West Virginia University at Parkersburg' student teacher Cameron Gault during a remote instruction lesson at Blennerhassett Elementary school. (Photo Provided)

PARKERSBURG — Entering her final semester in the education program at West Virginia University at Parkersburg, student-teacher Cameron Gault has been learning on the fly during one of the most uncertain school years in memory.

With rules changing almost every day due to COVID-19, Gault’s cooperating teacher has been Blennerhassett Elementary School first-grade teacher Breanna Shahan.

“You go to college for four years, and they prepare you for student teaching. Then when we get here, it’s a completely different setup. Just kind of throwing us in here and I’m doing pretty good, I think,” Gault said on student teaching with Shahan. “It’s been great. I wrote an evaluation on her the other day actually, and my exact words were ‘I couldn’t handpick a better person to put me with.’. Because our personalities mesh well together, we work well together. It’s just been a really great experience.”

Under normal circumstances when teaching a classroom, Gault and Shahan would split the class into two groups and individually teach their group. But with a different group of students every other day and smaller classroom sizes, Gault has been handling the in-person teaching duties while Shahan works with students on remote learning. According to Shahan, that has been a big help during this chaotic school year.

“Having her really has allowed me to focus more on the online work, which she has also been a part of. But if she wouldn’t have been here, I don’t know how I could have gotten it all done, to be honest,” Shahan said. “Because it’s literally one job to do the classroom work, and it’s a separate job online.”

Blennerhassett Elementary 1st grade teacher Breanna Shahan during a remote instruction lesson at Blennerhassett Elementary school. (Photo Provided)

Gault said she enjoys seeing two different groups every other day and going over the same lessons.

“In a lot of ways, I feel like it’s similar, just because we were doing the blended learning, it’s like having two classrooms. So it was kind of cool to have one group one day and then another group the next day,” she said. “I felt like the days were kind of usually the same, except for when we would still plan on Schoology online. So we were making lesson plans for in-class as well as online.”

Starting at the beginning of the school year instead of later on like other student teachers, Gault was able to work closely with Shahan before school started to get everything ready for whatever the school year would bring.

Teaching since 2002, Shahan has typically kept student teachers working within the school day hours. But due to COVID, Gault has been helping Shahan at all hours of the day. From delivering items to student’s houses or checking for updates on the School Alert System map.

Shahan said that student-teaching during this unusual time will be beneficial for Gault and others.

“This year, the name of the game is flexibility. I think if you can make it through this, you can make it through about anything in teaching. So I think it’s been really good for them because they’ve got to see the crazy side and how you have to be so adaptable,” Shahan said. “I think if she can handle this, she’ll be OK. She’s done a great job. She’s been very flexible.”

Gault, who grew up in Wood County and graduated from Parkersburg High School, plans to be a substitute teacher in Wood County while searching for a full-time job when she graduates in December.