Whitehorse teacher using 'driveway visits' to check in on students amid pandemic

Unable to see them in the usual setting, a teacher in Whitehorse is checking in on students and their families with what she calls "driveway visits."

"I terribly, terribly, terribly miss the students, so I had to do something," Monique Levesque said, taking a moment to clear her throat. "Sorry, the emotions are there, but that's reality."

She is a learning assistant teacher in the French immersion program at Selkirk Elementary School.

Public schools in Yukon have been closed to students for several weeks due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and teachers have been teaching via telephone and online means. There will be no in-class learning for the rest of the school year.

However, one home at a time, Levesque has visited her students to have a conversation a couple of metres apart, in accordance with health officials' guidelines, on the students' driveways.

On Friday, it was more of a sidewalk-and-lawn visit.

Pre-written whiteboard in hand, Levesque had a conversation with Danikah Dunphy.

The Grade 3 student told Levesque about her day, as prompted by a question written in French on the whiteboard.

Danikah, 9, said she has learned some new words thanks to the visits. She also said she misses her teacher by a measurable amount.

"If you asked me one to 10, I'd probably say, like, 1,000," Danikah said.

She was joined by her younger brother, Mason, who showed off a bicycle to Levesque.

Their dad, Daniel, also participated.

"The last time that [Levesque] came to visit, we hung out for about an hour talking in the front, and it was really great for the kids to reconnect with her," he said.

"As a parent, it actually is pretty reassuring to me, too."

Levesque said she plans the visits, which are voluntary and done on her personal time, based on what the families want.

Since she started doing this in early April, she has done about 50 visits in total, sometimes twice a day, and there's no plan on stopping, she said.

The visits are important because they keep her connection with the students alive, Levesque said.

"When you do not have a connection with a child, teaching's not going to happen and nothing else is going to happen," she said.

Levesque said, pre-pandemic, she participated in "a thousand hugs a day."

Danikah said she struggles with the new convention surrounding the embrace.

"They've been saying on the radio, like, you can hug people that you're close to. I'm close to Madame Monique, why does that not count?" she said.

Levesque has settled on an alternative for now: She ends her visits with air hugs.