(Cam Lee/northeastNOW Staff)

By Cam Lee

NESD Gearing Up For Learning

Plans continue in NESD for supplemental learning during pandemic

Apr 8, 2020 | 1:52 PM

School divisions from across the province continue to prepare for a new way to educate students.

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced divisions to implement supplemental learning procedures, which can include online and virtual education.

North East School Division (NESD) Director of Education Don Rempel told northeastNOW the staff has made a great deal of progress in a short period of time.

“Last week we had initial contacts with over 4000 families,” Rempel said. They also administered an over-the-phone survey of families to see what resources they had to support digital learning and other delivery methods they could use.

Staff members have also had a chance to do some planning together, Rempel said. He added a number of teachers are already familiar with distance learning platforms, and many use software like Google Classroom to regularly communicate with students. Rempel said they are also identifying additional resources to prepare for supplemental learning.

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Some classes or activities may be more difficult to perform or assess outside of a classroom setting, but Rempel said there are ways to gauge progress.

“You can just make some accommodations to provide some content for students, and also some opportunities at home for them to engage in physical activity or hands-on learning if it connects to the curricular outcomes,” Rempel said.

The director said staff have done an exemplary job preparing for the so-called ‘new normal’ and have been supporting each other. The division is working quickly with the teachers that can do so, including those in high school where students are already on Google Classroom or there are online learning resources.

“At the lower elementary grades, it’s more about finding the appropriate method to communicate with the family, and age-appropriate activities that can be done from home,” Rempel said.

He said there have been many networking opportunities, and schools are co-ordinating and supporting teachers in their planning.

Staff have been ordered to stay home last week and this week. For safety reasons, NESD schools are being operated by a skeleton staff that is checking on facilities to ensure that boilers are working properly, and they are operating as normal.

Rempel said after Easter, employees that can work from home will continue to do so.

“Employees that may need to return to a shop or a facility or school, we’ll start talking to them about what that looks like in a safe manner,” Rempel said. He said there has been a minimal amount of people going into schools over the past two weeks.

“We’ll put protocols in place after Easter for, whether it’s a teacher, facilities staff, IT, people that need to go into buildings, we will put protocols in place for them to be able to work in the buildings,” Rempel said. The division will also put processes in place for maintenance, caretaking, and mechanical work so they can return to work safely.

Rempel said it has been a very fluid situation, but communication has been co-ordinated and they’re looking forward to teachers being able to work with students on an ongoing basis after Easter.

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cam.lee@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @camlee1974