Help with High School Courses (YouTube instruction)

[kcoderre]

Hey everyone,

I posted this a while back but now that we have been allowed to roll out instructional material I thought I would post links to the YouTube channels of my colleagues and I. These are all for the Alberta High School Curriculum and may prove helpful to those trying to help their kids.

Channel for both Science 10 and Physics 20 (there are playlists for each unit so very organized and easy to follow)
https://www.youtube.com/c/CoderreScience

Channel for Chemistry 20 and 30 (also very well organized and easy to follow)
https://www.youtube.com/user/BachekChemistry

Channel for Physics 20 and 30 (super organized and very helpful, this guy is probably the best physics teacher in Alberta)
https://www.youtube.com/user/HTAdickie

[dave99]

Thanks for posting. I have no kids in grade school yet, but appreciate the work that is being put into this.


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[huntinstuff]

That is some great information

Thank you for posting

[Lornce]

To heck with the kids, those courses look cool. Maybe make me smarter in my old age. Been a long time since my Masters.

[Smoky buck]

To heck with the kids, those courses look cool. Maybe make me smarter in my old age. Been a long time since my Masters.

If only my kids were as excited as you about their online schooling this would be so much easier

[kcoderre]

I hope it's helpful. I can try to answer questions in the comments of the videos too.

[Tundra Monkey]

I have not logged in for a long time but I really wanted to thank you for this. I've got a daughter that is a true nerd in grade 11. She literally cheered when I showed her these. My son, in grade 9.....not so much lol. Again, thank you very much 👍

[sns2]

Way to go, Kirby. Very helpful.

[kcoderre]

You are all very welcome. Anything to help reduce the stress in these trying times.

[dave99]

The National Post just put up an interesting opinion piece on teachers in Ontario. See link below.

As I mentioned in my above post, my kids are not yet in school (3 and 5) but I sure do appreciate the effort by the OP.

Curious: What is expected from the Alberta public school teachers under the school closure?


https://nationalpost.com/opinion/columnists/diamond-and-jenkins-teachers-should-teach-covid-virus-or-no-covid-virus/wcm/93f409bd-2366-4d27-86e9-108a004cbbf5


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[kcoderre]

As a teacher, I can tell you that the expectations are very complex and I have found this week, quite demanding.

To keep it simple, teachers have gone over the curricula they teach and looked at what can be "reasonably expected" to be achieved. In other words, to avoid overloading parents and students we have selected the key learning outcomes and designed long range plans to achieve them. This includes activities that are possible to complete online without direct instruction from the teacher.

It has been a week of incredibly intense work...we have been "re-inventing the wheel" in order to make sure that students and parents can meet with success learning the key outcomes.

For the remainder of this pandemic, teachers are expected to develop and distribute learning materials to parents and students. Explain what methods should be used to meet the learning needs. We are expected to answer questions from parents and students by electronic means and to "assess" student learning.

Assessment is also going to be very different as online learning is not an ideal learning platform for most students (and we teachers are also finding it to be very challenging to teach from a distance). We are assessing less than we normally would because expectations must be lower and because a lot of our assessment is not necessarily marking but observation of our students. That is no longer possible because we are no longer interacting with them in the usual way.

So the expectation is we are still doing our jobs, in most cases working harder than before. Trying to maintain connection with our students (who I can tell you we miss...our job is about people, interaction and connection and we miss our students) and to try to maintain learning as best we can. To do this, we are using/developing online resources and adapting what we have to try to meet the needs of students and parents.

Hope that clarifies. I am also attaching a link to the letter our superintendent sent out to parents. I think he did a pretty good job of explaining what parents can expect and to calm their fears.

https://www.facebook.com/CTRcatholic/posts/3858440857514324?__tn__=K-R

[dave99]

Thanks for the information. It looks like both teachers and students have a really challenging road ahead.

In my 20s, before attending UofA, I took several correspondence courses through Athabasca and Waterloo. Being (or so I thought) motivated and mature, I still struggled with completion on most of those distance learning courses.

Further, I can attest that the direct supervision of a teacher is a difference maker for many.

Keep up the good work, and good luck.


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[riden]

The National Post just put up an interesting opinion piece on teachers in Ontario. See link below.

As I mentioned in my above post, my kids are not yet in school (3 and 5) but I sure do appreciate the effort by the OP.

Curious: What is expected from the Alberta public school teachers under the school closure?


https://nationalpost.com/opinion/columnists/diamond-and-jenkins-teachers-should-teach-covid-virus-or-no-covid-virus/wcm/93f409bd-2366-4d27-86e9-108a004cbbf5


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Can't speak for other school divisons, but I would argue mine is meeting all of those bullets in the article. Maybe with the exception of online conferences with parents. Can't speak to that. Maybe I am a dinosaur, but I like old fashioned phone calls better anyhow.

The main goal being, the teacher is still the main teacher of their class. Really, very few classroom teachers have any experience with distance learning and I know people are finding this tough and stressful. People are learning a lot, fast.

I know ADLC is getting a lot of enrollments. The gr 12 students taking University prep courses (Physics, Chem, Bio and Math) are in tight and so are the teachers. Very content rich courses like this would be really tough right now..... and no Chem 30 teacher wants to drop the ball here. ADLC likely is a good bet right now for those students, as the courses are prepared and ready to go. That said, tough courses to take E learning, really tough.

[riden]

Thanks for the information. It looks like both teachers and students have a really challenging road ahead.

In my 20s, before attending UofA, I took several correspondence courses through Athabasca and Waterloo. Being (or so I thought) motivated and mature, I still struggled with completion on most of those distance learning courses.

Further, I can attest that the direct supervision of a teacher is a difference maker for many.

Keep up the good work, and good luck.


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I taught in a jr high class for 20 years, now I am in a rural Outreach "type" High School.

You are 100% correct, this type of learning is not for everyone. I have taken distance learning courses myself, and they require discipline. Honestly, more than a lot of kids have. You and I paid for those courses, and that alone is a huge motivator that school kids don't have. I admit, I found my courses a drag.

That said some kids really thrive. The type of people who take pride in how much they accomplish in as day/week etc, tend to like it, and do well. It's a good motivator for them and they get excited watching the credits grow. If I focus on that with my students it really works. I'll be humble, and not brag about how many of my students will graduate this year, but it's a really big number for a small one man show like mine. Again, not for everyone....... but a great thing for the kids it's designed for.

[kcoderre]

Now that we are a couple weeks into this distance learning thing, I was wondering how people are finding it?

Are you being provided with enough material?
Are you able to contact your child's teacher for help?
Are digital materials like YouTube videos being created?
Are your children videoconferencing with their teacher?

[f2eight]

I'm using MS Teams. In no way can I see "robots" replacing face to face interaction, at least not anytime soon. At the same time I'm impressed with the technology and what we're able to accomplish.