Prince George teachers have found a new way to connect with their classes.
Because of the COVID-19 virus and the halt of in-class instruction students and teachers are missing each other. As a way to reconnect, teachers in School District No. 57 (SD57) have been taking to the streets in their school neighbourhoods, holding car parades.
Staff members at Southridge Elementary School held the latest parade on Wednesday afternoon (April 8).
They left the school parking lot at 2:30 p.m., windows down, horns honking and hands waving while students and caregivers gathered in the schoolyard cheered and waved. Many students made colourful signs for the occasion and held them high as their teachers passed by.
The students customized placards literally spelled out for the teachers how much they are missed.
Similar scenes repeated themselves on the neighbourhood streets as car parades have also happened at Malaspina Elementary School and Edgewood Elementary School.
Similar car parades organized by volunteers to help celebrate birthdays are also happening throughout the community.
Superintendent Anita Richardson also reflected on the car parades during Tuesday’s virtual board of education meeting.
“It was emotional for me to hear of the car parades that were occurring at (Malaspina and Edgewood) elementary schools this week,” said Richardson.
“Where teachers had the opportunity to drive through the communities of their families and interact with them in this new and unprecedented way, and to hear the teachers’ stories of the impact it had on them and the memories that they had forever created in that experience.
She says she looks forward to seeing which other creative ways staff come up with to connect with and meaningfully move learning forward in SD57.
