First Week of Remote Learning in COVID-19 pandemic – Grade 1

“Hello everyone and welcome to Grade 1!” greeted the cheerful teacher all of her students over Google Meets. “Can everyone hear me?” Her eyes started to pace all over the screen, left, right, up, center. “Who can hear me? Raise your hand.” Several barely-visible little hands in 20 small boxes on the screen went up in the air.

But, everyone could see a handful of panicked parents frantically clicking different buttons on their screens, or pulling on their ears as to indicate they cannot hear a thing. You could even get a close-up of one’s nose (and all the blackheads), wrinkled forehead or a ceiling.

Few minutes and an awkward silence later, most parents had success figuring out the sound system.

“Thumbs up …up..up… everyone who can hear me now ..ow, ow, ow” continued the teacher, as her words echoed across all screens. “Can you all please mute yourselves for a moment? No, use the mute button on your screens please…”

“Alright, now that most of you can hear me, let me quickly take the attendance and then I will introduce myself”. Patrick and Samantha were out of luck. Their parents never figured out the sound system and, as such, both were eliminated from the class for the rest of the day.

“Is Emily here? Emily where are you? Raise your hand so that I could see you …” squinted the teacher.

Peter’s hand went up. “Yes Peter. Do you have a question?”

“Um, am I allowed to go to the bathroom?”

“Yes, absolutely. If anyone else needs a bathroom break, you don’t have to ask me. You are in your own homes, so just go. What? Everyone at once?”

“I’m bored,” said one of the voices … but no one could make out who it was. It would remain a mystery.

Fourty-five minutes into the class, everyone finally got settled down. The teacher began to play the national anthem video on YouTube. “O Canada” was interrupted half way in, with a brief silence, followed by Kellogg’s The Cornflakes commercial. Children cheered at the site of “junk-food” and ran into their kitchens asking parents if they could have some. It was not clear if anyone heard or sang the rest of the hymn, but there was a new wave of enthusiasm among the children.

The rest of the week went well. Children, parents and teachers worked really hard at getting to know each other and overcoming numerous technical difficulties.  They were now all set for a successful year ahead. There was only one potential pitfall. The assigned teacher wasn’t sure if she would continue to teach the class after all this effort of getting to know everyone. The entire summer and 2-week delay in September was not enough for the Ontario School Board to figure out who should teach what class and it was still working on assigning and reshuffling teachers and classrooms.

But all of that is ok. Children have now at least mastered the skill of how to Mute and Unmute themselves.