Local High School Teacher Taking Shift Back To Online Learning In Stride

High school teacher Kelli O’Connell says while the Ontario Government announcement of shifting back to online school is not ideal, it is important to focus on the positive.

Stock photo.

The Ontario Government announced on Monday that schools would shift back to online learning until at least Jan. 17.

This came just days after they announced that students would return to in-class learning on Jan. 5.

“We just jump right back to where we were last year - which is working from my kitchen - while trying to get my 12 year old on their computer at some point,” said OConnell.

OConnell is currently teaching high school french, and has a 12 year old in grade 7 at home.

She says her high school aged students have little interest in engaging online.

“They do not appear on screen, they do not share anything, they’re really moderately ‘checked in’ it’s very difficult to engage them - whereas in class we can chat face to face and I can call on people - but online they don’t want to speak and I don’t blame them.”

Teaching online has forced herself and her colleagues to becoming creative with her teaching and grading.

“It’s almost impossible to test students, because they’re on their computer so they can just Google anything. I say to my students ‘it’s about effort, how much effort are you putting into this?’,” she said.

O’Connell say that while this is not an ideal situation, it is ultimately what herself, and other teachers have to deal with.

“I don’t see any advantage to getting my knickers in a knot about something I can’t control,” she said. “This too shall pass, this is going to be over at some point and ultimately it’s an exercise in creativity. It’s learning to find the positive. It’s better if we can figure out how we can make this the most exciting and interesting adventure. Look - we are living in one of the best times to have a pandemic, we have Netflix people.”

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