Living Sky School Division staff and teachers are back to work this week in preparing students for online study. (Angela Brown/battlefordsNOW Staff)

By Josh Ryan

Back to the digital books

Living Sky begins transition to online curriculum

Mar 30, 2020 | 5:46 PM

After several weeks of waiting, teachers, students and families will have some direction of where to go educationally this spring, as school divisions across the province are putting their teachers back to work.

The Living Sky School Division sent a resource list to parents on Monday and had administration prepare teachers of what direction to take this week. Over the next few days, teachers will work in collaboration on lesson plan structure to best serve their students, which could feature a variety of online tools, before informing families of the changes.

“Once people feel confident in the delivery of what they’re going to do, we’ll reach out to parents,” Living Sky’s Director of Education Brenda Vickers said. “By Thursday/Friday, we’ll be teaching in a new way I suppose.”

Teachers are being encouraged to use any technology at their disposal, such as Skype or Google Classroom, in order to best serve each of their students. In turn, students choose which areas to participate in, which will help the school board decide which courses will offer credits.

Brian Hargreaves, the principal of Norman Carter School in Wilkie, said they’re looking to accommodate each family in this unique situation.

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“Giving them things that make the most sense for kids, while focusing on key learning essentials, like literacy,” he said.

The key to that is working with parents. Families with students between Pre-K and Grade 9 have the option of working with the children’s teachers or selecting activities from the division website. Teachers are providing resources to help, but are also not looking to burden parents under duress.

“We don’t parents thinking they have to be at work all day and then deliver five hours of school,” Hargreaves said.

Figuring out the best solution for each student is partly why the staff collaboration of this week is critical for each school to prevent as many hiccups as possible moving forward.

“For example, if a student has multiple teachers, that he/she isn’t getting all kinds of calls on a daily basis, but that teachers can coordinate some of the learning,” Vickers said.

That coordination is especially important in rural communities, where many of the students come from farming families. With economic uncertainty at the forefront across the country, Hargreaves said they’re prepared for families to delay focusing on education.

“We know that seeding will be coming up and that perhaps there will be more significant priorities than perhaps school.”

Another unknown is how many students will choose not to participate at all. Graduating seniors in high school are assured they will receive their diploma. But current academic standing may matter for older students looking to attend college and/or university.

“I would think that we would have many students who would say, ‘You know what, my mark as of March 13 isn’t good enough for me,’” Vickers said. “They will want a chance to increase that grade.”

Teachers, students, staff and families will have a steep learning curve as the curriculum kicks in. However, Vickers believes that despite this hardship, there’s a silver lining.

“I think we’ll all develop some new skills and we’ll certainly be very happy to see each other again, there’s no doubt about that,” he said.

More information can be found on the Living Sky School Division website.

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josh.ryan@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @JoshRyanSports