Wednesday, April 15, 2020 Vol. 43, No. 16
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New teaching practices require flexibility, patience
Patricia Harcourt Editor
Principal Adam Madsen says that "flexibility, patience, support are the top three words" now in use as Viking School teachers work with students using tools other than the classroom. Due to COVID-19, the province cancelled in-house classes as of March 16. Since then, new ways of teaching the students their lessons have been worked out. During the first week of inperson class cancellations, Madsen said staff worked hard to facilitate the pick up of student belongings in preparation for resuming learning under the current reality. After spring break, Kindergarten to Grade 11 learning resumed using a variety of new methods and materials. Grade 12/Diploma Exam courses had already started back up before spring break which ended March 30. "Alberta Education provided guidelines about the workload that would be appropriate for each grade level and
our teachers are doing their best to implement these guidelines," said Madsen. For instance, the Kindergarten to Grade 3 students are being assigned an average of five hours of work per week, and teachers must work with students and parents to deliver these materials. They will focus on language and literacy and mathematics and numeracy as content. The Grade 4 to 6 students will also focus on this type of subject matter with opportunities to incorporate science and social studies in what is called "cross-curricular learning." They will be assigned about five hours of work each week and teachers must work with the students and parents. Grade 7 to 9 students will focus on math, language, science, and social studies with 10 hours of work assigned on average per week, again with teachers working with parents and students. The Grade 10 to 12 students will focus on specified and core courses required for high school graduation requirements, including languages
social studies, math, and sciences (biology, chemistry, physics and science). The teachers will deliver content from other courses where possible, while working with students and parents. Madsen said that, in total, 14 teachers "are doing quite a variety of classes." He added, "it's very clear parents and families are doing their best," despite sometimes disrupted family schedules. The methods currently being used by teachers includes Google Classroom, a virtual classroom environment that can be used to communicate, provide materials, post instructional materials, give assignments, etc. and Google Meet, which is a video conferencing app used to have live class meetings. Teachers are also leaning on the more routine types of communication like emailing and making phone calls. They also check in with, and provide support to, students and families Some teachers are providing and using paper resources with their classes as not all stu-
dents have internet access or a device that is reliable and consistently available to them. Madsen said that these groups are provided paper materials when needed. "As a school staff and division, we have been conducting virtual meetings regularly using the Google Meet app," he added. However, there are going to be challenges in the new way of doing things and Madsen was frank about these, too. He said that "different families have different circumstances that may be a barrier to continuing learning for their students and we are trying the be flexible and supportive." That's because "regular routines and child care arrangements may have been disrupted and it will take time for home-life to adjust to our current realities," he said. In families where both parents continue to work, this could make it challenging to support their children in completing school work. Also, some families do not have internet access or a device to facilitate online
activities. And there are often family circumstances (health concerns, mental health, etc.) which may need to take priority over learning at times. "This is a new and challenging circumstance for teachers as well," he added. "Many are learning to utilize new tools and methods along with students." For the Grade 12 students, he said they would "still receive their high school diplomas." But when a graduation ceremony may be held to mark this rite of passage is still unclear. Madsen said the parent school advisory group is considering a variety of options, but a June graduation ceremony is not being considered. "We're definitely not planning it for June," he said, although postponing or delaying it is one of the options on the list. "I would like to commend all of our teachers and staff for their hard work, patience, and flexibility in this unprecedented time as they continue to support students and families," he said.