Tammy Axt General, Special Education

Teaching Students with Down Syndrome to Read

I have tried to teach my one student with Down Syndrome to read words for the past two years with some success. However, it wasn’t until this year when I read about a different approach that things really started to click. Since we introduced this method into our instruction, she has been able to read a group of words consistently, comfortably and with confidence. It is the first time that she really gets excited about reading words.

In a quest to try something new with this student in October, I picked up a book I had bought a couple of years ago called “Teaching Reading to Children with Down Syndrome: A Guide for Parents and Teachers” by Patricia Logan Oelwein. The book was written in 1995, which seems quite a long time ago, however from our experience this fall, it was the one methodology that really worked for my student. Also, the general thesis of the book that any child with Down Syndrome can read if the programming is appropriate is a principle that I also strongly believe.

The book is divided into 3 sections. The three sections are: background information about the learner with Down Syndrome, the How-To section and reading units to use with your students.

Background Information

This section is highly important to read before you begin instructing your student. Even though the book was written quite a while ago much of the information remains accurate and up to date. I cross referenced much of the information in this section with the educator guide posted on the Canadian Down Syndrome Website and find the information to be consistent.

As mentioned above, the primary thesis for this book is that all children with Down Syndrome can be taught to read if programming is done correctly. Ms. Oelwein also does a very effective job of describing hurdles that you may face and things to watch out for if your student is not being successful with the methodology described in this book.

Some of the areas that she highlights are:

  1. Medical concerns: People with Down Syndrome have a higher rate of vision problems, hearing problems and chronic illnesses. Ensure that you read your student’s OSR and speak with parents about any concerns in this area. Any unaddressed medical concerns will greatly impact the ability of the student to be successful in learning to read. (Interestingly, according to the Canadian Down Syndrome Society, people with Down Syndrome are less likely to get asthma, many types of cancer and dental cavities.)
  2. Continuous Intervention: Many times, in special education we hear about early intervention and the importance of it. Ms. Oelwein takes it one step further. She speaks about the importance of early intervention and continuous intervention. She stresses the importance of maintaining high expectations for the students and providing them with high quality education throughout their academic career. I feel this is especially important as the student enters grade 6, 7 and 8 in Ontario in an inclusive setting. It is important that the student has modified tasks that are both aware of the social dynamic of this age as well as tasks that are academically appropriately for the child. Ongoing intervention is paramount to the student’s success in reading.
  3. Avoidance Behaviours: My students are very smart. Just like many students, they know how to avoid certain tasks if I have given them things that are too easy, too hard, or not interesting to them. Effective programming is the key to success and using consistent best practices in assessment will help you to develop tasks that support student’s language acquisition.

The How-Tos

The next section of the book explains how to introduce sight words, the alphabet, beginning phonics and writing and spelling.

The instructions are very clear and can be followed by you, your education assistant, your special education team or a parent at home. This can provide ample opportunity for the student to practice the skills. Ms. Oelwein has also provided many, many ideas for activities and ways to keep learning fun and engaging. Below are some pictures of my student following the steps outlined by the author.

  1. We began by selecting a few personally relevant words for the student and followed a number of steps to introduce the words to the student. She surprised us at how quickly she learned them.

2. Next, we spent some time focusing on the beginning letter of the words we introduced.

3. Finally, we created some fun activities to reinforce the words.

Reading Units

The final chapters of the book use the same steps to continue to introduce additional words and many activities to help solidify understanding. All the materials to play games and create activities to build  understanding are provided in appendices at the end of the book. There are units on foods, action words, household words etc.

If your students with Down Syndrome are struggling, this might be one book to try to get you started. The steps worked for my student and it might just work for your student as well.

 

Tammy Axt General, Special Education

Down’s, Downs, DS?

I know I am bias, but I truly believe that I have one of the best jobs in education.

I am the proud teacher of the most amazing group of students, many of whom have Down Syndrome.  The school and the community that we visit often (under normal cirucumstances) have been so kind and welcoming to us over the past three years. However, what I have seen over the past three years is that there are a lot of errors that people make when referring or speaking about people with Down Syndrome.

