Online Learning Plan and Guide

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ONLINE LEARNING PLAN AND GUIDE For Parents, Students and Teachers March 25, 2020

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ONLINE LEARNING PLAN AND GUIDE

Table of Contents I. Introduction

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II. Online Learning at Brookes

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III. Tools for Online Learning

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IV. Roles and Responsibilities

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V. Implementation of Online Learning

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VI. MYP Online Learning

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VII. DP Online Learning

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I. Introduction At Brookes Westshore, we are proud to deliver our high-quality education and fulfill our mission in the context of our Colwood campus. We are also proud that we will be able to do so under exceptional circumstances that may require partial or full campus closure. In such circumstances, our commitment is to provide an alternative means of education in the form of the Brookes Westshore Online Learning Plan. Online learning designates the experience students will have when school remains in session but when students are unable to physically attend school because of campus closure. While online learning does not replicate onsite learning, our teachers can deliver powerful instruction that allows students to meet expected outcomes in an online environment.

The Brookes Westshore Online Learning experience aligns with our Brookes guiding pillars:

Building Character - Character must be cultivated with care especially in this current situation that we are in. The Brookes Westshore Online Learning Programme strongly encourages our students to be principled and independent.

Connecting Minds - Connecting is a vital tool for understanding, which is the first step to inspiring change. In this time of change and challenge, we are in need to connect in an innovative way.

Encouraging Creativity - A creative mind can understand, adapt and innovate, and is a valuable asset. With Online Learning, students are encouraged to be innovative and creative with their assignments and tasks

alongside developing a depth and breadth to their learning.

Our students will be empowered to make choices about how they reach clearly defined learning goals; be engaged in [online] collaboration to solve authentic problems; feel safe to take intellectual risks while persevering through challenges; be supported with modeling, differentiation, specific feedback, and opportunities for reflection and revision; and, will continue to be passionate, intrinsically motivated, and inspired to action.

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The success of our online learning endeavor is a partnership and is dependent on careful planning by our dedicated academic staff, appropriate student motivation and engagement, and strong parent support for this alternative mode of instruction. The result of such learning experiences will expand student academic progress and attend to student social and emotional wellbeing.

While this is a time of uncertainty and challenge, it is also a time that provides us with unlimited opportunities to connect with ideas and with classmates who are scattered all over the world. Our academic staff is prepared for this challenge. Our students are prepared for this challenge. Our parents are prepared for this challenge. Brookes Westshore is prepared for this challenge.

BC schools are not closed, but classes are suspended indefinitely. Schools must provide continuity of learning outside the classroom.

Brookes Westshore requires all students to continue to engage with effort and good will to continue their learning and complete the requirements for their grade levels.

All Brookes Westshore teachers are planning ways to provide continued instruction and learning. This instruction may take one of two forms-synchronous learning, real—time instruction through Teams meetings, or asynchronous learning—conveniencebased engagement with resources scheduled, tasked and made available through ManageBac or Teams files. The wide array of time zones will present challenges for synchronous learning for Grades 9 through 12, with students in Europe and Asia. Although we would prefer to have weekly synchronous learning, it may not be possible for all students. Any synchronous scheduling of classes will be posted on ManageBac.

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Learning II. Online at Brookes Westshore The purpose of this document is to outline how Brookes Westshore will continue to offer a Blended Learning model, which includes both an Asynchronous Learning Environment as well as Synchronous, real-time engagements via scheduled conference calls using Microsoft Teams.

The following Brookes Westshore Online Learning Plan is designed to address the following scenarios: Asynchronous learning to ensure the opportunity to learn for all students in all time zones; An Asynchronous Learning Environment is a learning environment that does not require participants, teachers, and students to be online at the same time.

Synchronous learning supports learning and socio-emotional well-being of students through real- time engagements; Synchronous, real-time engagements are opportunities for students to participate in with their teachers and classmates at an established time to allow for interactions in real time.

Brookes Westshore is committed to monitoring the Brookes Westshore Online Learning Plan and student experience. The tools used for monitoring may include, but are not limited to: • Data on student engagement from digital learning platforms - ManageBac, Microsoft Teams (MS Teams) and other online subscriptions - provide tremendous data on student engagement.

• Feedback from students, parents, and teachers to help us understand how the plan is impacting student, family and teacher experiences, and to provide data on what improvements we might make going forward.

• Review of ManageBac postings and assessment results as a form of data collection to support Teachers and students in aligning learning to the Online Learning and Assessment Plan.

