This site is designed to improve understanding of three areas by providing research, strategies, and resources in the following:

1. Emergency Remote Teaching in elementary schools,

2. Early years teaching & learning, especially math, and

3.  Early spatial and pre-coding skills.

Emergency Remote Teaching (ERT) and Virtual Elementary School (VES) originated in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. It is untested and was not studied for efficacy or unintended consequences. It was implemented in Ontario by a provincial policy memorandum for the fall of 2020. It had widespread effects on elementary educator workload, mental health, professional development, and staffing shortages.

In terms of spatial skills, a large and growing body of research indicates that spatial skills are foundational to mathematics learning. Researchers have found evidence that suggests that spatial thinking plays an important role in arithmetic, word problems, measurement, geometry, algebra and calculus. One 2013 study found that three-year-old children with strong spatial skills were better at early math at age 4 and age 5 than their peers. The mental rotation ability of kindergarten students is positively related to their early mathematical skills. Furthermore, coding, computer programming, and computational thinking often depend on spatial reasoning skills. Mathematics is highly visual.

It is important for educators of young children to pay close attention to spatial reasoning because a convincing body of research indicates that spatial thinking is a better predictor of mathematics success than either verbal or mathematical skills. 

This site is designed to improve understanding of three areas by providing research, strategies, and resources in the following:

1. Emergency Remote Teaching in elementary schools,

2. Early years teaching & learning, especially math, and

3.  Early spatial and pre-coding skills.

Emergency Remote Teaching (ERT) and Virtual Elementary School (VES) originated in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. It is untested and was not studied for efficacy or unintended consequences. It was implemented in Ontario by a provincial policy memorandum for the fall of 2020. It had widespread effects on elementary educator workload, mental health, professional development, and staffing shortages.

In terms of spatial skills, a large and growing body of research indicates that spatial skills are foundational to mathematics learning. Researchers have found evidence that suggests that spatial thinking plays an important role in arithmetic, word problems, measurement, geometry, algebra and calculus. One 2013 study found that three-year-old children with strong spatial skills were better at early math at age 4 and age 5 than their peers. The mental rotation ability of kindergarten students is positively related to their early mathematical skills. Furthermore, coding, computer programming, and computational thinking often depend on spatial reasoning skills. Mathematics is highly visual.

It is important for educators of young children to pay close attention to spatial reasoning because a convincing body of research indicates that spatial thinking is a better predictor of mathematics success than either verbal or mathematical skills.