Student with Down’s / Down’s Kid / Down’s Person

This is the most common error that I hear people make. They often refer to Down Syndrome as Down’s and until I took this job, I made this error as well.  To clarify, Down Syndrome was name named after John Langdon Down  because he was the doctor that first described the genetic condition not because he had Down Syndrome himself. Therefore, the possessive apostrophe s is incorrect.

Down Syndrome Kid / Down Syndrome Students / Down Syndrome child

Another common error is to speak about student’s with Down Syndrome by using their disability first.  This really diminishes who my students are and focuses only on one part of what makes them amazing. The goal should always be to use person first language.

They are so great / They are amazing / Wow, they are fantastic

This happens in my school and community often when we are out and about. Many people speak about my students to me when my students are standing right there. My advice is instead of speaking to the teacher, speak directly to the child. Instead of “they are so great”, use the phrase, “you are so great” and look directly at the child. Imagine how you would feel if everyone spoke about you when you were standing right there.

Suffering From Down Syndrome 

This is another common thing that I hear. I can assure you, my students are not suffering. They are vibrant, energetic, creative and brilliant members of our class. They teach me many things every day. They contribute a lot to our class, school and community. They do not suffer from Down Syndrome.

Downs / Child with Downs

Another common mistake when abbreviated Down Syndrome is to add the S onto the word Down. The correct way to abbreviate Down Syndrome is by using the term DS not Downs.

Your students are so happy / People with Down Syndrome are so happy

This is something that I often hear about my class. The reality is that all of my students have been upset or angry and they don’t spend every day, all day as happy people. I have some students who are incredibly shy and some who are incredibly outgoing. Every child in my class is unique and each have the same emotions as the rest of society.

If you are teaching a student with Down Syndrome, The Canadian Down Syndrome society has created a fantastic Educator Package for you to use in helping to support your student in class.

Tammy Axt General

This Sucks!

The Prime Minister is right. This sucks!

Covid has really put a damper on everything this year. It has made so many things crummy and having a positive outlook is hard right now. This was supposed to be the most amazing school year with my class. I have been with them for three years and they are graduating to high school this year. We were supposed to be going on epic field trips, having graduation parties and celebrating how much they have learned over the past three years. Understandably, many of the families that I serve have decided to keep their children at home and have them engage in online learning. I see them twice a day on the computer and I am trying to make it as meaningful as I can, but it is not the same. I miss them.

This was also supposed to be the year that all sorts of other amazing things were supposed to happen. I was supposed to be an assistant soccer coach at school for the first time, learn new teaching strategies at conferences and work to bring an amazing workshop to teachers about anti-indigeneity.

My students were supposed to learn new sports in gym, enjoy weekly trips to the grocery store and utilize the skills they worked SO hard to gain over the past two years.

The rest of the school was supposed to enjoy my students outgoing and friendly presence.

It sucks!

Some days I just want to stand in the middle of the school and scream THIS SUUUUUUUUUCCCCCCCCKKKKKKKKSSSSSS so that the whole neighborhood can hear.

Other days I just try to look at everything with a sense of gratitude.

If today is the day where you want to yell, stop reading now.

Read on to the next part of my blog, if you need a shot of positivity.

Even though things suck…

I am thankful for my job. The unemployment rate in Canada right now is at record high. So many people are worried about the financial security of their family and they go to bed every night incredibly worried about their future. I have had so many difficult conversations with my student’s families about the stress they are under. It reminds me daily that even though my job is not the same, I am very thankful to have it.

I am thankful that my job has benefits that provides counselling Like many, the return to work has provided some anxieties. Having access to a professional to speak with about some of these unsettling feelings has been profoundly impactful and helpful.

I am thankful for my health This may seem obvious, but I am very thankful for my health right now. `

I am thankful for technology that allows me to talk to my family I miss my family like many of us. However,  I think about the last pandemic in 1919 and I bet they wish they had Zoom and Smart phones to use.

I am thankful for the incredibly beautiful fall we had Wow! The fall colours were so bold and bright this year.

