbotsford Virtual School that was poised to deliver all things virtual.

"Staff and Location"
Abbotsford Virtual School is located at 33952 Pine Street, Abbotsford, BC V2S 2P3 {Phone: [phone]} on the same site as Philip Sheffield Elementary School. Mr. Brad Hutchinson is now the Principal. The school has 11 full-time teachers dealing with home-based learners and about 15 virtual teachers. Virtual teachers typically have a part-time teaching and a face-to-face teaching assignment in one of the SD#34 high schools.

"Unique Programs"
Abbotsford Virtual School offers a unique program in Animation and Modeling. The first course, 3D Content Creation for Interactive Entertainment (Animation and Modeling 10) is designed to give the student a skill foundation in creating 3D objects that typically appear in a video game. Students are given hands-on training utilizing industry methodologies. Learning the basics, students work in a 3D computer graphics environment gaining a solid understanding of navigation, scale, manipulation and the work flow for creating polygon objects in a production environment. Upon completion the students will be able to apply their knowledge to create polygon objects of their own design. With Vancouver rapidly expanding, being the Canada's largest hub of video game development, [ [http://www.vancouvereconomic.com VEDC ] at www.vancouvereconomic.com] this program offers students a chance to acquire the fundamental skills needed to make an impact on the art of interactive entertainment. Animation and Modeling 11 or 3D Animation for Interactive Entertainment 11 provides the student with a solid skill foundation in creating animations that will provide the motion to characters and objects used in interactive entertainment applications (video games). Students will be given hands-on training utilizing industry methodologies. Learning the basics, students work in a 3D computer graphics environment gaining a solid understanding of animation history, planning, principles, and the application of the industry's production pipeline to create game ready animation. The course is designed to first guide the student through theory and exercises which develop their understanding of the process used to create game animation. The third course in this series, Game Design for Interactive Entertainment 12, offers the student the opportunity to develop an understanding and application of the design process and production pipeline that is typically used to design today's award winning video games.

"Current Projects"
Abbotsford Virtual School has teamed with W.J. Mouat Secondary School to create a pilot project called Learning Live in which a teacher at W.J. Mouat teaches FSL 9 to a group of 28 Mouat students and is simultaneously teaching 26 students at ASIA-Sumas (Abbotsford School of Integrated Arts Sumas Campus [ [http://www.sd34.bc.ca/northpoplar/ Abbotsford School of Integrated Arts ] at www.sd34.bc.ca] ). This project is supported by a grant from the Ministry of Education.

Notes

External links

* [http://www.avs34.com Official website]