Blended Learning

 

 

With Blended Learning occurring at the College Campus and family homes, students are expected to complete their set work for the day, as communicated by their teachers. At the beginning of each day, teachers communicate with students (via Canvas announcements) the required tasks that need to be completed that day. The prescribed method for completing Blended Learning from home is to follow the schedule of timetabled classes as if attending classes at College as normal. This includes going on to your Pastoral Care group page on Canvas in short and long PC times and onto the Canvas Page for Sport on a Tuesday Period 5.

Students are required to reply to the lesson announcements posted by their Period 1 and Period 6 teachers on Canvas each day to have their attendance validated. The specified windows for doing this are Period 1 (7:55 - 8:05am) and Period 6 (1:45 - 2:00pm). On A Tuesday, all students are to reply to announcements in Period 4 (11:15 – 11:45am) for attendance purposes.

There will also be compulsory Pastoral Care activities periodically including Chapels, Assemblies and PC sessions which will be communicated to students via announcements on their Pastoral Care PC group page.

Where teachers set forum discussions, quizzes, submission of class work via assignments or conferences, students are expected to participate fully and contribute responsibly. It is expected that unless a student is ill, the lessons hosted on Canvas will be attended and the work activities assigned will be completed.

Students are expected to submit assessment tasks as scheduled via Canvas as per normal unless changes are made as communicated by their class teacher via Canvas. Standard Illness/Misadventure processes remain in place. If a student in Years 7 - 10 does not submit an assessment task or complete an online assessment task, they should email their teacher to explain their situation. If a student in Years 11 - 12 does not submit an assessment task or complete an online assessment task, they should email their teacher and Ms Munro to explain their situation.

When partaking in a zoom activity with your teacher and your class, the expectation will be that you will have your camera switched on and will be engaged with the learning context appropriately. Please ensure that your background or environment are suitable. If you are unable to have your camera activated or a suitable background or environment in place, please make contact with your teacher who may request parental confirmation that you are unable to meet this requirement.

The Blended Learning program in Senior School will be delivered using Canvas. Each day, teachers will post announcements for every timetabled period with instructions on what activities students are to completed. Students will need to follow their normal College timetable and complete the work that has been set for them during their timetabled lessons even though they are at home. This includes for short and long PC periods!

Each day at 7:55am and 1:45pm, students are to post responses to the announcements that their Period 1 and Period 6 teachers have posted. This will ensure that their attendance for the day is validated. On a Tuesday due to Sport, the second check in will be in Period 4 at 11:15am.

Every morning students need to read all of the announcements from their teachers about the work they are to complete that day.

Announcements will contain the following information:

• Specific instructions on the work that is to be completed
• Links to lesson resources and activities, either on Canvas or elsewhere
• If work is to be submitted on Canvas, a link to the assignment or quiz will be included
• If teachers would like to conduct a zoom meeting, details about this will be included.

Announcements can be accessed in each Canvas course by clicking Announcements in the course menu:

 

of the announcements will be displayed, with the most recent post at the top of the page.

Click the title of the announcement to see details about the learning activities for your lesson:

 

Students should comment on the announcements if they have any questions about the work that has been set for them.

 

All upcoming course activities including announcements, quizzes and assignments are also shown in the To Do section of each course:

Depending on the notification settings each student has set in their Account and Notifications, every time an announcement is posted, students may receive an email notifying them of this.

As within the classroom, teachers have been given the flexibility to design the learning tasks for their subject. These tasks will include a variety of activities such as completing readings from a variety of sources, answering questions, watching videos created by teachers or sourced from other educational providers such as Edrolo, Khan Academy or Education Perfect. Teachers may also create pre-recorded lessons which the students can watch through Canvas.

Teachers may schedule Zoom video conferences with classes. These will take place during regular timetabled periods so as to not clash with other classes. Students are required to attend all Zoom meetings so that they do not miss out on learning that is delivered by their teachers. Instructions on how to join Zoom meetings can be found below.

Students may be required to periodically submit their work to their teacher for checking. This could be via Canvas Assignments, Quizzes, Google Drive folders or Google Docs that have been shared with teachers. Instructions on how students are to submit work on Canvas can be found below.

