Loyola University Chicago faculty member Kelly Ferguson worked with education majors to help local school teachers come up with creative online instruction opportunities for their students, such as a virtual field trip to an apple orchard. (Image courtesy of Kelly Ferguson)

COVID-19 response Supporting our schools

Helping Chicago's teachers go virtual

When the COVID-19 pandemic forced students of all ages to move to remote learning, Loyola's School of Education stepped up to help teachers make the shift

By Liesl Kochanny

When COVID-19 began shuttering schools, Loyola University Chicago students hustled to move back home and transition to online learning. Education majors had an additional consideration that many other Loyola students didn’t: their learning involved Chicago Public Schools (CPS), who were also forced to move to an e-learning environment.

Kelly Ferguson, clinical assistant professor and instructor for the elementary-focused professional learning communities (PLC) module, saw a fantastic opportunity for the students in her program after calling to check in with a personal friend who teaches second grade in CPS. That conversation highlighted how stressed her friend was over being given a wealth of resources to plan remote learning, but still needing to create online lesson plans with virtually no time to do it before she had to go live.

‘“Digital learning is a major shift for everyone, and this is just one of many ways we could help. Creating fun and informal lessons with my fellow candidates allows us to keep students engaged and productive while not in the classroom setting.”

— Patrice Canty, Junior, Elementary Education

Our compassionate response

In the unprecedented upheaval caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, Loyola has responded with care, compassion, and concern for the well-being and safety of our students, faculty, and staff. Visit our coronavirus response site to learn more about our efforts and the latest updates on our university.