PRSD teachers giving lessons to kids in Ukraine

Vikki Presakarchuk is a teacher and assistant principal at Paul Rowe Junior Senior High School in Manning.

She says this is something she wanted to get involved in right away.

“I had been giving a lot of thought to what I could do to support the people in Ukraine or the refugees that were coming.”

“I had been looking for some kind of opportunity like that so, when I saw the email, I just knew that’s what I had to do.”

Grimshaw Public School phys. ed teacher Sarah Rea says seeing coverage of the war made her want to help out.

“Just seeing the devastation that was happening and knowing that kids are caught in the middle of this and are now spending their days wondering what’s next, I figured this would be a great opportunity to be able to allow them space and opportunity to escape a little bit of what is going on and (give them) a chance to be kids and be silly and learn and have some fun.”

Rea adds that so far, she has done one lesson with about 150 kids.

“I was looking at doing more lessons with them but, unfortunately, we’ve lost communication with the people that were organizing it.”

“I’m just currently waiting to hear back if everyone is OK because we’ve had no communication the last two weeks.”

Rea says she taught some kids in Kyiv as well as some that are in both occupied and unoccupied areas.

Presakarchuk gives drama lessons every Wednesday.

She says she has had some of the same students for three weeks, something she says is really nice but also very hard.

“Because you’re starting to build connections, so when we see here what’s happening there, that’s where it becomes challenging but, also, the children are really joyful in the lessons and that’s nice.”

Presakarchuk asked for kids 14 to 17 years old, but same may be as young as 10.

“Some of them will have their cameras on and it’s drama, so, some of them will interact. They don’t all interact. They don’t all turn their cameras on but they all stay.”

“The ones that turn their cameras on and the ones that interact, they are always saying thank you. I really enjoyed this. That was fun.”

Rea had 12-to-14-year-olds in her group and says she was nervous at first.

“I’ve never taught that many kids at one time but as soon as I started talking, and I told them a little bit about myself, I got to learn a little bit about them. They were putting things in the chat, what their favourite things were, where they’re from, how many siblings they have and things like that.”

“Once we started getting to know each other, the lesson started to go actually really well.”

Rea thinks the kids learned “quite a bit” and also had students thanking her and saying it was fun. Part of her lesson was about fitness and ways to stay active.

Rea calls it “a cool and rewarding experience.”

“I was humbled seeing the kids excited, ready to go. They chose my lesson. The kids have different teachers from, I think it’s actually around that world, that volunteer lessons. When they show up, they chose to come to mine.”

“The coolest thing for me was seeing the mood change throughout the lesson. (For) the first bit, the kids would have their cameras on, but I didn’t really see any of them actually doing it. They were just following along, listening.”

Rea says by the end, about 75 per cent of the kids were doing the exercises. Some brought in their siblings and others that were with them

Presakarchuk says the kids she teaches enjoy tongue twisters and some of the dancing /movement activities the most. She says she plans to continue giving the lessons every Wednesday until they don’t need her anymore.

“Which I hope is sooner than later only because if they don’t need me, that would be good news for them, right?”

Presakarchuk also encourages everyone to help support the people of Ukraine and, in her experience, people there are very appreciative of any support.

by Curtis Galbraith

PRSD teachers giving lessons to kids in Ukraine

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