Whether you are feeling a sense of gratitude or frustration today, know that it is okay.

This pandemic does suck!

A child in an orange shirt lying on the floor.
Tammy Axt General

Commiserating With Others Over Their Technology Woes

Many of us have been assigned the unusual teaching package of instructing our classes online this year. A year ago, that would have seemed unthinkable. Teaching students from their homes with their pets, music blaring, siblings crying and unreliable technology would have seemed like a tall order. But here we are.

For me, my assignment that I received recently is called the hybrid model. In a nut shell, I am teaching my students who are attending in person simultaneously with my students who have opted for online learning. The important note to this assignment is that all of my students have a Developmental Disability and a variety of complex learning needs.

With three days notice of this hybrid model assignment, my colleagues and I moved quickly to explore the technology required to make this happen.

This is what the last week has looked like as I prepared:

 

This was my face when my Smart Board’s touch screen function now required you to touch things 1 foot to the right of the item you want to open.

This was my face when my student’s Chromebook wouldn’t load Google Meet for some unknown reason even though every other Chromebook loaded it just fine.

This was my face when my hard drive in my personal laptop imploded during the training for this new hybrid model.

This was my face when my office email refused to work three of the last four days.

This was my face when my desktop computer in my classroom no longer started, my student’s live streams crashed multiple times and the volume refused to work on my student’s iPad when we removed her headphones.

For those who are having technology woes, I feel your pain.

I am sure that things with all the technology will look up soon. I remind myself daily that we should be very thankful that we have access to iPads, Chromebooks, Smart Boards, laptops and desktops. There are many students all over the world that do not have access to even one of these things to support their learning. Tomorrow, I will pick myself up and try to figure out how to problem solve our challenges. For today, I sympathize with your challenges and I feel your frustration!!

Good luck for the month of October!

Tammy Axt General

Writing IEPs with Alternative Goals for Online Students

Is there anyone else out there who feels like they have stepped into some dystopian novel that we all will be waking from sometime soon? 2020 has become such a bizarre year, and education has taken some seriously unusual turns over the past 6 months, that my topic for this month is writing IEPs with alternative goals for online students. Alternative goals at home? Wow. That is sure a tall order.

In the spring, I read many examples of possible alternative IEP goals for students to work on at home. They were incredibly complex and required parents to follow 5, 000 steps or take on the role of the teacher full-time. I feel there needs to be a balance between our students continuing their learning, and the realities of what families are facing in the context of a global pandemic. I understand that the goal is that we work towards 225 minutes of synchronous learning a day, but the reality is, 225 minutes is hard to achieve when I have a class in-person as well and the parents are working from home. I feel the better option is to work closely with parents to prioritize their child’s learning needs and support them through this process. Therefore, in preparing this year’s IEPs and online learning program, I have asked for a lot of parent input. I have asked for even more than usual to get an idea of what is even manageable in their home. This year more than ever, we are partners in their child’s learning. I have asked questions like:

  1. How much time are you available to support your child both online and offline?
  2. What is the most important thing that you would like to have your child learn in term 1?
  3. Which one of the following works best for you: worksheets, apps, websites, YouTube videos or manipulatives?

My goal is to have my students learning in a way that is manageable for parents as the reality is, all of my students will need family support for them to continue their learning. None of my students can turn on the computer, find activities for themselves or navigate websites. Therefore, I have focused their IEP for term 1 on goals that are manageable and beneficial.

Some example of alternatives goals that I will be using are:

Life Skills:

__________ can follow visual steps to remove sheets from their bed and place them in the laundry basket.

__________ can follow visual steps to prepare a sandwich for lunch.

__________ can follow visual steps to independently change pads during menstruation.

__________ can brush teeth after meals.

__________ can select and put on clothes in the morning.

Numeracy:

__________ can count items up to 10.

__________ can identify amounts that are more or less than 5.

__________ can count out the correct number of plates to set the table for dinner.

Literacy:

__________ can read short passages on the computer.

__________ can write a list of their favourite things.

__________ can read their name in a variety of contexts.

Communication:

__________ can respond to questions about their interests using one word answers.

__________ can listen and respond to questions that begin with “who”, using two to three words.

__________ can identify their favourite items in their home using one word.

All of the above goals will be assessed and evaluated though a combination of observations during online meetings, websites that record student progress ( e.g., education.com) and conversations with parents. To all of those first year teachers doing online learning for students on alternative IEPs, my advice is to keep it simple!

