Written by @teacherevolution; published by W.W. Norton & Company: https://k-12talk.com/2021/10/13/how-to-sustain-hybrid-learning-models/

https://www.edutopia.org/article/5-tips-becoming-apolitical-teacher

I realize that you have a big decision on your hands this week regarding school re-openings in Ontario, and that you are receiving “conflicting” advice from medical officials regarding whether or not it is “safe” to re-open them. Although you’ll most likely not read this open letter, I thought I’d give you a teacher and parent’s perspective of the damage this has done to our school aged children in Ontario – especially since neither of you making this quite serious decision happen to be educators or have any school aged children in your families. This is my lived experience as an educator and parent; please consider it and the lived experience of all educators and families in this province. Open our schools.

I’ve been an English teacher and department head in Ontario for close to 20 years. In that time, I’ve never had so many students struggling as I do right now – in regards to academics or mental health. Over a third of all the students in each of my classes are either failing, or on the cusp of failing; prior to the beginning of online learning I had 2 students failing; it’s quite common for me to have no students failing in a regular school semester. This significant decline in academic achievement is due to a variety of factors – lack of attendance, engagement with online learning, mental health, etc. When I follow up with parents about these issues I’m met with many responses – some ignore me completely, many are angry – at the system, not me, but I nevertheless get the brunt of it; and most of the mothers literally cry. They have no other emotion left to deal with their teenagers wasting away in closed bedrooms for 6 hours a day. This is the result of school closures in Ontario at the secondary level. Although a month may not seem like an eternity, it would be more than enough time for schools to turn things around for many of these students with intensive interventions, but we need your help to get them in our buildings. The online system of education lacks what the central communication of learning is: humanity. Open our schools.

As a parent of elementary school students, I also get to see another perspective of the impact of online learning on students in Ontario. Both my children attend a school with a very strong academic reputation, in an affluent neighbourhood with parents who are mostly professionals. Last week, we received an email from one of my child’s teachers that nearly a third of her students are no longer engaging in online learning or even showing up in Google Meets. My other child recounts her teacher asking all students to now turn on their cameras as so many don’t even respond to her via the online platform – she doesn’t even know if they are there. My youngest started off engaged in their learning, but is now begging me daily about a time to “log off”. The other, a straight A student tells me every day how much they “hate school”. These are kids with parents as teachers, who are excellent students at an above average school. They are barely hanging on, and to be honest I feel daily like it’s myself and their father hanging on for them, pushing them to continue as we also try to work from home. The amount of stress this has put on our household in the past two months has been relentless. By all factors, we’d be categorized as a family with children who are not “at risk” of underperforming in the online learning system, but here we are – with everyone we know in that boat, struggling to stay afloat. I can’t imagine how this scene plays out in households that started out struggling with the school system, or a family that was facing stress from illness, finances, etc. Again, although the return period would only be a month, this respite would be the life raft many families need, as well as a good amount of time to re-engage students in school and have them end the school year on a positive foot from which to begin the next. Open our schools.

Really, gentlemen, until you’ve lived through this experience of learning at home, while in a “lockdown”, you really have no idea what it’s like – do not patronize your constituents with appeasements of “knowing it’s hard” – you don’t know; you aren’t educators, and you don’t have school aged kids at home. You have no idea how much damage these school closures have caused. Ontario schools, students and families are in crisis as a result of the decision to close schools in this province for this length of time. I’m begging you as an educator and parent to follow the requests of the highest medical officials in paediatrics in this province: Sick Kids Hospital and CHEO in re-opening schools immediately, and setting a plan in place for both in-person summer school, as well as a regular return to school in September. Open our schools.

Sincerely,

Mrs. Kyleen Gray

How to Manage Online Bookclubs: https://www.edutopia.org/article/how-manage-online-book-club

The Ontario government’s recent plan to de-stream grade 9 would classify as both a band aid solution and publicity stunt to appear more “woke” in the eyes of the ever vigilant liberal media that controls public opinion.

Suddenly, de-streaming is “racist” and “classist” – part of the omnipresent systemic oppression of….everyone except white men. Ironically, though, the vast majority of students in Applied level courses in Ontario are males – and considering black students only make up approximately 10% of students in Ontario public schools, the majority of those males are white. Therefore, the largest identifiable group of students being “relegated” to Applied programming in Ontario are…white males.

Well, that’s an inconvenient truth no one wants leaking out to the press! So inconvenient, in fact, that it is nearly impossible to find readily accessible information about gender disparity in Academic and Applied courses in Ontario high schools. Luckily, though, since I have access to EQAO data which is published as provincial, board, and school graphs I have privy to this “secret” information. Not that I’d need it, since I’ve been teaching Applied level English classes for going on 20 years and usually have classes of 80-100% boys – and of those boys, approximately 80-100% are white.