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III. Tools for Online Learning Online Learning Platforms The following Online Platforms support both online learning and academic staff/student/family collaboration to ensure a quality student learning experience when planning and delivering remotely: • Brookes email and ManageBac are the communication tools used to contact and communicate with Brookes families.

• ManageBac is the online Learning Management System (LMS) platform used in the School.

• MS Teams is the online remote instructional platform used in the Diploma and Middle Years Programmes • A very limited number of Online Subscriptions as educational tools for learning and assessment.

Quick Start Support Resources While Brookes Westshore is making every effort to minimize the complexity of the online learning and to simplify every process down to maximize the actual learning time, we do have some necessary technical requirements for fulfilling online learning. The following tools are intended to help students, parents and teachers to start quickly and have a place to go for basic questions about the platforms we will use. For more troublesome questions.

• Technical Support at Brookes Westshore: gsiemens@westshore.brookes.org • Microsoft Teams help and setup from Microsoft: www.microsoft.com/en-us/education/remote-learning • Microsoft Teams Quick Start Guide: https://pulse.microsoft.com/uploads/prod/2020/03/Microsoft_Teams_Quickstart.pdf • ManageBac Help Centre: https://ManageBac.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/ • Online learning Suggestions for Students: www.northeastern.edu/graduate/blog/tips-for-taking-online-classes/

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IV. Roles and Responsibilities Academic Leadership Team

Subject Teachers

• Develop campus and school plans for online learning.

• Communicate with academic staff/staff and parents.

• Support academic staff and parents during online learning.

• Ensure effective implementation of Online Learning Plan and accountability to student learning.

• Prepare transcripts and submission of grades to BC Ministry of Education.

• Post a weekly update for parents and students.

• Post a weekly update for teachers.

• Collaborate with colleagues to design online learning experiences for students in accordance with campus and school plans.

• Develop high-quality student learning experiences.

• Assess assignments by providing feedback online in a timely manner.

• Communicate with and provide timely feedback to students, during the scheduled hours for learning.

• Communicate with parents, as necessary.

MYP

Advisors

• Maintain weekly contact with students.

DP • Monitor CAS activities and reflections for CAS activities.

• Monitor and facilitate Extended Essay progress.

• Maintain weekly contact with students.

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Language Support Teachers and Educational Assistants:

IB Coordinators (DP Coordinator, MYP Coordinator, CAS Coordinator, Extended Essay Coordinator, Personal Project Coordinator):

Counsellors

ONLINE LEARNING PLAN AND GUIDE

• Support teachers in the development of high- quality student learning experiences.

• Curate and/or develop resources to support EAL students.

• Provide individual tutorial help to students needing assistance.

• Communicate with and provide timely feedback to students, during the hours of 08:30 and 16:30 weekdays.

• Communicate with parents, as needed.

• Remain in contact with the IBO. • Communicate information from the IBO to teachers, parents and students, as it becomes available.

• Support teachers in the development of online learning experiences, as needed.

• Ensure subject teachers develop and deliver high quality student learning experiences; monitor and evaluate.

• Ensure collection of all assessments.

• Monitor and support EE supervisors.

• Ensure all learning outcomes are addressed through the online learning experiences.

• Support students with mental and emotional health needs through Microsoft Teams meetings.

• Provide and curate support resources for students with mental and emotional health needs.

• Provide support and assistance with university applications and grade reporting.

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Online Tech Support Team:

Students:

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• Provide timely response to student, family and academic staff requests regarding technology issues.

• Dedicate appropriate time to learning, comparable to a school day and/or as guided by your teacher/s.

• Check appropriate online platforms for information on courses, assignments, resources daily.

• Identify a comfortable and quiet space to study/learn.

• Engage in all learning posted with academic honesty.

• Submit all assignments via ManageBac (where possible) in accordance with provided timeline and/or due dates.

• Ensure your own social and emotional balance by keeping healthy habits - eating, exercising and maintaining appropriate sleeping patterns.

Questions related to:

Contact:

A course, an assignment, a resource

Relevant teacher – use email, Teams or ManageBac message

A technology issue/request

gsiemens@westshore.brookes.org

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Parents:

ONLINE LEARNING PLAN AND GUIDE

Support their child/ren in their learning by: • Providing an environment conducive to learning (access to technology, safe and quiet space during daytime).

• Engaging in conversations on posted materials, assignments.

