(submitted photo/Shawna Schellenberg)

By Mat Barrett

Teaching in a Pandemic

An education student’s perspective on teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic

Sep 2, 2020 | 3:50 PM

Teaching in a pandemic is a new venture for all educators, but what about those who are going into a classroom to teach for the first time?

That’s the case for Shawna Schellenberg who is in her fourth year of her bachelor’s degree toward elementary education. She is doing her internship with the Grade 2 class at Central Park Elementary School in Nipawin. She said she’s excited to be going into the classroom, even in the “interesting” times that the world is in regarding the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I have a great group of colleagues to work with, and professionals that are on the ball,” Schellenberg told northeastNOW. “They’re getting the classrooms all organized. It’s exciting, there’s definitely challenges.”

Even with the challenges, she said she’s comfortable with how the staff and administrators have handled things to make sure everyone stays safe.

Schellenberg said she’s been working with the staff to make sure all the kids are safe and caught up with the Saskatchewan curriculum.

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“Lots of figuring out physical environments with the physical distancing and adapting lesson planning for games and activities for the kids,” she said. “There’s lots of adaptations that we have to do on our end, and a little extra planning.”

While other people like Schellenberg head into classrooms for their internships, it’s meant to be a learning experience. Schellenberg said this can be used as a way to be even more prepared in the future, whether there’s a pandemic or not.

“Obviously not ideal, but now that we are able to tackle it, if it happens again in the future, who knows how long this will last. At least we’ll be prepared,” she said. “And we’ve seen how it’s implemented, and the changes that it’s brought and we can use this as a learning experience.”

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mat.barrett@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @matbarrett6