Burnaby Now May 25 2018

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NEWS 3

OPINION 6

Local MP talks pipeline

Restore our bike cops

ARTS 11

5

Kids get to know Shakespeare

THINGS TO DO THIS WEEKEND FRIDAY MAY 25, 2018

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Man dead after crash with bus Cornelia Naylor

cnaylor@burnabynow.com

TRAGIC ACCIDENT: An 81-year-old man was killed Wednesday when his vehicle crashed head-on into a transit bus on Hastings Street near Holdom Avenue. It’s believed he was suffering through a medical emergency just before the crash. PHOTO LAUREN BOOTHBY

An 81-year-old man whose SUV slammed head-on into a transit bus in BurnabyWednesday afternoon has died. Burnaby RCMP said it appears the man may have suffered a medical emergency, lost control of his vehicle and veered into the bus on Hastings Street near Holdom Avenue. The man was rushed to hospital but succumbed to his injuries, police said. Five people were transported to hospital, one in critical condition and the others in stable condition, according to B.C. Emergency Health Services.The bus driver was shaken up but did not require medical attention, according to TransLink. The accident, in the middle of rush hour, created a snarl of traffic as the intersection was closed for nearly eight hours. Police are now looking for witnesses. Anyone who witnessed the crash or may have dashcam video of the incident is asked to contact police at 604-646-9999.

Students get boost from virtual reality

Burnaby school district’s new education assistant training course will use new software to simulate incidents Cornelia Naylor

cnaylor@burnabynow.com

Aspiring education assistants in the Burnaby school district’s new EA training course will get to practise dealing with problem student behaviour before even stepping into a classroom thanks to virtual reality software the district is developing. The EA course was designed to address a shortage of education assistants in the province and will launch this fall through the district’s adult and continuing education division. The first cohort will start in July and learn a range of skills, including how to deal with challenging student behaviour.

With software the district hopes to have similar to software being used in the U.S. to ready by then, prospective EAs will get to help train doctors to deal with difficult paencounter a range of student behaviours tient behaviour, according to director of inby putting on a virtual reality headset and struction Kevin Brandt. working through different scenarios. “It’s safe because it’s just in virtual real“In a sense, it’s kind of like ity,” he said, “but you’re able a choose-your-own-adventure. to then make decisions.” It’s kind of like Their decisions will either exWhile the EA scenarios will acerbate the problem or mitia choose-your- be situations Konarski and gate it,” said Ryan Konarski, have encountered own-adventure Trottier one of two district behaviour firsthand during their years of analysts (the other is Nadine work, Konarski said the focus Trottier) coming up with scewill be on learning to prevent narios for the program. or deescalate problem behavAs far as district officials know, this is the iours by learning to recognize why they’re first time virtual reality technology will be happening. used to help train EAs, but the concept is To that end, student EAs won’t be put-

ting on their headsets to be confronted by a student in distress. Rather, the scenes will show small escalations, like a student raising his voice, fidgeting or pushing away working materials, according to Konarski. “It might look like them finally standing up and walking away,” he said. Aspiring EAs will decide how to respond to each 10- to 20-second vignette, and the process will involve discussion before and after the process. While Konarski and Trottier are providing the scenarios, the program is being scripted, directed and edited by Alpha Secondary teacher Elixa Neumann. Continued on page 5


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Burnaby Now May 25 2018 by Burnaby Now - Issuu