At times, teachers will ask you to submit work that you have completed on Canvas. It is important that you carefully read and follow the teacher's instructions for how you are to submit your work. The majority of work will need to be submitted through Canvas – please don’t email teachers your work. Teachers will create Assignments or Quizzes on Canvas for you to submit your work to. Assignments are not necessarily formal Assessment Tasks, but could be class activities or homework that needs to be submitted. These will form an important part of how the teacher will ensure that students are completing and understanding the work. Hand-in Assessment Tasks will also be submitted through Assignments on Canvas.

To submit an assignment on Canvas, navigate to the course you need to submit work for. Work that needs to be submitted will be shown in the To Do section and you can also click Assignments.

After clicking Assignments in the course menu, a list of all of the current and overdue Assignments (including Quizzes) will be displayed:

To submit an Assignment, click the task that you want to submit work to. The following screen will be displayed. Please take note of specific file types that need to be submitted (you will not be able to submit any other file types if your teacher has put these restrictions on).

Click the Submit Assignment button:

Find where you have saved the file that you want to upload, select the file and click Open:

To add more files, click + Add Another File and repeat the process as many times as you need to:

Once you have finished adding files and are ready to submit, click the Submit Assignment button:

You will then receive confirmation that your work has been successfully submitted. You may re-submit if your teacher has enabled this:

Student Zoom meetings will be available within Canvas. Your teachers will let you know via announcements when your class is scheduled to have a Zoom meeting. When partaking in a zoom activity with your teacher and your class, the expectation will be that you will have your camera switched on and will be engaged with the learning context appropriately. Please ensure that your background or environment are suitable. If you are unable to have your camera activated or a suitable background or environment in place, please make contact with your teacher who may request parental confirmation that you are unable to meet this requirement.

To join a Zoom meeting, navigate to the Canvas course that you need to join the Zoom meeting for and click the Zoom link in the menu:

Locate the correct Zoom meeting and click the Join button:

If you have not used Zoom before, you will be prompted to download the Zoom software before you can join the meeting.

After clicking Join, click the Open Zoom button:

You will then be able to join the Zoom meeting. Please ensure that you keep your video/webcam switched off throughout the Zoom meeting.

Alternatively, your teacher may post a link to a Zoom meeting in an announcement. To join the meeting, click the link from the announcement:

When prompted, click Open Zoom:

While we are in unprecedented times, the College is still required to formally assess student achievement. Our teachers are therefore reviewing the planned assessment tasks for the year and exploring how they can be modified or facilitated in an online environment. 

All hand-in assessment tasks for Years 7-12 are still required to be submitted on the notified due date, however, this submission will now occur through Canvas. Where this is not possible, for example with a practical subject, teachers will be in contact with students to explain any changes to the task. 

For in-class assessment tasks, such as tests or practical tasks, teachers will notify students of whether the task will be moved to an online format, altered to a different task style, or postponed to a later date. Where the requirements of a task change, teachers will notify students of the change in requirements. Where a postponement of the task is required, teachers will notify students of the delay of the assessment and provide a new due date in time.

If you are experiencing difficulty in completing your assessment tasks by the due date:

• For students in Years 7-10 - please contact your class teacher and the relevant Faculty Coordinator. The Assessment Booklets which were distributed at the start of the year have a ‘Contacts’ page which lists all Faculty Coordinator email addresses.
• For students in Years 11 & 12 - please contact Miss Munro as you normally would to seek an extension or to apply for Illness/Misadventure.

If you have questions about specific class activities that you have been set, please comment on the announcement with your question.

For other questions about your learning, particularly Assessment Tasks, please contact your class teacher.

For questions about the Blended Learning Program, please contact Mr Broadbent.

For questions about Canvas, please contact Mrs Bennett.

The College recognises that families have needed to alter their lives significantly to facilitate their children to learn through the Blended Learning model. We acknowledge that considerable effort has been needed to arrange suitable conditions and ensure that adequate technology is available for the children in your homes to be able to continue their education in this way. Pastoral Care teachers and Year Advisors will be checking in with students in an effort to support them through the process of learning from home and if you notice your child struggling at times, please encourage them to reach out to their Pastoral Care teacher to share their experience and seek some help.

