A Grade 10 student understands why he is learning at home starting next week, but he felt things were fine at his Okotoks high school.
Premier Jason Kenney announced on Nov. 24 all Grade 7 to 12 students in Alberta will take at-home learning from Nov. 30 to Jan. 11 as part of new restrictions to flatten the curve of COVID-19 cases in the province.
“I feel the school has done a good job of keeping us safe, keeping the staff members safe and protecting everybody,” said Eric Machej a Grade 10 student at Foothills Composite High School. “But I guess it (at home learning) is the best decision.”
Machej said he would prefer being in the classroom, but he understands why the switch to at-home school learning was made.
“I might have to work a little harder but it will be good,” he said.
The Province shut down schools to in-person learning in March before allowing classroom learning at the start of the 2020-21 school year in the fall.
Vince Hunter, Foothills Comp principal, said he wasn’t surprised by Kenney’s announcement and he believes the school is ready.
The Comp has twice been at outbreak status, with between two and four COVID cases at the school, resulting in some classes having to take at-home schooling for a period of time.
“We have an appreciation of the chaos that this disease can cause for families and the hardship,” Hunter said. “But I feel like we have also learned that a school this size can also function.
“We were able to sustain and operate.”
The at-home format will have the teacher giving his or lesson in an empty classroom, which will be livestreamed to students via Zoom or Teams.
He said the school has learned from its at-home learning experience at the end of last school year.
“There is a sense of calm but disappointment that the kids won’t be in the class,” Hunter said. “We learned from the past. In March, it hit so fast, it seemed so surreal.... We are just more prepared mentally for it this this time.”
Assignments are expected to be handed in, attendance will be taken and a follow-up calls to parents if a student isn’t in class will take place.
“Our whole philosophy is it is going to be real time,” Hunter said. “We are going to hold ourselves to be accountable to be as close to normal as possible.”
Hunter said classes such as welding, woodworking, cosmetology and other classes in the Comp’s extensive career and technology courses will see a heavy portion of theory until students are back in class on Jan. 11.
Christ the Redeemer Catholics Schools has also had cases of COVID-19 at its education facilities.
The preparation for students going back to at-home learning has been going on for months, said CTR Catholic superintendent Scott Morrison.
“Grade 7 to 12 students will be at home but once they have their device, they will be basically be going through their day by attending one Zoom class after another,” Morrison said. “They will take the classes in the same order, have the same breaks, they will just be learning by livestreaming.”
The division began livestreaming in March last year, and since September it has had 150 teachers pilot a livestream program.
“It’s not perfect, it’s not as good as having a teacher in front of the students in the classroom, but we have spent the better part of the last three months increasing our expertise to be successful at livestreaming,” Morrison said. “We have been working around the clock the last few days to get ready.
“Our principals took the news with incredible calm.”
He said teachers will be able to have classroom discussion with students, to make the situation as normal as possible.
Morrison said livestreaming will make it more difficult to ensure students are keeping up with their courses.
“Teachers put a lot of pressures on themselves to track down students and make sure their work is getting done,” Morrison said.
He said teachers will continue to monitor the students, but there may be more support from education assistants.
All Grade 7 to 12 students with disabilities who require support and services in any grade and students in outreach programs can continue to receive supports and services in-person at school, regardless of the shifts to at-home learning before and after the winter break.
The enforced at-home learning does not apply to ECS to Grade 6 students. Those students can continue to be taught in class until the Christmas break. They return to the classroom on Jan. 11.
