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 concerns regarding asynchronous learning when the classroom teacher is instructing synchronously or face-to-face. This structure ensures that when the student are learning from home in the afternoons, or on the other days of the week when they do not attend F2F, they are able access support.
Hardware and network access continued to present challenges. Traditional classrooms are configured with fixed hardware: a desktop computer, ethernet connection, speakers, projector, and document camera, all tied together with a myriad of wires. So making these tools portable, and to integrate them into the asynchronous tools in D2L or Google Classroom, and into the synchronous tools of MS Teams or Google Meet, has required creativity. They are learning about new tools such as VideoMirror, and Screencastify, and sharing their new-found learning with their colleagues.
The students have been amazing! With classes capped at 15, and F2F sessions of 150 minutes, our teachers are able to connect better with their students, and respond to their needs. They enter and exit from a the door closest to their classroom. When they arrive, their teachers are there to greet them, remind them of the mask and hand sanitizer requirements, and ensure that they are spaced appropriately as they proceed to class.
I am looking forward to my Day 3 in a “bricks and mortar” school, and learning more about this hybrid model of learning. I will return to work on the Online School once the timetable is built at the end of the week, our teachers receive their assignments, and I am able to begin to lead our more than 400 teachers.
Terry Whitmell, PhD 