2020 Medicine Hat College education program graduate Amanda Zondervan helped teachers and students adapt to online learning when COVID-19 forced kids out of the classroom in March. (Photo Courtesy of Bob Schneider)

By Chris Brown

Volunteered time

Education students learned new skills during pandemic teaching

Jul 8, 2020 | 4:31 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB – Graduating Medicine Hat College education students got a crash course in changing on the fly when the COVID-19 pandemic forced kids out of the classroom and into online learning.

To help ease the transition, the MHC students and faculty began to assemble resources, websites and other materials for Kindergarten to Grade 12 teachers for use in the new learning environment or be sent to parents to help them at home.

Many also volunteered their time to work with individual students

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One of those was fourth-year education student Amanda Zondervan who approached the new system with an open mind and desire to further connect with her Herald School students she didn’t get to say a proper goodbye to.

“I learned a lot about how to communicate over the computer with a student especially because we’re in our own homes and it’s not easy to stay focused, especially for the kiddos so it was really nice to like be able to communicate a little bit differently instead of having a whole bunch of different kids around.”

She adds it was rewarding to sit down with a student, learn what they need and where their needs are.

“Then you can actually like pull different things together and create different things to help them understand the concepts that they’re learning as well as using the knowledge that they already have,” she said.

As for the upcoming school year, Zondervan hopes everyone comes together to find a system that supports teachers and makes sure the needs of the kids are being met.