Virtual activities will help students celebrate Catholic Education Week
By KELLEN TANIGUCHI on May 12, 2021.
ktaniguchi@medicinehatnews.com@@kellentaniguchi This week marks Alberta’s Catholic Education Week, and with schools across the province moving to online learning, the Medicine Hat Catholic Board of Education’s students are taking part in virtual activities. Each day is dedicated to one of the five marks of a Catholic school, with Thursday being Catholic Education Day around the globe. “Each day has a certain theme and then we created some activities for our students to do online while they’re at home,” said Heather Irvine, Grade 7-9 teacher at St. Mary’s School. Irvine says her students will be challenged to look at who they can pray for, create a virtual rosary, wear blue on Thursday for Catholic Education Day and write thank-you cards to someone in the community on Friday whether it be a bus driver, a frontline worker or a parent, and more throughout the week. Students in Grades 7-9 at St. Mary’s School are all participating in the same activities, says Irvine, and she says with schools moving to online learning a few adjustments had to be made. “It was kind of tweaking activities a little bit to make them something they could do at home, but I like that the Grade 7s, 8s and 9s are all doing the same activities so even though they’re at home, they’re kind of virtually working together on the same project,” she said. Sandra Richard, MHCBE’s religious education co-ordinator, says other schools may do activities such as a scavenger hunt, paint a stained-glass window or make videos to share with classmates. “We’re just finding lots of ways we can still stay connected to our kids and that our kids still feel like they’re part of our Catholic family. Because we are a family, whether we’re in the school or we’re in our own homes, we’re still a family,” said Richard. Irvine says Catholic Education Week is important every year and she adds it’s a week that reminds people to be hopeful and reminds people of their community. “I think it’s just the fact that from Kindergarten to Grade 12 we’re celebrating the different marks of the catholic school and celebrating Catholic Education Week in a way that makes sense and is meaningful to all ages and I think that’s really important so the students can really understand and celebrate the gift of catholic education,” said Irvine. Catholic Education Week will end Friday with schools across Alberta gathering together for an online consecration with Bishop McGrattan. 13-12
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