{"id":26380,"date":"2020-04-16T15:19:13","date_gmt":"2020-04-16T19:19:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=26380"},"modified":"2020-04-16T15:19:20","modified_gmt":"2020-04-16T19:19:20","slug":"school-board-working-to-get-learn-from-home-technology-into-students-hands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/school-board-working-to-get-learn-from-home-technology-into-students-hands\/","title":{"rendered":"School board working to get learn-from-home technology into students\u2019 hands"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The York Region District School Board held its first\nelectronic public board meeting last Tuesday. Members of the public were able\nto join in the webinar along with the chair and trustees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

YRDSB chair Juanita Nathan acknowledged that we are in\nunprecedented times due to the COVID-19 situation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis isn\u2019t our usual way of doing business but we are\nall learning together,\u201d she pointed out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The focus of the meeting, as expected, was e-learning as\nwell as tracking student progress. Trustees posed questions on how online\nlearning and assessments will work, especially for graduating students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As part of learning from home, most students and staff\nwill engage in learning that is not required in real time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis means they will engage in activities at different\ntimes of the day and evening to best suit their individual needs. Teachers will\ndevelop learning opportunities (e.g., tasks, assignments or projects) for\nstudents that may involve engagement both online and offline. Teachers will\nplan opportunities to assess student learning and provide feedback to students\nthroughout the remainder of the school year. At this time, there is no\nrequirement for teacher-led instruction with groups of students or classes\nonline at the same time. Throughout all planning and programming processes,\nteachers consider the strengths and needs of students with Individual Education\nPlans,\u201d said Ms. Nathan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was also acknowledged that not all students have the\ntechnology they need to access online learning resources.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are working to get equipment into the hands of our\nstudents and their families in a safe and efficient manner. Secondary students\nwill begin to access YRDSB technology this week, with elementary students\nreceiving technology starting next week,\u201d said Ms. Nathan, adding that they are\nfilling requests for 18,000 devices for students and internet access to 1,200\nstudents for the purposes of teacher-led online learning. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In keeping with the new learning methods, Grade 1 to 8\nstudents will receive a final report card at the end of this school year while\nkindergarten students will receive the Communication of Learning.\nAssessment information gathered prior to March 13 will be used to inform the\ninformation in these documents. Elementary students will continue to be\nassessed throughout the remainder of the school year to support their ongoing\nlearning. For secondary students, who will also receive a final report\ncard at the end of the 2019-20 school year, teachers will continue to assign\nlearning tasks, projects and culminating activities that will be assessed to\ninform students about progress and marked for the purposes of evaluation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis year, midterm marks are only required for\ngraduating students. Teachers will use their professional judgement and\ninterpretation of evidence of student learning when determining a midterm mark\nfor potential graduates. Under the current circumstances, teachers are asked to\nuse the full body of assessment evidence available to them based on work\nassigned up until March 13 to determine a midterm mark that reflects a\nstudent\u2019s learning and achievement to date,\u201d said Ms. Nathan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An email detailing these announcements went out to all\nthe YRDSB families the next morning. The email recognized that these are\nexceptional circumstances and learning from home can be very different for our\nstudents and families.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe know parents and caregivers may be essential workers\nor working from home and not available to provide support for students. These\nare not normal times and as educators, we understand the challenges ahead. Our\ngoal is to create online learning environments that are safe, equitable and\ninclusive, and support every learner, without penalty for circumstances beyond\nthe control of our students. We will do our very best to support our students\nduring this unprecedented time, and believe our students will rise to the\noccasion, presenting their best efforts,\u201d stated the email signed by director\nof education Louise Sirisko. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The YRDSB has developed some tips for\nfamilies available on the Board website at www.yrdsb.ca\/covid19<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parents will also find additional information about community supports, learning and well-being resources and a list of frequently asked questions. The website includes a built-in translation tool that can translate content into over 100 languages.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

The York Region District School Board held its first electronic public board meeting last Tuesday. Members of the public were able to join in the webinar along with the chair and trustees. YRDSB chair Juanita Nathan acknowledged that we are in unprecedented times due to the COVID-19 situation. \u201cThis isn\u2019t our usual way of doing […]<\/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-26380","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\/p3D2k4-6Ru","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-13 11:54:49","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\/26380","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=26380"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26380\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26380"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}