Learning in times of COVID-19: how the pandemic has impacted Marist Formation

Learning in times of COVID-19: how the pandemic has impacted Marist Formation

On Monday, June 1, the Education committee of the Arco Norte Provinces of Central Mexico, Western Mexico, and Central America met to reflect and review how the COVID-19 crisis has been dealt with within schools in the region.

During this meeting, the Provinces shared how educational processes have been affected by the pandemic. The common factor is that everyone has had to transition to remote classes using different online platforms including Google Classroom, Zoom, and others. Many areas have been limited by resources and internet access.

The challenges of taking academic courses from home were discussed, along with other topics related to education:

  • -Taking advantage of this experience and learning different distance-learning techniques.
  • Preparing protocols and guidelines for when students are physically back on school campuses.
  • Reconfiguring classrooms with regard to student attentiveness in-line with current social distancing guidelines.
  • Potential new forms of promotion: virtual open houses, educational marketing, remote registration processes, among others.
  • Different ideas of how to progress Marist solidarity
  • Inclusion of social works in this context
  • Taking advantage of the self-management skills students have acquired during their remote learning experiences.

Different proposals were presented that are aimed at collaborative work and support among the provinces that are part of Arco Norte region, such as sharing strategies (or building them together) and teacher training for new technological tools; sharing digital resources produced within the Provinces; reflecting and building a hybrid model from the Marist pedagogy based on the fact that educational presence may still be affected moving forward.

Our regional work generated from the pandemic is aimed at the reflection and recovery of learning for greater innovation of the Marist educational proposal, and based on monitoring, support, and guidance.