Central Catholic teacher hosts video chat with historic public figures for students

Central Catholic teacher hosts video chat with historic public figures for students

Central catholic junior-senior high school students are getting an experience of a lifetime during this stay-at-home order.

They're getting a virtual face-to-face history lesson from public figures or their relatives.

News 18's micah upshaw, tells us how virtual learning is inspiring a new way to engage students.

D: i've always told my students, i can teach them anything that they want to know but the people that we've talked to have actually lived it.

M: or they're related to someone who's lived it.

Central catholic history teacher david cornelius is using this state mandated e-learning to his advantage.

He's hosting video interviews with public figures -- his latest, harriet tubman's great nephew dr. a.j.

Brickler.

D: tebooks are gone, technology is the way education is going nowadays and this is the perfect opportunity for my students to interact with someone that they couldn't interact with before.

M: students have gotten lessons from the editor of rolling stone magazine and they've talked with actors like john stamos.

Politicians, athletes and other musicians have also taught the class about their role in history.

D: the thing that has surprised me the most is that these celebrities, they lovto just talk about their passion.

If they want to talk about music, if they want to talk about their relatives history, they are passionate about it just like us teachers are passionate about our students.

M: cornelius says this abrupt switch to e-learning hasn't been easy on teachers.

D: we miss our students in an empty classroom.

It's very bare, it's very somber.

M: however, he's enjoying this new opportunity to engage students.

How he get's these celebrities is a secret he's keeping for his class.

D: i'm not going to divulge all of my secrets because then they would be bombarded.

But what i'm doing here, what the catholic community is doing here is above and beyond what i could ever expect.

M: in lafayette, micah upshaw.

News 18.