The duration of the delivery of Blended Learning is unknown and as the process evolves and settles, teachers have been asked to establish standards that are sustainable as they navigate teaching from the College or from their homes with constantly evolving situations. We ask that you support our teachers throughout this process as they do their best under these challenging circumstances to continue educating your children. They may find themselves teaching from their own homes with children at home with them engaged in their own online learning. Teachers will be asking Thomas Hassall secondary students to undertake a selection of activities that demonstrate that they are engaged in the process of learning from home. Teachers will be asked to make contact with you if they have concerns around your child’s level of engagement with the learning activities for their subject. They will be endeavouring to provide some feedback to your child around the quality of work they are submitting once a cycle. Understanding that some of our Secondary Teachers teach in excess of 200 students across a given cycle is helpful when considering the level of feedback they are able to provide to each child under remote learning conditions.

The College has also recognised that it is not in the best interests of student learning for students to be passively listening to teachers over Zoom as they present a lecture style exposition about a given subject topic area for an entire period, or to be involved in Zoom conferencing for several periods on any given day. Zoom fatigue has become a recent phenomenon to be wary of. To this end, staff have been asked to only zoom periodically with their classes and to do so in shorter sessions. These Zoom experiences may take the form of an introductory explanation of some key concepts for the lesson or a tutorial opportunity at the end of an activity to provide some expertise. Setting students self-directed activities to demonstrate their understanding and reinforce concepts is a wise course of action and has been encouraged.

From time to time, your child may be experiencing issues with the platform or their online learning and in these circumstances, we would encourage you to place the onus upon your child to take greater agency over their learning by contacting their class teacher or relevant staff member to seek some assistance on their own prior to becoming involved. This will assist them in developing much needed skills of self-determination and taking responsibility for their progress.

If you would like to contact the College about the Blended Learning At Home Program, we will endeavour to reply to your enquiry within 24 hours if at all possible. Here is some helpful information about who to direct your enquiries to:

For any Canvas related issues that you or your child are experiencing, please contact Megan Bennett.

For any subject related enquiries, please email your child’s class teachers.

For any subject related issues requiring further resolution after having first contacted the class teachers, please email the relevant subject Coordinators.

Maths:  mlow@thac.nsw.edu.au

English:  vrefalo@thac.nsw.edu.au

Science:  mstrong@thac.nsw.edu.au

HSIE History/Legal: rsmith@thac.nsw.edu.au

HSIE Geography: akemp@thac.nsw.edu.au

TAS:  dellerman@thac.nsw.edu.au

PDHPE:   kweir@thac.nsw.edu.au

Languages:   fbyrne@thac.nsw.edu.au

Christian Studies: nlindeback@thac.nsw.edu.au

Music/Drama:  lrobinson@thac.nsw.edu.au

Visual Arts:   ggriffin@thac.nsw.edu.au

For any issues about the program generally or for any further subject resolution after discussions with a subject Coordinator, please email Douglas Broadbent.

Managing Blended Learning in the home context will require your assistance in areas such as:

• Establishing an appropriate learning space for your child that is free of distractions like gaming consoles, television and mobile phones
• Ensuring your child is following the procedures for attendance by responding at the start of Period 1 and Period 6 to the Lesson Announcements from their teachers. Note: On a Tuesday attendance check ins happen in Period 4!
• Creating daily routines and expectations around learning. Following the College bell times for timetabled classes is the suggested method where possible.
• Monitoring your Child’s Wellbeing

Talk with your child and have regular ‘check-ins’ with how they are coping with the change in routine

Monitor closely for any instances of withdrawal, little to no communication and ‘out of character’ behaviour (unexpected anger, prolonged sadness etc.)

If you are concerned, please ensure you seek help via a GP and/or Mental Health Professional

• Encourage your child to spend some time exercising and getting some outside time
• Monitor how your child uses social media to remain connected with their support network whilst maintaining family guidelines

Please access these links further helpful information

• https://www.rch.org.au/kidsinfo/fact_sheets/Supporting_your_child_to_cope_with_the_COVID-19_pandemic/
• https://www.blackdoginstitute.org.au/news/coronavirus-reassuring-your-child-about-the-unknown/
• https://thinkchildsafe.org/family/
• https://kidshelpline.com.au/

Communicate with teachers about the process and how it is going