Hopefully, 2021 will start to see a return of students coming back to school where we can support them all day long. I can’t wait!!!!

A photo of a poster. Multicoloured letters spell out Be calm, be kind, be safe.
Tammy Axt General

Be Kind Be Calm Be Safe

Over the past 15 years, I have played a little Kool and The Gang’s Celebration to kick off summer. I usually do a little dance down the hallway and groove my way out of my classroom. This year, I got up from my kitchen table, closed my computer and walked 3 steps to the kitchen for a glass of water. “Ce-le-brate Good Times Come On!”

The summer is usually a great time to recharge and refresh my energy levels so I go back to teaching pumped up for the new year. This summer is definitely going to be different. There are no triathlons to compete in, no concerts to attend and no weddings to dance at. Although things may look different, I think Dr. Bonnie Henry’s mantra of Be Kind, Be Calm and Be Safe is good advice for this unusual summer.

Be Kind

Be kind as many of us are struggling with mental health.

Be kind to those front-line workers who have been our foundational glue that has kept society running such as grocery store workers, truck drivers and health care professionals. One of my students has only seen her dad for one full day since this all started as he hasn’t had a day off from his job as a truck driver.

Be kind to your neighbors as they might be one of the millions of Canadians who have lost their job and have extreme stress about upcoming bills.

Be Calm

Be calm with members of your community who appear to be not following Covid guidelines. You don’t know what underlying conditions they have that prevent them from wearing a mask.

Be calm with yourself. Slow down, take a moment to breath and give yourself a break from the unbelievably difficult school year you have just completed.

Be calm with your family. Being indoors with the stress of jobs, online learning and the longest winter EVER is enough to raise anyone’s blood pressure. Hopefully, with the beginning of summer and some fresh air there will be a chance to regroup and enjoy time with family again.

Be Safe

Be safe in your home. I have fallen down the stairs twice since this whole thing has started mostly because I was on edge and trying to move too quickly. Slow down and save yourself some bruises.

Be safe in the outdoors. For many of us, this summer will be filled with new activities that we have never tried before. Before you decide to take up downhill mountain biking because pick up basketball games are not allowed, investigate the gear required for this sport and reflect on whether or not the sport it right for you.

Be safe in your community. Continue to social distance, wear masks and meet in small groups. Your actions will save others.

 

Have a wonderful summer of 2020. Be Kind, Be Calm and Be Safe as who knows what 2020-2021 will bring.

Tammy Axt General

Anti-Black Racism in Education

Over this past year, The Peel District School Board has undergone a review specifically looking at systemic discrimination against our Black students and staff. The review clearly displays that anti-Black racism exists in the Peel District School Board and that there will need to be outcome driven action taken to reduce disproportionately and disparity in the board in many areas. In the report, data was shared that  would be helpful for all educators, administrators and school boards to review as they self reflect on their role in perpetuating anti-Black racism in their class and school board. After I read the review, some questions that I am reflecting upon are:

Student Discipline

Are Black students being suspended at a disproportionate rate?

In Peel, the answer is yes. “Black students are only 10.2% of the secondary school population, but approximately 22.5% of students receiving suspensions.”

How often is the OTH-Other code being used in suspensions?

For those like me, that didn’t know the codes for suspensions as set out by the Ministry of Education, they are:

 

You will notice at the bottom of the list that there is a code OTH-other. In Peel, this code was used “approximately 78% of the time in secondary suspensions and 40% of the time elementary suspensions”. These are problematic statistics that provoke questions about reasons that students are being suspended.

What board wide or school wide de-escalation protocols are implemented to reduce the number of suspensions?

