New Brunswick high school students learning virtually from home will be checking in with their teachers more often during the second semester.
Students will be connecting for about 10 minutes at the start of each class if they have not already been doing so.
It will give teachers the chance to take attendance and ensure everyone knows what they are doing.
The Department of Education introduced a combination of blended learning and synchronous learning for students in September.
One is students learning one day at school and the other day at home. The other is students learning together, either at school or virtually.
Rick Cuming, president of the New Brunswick Teachers’ Association, said some teachers have raised concerns.
“They were monitoring learning on their own and had found their own way to connect with their students in the first semester. Our classrooms aren’t all the same, they’re all different and they vary for a number of reasons. Teachers don’t feel their professional autonomy is being respected,” Cuming says.
Cuming said the cookie-cutter approach and mandating how the first 10 minutes of the class must be done does not respect the fact that there were some very innovative and excellent things being done during the first semester.
He adds this new system may actually add some barriers to learning.
“It may affect how some teachers were connecting who had some good things going with their students. Teachers that know their learners best, they need to be able to use their professional judgement to help them.”
Cuming said some teachers are prepared to take these steps while others need support to implement these changes.
