Teacher’s Return To Kahnawà:ke Schools
Written by Paul Graif on 24 August 2020
The School year might be starting later than usual for Kahnawake Students, but teachers have already made their way back into class. Robin Delaronde is the Director of Education for the Kahnawake Education Center talking about day 1 at Karonhianónhnha, Kateri and KSS schools:
“This morning I was able to welcome teachers back at Karonhianónhnha School and see them walk in the door, practice the social distancing and the proper procedures prior to entry. But I have to say overall, the teachers appeared very happy to be back, they were very glad to be able talk to one another, see one another and it was a real easy entry back into the school.”
Meanwhile at Kateri:
“At Kateri School I was able to come in and see how they were and how things were going and you could just see, what you can see with the mask on, but there was an ease in terms of being back in the school: talking, laughter, but I’m sure there are some concerns obviously, we’ll be able to address that with the delayed start giving them more information as we move on.”
And finally at KSS, Delaronde says the transition was easy:
“At KSS, one of my fellow colleagues was there as well and basically said the same thing, that it was a fairly easy transition coming back in and just getting the chance to see each other and to be amongst their fellow peers. We’re monitoring, we’re going to be meeting back we’re looking at some of the things we may need to re-adjust and we will be re-adjusting them because like everything with Covid, we implement, we monitor and we know that sometimes we might have to make changes. Overall, I’d say I was happy with the way the teachers came back in and we’ll continue to monitor how things progress.”
And with the morning rain, today’s traditional opening, there were already some challenges present:
“One of them was able due to the weather to do it outdoors, one had to do it indoors with our traditional opening, so it varied, everybody was just accommodating to some new circumstances that they were being faced with right off the bat.”
1 on 1 student orientation week will take place as of the week of September 14th, giving teachers some extra time to prepare for the new school normal.