Why are there no social or government organizations crying to stop the abuse of white males?

Well…duh…because they are so privileged. The most privileged of all! Why would we care about them? You won’t see any arguments or questions about gender disparity in Applied courses by the ever vigilant People for Education, other social change advocates or even the Ministry of Education. Actually, in their comments and “research” about de-streaming….they don’t even mention it. Hmmmm….I wonder why?

Could it be because if they did broach that topic some genius would figure out that the majority of those males floundering in Applied courses are white? Yeah…that’s probably it. Moreover, once they figured that out they’d decide that white males are too privileged and let them figure it out on their own, which would drown any calls for an end to de-streaming. They’d also have a hard time controlling their narrative that streaming is “racist”.

Let’s pretend for a second, though, that these organizations actually cared about students for a moment, a bit more than their progressive liberal ideals. Maybe…they’d take a look at WHY there were so many males – of all races in Applied level classes in Ontario. What might they uncover?

They’d uncover this:

That the root of the gender disparity in Applied classes are literacy skills as noted by the aforementioned graph of recent EQAO Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test results (17-18). This same ‘gap’ is noted even more significantly in the difference between literacy skills of Academic and Applied students:

Let me summarize this for everyone just to bring it home:

1. The largest identifiable ‘group’ of students in Applied high school courses in Ontario are white males.
2. There is a significant achievement gap in literacy skills between female and male students in Ontario.
3. There is a significant achievement gap in literacy skills between Academic and Applied students in Ontario.

Based on this careful detective work, I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that the actual issue impacting student success of Applied students is literacy skills – particularly literacy skills of male students.

If the government of Ontario and Ministry of Education actually cared about these students, the logical next step would be to develop intensive programming geared towards literacy development for male students in all Ontario schools to support “success for all”.

Unfortunately, though, the government cares much more about appearances and catchy woke headlines, so we won’t be seeing anything of this sort anytime soon.

In the meantime, if like me you are an Ontario teacher and/or parent who actually cares about student success, you may try implementing gender focused literacy development for the struggling boys in your classrooms.

It therefore only makes sense that the government, via the Ministry of Education, has decided that this is the year to roll out a new OSSLT testing format in addition to completely revamping the elementary math curriculum and attempting to de-stream grade 9.

Ugh…really?

If you’ve successfully wiped EQAO’s last disastrous attempt at an online administration of the OSSLT from your memory, let me jog it by taking a look at my blog from 2016: Online OSSLT: Titanic Disaster.

Based on the absolute sinking of the maiden voyage of the online OSSLT, it seems that EQAO has made adjustments to the online format that will run in 2020.

Read on for a brief overview of what’s new, how to prepare students, and what may lie ahead…

What’s New

• the test will be administered online only
• only in class students may write the test (online students will not be able to attempt the test this year, but school boards MAY make arrangements for them to write on a case by case basis)
• school boards/schools/students have a choice whether or not they’d like to ‘opt in’ to writing the test
• the literacy requirement is not necessary for grade 12 students graduating this school year
• there will be a ‘window’ of time where students will be able to attempt the test based on their school board (March-May)
• the terms ‘Booklet 1’ and ‘Booklet 2’ have been replaced by ‘Session A’ and ‘Session B’
• the new ‘sessions’ are shorter (60minutes of time is allotted for each session, as opposed to 70minutes that was previously allowed per booklet)
• there are significantly fewer written questions (only one paragraph question, and one long writing task – opinion piece)
• the built in tools for the test include: text to speech (must turn on), read aloud, highlighter, underline, eraser, zoom in/out, line reader, contrast, rough notes
• there are new question types (drag and drop, checklists, sequencing of events)
• there is a new online field test that students can take to practice the new format of the test
• students must stick to their COVID cohorts when writing both the practice test and actual test

How to Prepare Students

• EQAO is offering a Live Webcast series to support teachers and administrators in the transition to this new format
• old preparation methods/test questions may still be used, involving reading and writing questions related to: Real Life Narrative, Information Paragraph, News Report, Dialogue, Writing Multiple Choice and Series of Paragraphs
• students should attempt the new Practice Test to familiarize themselves with some of the new question formats, as well as the tools and test in general
• there is no way of generating a complete output of student Practice Test responses or comparing the responses of a group of students which is very frustrating, so I created a Google Form that replicates the test, as well as generates a response page for students and creates the ability to compare student responses if all students complete the same form (you can create your own or purchase mine on TpT)
• once practice test results are compiled, teachers should analyze what skills/question types their students are struggling with prior to the test, and assimilate those skills/question types into their everyday teaching practice
• when organizing writing groups, teachers will have to be very conscious of COVID cohorts, as well as special education needs for students

What’s Next?

