Allison Fuisz loved taking her class for walks in the greenbelt around her school, to explore nature.

And after not seeing her “kiddoes” for several weeks, she is also longing for all the talk — and fun — of the classroom.

For the Grade 7-8 teacher at Bell High School in Ottawa, the hardest thing about the school shutdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic is not seeing her students, who she misses “a whole lot.”

“There is a gap in the gut and the heart because they really do make you smile,” Fuisz said. “It’s a passion. I adore being a teacher. I adore being an educator and not to be in the learning space and greet them every morning, it’s a void.”

In the move to online learning, she has tried to keep mindfulness a part of their day — but now is also incorporating Minecraft.

“It’s another world,” she said. “I think the one thing I know I have playing on my side is an innate understanding of tech ... I feel comfortable enough to try new things or to better understand,” but it’s not the same.

“When you have the opportunity to talk to students in the moment after teaching ... we don’t have that ability anymore. That’s difficult, not to be able to make those connections.”

After the March break, she spoke with the families of every student from her homeroom and she now provides daily communication online, setting up a weekly schedule using Google classroom, which she was already using.

“This is twofold,” she said. “Families get a weekly email update — a general outlook of the week, with access to Monday-to-Friday learning activities” and students can plan their time accordingly. She uploads voice messages, in which she adds a question in French to keep them thinking. She also provides daily activities, knowing “that not all can get outside or have access to a backyard.” On Fridays, she hosts 30-minute Google drop-ins.

“I try not to put in too many surprises,” said Fuisz, who teaches French, geography, history and science.

She does give her students deadlines, but she is flexible, and listens to families’ input.

“I have been toying with adding something every day — but in the same breath, I want to be mindful of their screen time. I don’t want the kiddoes, because of me, to be in front of the screen for hours on end, when they could be reading a book or playing a board game with family member.”

If students need one-on-one help, she’s been providing that, too — with their parents’ permission.

She said adjusting her classroom atmosphere to the virtual hub is difficult, “because what was very developed in our space was collaboration, using both technology and traditional tools.”

The “other piece that’s difficult for me personally is the students — how much they are pushing themselves and their well-being and mental health.

“There’s not as much laughing,” she added. “We did a lot of that in class.”

“There’s so much energy that you feel in the learning space, surrounded by students who are generally happy to be there — having ‘whoo hoo’ moments of learning. You don’t feel that same energy when you are doing the Google classroom.”

When classes resume, she said “there will be a big mental health piece. I don’t know what’s happened in their homes — we’ll have to be community connect first, and put the stress on the curriculum second.”

For now, she uses Minecraft for students to create and narrate stories, but said it can be used for math, building objects to scale, and to show the surface area and volume.

“It engages them even more so — they are learning doing something they love.”

Fuisz said being online for hours on end is far more tiring than working with students in person.

“The style of how I teach is not suited for strictly online format despite using technology in our learning space prior to these events. It does not feel as natural and sure, perhaps it feels a tad more robotic but I’m hopeful to find some routine in all of this just as I hope the same for my students with making them feel overwhelmed given all that is going on in our world.”

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Life away from the screen has always been the best part of her job.

“One of the things I truly miss is heading outside with my class,” she said, noting that she has encouraged her students to explore the community and appreciate their surroundings.

“They don’t necessarily do that on their own. It’s a big miss.”

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