With the government announcement that schools will remain closed until at least May 4, students have moved to online learning.
Algoma school board websites offer information on how students can access the provincial government’s online learning portal.
Elliot Lake’s Our Lady of Lourdes French Immersion School vice principal Nadia Zanatta issued a news release about how Lourdes students are dealing with online learning.
“Over the past few weeks, the Our Lady of Lourdes school administrative team, the teachers, and support staff have been diligently working at setting up their students in their Learn at Home campaign,” Zanatta said in the release. “This follows the Ministry of Education’s mandate of school closures since March 23, due to the COVID-19 pandemic breakout in Ontario.”
“Parents participated in a board wide survey taking inventory of the technology they had for their child(ren) to be able to participate in the daily teacher led classes offered online. The school was able to deploy 60 computers to students that did not have compatible technology to support this type of learning, ensuring that all students were connected,” she added.
Using the internet, teachers are able to continue to develop programs based on the Ontario Curriculum from Kindergarten to Grade 8, and deliver instruction and lessons to their students at home. But the learning does not stop there.
Important personal contact with students still exists as teachers are able to dialogue with their students and parents, offering feedback, debriefing on their progress all the while keeping them engaged in learning.
“It is astounding how everybody has come together to make this happen,” states Principal Stephane Prevost. “The teachers and our full support staff have all readily jumped on board to ensure that student learning does not halt. We have had such a positive response from our parent group. I commend them for taking on an active role in their child(ren)’s education.”
Parents experiencing any difficulty connecting with their teacher can send an email to [email protected] or call the board office at 705-945-5400 and leave a message.