Part III: Teaching and Learning

Professional Learning

In order to find time for teaching professional development, we dedicated a week in June to planning and preparing for a return to school. We also altered our school calendar and pushed out the start date for this coming school year to September 8th. This month, teachers returned two weeks early in order to collaborate and adapt high level COVID-19 protocols for their classroom. Teachers have also been engaged in learning to use our new learning management system - Brightspace - and they will benefit from continued EdTech training to help with online instructional design.

Finally, it will be important to schedule regular time for PD throughout the school year.

Pedagogy & Scenarios

There are a number of details that must be reconciled with Public Health protocols. Among them are the following:

• Students need academic balance, therefore, specialist subjects will be offered. The question is, how can this be done safely? As a general rule, Specialist teachers will travel to the students, the exception to this being Physical and Health Education (PHE) - held either outdoors or in the gymnasium. Art and Drama specialists will visit individual homerooms, unless a safe plan can be devised that will allow students to travel to those specialist classrooms.

• Students that can cohort will cohort. Students in Grades P-9 take all of their classes together. It means they will also be required to eat together, and go out to recess together. The goal is to eliminate contact between cohorts in order to reduce spread of the virus. In situations where cohorting can't be maintained, physical distancing is the next priority. When physical distancing can't be maintained, then masks will be required.

• Teachers will need digital tools and training to be able to teach synchronous classes in one or more physical spaces through the use of webcams and video conferencing tools.

• Given the impact of this pandemic on our children, we feel that our Advisory programme will be more important than ever. The timing of our new partnership with Dr. Ungar's lab - the R2 Resilience Programme - couldn't be better.

• Balancing physical activity with screen time will be important under all three re-opening scenarios. PHE classes and access to sport practices will be a priority.

• We anticipate there will be an increase in student absenteeism due to non-COVID illness. Teachers need to be prepared to provide continuous at home learning for those students.

Curriculum

The curriculum will remain essentially the same under all scenarios, however we need to be vigilante about protecting the wellbeing of students.

• Social Emotional Learning (SEL) - the Advisory programme

• Performing and Visual Arts teachers can help students with their SEL and wellbeing through the use of targeted lessons and activities to provide an outlet for creative expression.

• Library teachers can provide SEL and mental wellbeing support through literature, research, and rich conversation.

• Physical and Health Education teachers can deliver targeted instruction around resilience and growth mindset. Physical and Health Education will also provide opportunities for students to reduce stress and anxiety

Assessment

As we move toward the enhanced use of Brightspace, we can grow our use of assessment tools in the following ways:

• Greater reliance on formative assessment than summative assessment;

• Teach students how to use tools (especially younger students) and to self and peer evaluate;

• Explore options for summative assessment (alternatives to traditional tests, techniques to promote academic honesty, etc.);

• The use of videos for teaching and feedback;

• New tools such as Edupuzzle, Classkick, etc.;

• Detailed record-keeping and real-time communication with parents on student progress.

Technology

This is an exciting opportunity to leverage EdTech tools to enhance teaching and learning. Here are some ideas and options available to us:

• Armbrae will be moving to a 1-to-1 Computing Model in Grades 5 – 12;

• Explore licensing digital textbooks/ open-source textbooks/ interactive resources (all scenarios, all grades);

• Create a curated list of resources and best practice tools (how prescriptive should we be?) (all scenarios, all grades);

• Provide necessary hardware resources as identified in the Teacher Survey.

Supporting Learning Differences

We are fortunate to have two teachers whose focus is on supporting students with learning differences. But, as the saying goes: "What's good for some students is good for all students". Here are a few of our priorities that promote success for all students:

• Building movement time into the schedule;

• Develop programming to support & explicitly teach independent learning skills;

• Explicit teaching of digital organizational strategies (agenda, files, notes, etc.);

• Differentiation wherever possible;

• Support for families of children with learning differences;

• Strategies to reduce screen time (e.g. audiobooks).