Communication

Whenever you want to communicate with your teacher, you have several options. You can email, call, or visit your teacher at the school. If you do not normally work at school, it is good practice to email or call  your teacher prior to coming in to make sure s/he is available.

Email communication:
  • You will first email your teacher from your personal email account (Gmail, Hotmail, etc.) to indicate that you are ready to start the course.
  • Your teacher will then provide you with a new Gmail account (ocsbstudent.ca) on the following Monday. You will then only use this new school account. The only time to contact your teacher using your personal email account is to request login information or request a password reset.​
  • Student Services periodically emails students regarding important information like post secondary applications, PLAR, or the Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test. These emails will only go to your ocsbstudent.ca account.
Email etiquette:
  • provide a good subject line
  • provide your name and the lesson/assignment that you are working on 
Our teaching staff will try to reply to your emails as promptly as possible. If you are having a problem on an assignment, move on to the next lesson/activity while you wait for a reply from your teacher.

General Computer Use (on-site)

To access the wifi at school,
  1. On your device, connect to OCSBguest WiFi network.
  2. When prompted, provide a valid phone number.
  3. Check your text messages and use authorization code to gain 24 hours WiFi access.  

Brightspace communication tools

Teachers use other communication tools in Brightspace to keep students updated throughout the course. These tools are explained below and are found on the main course home page so you can check it every time you access your course.

​News Widget:
  • Your teacher may post important information about your course or upcoming events (such as holidays, PD Days, etc)
  • On your course homepage, go to 'Show All News Items' in the bottom right corner of the News Widget to access additional items
  • Click the 'x' in the top right corner to dismiss the News item.  It will reappear only if the teacher makes changes to the News Item.
St. Nicholas Twitter News:
  • News that is relevant to the whole St. Nicholas community.
  • School news and events will be posted here regularly as well as general interest items.