The Alberta Teachers’ Association

The COVID-19 global pandemic created a situation where the lives of Canadians have been upended and changed. Over the past 17 months, COVID introduced many changes to our social interactions. We now go to public spaces with masks, we social distance and we limit our social contacts. In addition, our economy experienced significant shifts, with technology emerging as an essential tool for communication and business continuation as well as recognition that some jobs should be considered essential, for example, grocery store workers, health-care workers and those involved in ensuring our supply chains are intact, to name a few. Finally, many families have experienced significant hardship because of illness and death attributable to COVID-19. 

The changes experienced over the past 17 months have also impacted schools, students, parents and guardians, and school staff. There have been multiple school closures in Alberta, sometimes provincially declared because of rising COVID numbers, others on a school-by-school basis because staff and students have to quarantine. As more vaccines are being administered to Albertans 12 years and older, there is a confidence that the end of the pandemic is nearing. By June 18, 2021, the premier of Alberta announced that, with 70 per cent of Albertans having received one vaccination, the majority of public health restrictions would be removed and the province would be fully opened to activities that were previously banned. On July 1 the province lifted all public health measures except for isolation/quarantine requirements and some restrictions in health-care settings and public transit.

The prospect of returning to more normal times has created a space for reflection about what our “next normal” should be. We know that we cannot return to how things were before the pandemic. We know that COVID-19 and its variants will continue to be an issue. We are in a time when our future is being reshaped and that consideration can be focused on individual behaviour and societal norms. It is a time when many of us wonder what, as the next normal proceeds, should be continued and what should be changed.

“Instead of simply returning to life before the pandemic, what if we could institute new personal and social norms that are more balanced, just and equitable?” wrote Stanford psychologist Melissa de Witte in March 2021.

Here at The Learning Team, changes brought on by the pandemic as well as advancements in technology have presented a re-examination of the way we do our work. After many discussions, we’ve decided to discontinue the printing and distribution of hard copies directly to schools, beginning in the fall of 2021. This, therefore, is the last printed issue of The Learning Team. However, we will continue to publish The Learning Team electronically. It will be posted online on the ATA website and The Learning Team website (thelearningteam.ca).

This edition of The Learning Team reflects on the pandemic and the lessons we learned together over the past year. In addition, this issue looks forward to the new normal with an optimism that parents and teachers will work together to create a bright future for students.

Lisa Everitt is an executive staff officer with the Alberta Teachers’ Association.