Regardless of performance, schooling at home poses new challenges
High school preparation program offered online starting on June 29
As the stay-at-home order continues to be extended, many students are excelling during school lessons, say teachers, but others struggle or have disengaged, allowing their marks in March to speak for themselves.
Students have more ways to connect than ever before when doing school work from home. When the COVID-19 pandemic struck this put theory into practice and students were faced with adapting to school remotely and staying engaged.
“We recognize every family is feeling challenged by what is happening, even if families are doing fairly well, they are certainly experiencing the stress and the anxiety of a pandemic,” said Michael Nasello, director of education for the Peterborough Victoria Northumberland Clarington Catholic School Board.
Students have the stress of learning new computer programs to keep in touch with teachers, faculty and peers to finish off the school year strong.
Platforms such as Google Classroom, Bright Space and EDSBY are cloud-based software programs helping to connect students and teachers to one another, said Jennifer Knox, principal of Kenner Collegiate.
Video conferencing is used to keep students engaged in their subjects, programs such as WebEx help to connect students to teachers and students with one another to collaborate on things like projects and school groups, such as science clubs or comic clubs, and keeping in touch with one another.
Students from kindergarten to Grade 6 at Havelock-Belmont Public School in Havelock engage in story time using WebEx or they can read to staff and it can be used for wellness checkins, said Michelle Borgatti, principal of the school.
Programs like this create learning environments for students who might be struggling with too much stimulation or not enough in their daily life.
This is what is called a blend of synchronist and asynchronist learning, said Nasello.
“Synchronist meaning students are online at the same time with their teachers and educational assistance,” he said. “Either in large groups, the whole class or maybe even as individuals.”
Asynchronist is messages or materials left in email or Google Classroom messages they can access and reply with assigned work, Nasello said.
Teachers are adapting assignments to include life skills in their learning as well, Borgatti said.
“We are encouraging families to continue reading, writing and doing math daily with their children for the last five weeks of school. We are asking this to help lessen the learning gaps when we can return to the classrooms. We worry about the impact on children when families opt out of learning so early.”
“Some of our students are working full-time, so it has been a real challenge for some of our students, but overall they are staying engaged and doing everything they can,” Jamie Hutchinson, social sciences and education resources teacher at Kenner.
Summer Start program registration
Registration has begun for Summer Start, a program offered by the Kawartha Pine Ridge District School Board to help graduating Grade 8 students prepare to start high school.
Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the program, which focuses on literacy and numeracy skills, is being offered online this year from June 29 to July 27. Student will be expected to be online five days per week and should plan on spending six hours per day focused on the course. Participants will earn a high school credit.
Students can be registered at www.kprschools.ca