There some sadness from teachers now that classrooms will stay closed in the province the rest of the school year.
Mike Judge of the Elementary Teacher’s Federation in Thunder Bay says his members have mixed feelings.
“I know in their heart of hearts they would like to be back in front of students just making those connections face to face…(and) it’s challenging not to see those faces everyday even if it’s through a screen it’s just different than being in person,” notes Judge. His members, like others in the province, have been conducting classes over the Internet since April.
Judge is hoping classrooms will be back to a normal setting come September.
Rich Seeley, with the Ontario Secondary School Teacher’s Federation, says members are happy the safety of teachers and students has been considered.
“For the most part our teachers are in the groove of doing this emergency teaching situation so I think they will be well suited to finishing off the year this way,” notes Seeley.
Aldo Grillo of the Ontario English Catholic Teachers Association suggests for his members there are mixed feelings saying, “Obviously there’s a lot of frustration…the membership basically wants to get back to the classroom and some level of normalcy.”
The union official seems to agree it will be anyone’s guess at this point how the new school year will look in September.