• Monitoring time spent engaging in online and offline learning, including variables like that of preferred learning times (morning, afternoon, evening) and restricting times to: • For Grades 9-12, restricting online and offline learning to a maximum of 400 minutes per week per course, and for Grades 6-8, restrict screen time to a maximum of 160 minutes per day.

• Supporting emotional balance by providing ample room and time for reflection, physical activity, conversation, and play.

• Contacting the Teacher with regards to any clarification on tasks and expectations if needed.

Questions related to:

Contact:

A course, an assignment, a resource

Relevant teacher – use email, Teams or ManageBac message

A technology issue/request

gsiemens@westshore.brookes.org

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V. Implementation of Online Learning - Calendar Monday, March 30

Friday, April 10

Start-up for online learning • Designated workday for all academic staff to collaborate with their teams remotely and to plan for online learning. • Teachers will make contact with students on Monday 30 March to invite them to the Teams platform and welcome them to online learning.

Good Friday - No classes

Monday, April 13

Easter - No classes

Monday, April 27

Professional Development Day for teachers - No classes

Monday, May 18

BC statutory holiday - No classes

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MYP - Online Learning VI. (Middle Years Programme-Grade 6-10) MYP students should receive full syllabus delivery through June 12, 2020 or June 19, 2020, depending on the Grade level. Adapted activities, formative and summative assessments need to be ongoing throughout the online instruction period. Units should be covered as if classes are in session as best possible. Any deficiencies will be made up at the beginning of the 2020-2021 school year.

A. Procedures and Expectations Schooling is always a partnership. In an online learning environment.Especially at the MYP level, this partnership becomes more important than ever during the need for online learning. Over the course of this online learning time period, our academic staff will partner with parents to engage students in experiences that stretch their understanding and expand how they approach new learning.

Teachers will see an increased and more instrumental role in guiding, supporting, and challenging students to take on new responsibilities and to become excited about new learning. Our families will have options and sources for flexibility that will give them choice and ownership as the online learning experience progresses.

Teachers will communicate with parents and students through ManageBac, email and Microsoft Teams, along with other limited, Teams compliant aps, to engage students in rich learning tasks.

B. Role of Parents As MYP students are still developing their independence, a teacher-parent partnership is necessary for students to engage in online learning tasks and to access on- line resources. The designed learning tasks and activities will provide direction and support to families with the understanding that task completion depends on each individual families’ circumstances. For Grades 6 – 8, we recognise that parents may have more than one child to guide, therefore we have framed the support for the learning experience for within one day not to exceed 160 minutes of computer/screen time; time that will both inform and help prepare the student to engage in the learning tasks that the teacher has designed on that given day. For Grade 9 – 10, their computer/screen time can be increased depending on the level of preparation required to facilitate the lesson.

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We ask parents for the following support: • Read the ManageBac and email updates from your child’s teachers.

• Increase your familiarity with ManageBac as our primary Learning Management System: ManageBac is our primary platform for content curation and grading during the campus closure. The ManageBac Application can be downloaded to your personal devices: www.ManageBac.com/mobile 10

• Increase your familiarity with Microsoft Teams as our primary content delivery and Instruction tool will be through online meetings within Teams.

• View the Monday morning Weekly Update on ManageBac or email with your child that welcomes them to a new week of learning.

• Read the ManageBac message sent every morning by each teacher that outlines the learning objectives for the day.

• Designate a place in your home or where you are temporarily located so your child can work independently on his/her assigned tasks and complete independent reading each day.

• Email your child’s teacher if you or your child has questions and/or if your child needs extra help and support. All academic staff will be present on-line to help and support within 24 hours. However, if communication is sent by the parent or student between 08:00 and 16:30 weekdays, then a reply should be expected within a reasonable timeframe that day.

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C. Content and Timing These are the expectations for the schedule of the day – from 8:30 to 16:30 – which has been created to allow students to engage in synchronous online learning experiences in real-time with their teachers, as well as asynchronous, offline learning activities.

The schedule of instruction will follow the student’s regular daily schedule; ex. Week 1, Day 1, etc.

Teachers will post the schedule to the class team and invite students to the meetings.

For Grades 6 – 8, the length of instructional time should not exceed 40 minutes per block, with at least 20 minutes between each block for a break.

For Grades 9-10, the length of instructional time should not exceed 50 minutes per block, with at least 10 minutes between each block for a break.