In the report, there is clearly no board wide strategy that has been implemented to reduce suspensions. One school’s de-escalation strategy that was outlined was to remove oneself from the situation and ask “What is the type of incident? What are the assumptions being made about the student and student’s behaviour? And after walking through the version of events from the teacher’s perspective and student’s perspective, what makes sense?” This simple protocol reduced suspensions in this particular family of schools. Does your school have a process in place that is consistently implemented? Is it communicated well to all staff so that they know how to follow it? Does your board have a de-escalation process in place?

What steps have been taken to reduce implicit bias in staff at your school or in your board?

“Research supports the view that the increased rates of suspension may be the result of implicit biases amongst PDSB faculty who, participants (in the review) told us, viewed Black youths as prone to misbehaviour.”

Pathways and programming Choices

As an intermediate educator, guidance counselor and administrator, are you empowering Black youth and parents to ensure that students are appropriately streamed into high school so that the students can reach their full potential?

Many anecdotal examples were given in the report to indicate concerns about streaming Black students. One Math teacher stated: Do parents and students understand that it may be “better to receive a 60% in academic math than a 90% in applied math because the student’s options for future educational pathways are greater with academic credits”?

Are Black students disproportionately streamed into applied and locally developed courses?

In Peel the answer is yes. “In grade 9 and 10, Black students make up approximately 10.1% of the student population” but they are represented in the courses as follows: “in academic 7.7%, in applied 21.7% and in locally developed credit courses 25.4%.

Are black students disproportionately represented in specialized or regional programs?

Remembering that in Peel, the Black student population is about 10%, this is the representation in our specialized programs:

Curriculum

Does your school or board, embed Black history throughout the entire school year or wait until February?

This was consistently raised as an issue in the report and concerns about content knowledge among teachers was deemed to be part of the problem.

Is the primary focus of Black History taught in your school or classroom American?

I have personally sat through a lot of Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks presentations in my teaching career and the review confirmed my experiences.

Are achievements of Black Canadians visibly highlighted in the school?

The examples outlined in the report indicates that this is not happening in schools consistently across the board.

Discriminatory Comments and Conduct

Is it policy in your board and school, that both the parents of the child who made the discriminatory comment and the parents of the child who had comments made against them are informed of the incident?

Examples of only the child who made the comment’s family being contacted were presented in the review. The family of the child who had discriminatory comments made against them were often never contacted.

What protocol do you have to address micro-aggressions in your classroom and school?

How do you address the n-word in your classroom and school?

In the review, students shared that the n-word was used often in their classrooms by students and that they often experienced inaction on the part of their teachers.

So I’ve read the Review, now what?

In light of this review and the events of recent months that clearly indicate profound systemic problems in relation to anti-Black racism in Canada, many educators are pushing themselves to be better. A better teacher, A better administrator, A better Canadian, A better colleague, A better friend. They are reading incessantly about white privilege, policing Black bodies, white supremacy and white fragility which is a great start to being self reflective.

To build on this reading, the Kojo Institute’s fall education series might be just be what you are looking for. In the fall, Kike Ojo-Thompson will be leading a three-part session about moving beyond awareness to strategic action that will aim to produce more equitable outcomes for Black students and educators.  The link for registration is here .

 

My local has worked with Kike Ojo-Thompson to develop a strategic plan going forward. I look forward to sharing my learning throughout this process as we begin to implement action in our local and in our board. I hope to report by this time next year, how we addressed some of the questions listed above and I am sure that as we go deeper, I will have a whole list of new questions.

Tammy Axt General

Ideas for Distance Learning

Nine weeks ago, the teachers of Ontario were asked to do something most of us couldn’t have conceived of when the school year began. We rose to the challenge and in under two weeks we started to deliver distance learning to the homes of the students of Ontario. We did all of this while our own children cried in our arms, our puppies jumped on us, our computers and internet failed constantly and we became the sole earner in our home as our partners lost their jobs. I often am amazed at the skills the teachers of Ontario collectively possess but this was unbelievable. Teachers pulled together to meet their students needs so fast and 9 weeks later we are still sitting at our computer screens for hours at a time to continue this important work.

