Learning from home continues

Friday, 03 April 2020 10:00

Learning from home continues

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Leah (left) and Faith Kentner crack open the books at home. There is still plenty of work to do before the end of the school year. On the advice of Manitoba’s Chief Public Health Officer, schools will stay closed for the duration of this school year and home-based learning will continue until June. This past week has been spring break, but students will be back to the books next week.

The closure of classrooms in Manitoba will continue indefinitely after the original April 13 deadline.

On March 31, Education Minister Kevin Goertzen announced the province would be keeping the classrooms shut. Originally, they were closed on March 23, one week before spring break, and were to remain closed for a week after the stoppage. However, with the COVID-19 pandemic numbers still rising in Manitoba, they have decided to keep students out of schools for a longer period.

According to Turtle Mountain School Division Superintendent Tim De Ruyck, the extension was not too surprising.

“Based on the comments the public health officer was making, I think it was unrealistic to think classes would be back on April 13,” De Ruyck explained. “We already had a sense we would be looking at a longer duration.”

The health minister said this could potentially last until June 30, the end of the school year. De Ruyck said the public health officer could cut it shorter if it was felt to be safe. The division is prepared to go back with fairly short notice, he added, saying they have been cleaning and disinfecting buses throughout the stoppage. If public classes resume, they will let parents know. However, they are planning for a shutdown until the end of June.

De Ruyck said in TMSD they have allowed teachers to determine the best ways to instruct students during the closure, as they know them best. In some cases, a lot has been done online, while in others hard copies have been sent home. Sometimes, it is a combination of both. The division has been using programs like Google Platform for a while, and there have been video conferencing courses shared between Boissevain and Killarney. Where there is a will, there is a way.

“Certainly, there are ways for staff to conduct assessments, to do tests, be they with pen and paper, or online. There are just adjustments that need to be made. Just think about distance learning, traditional correspondence courses, they have always had assessments.”

There has been one week prior to spring break where this type of “home classroom” has been done. De Ruyck said he has been impressed with the creativity of the teachers to keep engaged with the students, as well as the students working alone or with others using technology. He added some staff have been coming to their schools and working from there, practicing social distancing. Others work from home and some do different combinations of both.

Students’ grades will remain at least where they were before the changes, although they can increase them. No student will be held back due to the closing of classrooms. As for graduation ceremonies, it might be delayed due to COVID-19, but the hope is that they will be held at some time.

One area of concern for De Ruyck are families with multiple school-age children. He said the kids need their education, but he does not want to see parental burnout. Do not hesitate to make contact with teachers, he said, and keep the communication going.

“We don’t expect parents to be classroom teachers,” he explained. “This is not home schooling, this is remote learning. We are not transferring all the workload to home.”

by PAUL RAYNER, Recorder staff

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