Nixon Samchuk misses seeing his classmates and teachers every day.
Last week, Samchuk’s Grade 6 class started online learning, where he gets to see his teacher every day, but he still wishes he could go in and learn in the classroom.
“I prefer learning in the classroom because it’s easier to ask questions and actually learn more than it is at home,” Samchuk said.
Samchuk attends Wild Rose Elementary School with his younger sister and now the duo are at home finishing up their semesters.
Samchuk said while he misses going to school, there are a few benefits of learning at home.
“It's more comfortable so I get work done faster, but it's pretty much the same so far.”
Online classes launched for kids in St. Albert last week, although the week was mostly used to help students, teachers and parents get more comfortable with the online technology and a new routine of learning from home.
Samchuk said during the first week his class mainly wrote about what they had done so far during isolation. The Grade 6 student said he has done “a whole lot of nothing” during isolation, although his mom Jess chimed in and said they have been doing activities together at home.
Every morning, Samchuk’s days have started off with videos from the principal and then his teacher. Once the videos wrap up, he is able to do his assignments and chat with his friends through the online Google Meet technology.
When classes really started to kick off this week, Samchuck started learning language arts, math, science and social studies.
Grade 11 student Isaac Finlayson, who attends Bellerose high school, said so far online learning hasn’t been so bad.
Finlayson is taking Social 20, Chemistry 20 and English 20.
The teen said so far his classes have been good but he does his work during “weird hours.”
“I mainly do my work around 11 to midnight,” the night owl said.
Finlayson said for the learning and education aspect, he enjoys online learning.
“For the social aspect, it sucks,” he added.
The teen said he spends about two to three hours on his schoolwork a day, which is less than he has to put in when he is learning in the classroom.
“Normally, the teachers have to take it slow for some students, so I can sprint through everything and get it all done really quick,” Finlayson said.
Finlayson’s teachers have so far uploaded videos of them teaching the lectures, along with supplementary reading activities, notes and slides, and then afterward the teen has to do some assignments.
Finlayson said his parents haven’t had to intervene to force him to do his work and so far he has got everything done before it is due, although he said some of his friends aren’t enjoying the online learning as much.
“One of my good friends said he signed up to go to school, not to do homeschooling, so he doesn't want to do anything at home,” Finlayson said.
The students will be doing online learning for the rest of the school year, which ends in June.
