‘Unprecedented’ summer lies ahead for students

At one time, summer school was a way for high school kids to make up for ‘flunking’ a course or a way for the academically inclined to get ahead and earn an extra credit in the journey toward a high school diploma.

But times have changed immensely, especially since the increase in online learning for both elementary and secondary students as the province has reacted in fear of COVID-19.

Doing a quick switch from classroom instruction to online instruction due to the COVID-19 shutdown, which began in March and continued to the end of the 2019-2020 school year, has shown many Algoma District School Board (ADSB) students and educators how accessible summer school can (and will be) during the board’s summer 2020 summer learning program.

280 elementary level students will be taking part in online summer learning from July 6 to 24, involving instruction from 34 teachers, using 102 devices.

“That is unprecedented,” said Marcy Bell, ADSB superintendent of education, speaking at Monday’s virtual board meeting.

Students will be divided into groups of eight to 10 learners using online learning technology available through Microsoft Teams.

There will be blocks of two hour instruction each school day, from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m., followed by 15 minutes of one-on-one student/teacher interaction.

“At night, we’re going to offer one hour drop-in sessions for students and parents to engage in wellbeing,” Bell said.

“They can engage in, let’s say, making healthy smoothies with someone from Algoma Public Health (APH), we can invite in our mental health leader to look at emotional and social wellbeing at this time.” 

268 secondary level students will be taking part in summer learning from July 2 to 29, involving instruction from 15 teachers, using 23 devices for five and a half hours each school day using Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) from Microsoft Teams.

“We’re seeing this next round with over 60 teachers, with over 500 students, to continue learning about how we deliver synchronous learning opportunities, how we support each other in continuing down this road, knowing that this will definitely help serve us well in preparing for September,” Bell said.

“I would say definitely students who have not usually had access to summer learning are engaging this time because either it’s offered to everyone, or, if they don’t have Wi-Fi or a device, we’re putting it in their hands.”   

While discussing approval of the board’s 2020-2021 budget Monday, Joe Santa Maria, ADSB superintendent of business, said the board has ensured it will have 1,500 new devices for students, including 500 devices for students with learning disabilities.

Supports are available for Indigenous students, special education students and those with mental health needs moving forward, board administrators said Monday.