Collaboration. Innovation. Technology. Community engagement. Professional growth for educators. Support from parents.
All these elements are being creatively combined this year for Virtual Summer Learning 2020, the first-ever Ontario Summer Learning Program conducted entirely online.
With schools and classrooms closed this summer due to COVID-19, the teams that plan, organize and conduct SLPs—summer learning leads, Directors, teachers, assistants—have focused their energy and ingenuity on providing young learners with engaging, educational (and fun!) activities on laptops and tablets around the province.
Parent participation—a hallmark of summer learning since its inception—is even more to the fore this summer, as parents (sometimes sitting right beside their child) become active, informed participants in helping students reach their goals.
Teachers, meanwhile, are describing their own successes in adjusting their instructional practices for virtual learning, including resource sharing and reaching out to the community for support.
There is still more summer fun and learning to come! If you share information about your SLP on Twitter, be sure to follow us @OntarioSLP, and mention us in your tweets—we feature ongoing highlights of SLPs across Ontario here on this site.