• if there are a number of students who choose not to write, or those who can’t because they are online students one would hope that next year there will be two opportunities to write the OSSLT, since students need to fail the test before they can take the course to satisfy the literacy graduation requirement
• depending on the successful administration of the test, the format may be “tweaked” once again
• with the introduction of a “window” of time to write the test, perhaps there will be more flexibility and opportunities to challenge the test for students

Are you a teacher administrating the OSSLT in Ontario this school year? Add to the conversation below! What are your questions, concerns or comments?

5 Ways to Use Digital Storytelling with Your Students

In the stone age, when I was a student in Ontario’s elementary and secondary school systems, we began writing exams in grade 7. At that time, I was explicitly taught how to study, and put that learning into practice writing exams in compulsory subjects: English, French, Geography, Math, History and Science. Since I went to a french immersion school, three of our ‘exams’ were in English (English, Math and History), while three were in French (French, Geography and Science).

In retrospect, these first ‘exams’ were more like unit tests, but calling them ‘exams’ gave them clout that a regular test did not have. As students, we rose to the occasion to try and do our best as a result of their ‘importance’. I don’t remember doing exceptionally well or poorly on those first exams, but I do remember that by the time I reached high school, the idea of an ‘exam’ was not foreign to me, nor was it terrifying – as it was for some students who didn’t share my elementary alma mater.

Exam writing then proceeded throughout the rest of my academic career quite seamlessly, and I continued applying those early study skills taught way back in grade 7. Getting my feet wet with exams at an early age wasn’t something I was probably fond of then, but it certainly helped prepare me for my future.

Now…

Fast forward 30 years to our current school system. Depending on the elementary school they attended, few of my students enter my grade 9 classroom with any idea of how to study and/or approach a test, let alone an exam. Years of ‘differentiated learning’ , ‘group work’ and ‘practical assessments’ have deprived students of learning these important skills.

Moreover, a mere mention of the word, ‘exam’ breathes fear and complaining. Even though it is something they’ve never attempted, they are certain it is beyond their capabilities. That’s sad; I can only imagine how terribly demoralizing this reaction is for them.

Regardless, we roll up our sleeves and prepare to write exams. I teach them my old tried and true study method, as well as help them create and use study notes. Some do exceptionally well; others fight the entire way – hoping they can somehow morph into their elementary school selves and avoid anything that might challenge them. Unfortunately, since in secondary school students can actually fail courses, they quickly learn the hard way that this is no longer possible.

Why…

As you can probably tell by this point, I’m a huge advocate of exams as an assessment strategy. It’s not because I’m mean or looking to fail my students – I have genuine arguments for this point of view.

My first argument focuses on authenticity of work. In education today, the accessibility and ubiquitousness of the Internet and digital devices causes a significant student dependency on technology, instead of actually using their brains. Check out my blog on this general topic here: 5 Tips to Move Students from Googling to Thinking in the age of Distance Learning. When a student must write an exam, free of digital support, I’m assessing their independent knowledge and skills.

Similarly, the general decline in parenting, referred to societally as ‘helicopter parenting’, ‘lawnmower parenting’, etc. has created a similar issue of lack of integrity in any work stemming from the home environment. Sadly, this is often no fault of the student, yet that of their overbearing and unscrupulous parents who will do anything they can to cheat their child’s way through school. As a result, with many students today, any assessment that enters the home environment cannot be graded as authentic student work. Logically, students cannot transport their parents into exam rooms, therefore the exam assessment will show the actual learning applications of students, free from their parents control.

Secondly, if exams are written properly, I can specifically hone in on exactly what I need to assess as curriculum expectations. Once completed, the results will provide an excellent snapshot of student learning. I’m also of the train of thought that exams do not need to always be the traditional ‘paper and pen’ method, but can also include conversation or observation of skills, which creates a multifaceted assessment.

Finally, I’m an old fashion believer in the idea that challenging students is ok; hard work is ok; and in many cases it translates to students gaining a sense of pride, accomplishment and confidence in my subject area. Studying and preparing for exams is a serious, challenging task – and there is nothing wrong with that. This practice helps students develop organizational skills, manage time effectively, and focus on hard work over an extended period of time. Through preparing and completing exams, students can learn self-reliance and resilience. These are life long skills that they can apply in a variety of situations in their future.

