Updated April 21, 2020 (iPads)_The 21,000 iPads recently announced by the Ministry of Education are devices some school boards are deploying as part of an Apple short-term lease program. Hastings and Prince Edward District School Board did not participate in that program. Instead, we deployed 3,500 Chromebooks to some families. We are in the process of procuring other devices for student Internet access and will have more to share once those devices are in our hands.
Updated April 4, 2020 (Chromebooks)
April 3, 2020_Teaching and learning will resume for thousands of HPEDSB educators and students on Monday, April 6, 2020.
Over the past few weeks, educators have been preparing the possibility of remote learning pending the provincial school closures being extended beyond the original date of April 5, 2020. With the provincial announcement earlier this week that schools will now be closed to students until May 4, 2020, plans are ready to roll out next Monday through a phased-in approach.
Phase 1 covers the period April 6-17, 2020. During that time, the focus will be on meeting Ministry of Education-designated hours of work per student, per week, as well as developing learning tasks to meet the profiles of students, including supporting students with special education needs by providing appropriate accommodations and modifications.
Earlier this week the minister of education announced the following expectations for the amount of student work:
- JK-Grade 6 will be provided with 5 hours of work per student, per week;
- Grades 7-8 will be provided with 10 hours of work per student, per week; and
- Grades 9-12 will be provided with 3 hours per course, per student, per week.
What parents/guardians can expect from April 6-17, 2020
FROM TEACHERS
- Teachers will maintain weekly, two-way communication with students and families.
- Learning tasks/plans will be available to families by Monday afternoons.
- Teachers will check in on the progress of student learning, and support students and families through unanticipated challenges;
- this can be done by the teacher posting to an already established online learning platform that students and families are familiar with; or
- if a teacher is new to the digital/remote learning platform, they may connect with families through email, a phone call or text.
FROM SCHOOL ADMINISTRATORS
- School administrators will communicate individually with families by selecting a different sample of families each week. This approach will enable administrators to do the following:
- support the connections and learning experiences to ensure continuity of learning;
- gain a school -based awareness of successes associated with this remote teaching approach; and
- find out about any unanticipated challenges families are experiencing when accessing learning tasks provided by teachers.
What's happened up to now to prepare for remote learning
In preparation for remote learning, this week educators had access to online refresher training through an HPEDSB-specially designed website. They could participate in online training sessions, book a meeting with a trainer, participate in peer-to-peer collaboration sessions, access online versions of textbooks and other resources that would normally be used in the classroom, or watch tutorials and videos.
Schools are in the process of surveying families to find out who needs technology. Chromebooks will be available for those in most need.
HPEDSB Learning at Home website (for high-tech resources and low-tech activities)
HPEDSB is supporting students and families with educator curated and created at-home learning activities in two ways:
- access to over 250 online resources for anyone with access to technology and the Internet; and
- access to 150 no-tech activities that can be done without screen time.
While both are available through the HPEDSB Learning at Home website, a unique approach is in place for the no-tech activities.
Starting the week of March 30, 2020, the free, weekly community newspapers feature a full-page, colour advertisement with a series of language and mathematics activities for K-12. The newspaper ads will continue until such time as they are not needed.
For more information, please contact:
Kerry Donnell, Communications Manager, 613.966.1170 or 1.800.267.4350, extension 62354, [email protected]