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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.

Arianna Lambert Teacher Wellness, wellness

Teacher Well-being

In the midst of a pandemic, this month in particular has me thinking about teacher well-being. I know that we often focus on student well-being – which is imperative – and I wonder if now might be a good time to stop and acknowledge that current events are taking a toll not only on our children but also on the people who are tasked with teaching them at a distance. How might months like this past one with the stories of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, Christian Cooper, and George Floyd take a toll on educators, – particularly Black educators – compounded by the fact that we are in the midst of a pandemic? I write today to say that I am exhausted beyond measure. If I were to stop and really feel what I know is manifesting within my body, I’m not sure how I might react and so rather than taking that time, I push through because report cards are due in a couple of weeks and classrooms have to be prepped for summer and most importantly, I have students that I need to stay connected to. Not out of obligation but because it’s that connection that keeps me going through this time. The relationship is reciprocal. At least for me. I told my students earlier this week that our Meets are the highlights of my day. I know that on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, I’ll have anywhere from 15 to 20 excited voices wanting to share something about their lives and it is a reminder that beyond content, there’s so much that these young people are learning about themselves and the world around them. What are our actions teaching them?

Today, I’m allowing myself to feel as I write. I’m frustrated with talks of reimagining education when there are voices who are never invited to speak on their own reimagination. I’m angered by people’s inability to hear and see what is happening in the world and their lack of understanding that it has a significant impact on our physiology. By asking me to do more without substantive proof that it will have an equally inverse impact, you negate my experience and expertise. I am saddened by personal loss and am overwhelmed by feelings of isolation in grief. I know that I’m not alone in this feeling, and I wonder how many of us are feeling this very thing while smiling away and trying our best because we have “responsibilities”? At what point does our own well-being become the biggest responsibility? With a month left to go of the school year, I worry for colleagues. There’s tremendous pressure to “perform” this next month and I ask you to pause and make sure that you are also taking care of yourself. Your well-being is important. You can’t give what you don’t have. Fill your tanks.  

For the most part, during the last 10 weeks that we have been away from the school building, I’ve been holding it together. Learning a new routine, balancing “work” and home, saying no to a lot that doesn’t grow and/or serve me or my students. But this week, wow. There’s been too much so I’m going to pause, keep writing, and work through these feelings that are stirring within me. 

Wishing true wellness to everyone,

Arianna

Arianna Lambert Design, Distance learning, The Arts

What’s Working?!?

Ok…so the title is truly a reflection of my uncertainty of what is in fact working in this thing that I have called distance learning. Over the past 10 weeks, I’ve been engaged in this process with students and as we approach the final month of the year, I’m taking some time to reflect on what has – in my opinion – worked, at least for me and my students. Don’t worry, it will be a short list so not to worry about a never-ending post here!

Google Meets

Since our first week of distance learning, we’ve had Google Meet sessions that have been audio only. During these times, we’ve done check-ins and it’s also been a great tool for helping small groups through mini-lessons. Over the past couple of weeks, they have shifted slightly where students have been the ones to suggest things that we might do during our Meets. We had a Connect4 tournament and we’ve also had a couple of students who created and shared short trivia games. What I’m noticing is that these times are becoming more and more social and less and less about “the work”. Which is an education in itself. Don’t get me wrong, we work through any questions students have but it’s becoming a more comfortable forum to share in a more social way. I’m still navigating some of the ideas of great uses for Meet and would welcome any suggestions people may have. 

Podcasts

Last month, I introduced my students to the Six Minute Podcast and I must admit that it’s the one thing that is probably the most talked-about or the activity that is most tried during the week. I’m actually surprised at how many have enjoyed listening and having discussions about it. The podcast is a serial story about an 11-year old by the name of Holliday. She is pulled from the icy waters of Alaska with no memory of who she is or where she came from. She is “adopted” by the family who found her and when she begins to develop incredible abilities, she soon discovers that she’s not alone in the world. There are so many twists and turns in each episode and many can’t wait to find out more. As we have listened, we learned about writing summaries, making and justifying choices, character analysis, and more! I think when we start again in September, podcasts might be something that we keep.

Design

While I personally understand the impact of the trauma caused by the current pandemic, I felt it necessary to speak about it in an age-appropriate way with students. Having a number of students with parents as frontline workers, I knew that their experiences would definitely have an impact on our learning. We’ve been doing a design sprint – well…maybe more like a marathon at the moment – and it’s been incredible to see how it has empowered students to think about themselves as being incredible problem solvers. Today I had 3 students pitch their ideas during our whole-class Meet and I was blown away by what they designed to solve problems for people. They thought of it all. From holographic watches to stay connected with family to a new company designed to train and employ individuals to make personal protective equipment for the community, when implemented, their solutions can have an amazing impact! Through this work, they are really understanding that they have the power to bring about change not just for themselves but for others. 

