July 2, 2020

With the early closure of K-12 schools in Alberta due to COVID-19 came an opportunity for education students at Medicine Hat College (MHC) to give back to their mentors and learners in our community.

To support in the transition from in-person to online learning, graduating students and the MHC Education faculty began assembling ready-made materials, favourite websites, and resources to be used in the classroom by teachers or to send to parents. Many graduates, along with 3rd year students, then stepped up to volunteer their time by working with individual students to navigate the online learning environment.

Lorelei Boschman, education coordinator at MHC, says, “Giving back to our educational community is something we aspire to do and model with our students. Many local teachers contribute to our program in a major way through their mentorship of our pre-service teachers and it is immensely appreciated. This became an opportunity for our Bachelor of Education students to give back to their valued mentors.

“The experience provided many positives for our students in terms of relationship building with students and teachers, participating in online teaching strategies, and increasing exposure to different aspects of the teaching and learning world as they move towards having their own classrooms.”

For Amanda Zondervan, a 4th year education student, one of the highlights of her experience was the dedicated time she spent working with her student and adapting her teaching techniques to ensure his success.

“The one-on-one time allowed the student to share where his challenges were in learning and it was nice to see him really open up. He would share his interests and dislikes to which we could then connect to his learning. It allowed me to modify the way we worked through the material, using different tools for learning and processing information that suited the student’s learning style.”

While the eLearning environment posed a variety of challenges for teachers and students alike, Zondervan says she thoroughly enjoyed the experience. She further credits the resiliency of her mentors and the teachers in our community, acknowledging their determination for seeing their students succeed during an unprecedented time.

“Being able to witness how teachers were approaching this new learning environment was great. I applaud all the care and commitment teachers have put forth during this time.”