CORNWALL, Ontario – The Ontario Secondary School Teacher’s Federation (OSSTF) is pitching the idea that the Upper Canada District School Board (UCDSB) implementing an octmester system for their high schools tudents.
As a part of its response to the COVID-19 pandemic the UCDSB plans on holding quadmesters for the 2020-2021 school year, an octmester would be a doubling of this with students having one class for the entire day for 22 days before switching subjects.
OSSTF regional President Adrienne McEwen explained that this approach would allow for the creation of a virtual school for all of the Board’s students who want to learn remotely, and that this was a better solution when compared to the UCDSB’s current plan for remote learners.
Currently, the UCDSB will have remote learners live stream their class at the same time as their on-site peers and the teacher will be responsible for teaching both simultaneously.
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“I don’t feel that you can give attention to a quarter of the class that is learning remotely when three quarters are right in front of you,” McEwen said.
McEwen said that octmesters would free up more teachers to make a separate remote learning stream possible and would also make for greater ease for students who want to switch between the two streams.
Octmesters would also free up teachers to provide support to their in class colleagues. For 75 minutes a day, one of these spare teachers who have experiencing teaching the relevant subject would takeover class instruction from the primary teacher to allow them time to plan lessons for the following day.
McEwen said that under this model, a week’s worth of instruction would happen in one day with a cumulative test at the end of the day. She explained an advantage of this would be that the information would still be fresh in the students minds.
This plan would also save on class cleaning, as only one cohort would be in a class per day and not multiple requiring multiple cleanings.
In a letter to parents, UCDSB Board Chair John McAllister defended the Board’s remote learning plan.
“It is important to note that over 900 of our educators were involved in virtual professional learning sessions last week, which focused on eight different topics including the use of our video-conferencing tools,” he wrote. “This was well in advance of the scheduled professional development days for all school staff that starts on September 1. This speaks to our staff’s deep commitment as learners, their professional interests to prepare for their duties, and to improve in their craft.”
McAllister emphasized that the privacy of students learning remotely would be paramount.
