The good bits: Across Years 7-9 we have enjoyed our first few live conferences. These have provided an excellent opportunity to contact students and progress in our teaching for Term Two. The number of videos being made and uploaded each day across Years 7-9 is really exciting. We have videos from Geography, Science, English, Music, Maths and other subjects. All these teachers are recording their lessons and making the videos available to their students on CANVAS. We are really blessed to have these avenues at Heathdale.
Things we have learned: While most conferences are going really well some are still learning. The first week has seen both students and teachers trying, and not always succeeding, to correctly follow procedures and processes. This has meant some conferences have been hard to find or late to start. Some (like myself) forgot to record until halfway through. All these small mistakes are things we are trying to iron out over this first week. The whole landscape of teaching has changed and the fact that most conferences are going well is a testament to the hard work teachers have been putting in on the ‘holidays’.
What parents have been telling us: I have heard from a lot of parents who are still nervous to send their kids back to school and are happy they won’t be required to. They’re happy we are able to provide remote learning to such a high standard. Other parents have been really surprised by what we can do online. I would suggest that if parents saw the amount of videos we have made they would be blown away.
What the plan is for next week: From next week we want to have most of the kinks ironed out of the system. We want students to be comfortable with how and where to access their conferences on CANVAS, and getting used to following the school timetable at home. Over the course of the term we will be slowly introducing new software and programs that will help teachers deliver — and students access — content in even richer ways.
Year 7 parents, one little titbit to keep under your hat is that we may be altering Year 7 camp to happen inside Minecraft’s education edition. Don’t count on it, as it is in very early discussions and will involve a mountain of work to be made possible. But we are exploring all possibilities we can find that give the students ways to bond together in this time.