A cold yet sunny morning greeted returning elementary and secondary students Tuesday. It was their first time back in the classroom since before the Christmas holidays.
Most schools in Ontario switched to online learning in the first week of January in an effort to halt the increase in Omicron COVID-19 cases. With some revised safety measures in place, students across the province would return to class on January 17 to learn in class. However, a severe weather event made Monday a snowy day.
“I think it’s a good thing they’re going back,” says parent and teacher Brooke MacKinnon. “Of course there is some risk and we do not really know how long they will be there. I think socially and academically it is very good for them. “
For parent Eric Connell, he says there is not much fear of going back to in-class learning.
“I mean, we’re close to it being an endemic and let’s just get it over with,” Connell says. “We’ll be stuck with this forever, so let’s continue with it.”
Read more:
Queen’s Professor wins Polanyi Prize in Chemistry
And while one day does not make a term or quadmaster, back to personal learning and what it entails, for some it is certainly better to do everything online.
“It was a challenge, but I feel like they had better control over it this time than the last time,” Connell continues. “I was really impressed with the primary teachers and how they handled it.”
The vast majority of students returned to in-class learning on Tuesday, and Krishna Burra, director of education at Limestone District School Board (LDSB), says there are many benefits to that model.
“In terms of not only the preference for teaching and learning in that particular environment, but also the social connections and other benefits that are so important to student well-being that are available when students are in school,” says Burra.
But not everyone was able to close the classroom, thanks to the continuing effects of the blizzard.
Some buses in the region did not run due to the weather, but this was not the case in the Kingston area.
“We’re all about safety, we have to be all about safety and that’s why we’ll be on the safety side every time,” said Tri-Board Transportation CEO Gord Taylor.
Taylor says there are a number of factors used in dealing with what he calls “a recurrence event.”
Read more:
Weak weather leads to closures in Kingston, Ont. territory
“One is the prediction we face, and we look at those days ahead,” he says. “One is the current conditions – is it snow, icy rain, rain, icy rain. And the third thing is what we call legacy conditions. If the roads are still a mess, the turns are bad, the bus loops are plowed, we can be in streets and roads are coming. ”
Taylor says a number of qualified people are used when the call is made to keep the buses off the road, including drivers, staff from concerned municipalities, as well as officials from the Department of Transportation and many others.
© 2022 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
Reference-globalnews.ca