I teach a class of students with Developmental Disabilities which has made distance learning difficult since they have a limited ability to read or write and incredibly complex learning needs. It has taken a large amount of creativity and unconventional ideas to attempt to meet their needs. I ended up doing a mixture of weekly assignments, online platforms, postal mail and live synchronous learning to try to reach out to every one of my students.

(Just a note about synchronous learning… I used my professional judgement that live synchronous learning would meet the needs of my particular students because of their learning profile and emotional needs. However, live synchronous learning comes with a lot of challenges and pitfalls. I have been very cautious in introducing it to my students and have had at least one TA join me for every session. My team gathered online and spoke at length about parameters and rules for synchronous learning before we started and I have worked with parents to ensure that professional boundaries are maintained. I know that the teachers of Ontario will make the right decision about what kind of synchronous learning will best meet the needs of their students using their professional judgement.)

With four weeks left, I’m sure the energy level is starting to fade for many of our students. Keeping them engaged and excited about learning online is getting tougher and tougher every day. Today I want to share some ideas that I have come up with over the last nine weeks in the hopes that one idea can give you something for your students to do over the next four weeks to keep them going. These are ideas to do with your students if you are meeting with them on Google Meet, Teams or another form of teleconferencing service.

For my students with special needs, the goal for all of these activities was to have students actively engaged in communication with me and their classmates. The activities also focused on social skills such as taking turns, working with others and having patience.

  • Who is it? I took pictures I had of my students and zoomed in on one part of the picture such as an eyeball or running shoe. It became a guessing game of who they thought the picture was of. This game allowed my students to express how much they missed their friends and to celebrate their awesome classmates.
  • Charades The students and staff all took turns pantomiming an animal. The other students had to guess what the animal was. For my students muting and unmuting their mics has been very difficult, therefore, I encouraged my students to take turn guessing.
  • Find Something in Your House On plain pieces of paper, I wrote the colours blue, pink, black, red, green and purple. I showed them to the students one sheet at a time. When the students saw the colour, they had to go and run and find something from their home that was that colour and bring it back and explain what they have found. This is by far their favourite distance learning activity!
  • Freeze Dance I used my Bluetooth speaker to play music and we grooved and moved to some of our favourite songs. I stopped the music every once in a while, to allow the students to pose in their favourite dance move.
  • Pictionary The staff in my classroom all took turns drawing a picture for the students to guess. My students are amazing guessers at my less than perfect drawings. We work on taking turns and celebrating our friends when they get the right answer through this activity.
  • Show and Tell about your pet or stuffed pet My class and I are real animal lovers and we have had many, many conversations about our pets during this time at home. I can tell you so many things about Roxy, Sugar, Herc, Rona, Coco, Fenway and Pepples. It has been a great Segway for many of students to talk about their feelings when we talk about our pet’s feelings daily.
  • Making a Bird Feeder My students and I got the materials together for a very simple bird feeder and made them together as we chatted online. We each hung it up in our backyard and watched for visiting birds.
  • Art show and tell My students have done countless art projects from chalk drawings outside and poster boards for their friends’ birthdays. We often have a sharing time to show their art and discuss their pictures.
  • Exercise Time I lead a half hour exercise time for my students. We all bring our water and get our sweat on.
  • Lego building show and share I invite my students to build anything out of lego and tell us the story of what they have built.
  • Nature share My students have been noticing things that they have seen on family walks such as ducks, a bald eagle and a beaver. No alligators yet, but you never know in the last four weeks.

 

Thank you, thank you, thank you for going above and beyond to help your students through a profoundly difficult time. I have never been prouder to call myself an Ontario teacher. You are truly amazing!

Tammy Axt General

Resources for Jewish Heritage Month

May is Jewish Heritage Month. This relative new heritage month began in 2017 across Canada and in 2012 in Ontario. Recently, a good friend of mine was asked to write a letter to the teachers in my area about the importance of Jewish Heritage Month. While she prepared to write the letter, she shared her research and personal experiences of antisemitism as a student. I decided although many of you probably know about Jewish Heritage Month, others like me, may need an introduction to a few resources developed for teachers so that when we return to school you can introduce Jewish Heritage Month next year.