Art & Physical Education

While the Arts and Physical Education haven’t been the focus of the Ministry of Education during this time, I’ve been adding them to our weekly schedule. It’s made the world of difference for some of my students. The ability to express themselves through the Arts and Physical Education has been incredible. We’ve created a classroom Art gallery and many of my students plan weekly Phys. Ed. challenges for their classmates. When I see schools re-opening and subject areas like Physical Education aren’t being included, I wonder what further trauma this might be on students who rely on these subject areas as an essential part of their school lives and their general wellness. I worry.

As I reflect on this past month, I think we’ve had many successes and these are just some of the reasons why. I’m not sure what June will hold and I guess we’ll see!

Deb Weston Engaging students with online learning, Teaching online

Strategies to Engage Students in Online Learning

ETFO’s position on in-person learning remains unchanged. The union firmly believes that the daily, in-person model of instruction and support best meets the educational, developmental and social needs of students, provides the best experience for support, and is the most equitable learning model for all students. ETFO’s expectation is that elementary virtual learning in any capacity, including through hybrid models of instruction, will end once the pandemic ends.

This is a personal reflection on how I have improved my skills as an online teacher of students with learning disabilities. It is my hope that this reflection will support teachers with their own online learning journey.

  1. Teachers need to know the technology and how to support students with this technology

As teachers we are expected to lead by example. In the transition to online learning, teachers were tasked to provide our students with an online learning platform in a short time frame. Many teachers had never used any of the platforms provided and had to stumble through the first weeks following a very steep learning curve.

This meant that I had to investigate many applications that I thought would work with my students. I quickly learned every week what format and applications kept the students’ interest and what did not.

Teachers do not have to be experts all the time and it is perfectly acceptable not to know how to use every application and platform immediately. With time and support from others, teachers can build enough efficacy to support their students in learning how to use the technology.

As a teacher, I have also been supporting parents on how to support their children with on line learning as parents are now acting as adhoc teaching assistants.

A caveat: Even with my 2 years of teaching teachers online, this still did not prepare me for the colossal task of trying to keep my students working on schoolwork and engaged in their learning.

  1. Give students the opportunity to add to their own learning.

Getting my students to help develop our online content was not as challenging as I thought as my students already ask to investigate things that matter to them. This meant getting and using suggestions made by students to post as online class assignments. An example of this was our class’s “Message of Hope” where students were ask to create a message that I could Tweet out through our school’s community.

In our weekly meeting, the students decided that they wanted to visit different parts of the world using Google Earth. This created a chance to talk about many things we saw in our visits. Further, the students also decided that each student should take a turn to run our Friday meeting.

In building an opportunity for students to learn what they find interesting, intrinsic motivation can be maintained as their love of learning new things and new technology will likely promote further engagement in student’s learning online.

  1. Provide a time for sharing to build community

During our weekly online meetings, students share how they are feeling (similar to the daily community check-ins). When I ran this activity, my questions were often met with short answers. Now that students are running the meeting, they ask questions such as “What did you do yesterday?” which are apparently far more engaging than “How are you feeling today?” As a regular part of our meeting, we usually end up telling stories about happenings in our lives. This is also a powerful way to connect students with their peers as they ask questions and add on to these stories.

In order to keep students connected to their school community, I invite surprise guests to visit our weekly online meeting. To date, the VP, the office manager, and the kindergarten teachers/ECEs have visited our meeting. I think our VP had more fun that the students did with her visit!

  1. Updating online learning content every week

I found out very quickly that I needed to keep my Google Classroom fresh with new content. This meant that I had to delete content that students did not engage in or gave poor reviews on such as “I didn’t like that site/activity , I think we should do something more interesting”. With this feedback, I try and keep the content engaging which included writing a journal on Slime in Space. I also included quizzes on learning styles and future careers which turned out to be a big hit!

In keeping content engaging, I need to get feedback from students as I am not 10 years old anymore and my students are the experts about what they find interesting.

  1. Get students to help other students

Some of my students are very solid users of technology and some are not. As I would in my classroom, I ask students to support other students in helping them learn certain applications as they have already had the lesson from me. This strategy is very effective as students who need support get it and this gives an opportunity for other students to develop leadership skills. It is interesting when the support flips and the student who usually provides supports needs it from a student who usually gives support.

