{"id":26333,"date":"2020-04-09T18:45:43","date_gmt":"2020-04-09T22:45:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=26333"},"modified":"2020-04-09T18:45:45","modified_gmt":"2020-04-09T22:45:45","slug":"st-andrews-college-resumes-school-year-entirely-online","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/st-andrews-college-resumes-school-year-entirely-online\/","title":{"rendered":"St. Andrew\u2019s College resumes school year \u2013 entirely online"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The physical campus might be shut down, but it is full\nsteam ahead for St. Andrew\u2019s College students who are now studying online from\nall over the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Aurora-based independent school, in response to the\nCOVID-19 pandemic, has now gone fully virtual in a commitment to keep their\nsemester \u2013 and their school \u2013 on track for the rest of the school year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last week was the first in which the venerable institution\nwas able to go fully online. It was a process they began just before March\nBreak (which, for them, began a week earlier than most schools across Ontario)\nwhen the pandemic was expected to be around for just a few weeks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThese are not ideal conditions, we understand that, but\nwe\u2019re making the most of it, I sincerely believe that,\u201d says Head of School\nKevin McHenry. \u201cBefore March Break, we had an assembly [where] we mentioned to\nour students to take everything academically they need to work from home online.\nThis was in the first week of March and it really didn\u2019t look like we were\ngoing to be online. Thankfully, we made the statement and communicated it to\nour parents, so, for the most part, the boys have been ready to go.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Laying the groundwork for 650 students to connect to St.\nAndrew\u2019s from all parts of the world was a logistical challenge for their IT\ndepartment, but most of the bugs were worked out by March 25.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou need a lot of support for this and our first goal\nwas to solidify and get the academic program going in the best way possible,\u201d\nsays Mr. McHenry. \u201cWe have, quite frankly, been blown away by the feedback we\nhave received from our students, our parents, our alumni.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Integral to the planning process and making sure the\ncurriculum could be fully adapted to online learning is Dr. Michael Paluch,\nleader of SAC\u2019s academic program. One of the first steps was making sure\nstudents had all the tools they needed to make this possible and identify any\npossible gaps in that regard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once those challenges were solved, focus was squarely on\nmaking sure students had the tools they needed to reach the next step of their\nacademic journey. For Grade 12 students on the cusp of graduating, it was a\nmatter of making sure they would have the credits they needed to follow their\nchosen post-secondary path. For younger students, it was a matter of making\nsure they had a strong base for the next grade. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe know there are some things we just can\u2019t do online,\nbut our teachers have been really innovative,\u201d says Dr. Paluch, noting they\nhave also developed online programs where phys-ed can continue in the virtual\nuniverse. \u201cOne shift is we\u2019re using something called an Exit Ticket approach,\nwhich means that at the end of each class, because we\u2019re following our\nschedule, kids who are all over the world might not be able to attend that\nclass face-to-face so, at the end of the day, the student engaging with the\nmaterial that has been posted to that class is required to produce some kind of\nexit ticket, some kind of activity that allows us to respond to them. There is\nan eternal feedback loop that is going on. In this context, it is happening\nboth through dialogue and Zoom, but there is a feedback loop happening where\nteachers are responding after each class to something that a student did. It\u2019s\na way to make sure you\u2019re always engaged with the kids.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In developing the program, SAC was cognizant that\nstudents, teachers, staff and parents might be overwhelmed tackling a new way\nof learning in the middle of a global situation that can leave many feeling\noverloaded, says Mr. McHenry, noting they also took the mental health side of\nthings into the equation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wellness \u2013 mental and physical \u2013 has been integral in the\ndevelopment of the program, leaving space for mindfulness exercises, including\nyoga. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So far, the feedback has been nothing but positive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOnline learning has been emerging but it has never\nreally taken hold,\u201d says Dr. Paluch. \u201cThis is the first time in the world where\nonline learning is becoming quite common. I think a lot of our teachers are\noperating in the spirit of, \u2018Imagine what the opportunities will be once this\ncrisis is over,\u2019 how we can maybe leverage some of the learning that we\u2019re\nexperiencing here and just kind of improve our practice in general. As much as\nthis is a challenge, it is also a really big opportunity. We\u2019re learning a lot\nin a short time and I think it is going to make us stronger and education in\ngeneral is going to be stronger, and we will have a better sense of what the\nfuture looks like in terms of online learning.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adds Mr. McHenry: \u201cWorldwide, there are going to be a lot of positives that come from this. The world is maybe going to be a slower place, a more grateful place, and I think on the education landscape, you\u2019re going to find that people are going to understand the benefits of online learning. There is nothing like face to face, and that is the core of what we should be all about, but the advantages of having this experience, both students, teachers, staff, parents, alum, we\u2019re figuring out a number of things that need to be figured out and I think that is a positive.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Brock Weir <\/strong><\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The physical campus might be shut down, but it is full steam ahead for St. Andrew\u2019s College students who are now studying online from all over the world. The Aurora-based independent school, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, has now gone fully virtual in a commitment to keep their semester \u2013 and their school \u2013 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26333","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-6QJ","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-13 15:28:21","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26333","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26333"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26333\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}