TDSB delays start of live online classes for

some elementary students...

After a day of uncertainty for many parents and teachers, the Toronto District School Board has announced that they are delaying the start of live, online classes for some elementary students.

Instead, they will be implementing a “rolling start” to elementary virtual school as of Tuesday for the over 60,000 students who have enrolled.

All students who opted for the virtual school were supposed to begin synchronous or live, interactive classes online on Sep. 22. But the TDSB says due to an increase in demand and inability to secure enough staff for virtual classrooms, this will not be possible.

Now, some students will be able to join live classes while others will begin asynchronous or “independent” online learning.

In a letter to parents, the TDSB advised parents to log in to the online learning platform Brightspace on Tuesday. If a class has a teacher assigned, a welcome message will be displayed and those students will begin synchronous learning.

If a class does not have a teacher assigned as yet, there will be no welcome message and those students will begin asynchronous learning.

Parents of these students have been advised to visit the TDSB Elementary Virtual School website on Tuesday morning to access a new section called ‘Asynchronous Learning Activities.’ They will find activities connected to the Ontario curriculum listed by grade for students to complete at their own pace. In addition, live sessions are planned this week to help adjust to the new mode of learning.

Many parents and teachers spent most of Monday frustrated due to a lack of information.

On a teachers’ Facebook group many have posted about not being assigned classes yet, not being able to contact parents and the lack of time tables.

Meanwhile, parents also took to social media to try and find answers. Many posted asking about who their child’s teacher was, their schedule and how to log on to the online education platform.

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