Students are also encouraged to engage in physical activity during this time. They will be expected to report their engagement in these activities to their teachers.

Students are further encouraged to read everyday and may want to keep a reading log to share with their teachers.

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Block Schedule 8:30 – 9:30

Block 1 class

9:30 – 10:30

Block 2 class

10:30 – 11:30

Block 3 class

11:30 – 12:30

Block 4 class

13:30 – 16:30

Complete learning activities as posted on ManageBac by teachers, email teachers with questions, receive support from teachers.

Schedule appointments with advisor, meet with your advisor.

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Programme VII. Diploma All Grade 11-12 students Diploma Programme students are more scattered throughout many time zones than the Middle Years Programme students. To meet the need to continue learning on pace with classroom instruction, students will learn through a blended learning model, which includes asynchronous learning as well as synchronous, real- time interactive sessions with their teachers and classmates, however, the synchronous learning may play a smaller part and take place in smaller groups. Each of these learning experiences may be followed up with appropriate homework or a formative/summative assessment to confirm that the students have engaged appropriately with the content and that their understanding of the content supports their progress towards the identified target outcomes.

The clear goal for these days is to be analogous to the students’ experiences on typical days at school: to interact, to engage, to grow, and, ultimately, to learn. As information changes and the current situation evolves, the online learning strategies and practices will undoubtedly evolve as well. Everyone

must understand their role and responsibility for achieving this goal.

A. Role of Parents We ask parents for the following support: • Monitor ManageBac updates and be sure to check in with your student daily about the online learning tasks, activities and assessments they are working on.

• Assist and counsel your student to designate a place to work independently on his/her assigned tasks.

• Ask your student to provide a brief summary of the learning he/she is engaging in for each class to ensure their understanding of the content and of the process they are being asked to engage in to demonstrate their learning.

• Ask your student about their deadline calendar and support them, as needed, in submitting assignments according to the established deadlines.

• Remind your student to email his/her teachers if your student or you have questions or if you need extra help and support. Our academic staff will be on hand to help and support within 24 hours.

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B. Content and Timing Students will be provided with a clear daily learning target for each class to ensure they know what learning they need to accomplish each day. The daily learning target will ensure continuity of learning that is clearly connected to their learning in prior classes and the classes following. Students will be provided with a clear daily learning target for each class to ensure they know what learning they need to accomplish each day. The daily learning target will ensure continuity of learning that is clearly connected to their learning in prior classes and the classes following.

For courses with multiple sections, students will have the same daily learning target and comparable learning experiences as students who have other teachers.

Total time for engagement in learning for each course, including reading, homework, and work towards long term assignments, should not exceed 400 minutes per week.

Asynchronous Interactions: • Daily learning targets, lessons, and materials will be posted by 8:00 a.m.

(Pacific Daylight Time), and longer assignments should be posted at least 48 hours before they are due.

• Teachers will design learning in multiple tasks that complement each other in the development of understanding. Students should not engage in the same task for more than 75- 100 minutes continuously.

• Teachers will provide a video and/or screencast to introduce the lesson and/ or to provide instructions.

• Teachers will provide an estimated duration for all learning activities.

• Students may be expected to participate in discussion posts.

• Deadlines will be flexible to accommodate student location and travel.

• Resources needed will not require the use of VPN or streaming/download of files that are excessively large.

• Teachers will clarify in advance how students should contact them if they need assistance and will respond within 24 hours to all student inquiries on weekdays.

Synchronous Interactions: • Students will engage in synchronous, or real-time, engagement with their teachers and classmates using Microsoft Teams.

• Teachers will engage in real-time with students in the following ways: - Individual: Students may request help by making appointments with their teachers or counselors on an agreed time.

- Scheduled Office Hours: Students can join office hours to ask questions or discuss learning with their teachers and classmates during specific times established by teachers.

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- Structured Synchronous Learning: Teachers or counselors may invite students to participate in a real time class meeting/lesson or in a small group work session. Expect a range of times for this due to time zone differences.

Assessment and Progress Monitoring: • Teachers will use a variety of assessment tasks to inform instruction, improve learning, and report on student achievement.

• Teachers will design assessment instruments and create environments that assist students in making good choices related to issues of integrity. This could include: - Using an assessment monitoring system like lockdown browser or turnitin.com - Developing a class honor code; - Establishing clear expectations and guidelines for use of sources and collaboration and including them as part of the assessment task; - Post-assessment authentication through student reflection or teacher: student dialogue; or - Creating assessments that allow for student choice and development for how they will demonstrate learning.