  1. Making sure work gets done

Keeping students accountable during the time of online school is a challenge. Students are not accustomed to learning online and prefer the more social face to face learning in classrooms.

The Ontario Ministry of Education has been very clear about not assessing students and only providing feedback for work completed online. This also means that students do not have to complete work as there is no source of extrinsic motivation. Instead, teachers must rely on students’ intrinsic motivation demonstrated through their love of learning online.

Further, parents must be onside. Parents, mostly mothers, have been put in a place where they are acting as their child’s teaching assistant. This means that parents must monitor and encourage their child to complete the 5 hours of assigned work per week without the teacher in place to support schoolwork. As a teacher, I do everything I can to support parents in getting their child to turn in their work. I am now meeting with each student online to go over their assignments and support them as needed. Some parents are having a very challenging time getting their child to do any work. This is a reality of online learning as some students cannot sustain their engagement in learning without a teacher’s support.

In addition, some parents are overtaxed with supporting their child’s learning at home. During the , parents have been working from home and caring for their children. For some parents, it is so overwhelming that they cannot support their child with their schoolwork.

Even during the pre-lockdown school days, I could not help my son with his homework which he rarely completed. It was not worth battling with my child to get his work finished. I am glad he is an adult now, responsible for his own work.

The bottom line is that since I am accountable to tracking and reporting on work completion, I must continue doing this as I am my students’ teacher.

Overall, this challenge of solely teaching and learning online has not been something I want to maintain. I plan to keep some aspects of our Google Classroom as it is a good way to track work and grow students learning of new technology and applications.

With our current online learning reality, what I miss most is working directly with students seeing their faces and reactions to learning new things. In being able to read students’ level of comprehension, I can make the work harder or easier so we are in the sweet spot of Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development. If work is too easy, students learn very little. If work is too hard, students give up.

In using visual cues, I can be highly effective in teaching my students more. Without being physically present while watching my students work, I am teaching blind.

Wishing you health and wellness,

Collaboratively Yours,

Deb Weston

Michelle Fenn 21st Century Learning, Communication Tools, Constant Learning, Curriculum Planning, Differentiated Instruction, Distance learning, Emergency Distance Learning, Health & Safety, Inspiring Students, Inspiring Teachers, Integration, Learning in a Real Life Context, Media Literacy, Mental Health, Mindfulness, Modern Learning, Professional Judgement, Professional Learning and Growth, Questioning, Resources, Social Media, Teachers Classroom Spending, Technology in school, The Global Competencies, Use of Technology, Using technology well

Overwhelming Resources

As we engage in distance/remote/online/emergency learning Educators are being inundated with resources and tools to use in their virtual classrooms.  It isn’t easy to decide which would be most effective and which ones are safe for teachers and students to use.  There is no one size fits all answer to this but there are a few things that I do in order to narrow down my choices of whether or not to use a particular digital tool or resource:

  1.  I search for tools that are designed by Canadian or better yet, Ontario Educators and where possible, data is housed in Canada.
  2. I look at whether or not the tool will still be free after the COVID crisis is over or whether it has always been a free tool.  I honestly don’t mind paying for a tool from the outset but I don’t really like the whole free trial thing.  I also don’t want to pay some kind of a monthly fee.  One time price, please!  I don’t want to love a tool so much while it is free and then have to pay for it when I go back into the classroom.
  3. I look at whether or not it is a one time fee or negative billing.  I won’t give anyone my credit card to start a free trial for a tool.
  4. I search for tools that I know will be supported by my ICT department.  Anything that wants access to email contacts in my school board is a non-starter.
  5. I search for tools that inspire collaboration and creativity.  I’m not one to sign up students for a gaming platform that is really just an engaging math drill.
  6. I look at bang for my buck (even if it is free).  Is it a versatile tool?  Does it allow for different forms of communication?  Can I embed audio and video?  Is there an opportunity for a variety of feedback methods?
  7. I look at the Privacy statement.  Although I am no expert in this, I can generally tell when something has red flags.  Anything that is attached to third party social media platforms like Facebook is a non starter for me.
  8. Right now while there are so many sign ups and passwords for students, I stay away from platforms that want to create student accounts and want information apart from an email.
  9. I look to see if it is a Microsoft or Apple Education certified product?  I know that for the most part, those tools are trustworthy.
  10. I look at user reviews and YouTube tutorials.  I want to know what the pitfalls are of something before I invest time and/or money.

At the end of the day no tool is perfect and few tools are unlikely to meet the specific needs of each and every student in your classroom.  However, I hope that what I do when choosing a tool might guide you to the most effective tools in the over abundance of resources that are floating around out there.

