Covid-19

Bridging the online / offline / simultaneous teaching gap

In Quebec, all students are expected to be in school under normal ratios, that means the same teacher:student ratio in effect at a given school as before Covid-19. (I still find it mind-boggling that the exact same directive goes for schools in Montreal with over 29 000 cases of the virus as schools in the Bridging the online / offline / simultaneous teaching gap

A back-to-school like no other

in class, distance, homeschool, bubbles, masks, back-to-school 2020

On Thursday morning, someone from CBC News contacted me for a live interview later that afternoon. It was to talk about back-to-school in Quebec and concerns from a teaching perspective. It ended up being cancelled, I think Rob Ford bumped me on Thursday and something else did on Friday. These things happen. Before they cancelled, A back-to-school like no other

Well-being of children and opening schools

Yesterday afternoon, the Quebec government announced the reopening of schools during this current worldwide pandemic. Last week, they suggested as much, citing herd immunity as a main reason. But over the weekend, perhaps in response to Dr. Theresa Tam’s statement about the practice, they changed their reason why. In fact, they replaced it with 5 Well-being of children and opening schools

Learning (or should we call it connecting?) Online in Troubled Times

Yes. Especially at this tumultuous (yet, for some lucky people, incredibly boring) point in time, we need to be talking about connection when it comes to learning. (When I say connect, I mean primarily as in human connection but also as in infrastructure.) There have been a whole new slew of online meeting and learning Learning (or should we call it connecting?) Online in Troubled Times

Caring for each other and being safe. It’s ok to take a break from school learning.

In Quebec, teachers have been told not to teach while the schools are closed for this initial 2-week period (it is hard to believe it has been less than a week that the schools have been closed!): “Teachers, as per the Minister of Education’s statements today, will not be providing work to students over the Caring for each other and being safe. It’s ok to take a break from school learning.