CALGARY -- Classrooms across the province continue to sit empty since Alberta’s chief medical officer announced Sunday that all schools be closed.
Now, various school districts are trying to come up with a plan for students to continue to work at home.
Marlowe Gelmon’s 13-year-old daughter Angelina Kaufmann goes to a public school in the Rocky View School District and so far an online learning plan hasn’t been confirmed yet.
Gelmon says she does have a curriculum of her own and feels comfortable to guide her children but says many families don’t feel the same.
“It’s tough. There doesn’t seem to be any governance. There doesn’t seem to be any directive at this point with the public schools and for parents with what to teach, how to teach and when to submit material,” said Gelmon.
A letter she received from a teacher at the school reads in part “processes will be soon in place to continue student learning. We are just waiting for direction from the province which should be coming in the next week.”
“It definitely worries me because I don’t like to be behind in things,” said Glemon’s daughter Angelina.
“It gives me some stress and makes me nervous about things but I’m kind of confident things will work out."
Over at Rundle College, a private school, the students are already online and learning.
“In the middle of last week they (staff) had already downloaded programs on the kids laptops and iPads,” said Rundle parent Trista Zinger.
“They were anticipating this so when it was time to lock them up for online schooling they were ready to go,” she said.
10-year-old Chloe Zinger says the school uses an app called Zoom and she checks in with her teacher twice a day.
“Every morning at 8:30 a.m. we have to log onto Zoom and we have to do home room with our teachers and we get breaks and then we can go back on,” said Chloe.
Two of the city’s largest school districts, The Calgary Board of Education (CBE) and Calgary Catholic School District (CCSD) confirmed Thursday staff can now work from home. However, the challenge as to how students can continue with their education from home remains.
The CBE says it’s district will be on spring break tomorrow and therefore a plan will be in place once students return.
In a statement to CTV News, it says “after spring break, additional learning reservoirs and activities will be shared to support students in learning.”
However, for the time being, the school is offering some resources saying, “We have created a webpage that offers a variety of educational ideals to support literacy, numeracy and wellness at home for this week.”
The Calgary Catholic School District offered a statement saying, “principals are working with their staff to ensure student programming continues. We are still in the process of determining what learning in this situation looks like and more information will be forthcoming."
On Sunday, the province closed all schools in Alberta to students in an effort to reduce the potential spread of COVID-19.
