ATHABASCA — In response to the continuing pandemic, school divisions are trying to accommodate for multiple ways of learning, including online, and have bee creating new roles for online principals to oversee that learning.
For Aspen View Public Schools that person is Glenda Gray who, until recently, was the wellness coordinator for the division and now oversees the educational needs of 230 students from Kindergarten to Grade 9 across the vast division.
“I had worked in the past three years as a wellness consultant for the division so, I've had some experience working with teachers from multiple locations,” she said in an interview last week.
After schools were closed in March, online schooling was about snippets of learning and maintaining contact. Now in the fall, knowing it will be a sustained and popular offering, online learning looks a bit different.
“Definitely a steep learning curve, because it's a brand new situation for everyone,” Gray said. “So, lots of questions around everything going online, how does this look different to students from in the spring because the spring was what we are calling emergency schooling.”
Under guidance from Alberta Education, the focus is on core subjects, but adds in some fun stuff as well.
“What it is now is all your core subjects so, Kindergarten through Grade 9 students have literacy, numeracy, but also social and science,” she said. “And then we also provide some of the complementary courses — phys. ed., health, music, and art all the way up to Grade 9. Junior High has an option that will change a few times throughout the year. So, they're currently doing art, but it'll change so the opportunity to try some different things other than just the one.”
Grades 10-12 go through the CAVE, or Centre for Alternative and Virtual Education, located in Athabasca, a program that has been around for several years in comparison to this new K-9 format.
“I used to work at the CAVE, I've had some experience with distance learning. But this is a little bit different because it’s a minimum of an hour a day of live online instruction. So, trying to create that atmosphere and having a real class; you log on with your class, up to 20 to 30 kids in a grade and they have their teacher they meet with at least once a day so, it’s more of a class feel instead of going off and doing an individual thing.”
A class is made up of students across the school division, so there may be three in Athabasca, two in Grassland, five in Smoky Lake and so on, all coming together online.
“For example, even though the Grade 4 teacher is currently working out of the WHPS (Whispering Hills Primary School) building, he has students that are from three different schools across the division,” Gray said.
Entering back-to-school season and deciding which path to take was stressful for parents, so Aspen View made sure they were supported in their decision.
“We had a challenge trying to figure out what parents thought was the best for them. So, the challenge for us was trying to support whatever their choices were and every week is getting a little bit easier because people are getting into their routines and our class lists are a little more consistent,” she said.
Whichever path parents chose, it can be changed at the start of the second semester in February. In-class students can move to online and vice--versa depending on want and need and because the curriculum is being taught the same in both spheres, a student who switches will be at the same spot in learning subjects.
“We are kind of where we want to be with class sizes and at the end of the semester, Feb. 1, then students have the opportunity to switch either direction,” said Gray.
The Kindergarten class was not expected to be needed, but parents wanted that choice so that is what Aspen View gave them.
“Originally in the summer we put out a communication saying it was only for Grade 1 to 9 and then we were super surprised by the number of Kindergarten families who were interested,” she said. “So, because that's what people wanted, we decided to put a Kindergarten teacher online, and they actually have right around 30 kindergarteners.”
The teachers are, as usual, going above and beyond Gray added, saying teamwork has made the exchange of resources easy.
“It's pretty cool how supportive they are of one another because everyone's kind of looking at it like a team; we're approaching this as a team supporting one another and sharing resources,” she said.
At the end of the day though, teachers are connecting with their students even with the disadvantage of seeing each other through a computer screen.
“We have different challenges in the online classroom, just making sure that we can keep track of kids, and we encourage teachers to build those relationships but it's not always as easy through a screen,” Gray said. “That's still so important for our teachers to try to get to meet the kids on a personal level even if they're from a different community.”
Heather Stocking, TownandCountryToday.com
Follow me on Twitter @HLSox
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