• Non-graded format ive and practice tasks: - Students must complete assigned non-graded assessments that provide a check for understanding. These may include (but are not limited to) discussions, forms, polls, reflections in OneNote Class Notebooks.

- Teachers monitor student progress with ongoing and regular feedback. Teachers will determine when summative assessments are administered based on the data collected from formative assessments.

- Late submissions of formative assessments may not always receive feedback or comparably thorough feedback if additional opportunities for feedback related to the unit objectives are available, students are best served to focus on current assignments to move forward in the learning process, or the submission of late work is not in direct relation to the current unit of study or the nearest upcoming summative assessment.

- Teachers will actively engage with the student, parents, counselor(s), learning specialist(s) (EAL or Learning Support Teachers) , DP Coordinator, Vice Principal for Academics to support students who are not producing evidence of learning during a unit of study.

• Graded summative tasks: - Students must complete assigned graded assessments (30-45 minutes, no more than once each week per class) to measure progress against learning targets. These may include (but are not limited to) electronic portfolios, electronic quizzes/tests, writing assignments.

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- Graded summative tasks that are performance-based will include a rubric and/or other forms of scoring criteria shared with students as part of the task overview.

- Clear instructions on where/how to turn in assignments will be provided to students.

- Special arrangements may be made for specific types of assessments (e.g. oral exams, performance assessments, IB internal assessments, various aspects of course selection). Students will be informed if they must participate in such an assessment.

C. Grade 12 Programme Completion Diploma Students Teachers will send a syllabus for completion of the year. Courses that are not complete will have a syllabus leading to completion of the course content and appropriate assessments. For courses that have completed the presentation of course material, Teachers will send a revision syllabus. Courses will continue until May 22, 2020. A final, Term 3, comprehensive assessment will be given during the last week of each course.

Non-diploma Students Non-diploma students will complete their programme with a BC Dogwood Diploma. Teachers will send a syllabus for completion of the year. Courses that are not complete will have a syllabus leading to completion of the course content and appropriate assessments. For courses that have completed the presentation of course material, Teachers will send a revision syllabus.

Courses will continue until May 22, 2020. A final, Term 3, comprehensive

assessment will be given during the last week of each course.

Diploma student that are converting to BC Dogwood Diploma Candidates will have their Extended Essay count for their Capstone Project.

Continuing Non-diploma Students that have been working on Capstone Projects, Ms. Bayes will continue to guide them to completion.

Grade 11 Programme Requirements Grade 11 students will receive full syllabus delivery.

Courses will continue through June 19, 2020.

Lessons, activities and adapted formative and summative assessments will be ongoing throughout the online instruction period. Units will be covered as if classes are in session, adapted for online learning. The term will end with a comprehensive summative assessment in the last week of term, and will be included in the final year grades.

Advisors will monitor Extended Essay and CAS activity. Students must meet with their EE supervisors weekly for at least 10 minutes to show progress and receive assistance and direction.

These EE meetings will be arranged between the student and Teacher and conducted on MS Teams.

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Students are required to maintain weekly reflections in ManageBac for their EE and CAS activity. Reflections for CAS need to be maintained in the CAS tab in ManageBac. EE reflections need to maintained in the Researcher’s Reflection Space in the EE tab in ManageBac. Scheduled Advisory and Core classes will be canceled and replaced with individual meetings with advisors and EE supervisors.

Diploma Programme Timing The Diploma Programme timing will be significantly modified due to the distribution of students across time zones. All instruction will be asynchronous; however, teachers may arrange for some ad hoc synchronous instruction that is adapted to as broad a range of time zones as possible.

The schedule will follow the timing of the regular timetable, with tasks, instruction, activities and assessments occurring on the normal timetable day, whether the instruction is synchronous or asynchronous.

Students must check in with the Teacher during the instruction day to be counted for attendance. Teachers will determine and communicate to students how attendance will be counted for a day’s block. Diploma Programme students can expect to continue with approximately 36 to 40 hours of instruction and learning activity per week to receive their full completion for the academic year.

Instruction will follow the regular timetable.

Blocks for courses will be on the usual days according to a students last timetable.

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IB Examinations May 2020 have been cancelled by the International Baccalaureate Organization.

fo r addi t i on al in fo: https://www.ibo.org/news/news-about-the-ib/covid-19-coronavirus-updates/

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