Teachers across our district have been utilizing technology more than ever during this pandemic, and supporting in-class lessons with online resources available on the district's Surrey Schools ONE website.
Since October, Surrey Schools has hosted digital resources on Surrey Schools ONE, a one-stop shop for students, parents and educators to discover a wealth of learning materials. The site is largely populated by district helping teachers sharing online resources with classroom teachers across the district.
"The idea behind it was to create a platform that's not just accessible for teachers but also students and parents, with all of the information they would need," said district principal David A'Bear.
In an effort to make it even easier for teachers to find what they need on Surrey Schools ONE, the district has added a live chat feature under 'Blended Learning Support' in the bottom right corner for Surrey Blended teachers to ask questions of our digital resources team.
"We're creating lots of ways for everybody to connect," said Gareth Poon, a teacher in Education Services. "They can reach out through email or Teams or private chat or live chat. The more we cover our bases, the more they'll know that they're supported."
"Within one minute, our team is able to help a teacher on the website find their answer," said A'Bear. "They didn't have to wait for half a day to get an email response, it was all right there."
Through the live chat, the team can provide suggestions, advice, recommendations and information for teachers and point them in the right direction toward new lesson plans and resources by groups such as Discovery Education, Everfi, Mystery Science and the National Film Board of Canada.
"While they're browsing the website, they can ask for help finding what they're looking for," said A'Bear, noting the live chat has been well-received by teachers. "It's going in the right direction, we're really happy with it."
Likewise, Poon said the live chat has proven to be just one of the great ways Surrey Blended teachers can get the support they need from our digital resources team.
"Wherever they are, teachers can feel like they can reach us," he said. "To be able to leverage the power of everybody being able to help everybody, it's pretty amazing."