Final Word

Although exams are an ‘option’ for course culminating tasks at the secondary level in Ontario, it is my belief that they should be mandatory – in every course. In the current world of education, they really are one of the only methods of generating authentic learning from students. Moreover, they allow students opportunities for independence, resilience and confidence – all attributes that students in our modern world are desperately in need of.

How do you feel about exams? Should students write them – or have you found other forms of assessment that work just as well? Comment below!

As much as I love my job; I also like money – and in today’s world a teacher’s salary isn’t exactly keeping up with inflation. I’ll be honest – at times I also get little pangs of guilt about why I didn’t pursue a more financially rewarding career.

Through watching the Gail Vaz-Oxlade on the Slice television show, Til Debt Do Us Part, I learned one vital lesson about home economics: if you can’t balance your budget, you need to make more money. So that’s what I’ve figured out how to do.

Stay tuned for the five easy peasy ways I increase my teaching income between approximately $10,000-$15,000/year.

#1 Writing About Teaching

In one of my all time favourite novels, Anne of Green Gables, Diana Barry gives Anne advice on her stumbling writing career, telling her to “write what she knows”. I’ve always keep that bit of advice in mind when writing anything at school, home or work. Since I love writing, and have lots of ideas, opinions, thoughts and teaching strategies to share I thought that this was a natural way to try and earn some extra cash.

I started with my own blog, Teacherevolution, to test out the waters of blog writing. Then, I moved on to pitching editors of paid teaching blogs, using my own blogs as writing exemplars. Before long, I started getting interest and since then have written for a variety of teaching blogs, including: Bakpax, We Are Teachers and Edutopia.

On average, I make anywhere from $50-$300USD for a blog of approximately 600-800 words and write about one paid article every month or two. Yearly, my side income for writing would be around $1500CAD. Some years I’ve made closer to $2000CAD.

#2 Writing Teaching Resources

In addition to writing about teaching, I’ve also written teaching resources for my own school board, as well as the Ministry of Education here in Ontario when they are proofing and rolling out new curriculum. Usually, these types of contracts are posted towards the end of the school year (May/June) for summer writing work.

Prior to the Ford government’s austerity practices, there were writing projects yearly at my school board, and I usually jumped on them. Depending on the task (resource writing, supervising a group of writers or editing), these types of jobs can take anywhere from 4-8weeks.

Since these types of opportunities are only available once a year, the yearly take home would depend on the job at hand, but usually in the ball park of $1500CAD.

#3 Selling Teaching Resources on Teachers Pay Teachers

I’ve been selling my own teaching resources on Teachers Pay Teachers since 2010, and slowly growing the units over the years. I wish I had more time to spend working on uploading and collating documents for this site, but although it is always on my summer to do list, I never seem to get to it.

Regardless, by doing absolutely nothing other than uploading resources to my ‘online storefront’, I make on average $100USD/month, or approximately $1500CAD/year. I could probably make considerably more if I had time to upload more resources and actually promote them via social media mediums, but I just can’t find the time to do that at the moment – maybe one day soon.

#4 Teaching Online Summer School

I’m one of those teachers who doesn’t do well with too much downtime; I like to stay in a routine, even in the summer months. Although I haven’t taught in person summer school since early in my career, I have taught online summer school for my school board, in conjunction with elearning Ontario for the past 7 years.

In my school board, these teaching opportunities are posted internally in May and June each school year, and usually involve a quick interview. However, since very few teachers in my board actually know how to use the VLE (online teaching platform), there isn’t much interest – lucky me.

The duration of the summer school period is the month of July, and I work remotely – often from the dock at our family cottage. The take home income for this gig is pretty sweet – $3500CAD.

#5 Organizing/Running Sports Camps/Leagues

One of the reasons I became a teacher was to pursue my love of sports and coaching. When my own kids came of age to start playing my favourite sports (volleyball and basketball), I quickly realized there were few to no opportunities for short term, fun learning and game play in our community. As a result, I created my own business – Hoops and Spikes – to provide these opportunities to my own children and others in our community.

Despite the setbacks from COVID (ugh), through Hoops and Spikes, I’ve been able to run short term training leagues, adult learn to play, adult leagues and summer camps. Although we have yet to have a full operating year free of COVID (we launched in spring 2019), even working at half capacity this business translates to approximately $7000-$10,000CAD of extra income yearly – not bad at all for doing something I love!

Final Word

Although teaching isn’t the most financially rewarding career, there are many opportunities to use your abilities as a teacher to make some more cash. Sure, it can be time consuming at times, but so is overtime.

What have you done as a side gig to increase your teaching income? Comment below!