Today was the first day of school for our students. As they were online, we really don't have a good idea of how many showed up. Since our student information system hasn't yet been modified for our schedule, we have only paper records with each teacher. So I think they showed up, but I have … Continue reading School Online – Journal – Day 16
School Online – Journal – Day 15
So, this post will be short. Not because of lack of material to write about, but because I am exhausted after almost 14 continuous hours online. The logarithmic curves in my quilt reflect my past couple of weeks. Today was where the curve accelerated "north". This morning I checked in with my email, to see … Continue reading School Online – Journal – Day 15
School Online – Journal – Day 14
It's Sunday, and I'm thinking about how I would prepare for Tuesday, if I were one of our Online School teachers. I have now experienced an online "first day of classes" three times in my own teaching. My classes were all with pre-service teachers, so they were students who were a little older than ours, … Continue reading School Online – Journal – Day 14
School Online – Journal – Day 13
Day 13? Saturday? For our timetable team this is now Day 9 without a break, and there will be a Day 10, and maybe a Day 11. When I was offered this position it was described as a part-time role, along with five other part-time Principals and four full-time Vice Principals, under the leadership of … Continue reading School Online – Journal – Day 13
School Online – Journal – Day 12
Today was a whirlwind. Our guidance counsellors in all of our "bricks and mortar" schools were given the list of "conflicts" and began to resolve them to ensure that all students had timetables. Our communication team had announced that the timetables would be sent to students today, so there was a hard deadline. I was … Continue reading School Online – Journal – Day 12
School Online – Journal – Day 11
It's Thursday, and I know that our teachers' anxiety is growing. We will see students next Tuesday, and no one in our Online School has yet been told what they are teaching. This afternoon a virtual meeting took place with the guidance counsellors from all of our "bricks and mortar" schools. They're getting ready to … Continue reading School Online – Journal – Day 11
School Online – Journal – Day 10
This morning I met via MS Teams with my Principal colleagues, in our monthly association meeting. The meeting was structured around questions we had for our Associate Directors, System Leads, and others with central responsibilities. Many of the concerns will also be relevant for us when our students begin online next week, so it was … Continue reading School Online – Journal – Day 10
School Online – Journal – Day 9
Today our Period 2, Cohort A students were in attendance. Because they had attended yesterday, in their Period 1 class, the morning went very smoothly. The afternoon remained in limbo for many teachers as they awaited assignments for the "Continuous Distance Learning Support". These assignments are to two or three other classes, to respond to … Continue reading School Online – Journal – Day 9
School Online – Journal – Day 8
Days 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12 will be spent in a real "bricks and mortar" school, filling in for a Principal who will be working to build our School Online timetable. With more than 10000 students and more than 400 teachers, this is an unprecedented task. That word "unprecedented" is on my list of … Continue reading School Online – Journal – Day 8
12 Gradeless Models
In 2019 I interviewed 28 Ontario secondary school educators who are moving away from marks. They all grounded their assessment practices in clear communication of learning expectations in the form of task lists, curriculum expectations, or overarching learning goals. They communicated achievement of these expectations through the use of hidden mark, traditional four-point rubrics, single-point … Continue reading 12 Gradeless Models