Websites with Jewish Canadian Content 

Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Centre- Toronto

This Jewish Heritage Month Guidebook is a great place to start when gathering resources for a focus on Jewish Heritage Month in your class. It includes answers to some questions about Jewish Heritage Month, a section on famous Jewish Canadians, a historical overview and introduction to Jewish history and Judaism. There are also some lesson plans to introduce Jewish food, culture and history to your students.

Also on the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Centre website is a section about antisemitism in Canada. “Hate crime statistics released earlier this year by Statistics Canada revealed that the Jewish community has remained the most targeted group for hate crimes, with 347 police-reported hate crimes in 2018 committed against the community.” Antisemitism is a serious problem in Canada that is not discussed enough in schools. The interactive map pictured below is a way to open the conversation of recent acts of anti-semitism in Canada with students.

 

 

Holocaust Museum- Montreal

The website for the Montreal Holocaust Museum has an extensive section for educators. Within the plethora of artefacts and video testimonials for students to view, their is a section called Activities for Studying the Holocaust at Home . This section supports study of the Holocaust from anywhere in the country and contains a user friendly teacher’s guide for educators.  The visuals used in the website help students deconstruct the events that happened during the Holocaust and understand Canada’s role. Within the teacher’s guide, there are also links to multiple interactive timelines that will answer many questions students have about the Holocaust such as how the Nazis rose to power and what the rest of the world did while the Jewish people were being brutally murdered.

 

 

The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs

The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs has created a Jewish Heritage guidebook that gives introductory information about Jewish heritage and culture. It includes some introductory concepts about Judaism, some basic terms and an explanation of minor and major Jewish Holy Days. The end of the guidebook has some facts that could be posted in the classroom or shared with your students every day in May.

Tammy Axt General

When All of This Is Over….Remember The Number of Students Who Couldn’t Access Technology

I know I am supposed to be embracing technology and getting pumped for all the new applications and tools that I am learning how to use. I have been completely in awe of how fast Ontario teachers adapted to this new reality and created engaging learning opportunities on many different platforms for their students. However, I am facing a problem that many of the students in Ontario are currently challenged with. We are both having difficulty accessing reliable technology and the internet.

Last year, I bought a laptop and have had nothing but problems over the past couple of weeks. It has crashed multiple times, has had problems with the speaker and generally just caused me a lot of frustration. I have had to apologize to colleagues and students when our Google Meet has crashed mid sentence because of my laptop. However, I also have a tablet and a phone as emergency backup for continuing my student’s learning and connecting online with my colleagues. Many of the students in my class, school and around the province do not have the same access to technology in their home.

The thing that will stick with me from this time that we are learning from home is the number of students that required technology to complete school work. In my board alone, over 14, 500 students required technology and 2000 required internet to engage in any form of learning at home. That is an absolutely staggering number. In my classroom and my school, 20% of all students requested technology to be delivered because they didn’t have enough technology in their home to support their learning needs.

I think back now about how many messages I have sent through Google Classrooms, or assignments that have been more easily completed with internet and a computer that I have assigned. I realize how disadvantaged some of my students were every time they left the classroom and were starting behind their fellow classmates. I also think of schools where that same number was under 5% or over 50% and how monetary situations are impacting the student’s ability to access the same tools and resources required to be successful at school.

There is no doubt that students need to be confident in using technology in their daily life for many different purposes. Technology will most likely play a fundamental role in acquiring or maintaining employment as students become adults. Technology is also the primary way that many students communicate with each other. I see many of my fantastic colleagues teaching amazing lessons with the limited resources available to them to build the skills the students require. However, there is a major gap that exists between students that can go home and practice the skills regularly and those that rely on limited and sometimes broken school technology.

I am fortunate that I teach at a middle school. Working with the students there keeps me current and up to date on trends and innovations in technology. But over the last month, I have been thinking about those amazing grade eight students in my knitting club and those who assist my students with such kindness. Did they fall in the 20% at my school? If so, will they have any chance at being successful in e-learning courses in high school?