Michelle Fenn Challenging Topics, Emergency Distance Learning, Inspiring Teachers, Mental Health, Mindfulness, Resilience, Teacher Appreciation, Teacher Wellness, Teacher Working Conditions, The Arts, wellness, wellness

Inspiration During the COVID Crisis

I know that as I write this, I speak from a fortunate position. We are working safely from home and all of us are still healthy.  Other than not being able to see extended family and friends, having some aches and pains from being in front of the computer and get out to the hair dresser, my family is coping pretty well with isolation.  While so many are suffering it has been humbling and inspiring to witness the resilience, creativity and kindness of those around us.

Music is everywhere.  Concerts on television bringing Canadian artists from their living rooms to ours, live Facebook concerts of our favourite Canadian musicians, and videos from friends and family sharing their music.  This week I joined a virtual Ukulele play and sing along with the Bytown Ukulele Group from Ottawa.  I played and sang along with people from British Columbia, Ireland, Nova Scotia and here in Peterborough!

Art is everywhere.  People are painting anything and everything!  From rocks to sea shells to paint nights with friends.  There are sketches and sculptures and pottery being made. From digital art to creating sketches from tutorials with famous artists; people are creating all kinds of beautiful art.

Dance is everywhere.  There are Tik-Tok videos of dances making teenagers get up and move and follow along.  Dance studios are going online to continue extra curricular dance lessons.  30 second dance parties are happening in my living room whenever we need a break from the computer screen.  Thankfully, none of that is being recorded!

There is culinary prowess being celebrated.  Yeast and flour are hot commodities right now because people are trying their hands at baking bread.  People are posting meals they have never made before and swapping recipes with friends.  People are growing things on their windowsills and in their backyards for the first time.

Innovation is everywhere.  People are trying their hands at DIY projects and coming up with innovative ways to connect online.  Teachers are learning digital tools they have never used before in order to connect with their students. We’ve been participating in online trivia and poker nights.  My son plays Jackbox party games with his friends while also chatting online or streams a movie together.

Most of all, I have witnessed incredible kindness.  I joined a Facebook group called Peterborough Shares.  At first it was mainly to communicate where to find particular grocery items and post information about shopping etc., It has since become a forum of connection where people ask for help and others respond.  From a new mom recently unemployed to a family who lost their home to fire, people are answering to the calls for help.  Something as simple as finding left handed scissors for a child to complete schoolwork or finding a hand crafted Mother’s Day gift, people are coming together to share that information and supporting one another in an unprecedented way.  More than ever, my city feels like a community.

I know I am in a fortunate position.  I am grateful every day that we took my 87 year old mom out of her retirement home when this all began and that she has remained healthy.  I am grateful that my 16 year old son has friends he connects with, teachers who care and a love of artistic things that feed his soul.  I am grateful that my husband and I can work from home and that he goes out and bravely gets the things we need.  I am grateful that in the middle of all of the chaos, in the middle of the grief and sadness, there is hope.

Will Gourley Challenging Topics, Emergency Distance Learning, General, Making a Difference Through Education, Mental Health, Teacher Working Conditions, Use of Technology

The screens of silence

I am wondering whether the title of this post should be “The screams of silence” because that’s how it feels some days.

It’s week four of emergency distance learning and I am feeling weaker for it. Is anyone else feeling this way from staring at their screen(s) all day? If asked, I’ve been responding with thumbs up and all good, but in reality I am fighting the dissonance disrupting my days, and it relates to the way I feel about what is happening in education right now. To top it off, I am wrestling with self-doubt about whether my instructional act is all together. Add to that the pressure I’m putting on myself to wake up feeling fit and fresh because I am working from the “comfort” of my basement. Being cooped up, I mean observing physical distancing, doesn’t help. See what I mean about interchangeable titles?

Then there is the daily media segment about something or another to do with #QuarantineEducation. This week an article in The Globe and Mail shared Some overwhelmed parents are giving up on distance learning and abandoning at-home schooling. This noise is hard to tune out when we have been asked to stay in place and create something that has never been done effectively on a large scale so quickly. Maybe that’s what is holding my head hostage? Or maybe it’s that my hair is too long? Both make me want to scream sometimes

There is something to be said about the experience of facilitating learning in the vacuum of 2020. It’s cold. As I stare at several connected screens to keeping track of at least 17 other currently opened tabs on my computer, I have to admit this is all a bit daunting – even for this tech-happy educator. If teaching is my superpower, then the screens, meetings, and other digital dungeons trying to contain me have become my kryptonite.

