Anglophone South district has learned a lot about online teaching, says curriculum director
When school came to an abrupt halt in March, administrators at the Anglophone South School District felt at least one step ahead on online learning.
The director of curriculum and instruction for the district said experimentation with Microsoft Teams over the last two years made for a smoother transition.
"We brought together about 20 intrepid teachers, some of whom were using it pretty extensively and some who were just really dipping their toe in to see how they could use it," Gary Hall told Information Morning Saint John.
Hall said they were able to launch a support site for teachers the week before the closures that included resources for online teaching. Shortly after, they hosted an online professional training session and had 750 staff attend.
The department of education has decided the main platform for online teaching in the coming school year will be Microsoft Teams, but some teachers may opt to use other platforms.
Hall said any staff member that didn't feel comfortable using Microsoft Teams in the spring was able to use any platform of their choosing until proper training could take place.
Hall said there are plans for a "boot camp" in the fall to get everyone on the same page.
"When we have students face to face it's so much easier to do that kind of training with students and parents, when we aren't in the same scenario we were in in March."
For parents that still feel confused by the technology, he recommends asking your kids for help.
"Parents are our best partners and we'll provide as much as we can but often it's just sitting down with your kids and saying 'show me your assignments, show me what you're doing'."
In June, the district had a week of professional learning days where teachers were taught how to adapt different teaching methods to online learning.
"A lot of the professional learning that was done wasn't just about how to use Microsoft Teams, it was about how to teach math using Teams, how to teach about social diversity using Teams."
Now, they're working on different and low-cost ways for students to show their work when doing math and science problems.
Not wanting to put pressure on families to pay for printing, they're trying out different phone and computer applications where students can show their work and get feedback from the teacher.
"I've seen some of our high level math teachers do a wonderful job. Kids do the math on a piece of paper, take a picture of it and they upload it for the teacher to mark."
He said transforming to this kind of teaching has been a positive experience.
"We learned a lot during this period and I know it was a difficult time for parents and teachers but I look at the positive outcomes of this and how much we learned about online teaching."
