Holy Redeemer is back online!
On November 25th, the Government of Alberta announced that all grade 7 to 12 classes would be going to virtual learning starting on November 30th. And with this announcement, Holy Redeemer transitioned once again to online instruction.
“We always knew this would be a possibility,” says Principal Betty Churchill. “During the summer, our school, in conjunction with our School Division and the Ministry of Education, made plans in case we had to move to online learning.”
The move to online learning is in response to the rapidly growing number of COVID-19 cases province wide. By moving the grade 7 to 12 students to at home learning, it will hopefully slow the spread of the virus and help to flatten the curve.
Alberta schools are no stranger to online learning as all schools across the province transitioned to the format in the spring at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. At that time, the move was announced suddenly and teachers across the province quickly transitioned resources to the online world. “This time around, we were prepared,” says Churchill. “Our staff was already heavily using Google Classroom to supplement our in-class teaching. So moving to online this time around was much easier.”
Another large difference from the spring was the amount of schooling. Back in April, the province mandated time-limits for each grade. This time, all courses must be taught all day. The reason being is that this move is only temporary with the expectation that the province will resume in-class learning on January 11th, 2021.
With this in mind the teachers at Holy Redeemer spent the days following the province’s announcement putting the finishing touches on their online resources. Then on the morning of November 30th, HRH was online school wide. “Essentially our students will transition from class to class using the Google Meet format,” says Assistant Principal Laura Webb. “The idea is to keep the routine that we have already established.”
So for the next several weeks, the students at HRH will taking all their courses, which include all of their core classes, as well as Physical Education and their option classes, which include Art, Drama, Fitness, Foods, and Industrial Arts. “One might ask how we can learn Drama online,” says Drama Teacher Peter Taylor. “Well, the good news is we have the most creative group of students to do it.” Not only are the students and teachers getting creative doing the online options, they are having a blast with it all at the same time. “The brilliant thing is our students enjoy having fun and will all make the best of any situation,” says Taylor. “We saw that in spring, and we are certainly seeing that now.”
Of course, this whole process would not be possible without the amazing students that are enrolled at HRH, and their very accommodating parents. “We know this way of learning is not ideal,” says Churchill. “But our school community has been outstanding throughout this entire process and we want to thank everyone for their cooperation as we continue to navigate our school though this pandemic.”