I share this neither in angst nor anger, but out of an admission that the struggle is a real one. It sounds like I am not alone. This surreal situation we are now in was, is, and will never be a positive experience. We were starting to recover from a devasting January and dreadful February only then to be steamrolled by March when an uncontrollable virus unleashed itself on the world. Welcome April, a month that no one would have predicted to be the first of two months away from our schools…so far.

What did we do? We rallied, we pivoted to support our students and each other, and we waited patiently knowing we had to care for our own families too. We were lucky that the start of March Break landed when it did, as it may have helped us to avoid something worse had COVID 19 entered our open schools. Throughout this time we turned to our screens to watch for updates, data, and directions.

While we waited and watched for answers, our thoughts continued to race and the questions began to bubble up. How am I going to reach my learners? How are students who are marginalized by poverty and or other circumstances coping with all of this? What are the expectations from my board, admin, families, and most importantly students? What about my life at home? How will I manage when many of my teaching resources are at school? How much work do I assign? How about due dates? Do I take attendance? What happens when students don’t complete work? How do I assess anything without fear that someone else has done the work?

Everybody was working together. As our profession embraced the challenge of this reality, digital resources were curated, virtual meetings were held, contact was reinitiated with families/students, and a sense of temporary normalcy had made its way back into our weekly M to F routines. Cue some new silences.

The enthusiasm of returning to instruction, albeit asynchronously, signified that something was being done on behalf of families and our students, but the lack of connection through voice and vision has been hard to overcome for this educator. Speaking with many other educators who are feeling the same way, it is the meaningful interactions with peers/teachers and the chance of being heard that students are craving the most right now. We need to make sure they are acknowledged and heard, and the current situation is leaving them without a voice.

Teachers are the conduits for connection in their classrooms and will never be replaced by an emoji, meme, or brief feedback on a task to be viewed in silence on a student’s screen. However, it has been difficult to connect with students due security issues relating to conferencing platforms such as Google Meet and Zoom. This is extremely frustrating for a number of reasons. With those screens dark, students are left to keyboard strokes, Screencastify, and digital classroom posts for their content and updates. This is not the education any of us signed up to deliver. Despite my efforts to adapt and fill my screens with amazing shareable content to carry on, something is missing. The voices of my students. Cue the disconnects. Cue the silent screams at silent screens.

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?

 

Tammy Axt General

Online learning for students with DD

When much of the discussion about on-line learning happened in the media this year during the high school contract negotiations, I often thought My students should never have to participate in any course online. My students all have developmental disabilities and are working towards goals on an alternative IEP. Most have some form of communication impairment and are not able to read well enough to follow instructions online. Online learning seemed like something that would never work for my students! Little did I know when 2020 hit, we would have no choice but to figure out online learning the best we could. It has been very tricky, with some successes and some challenges. Here is what has worked:

  1. Sending a PDF file instead of logging on a pre-existing platform. My students are unable to sign onto a device or navigate difficult platforms.  My team sends home a PDF file every Monday with activities, songs and pictures for that week. The PDF has pictures that link to the activity for the student. It is simple, straight forward and allows families to work at their own pace. Since it is a PDF, families have had no trouble opening the file on phones, tablets, iPads, Chromebook or laptops.

2) Having regular parent contact. I contacted all my parents by phone the first week we started the online learning and I end every e-mail, assignment and weekly newsletter with how they can contact me. Spending a lot of time answering parent e-mails and reaching out via phone has alleviated a lot of stress and anxiety.

3) Sending students mail. Who out there doesn’t love to get mail? For my families that have decided not to access the online component of the learning, a letter in the mail continues to tell them that we are thinking of them and offers them another reminder how they can reach out. Did you know that Canada post will deliver pre-stamped envelops to your house? It took about a week to receive our envelops and we were so happy that no one had to leave their house to buy them!

4) Video conferencing with the class and with individual students. My local has worked closely with the board to make some specific platforms available for meeting with students online. When I am meeting with a student and their family, I take another staff member with me on all calls. Usually, it is one of the TAs from my class that my student knows very well. For my students who are incredibly socially motivated and have difficulty reading or communicating, seeing each other has been very important for their emotional well being. I keep it short and control the conversation. Only about half of my families wanted to do this option but the students that have participated, have loved it!!

 

5) Sharing pictures from class. At the end of every weekly file is a section called connecting. I have included pictures from school and also some parents have submitted some pictures from things that they are doing at home! Many parents have told me that the pictures have been very helpful for their child and they have enjoyed looking at them.