By Pepper Parr
March 31st, 2020
BURLINGTON, ON
The students will be back in school – no later than next week.
Directors of Education from across the province have been in conference calls with the Ministry of Education – classes are to resume.
The Boards are waiting for the last bit of documentation from the province – “We want to be sure we are fully aligned with the province” said Miller.
It will be all electronic and there will be bumps during the first week or so.
Stuart Miller, Halton District School Board Director of Education
Stuart Miller, Halton District School Board Director of Education met with all his principals today and will begin meeting with the teachers tomorrow.
And yes they have followed the rules – they know the game.
Much of the communication is being done electronically. Miller does short videos and sends them out to the teachers.
Parents will be getting letters and later in the week Miller will go before the camera again and will talk to the students electronically.
For most high school students the transition to electronic learning will not be that difficult. There will be exceptions
Secondary students will be doing regular classes – they just won’t be in the room with the teacher. The technology is in place and, according to Miller, a lot of teachers are biting at the bit to get back to teaching. Will attendance be taken? probably at the high school level.
It will be a little different at the elementary level – the focus will be on literacy and numbers.
Will parents be in the classroom? They can if they want.
Everyone is going to have to be flexible and patient.
Elementary students will be challenged – parents will have to be in the room – but with creative teachers at the other end of the internet connection it can work,
Miller said that the unions are on side – “everyone realizes this is a different time and a lot of rules are going to get bent. He added that at the same time there are going to be some interesting realizations.
Education is on a new course – the board wants it to work and the parents don’t want the length of time their children are out of the classroom to last much longer.
It will be interesting to see how this works out.
