Education During Covid -19 Lock down Part 1- How we got here

 This is a blog chronicling the experiences of an educator in Canada trying to relate to what educators are facing in Nigeria.

The year 2020 started just like other years. Christmas and New year festivities over and back to school. Going back to school in January students were well rested, ready and eager to learn. I felt at this point that I finally gotten a good grip on my students. September to December is usually when we get to understand our selves and build a classroom culture and establish a set routine. We had become a tight knit community and my kids could read the expression on my face and and know if they had crossed a boundary or impressed me. (We Nigerian mothers know how to make those faces that mean a thousand words without saying a word.) 

Things were looking good and plans were in place to do the next hectic lap until Spring break or so we thought. Between planning and delivering lessons to field trips and other fun activities the school year was flying by. January turned into February, we had our district Teachers conference which is kind of halfway to Spring break. We started hearing rumblings of a disease faraway in China. A whole province where this strange disease started was in lock down and the death toll was rising. It did not perturb us then because we thought it was a problem in faraway China, they always find a way to catch strange flu-like diseases. Yeah a few people will catch it just like H1N1 or SARS, there will be some deaths, we did not think it would affect us badly even though we had started getting some cases in Canada. Life continued as usual.

                                                                         

The grind of this second lap of the school year was beginning to take its toll. Second term progress report season rolled in and the race to conduct all required assessments and report them were in high gear. In the midst of getting the progress reports ready the news came that this new disease had jumped to Europe. Italy and France became hot spots. Cities and then countries started locking down The death toll was rising. And then America started it's count. The numbers were still low in Canada and we were told the disease did not pose a great risk to us at that time so school and life will continue as normal - the authorities were monitoring the situation closely.

                                                                 

Parents teacher conference planning was in top notch. We were going to have a student led parent- teacher conference. My students and myself were excited to show case all we have been learning to our parents and then do the last lap before Easter/Spring break. Appointments were made, students rushed to put finishing touches to their projects and teachers were decorating the bulletin boards and the hallways with prized student work.  Meanwhile the weather was getting warmer, it was almost officially Spring, longer days, the snow was melting, staying indoors was getting too boring and we seized any opportunity to have our Phys-Ed classes outside.

                                   

Then the news became more worrisome, the death toll was rising in Europe and neighboring America, more cities were going into lock down. Canadian count was still low even though, the number of cases was rising. March 11, 2020, WHO declared Covid-19 a pandemic. As a result there arose a frenzy, fear, uncertainty panic and so much more rolled in. Panic buying set in, so little was known about the disease and what we were going to face. The numbers in my home province Alberta started doubling everyday and then it hit us school closure was imminent. Friday March 13th, we were so sure that school closures will be announced when we were informed there was going to be a staff briefing. However, that was not the decision. Our health authority felt they still had control over the situation here. So we went home that weekend preparing for school for the next week of school.

                                                                                   

Alas, that was not to be, over the weekend the numbers rose sharply in Canada and all over the world and on Sunday March 15th. all schools in Alberta were closed due to Covid-19. Just like that, even though we were expecting school closures, we did not think about what was going to happen. We just thought we were going to have an early but elongated spring break and in no time this situation will be dealt with. Unfortunately, that was not the case. A whole new world of learning evolved- Remote learning. Yes we know of online learning for post secondary but K-12 online learning, how is this going to look like?

 Overnight teachers were thrown into a new unprecedented reality- Teach the kids at home! Learning must continue! I thought there was frenzy when the store shelves became empty due to panic buying. The pandemonium created in my mind and I am sure the minds of other teachers was even more. Where do we start from? No preparation, we went home on Friday expecting to be back on Monday morning but we were informed on Sunday evening by the Provincial authorities - schools are closed to students until further notice. However teachers were to continue going to school to figure out with their admins how to go about this new mandate.

                               

                                 

 Prior to school closure, I was already using Google Classroom in my classroom, so I had a platform for my students to reach me. As soon as the announcement that students were to stay at home came on air, My students started reaching out to me Mrs. O is true that school is canceled? Mrs. O what is going to happen? Mrs O is school closed for the year? and so many other questions I had no answers to.Getting to school on Monday it was meetings and training one after another. We had to scurry to get things in place. All of a sudden there was a whirlwind of resources thrown at us to enable remote learning. For me my first resource of choice was Google learning suite of which Google classroom is one of the many resources that assist in delivering online learning.

Here is a link to some of the resources that are being used now for online learning. 

          CLICK ON LINK