New world of schooling awaits kids in September
Smaller class sizes could be just the start as boards adjust to educating during the COVID-19 pandemic
Niagara students will be in for a whole new learning experience when they go back to school, likely in September.
It won’t take long for them to see it — probably with the first steps they take to board their school bus.
Most likely there will be just one kid per bench. No sharing seats anymore.
They might see the driver protected by Plexiglas, and the bus might be half-empty to allow social distancing.
So maybe kids arrive at school at staggered times, as more buses drop off smaller loads.
And full classrooms? Forget it. During COVID-19, it will be school like we’ve never known it.
“One hundred per cent, you’re not going to have any schools — elementary or secondary — with students going in at 100 per cent capacity,” says Louis Volante, a professor in the department of educational studies at Brock University.
“I can assure you, that’s not in the cards.”
Students studying from home for half of the week. Smaller class sizes. Masks. Closing the building midweek for deep cleaning. Regulated bathroom breaks. Kids kept apart on recess.
The province hasn’t announced yet what changes parents and students can expect when they go back, presumably in September. Ontario schools have been closed since mid-march.
Quebec reopened its elementary schools in mid-may on a voluntary basis and in classes of no more than 15 students.
After two weeks, 41 students and staff had tested positive for COVID-19.
British Columbia started bringing its elementary students back on Monday.
The good thing for Ontario, Volante says, is it can learn from the experience of other places, like Quebec as well as France and Switzerland, that have already reopened schools and adapted them for life during COVID-19.
Volante said he could see a scenario where elementary kids go to school two days a week and study from home the rest of the time. Secondary students might spend even less time at school.
“There’s going to be a much stronger focus on direct instruction for the time the students actually are in school,” he says.
“So you can imagine, if teachers used to have five days to get through a number of math lessons in high school, they’re not going to have that amount of instructional time to get through that same content.”
As well as preparing lessons for students to view online from home, they might also hold video drop-in sessions in the absence of one-on-one sessions they used to hold.
“I would think two big trends you’re going to see moving forward are, much more emphasis for the time students do have in school on direct instruction,” he says, “and far less opportunity for collaboration in the classroom, at least traditional collaboration where students work in small groups.”
That forced distancing might mean changes to — or the end of — science or lab projects on which students work together. Where and how students get lunch breaks will be an issue, too.
“Prior to this, the province was really pushing larger class sizes,” Volante says. “That was a real sticking point for negotiations with various unions.
“I’d hazard to say the class size issue has disappeared from the landscape, because we know now that we can’t have 28, 30, 35 kids in the classroom anymore.”
Jada Nicklefork, Niagara president for the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario, expects the need to keep schools clean will have a major impact on the school day.
“There is definitely going to have to be a time set where you’re going to have the children wash their hands,” says Nicklefork, a primary school teacher.
“You’ll definitely have to remind students a lot about the social distancing. Because it’s in children’s nature that they want to get close with their friends and talk and share information and ideas.
“That’s all great for learning, but in this time we’re going to have to remind them that that’s something we can’t do like we did before.”
She says government cutbacks have reduced the amount of time allowed for cleaning but now “it’s going to have to look at that again and expand those minutes in classrooms, so the caretakers have more time to go into individual classrooms and clean.”
Sick kids will have to be sent home immediately, she says, so she hopes employers will be understanding of parents’ needs.
Niagara Catholic District School Board education director John Crocco says board staff have begun planning for the new year.
“There will be a ‘new normal’ when we return in the fall,” he says, dictated by what it takes to keep kids and staff safe.
That could include “alternate classroom arrangements to provide space between students, ensuring that the materials in classrooms can be easily wiped down after use, and utilizing the gym or other spaces as alternate classrooms … ”
With so much change, Volante says he worries about the kids who will fall through the gaps.
Across Ontario, he says, about 40 per cent of students are from families of second-generation immigrants.
English is the language of instruction and with more at-home learning, parents will play a larger role than before in helping their children.
For them, language could become an issue. And more and more parents will be returning to work by the fall, with less time to spend with their kids.
“My wife is a school teacher, I can tell you there’s a very large disparity between the amount of students that have access to technology across different households,” he says.
“The province is going to have to have a plan for this, because not everybody is going to have four computers in their home, like I do.”
Both Niagara Catholic and District School Board of Niagara distributed laptops to students shortly after the schools closed.
Even so, says Volante, there are many households without access to fast, dependable internet service.
“I’m particularly worried about that group that’s dealing with food insecurity, shelter issues, lack of access to technology or a parent or guardian that can actually help them with their work,” he says.
“This has turned every parent into a teacher, so to speak. And some parents are more adept at that than others.”