Twin Cities Teacher Makes Video To Ease Hybrid, Distance Learning Worries

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- Many Minnesota school districts are set to begin hybrid or distance learning Tuesday.

But with COVID-19, a lot of parents and students are anxious about what that looks like.

WCCO's Reg Chapman shares how one teacher hopes to ease the fear of the unknown.

"With everything going on in the world today there is a lot of stress and anxiety within our family and our children," Cesar Villa said.

Coming to terms with the unknown or what his children will encounter when classes begin Tuesday is causing some anxious moments for Cesar Villa.

"It's just been very difficult is all I can say about that," Villa said.

Two of his children will be taught from a distance, the third goes to a Catholic school so they will have in-person learning.

COVID-19 has changed the way we teach our children and this new way of learning is also changing work habits for parents to make sure they can take part in this new venture.

"My wife works full time during the day so luckily I was able to drop down to two days a week," Villa said.

"It's all theoretical right now it all goes down tomorrow. But the more information we have out, the more expectation of what you have is going to happen, hopefully the smoother it goes tomorrow," said journalism teacher Samuel Wilbur.

Wilbur and his staff at North High School created a video to take the fear out of distance learning.

The video takes you step by step through the distance learning process, taking the guessing out of what will happen, day one,  when classes resume.

"I think it's the question that everyone has like what does it look like? What is it actually going to be like? So I wanted to kind of spell it out for the kids, but do it in a fun way to show them we're also going to have fun this year too even though we are not in person doesn't mean we can't have fun," Wilbur said.

The distance learning video can be found on North High School's Facebook page.