OTTAWA -- With the start of school just days away, many teachers are getting creative in a bid to ease nerves and make the experience as positive as possible for students whether they’ll be learning in-person or online.

"I try to be as creative as possible and hopefully the videos convey that," said Immaculata High School teacher Michael Curley, who has created a short video for his online math lessons.

"Make it fun, make it light, make it exciting… in that intro they’ll be able to see my face, and in class I’m going to have a mask the whole time so some students won’t even necessarily know what I look like."

Curley joins a growing number of educators who are doing what they can to make the new school experience as positive as possible during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Tristan Nuyens, a math and business teacher at Holy Trinity Catholic School who is teaching in the virtual academy this year has also created a short video he’ll use for every lesson he teaches online this year—one of them using the familiar theme song from "Full House."

"Just to be a bit corny and a bit silly, I always try to get a bit of a laugh out of my students so I thought it might be something they might appreciated," Nuyens said. 

At Joyceville Public School, vice-principal Dawn Diamond has shared a series of TikTok videos—showcasing everything from which way students will be walking in the hallways to things that are now off-limits and can’t be touched.

"We really wanted a really fun and engaging way for our parents and our kids to see what some of those changes were so that they’re not so scary for when they come back tomorrow," Diamond said.

"When they come back the first thing we want them to do is be safe, lower their anxiety, we want them to laugh, we want them to know that we love them and then we’ll try to teach them something, in that order."