Elk Island Catholic Schools Students go Back to Learning Online Style

Elk Island Catholic Schools Students go Back to Learning Online Style

Rosanne Fortier News Correspondent

Even though COVID-19 Pandemic closed schools, Elk Island Catholic Schools (EICS) has adapted and began offering their students from Kindergarten to Grade 12 online learning on March 23.

Susan Johnson, Communications Coordinator for EICS said they did a lot of extensive planning since schools were closed on March 15.

St. Mary’s Catholic School in Vegreville began conducting online studies on March 23. (Rosanne Fortier/photo)

“On the week of March 23, we implemented the online learning throughout EICS. It takes a variety of forms from K-12. It is quite detailed. Most of the online learning is through the computer. We are Google based; many of our platforms are using Google; Google Classroom, Google Docs, Google Chat. Many of our teachers are doing videos and presentations each day. They have online hours where the teachers are available to chat then. The learning is from early learning to Grade 12. So, core courses are going to be conducted differently at the high school level than the Grade Two Language Arts.

“Then our educational assistants were a big part of our classroom setting before the schools were closed. They were part of the online programming and planning; especially for the complex students and moving forward, we are hoping that will continue but we are not sure how given the fact that the government’s recent announcement on Saturday. So, we are looking forward to how that can be more for our complex kids.”

When asked why they started online learning on March 23, Johnson replied that they decided to do it before Spring Break and start that initial framework for students and teachers to have that connectivity and build that concord and then start back fresh on April 6 when they come back from Spring Break.”