March 30, 2020 at 2:43 p.m.
School officials: District's virtual learning program ready for the long haul
School officials: District's virtual learning program ready for the long haul
While everyone would like virtual learning to be a short-term stopgap measure, district superintendent Kelli Jacobi said "it doesn't look good," when asked whether students will eventually return to their schools yet this term.
According to Jacobi, the district began working on the basic infrastructure for virtual learning system last year.
"DPI gave us latitude with the terrible winter last year to begin putting together remote learning, which includes all kinds of options, not just online," Jacobi said, noting that Rachel Hoffman, the district's director of teaching, learning, and technology, and her team have gone the extra mile since then to get everything in place and in use before the closure order was issued.
"Just to be sure, we're coming up with every possibility and making it easy for parents to reach out. Because they're always going to come up with things we didn't think of. But we all put on all our hats when we went through this; our teacher hats, our parent hats, our administrator hats so we could try to come up with the questions that we thought the parents would have."
Hoffman said the teachers and administrators spent Monday through Wednesday getting used to the new teaching environment and finishing up plans. She said the teachers "kind of accelerated their plans yesterday" in anticipation of the emergency Safer at Home order that went into effect on March 24.
"So they kind of kicked it into overdrive yesterday where we thought we would have the full three days to plan, people really wanted to get their stuff out yesterday. So we got as much out as we could with that," Hoffman said.
How it works
The key to SDR's virtual learning is connectivity.
"So when we look at our virtual learning time, the majority of our students are able to access some kind of internet, have a device or have picked up a device from the schools," Hoffman said. "We have 1-to-1 Chromebooks in the district, but a lot of people have another device at their homes, so not every student is using a school district device. Some of them may have a device at home that they are more comfortable using."
The district did allow for parents to come pick up devices prior to Thursday.
"And we're still working to get connected with those families that haven't been able to make it in yet to get them what they need," Hoffman said.
She said the majority of the delivery of educational material to the students will be by using some kind of online resource.
"And it varies from teacher to teacher and grade level to grade level," Hoffman said. "There's a whole bunch of things out there that teachers are using, but the most common ones that we have are Google Classroom; we use Google for pretty much everything.
She said Google Classroom is kind of a "one-stop shop" that a lot of district teachers are using, with another being CESA. CESA is used more with K-2 students.
Nothing new
The software allows students to record themselves reading a story or take a picture of something and send it to their teacher, and the teacher can respond. This two-way communication also works with parents and the teacher.
"The teachers have been using this (technology) throughout the course of the year as a communication tool with the parents," Hoffman said. "So the majority of our classrooms already had it set up and have already been working with parents using it. So it's not a big deal now, now they have to help their child from home to remind them they have to take a picture of that writing you just did and send it to your teacher."
"To the students, it's nothing new, they're just doing it in a different place, rather than in the classroom. They're using it at home and, quite frankly, it's the parents who are probably going to feel even more overwhelmed. But the kids will be like 'we got this, we've used it before,"' Hoffman added.
She also stressed that teachers were cautioned "not to try something brand new" right at the start.
"This is not the time to try to teach your class something new. Use what you've already been using that people are familiar with to keep it so people are calm, they know what it is, they've seen it, they've used it before," Hoffman said. "It's not a new thing to learn on top of everything else."
Another program being used is Class Dojo, which is another communication program back and forth with parents and teachers. A couple teachers at the high school still use Moodle for their learning management system.
"The virtual learning time, for most kids, is going to be them by their Chromebook or a tablet or a device interacting with their teachers," Hoffman said. "Messages back and forth in Google Classroom. One of the teachers I'm coaching put me on as a co-teacher, just so I can see how it is rolling out in their classroom. So a couple kids were having trouble. They sent a message, I was able to help fix it. I sent them a message and told them I got it taken care of, and they were 'yup, it works now, thanks.'"
Paper backup
Hoffman said there are a few families in the district that don't have access to the internet "so even if we could give them a device, they're still not going to be able to access the internet." A paper-based version of the lessons has been created for children in those families. This meant that some teachers had to set up their virtual learning and then create the physical lessons.
"I know at the middle school, the teachers did both," Hoffman said. "So no matter what, the kids are covered. The principals have been coordinating that to make sure that no student is going to miss out just because they don't have internet access. And our internet access up here isn't the greatest, so we may find there some more people that may need paper materials as we try to get into this."
Two week chunks
With the governor's "Safer at Home" order set to last at least until April 24, Hoffman and her team know the virtual learning will have to be for long-term use.
"We're kind of operating under the (understanding) that we'll be going through there working with our virtual learning time,"she said.
A message was to go out to parents making sure they and their children were ready.
"That way when virtual learning really begins on Thursday, we're ready to rock-and-roll, everybody has what they need to keep going," Hoffman said.
The first half of the week the teachers made sure the families that will be connecting through the internet can do so while making contact with the parents to come up with something that works for their children, even those with special needs.
"I know we have IEPs going on for students that have special education services," Hoffman said. "Even though we can't meet face-to-face, we're doing it virtually."
Another problem that the administration was working on earlier in the week was helping families without transportation that haven't been able to or are unable to get to meal distribution.
"Yesterday being our first food distribution day, We did have a couple call and say they don't have transportation or I'm health compromised, I don't feel safe leaving my house, I can't afford to get sick, how can I get food for my kids? That is probably the biggest issue that we're dealing with right now," Hoffman said. "We're trying to figure out a way to help those people as we seek to meet the needs of all those in our community to get through this."
Once the school closure order changed from April 6 to indefinitely, Hoffman and the teachers devised breaking down the material that needed to be covered into 2-week blocks.
"Really have the teachers focus on the next two weeks," she said. "Focus on getting through the next two weeks, do your planning, make sure that you got things ready to rock and roll. We'll reassess and see where we're at because it is probably going to be that 4-week closure, and we'll wait and see what happens after that time."
Once the all clear is given to reopen the schools, the virtual learning will be phased out, she added.
Target date
"Right now, let's focus on getting from right now to Easter, let's get to that milestone and see where we're at and then reassess and do our planning and that would be for that next two week chunk," Hoffman said. "Because Easter will be on the 12th and we'll have the 13th through the 24th. It looks like we're going to be closed for that time. So that gives teachers something they can wrap their heads around; go for another couple weeks and we'll go from there."
How long this goes on depends on what the state chooses to do when Evers' initial closure order elapses on April 24.
"We're at the mercy of the state, too, waiting and seeing what they say," Hoffman said. "We can have essential people in the buildings, so we can determine who is essential, who do we need to make sure that we can keep the virtual learning time going. And we will be working with the principals to make sure we have enough staff on hand to get the materials out that we need while still abiding by the Safer at Home recommendation to make sure our staff is safe."
Early in the week, Hoffman said things were settling down and all that was left to do is to see what Thursday would bring.
"Quite honestly, the crazy time for me truly was last week; really trying to get the planning pulled together, making sure we were in compliance with the state recommendations and guidelines and really just hashing out really what is our preliminary plan going to look like," Hoffman said. "Now it's fine-tuning it."
She said a Tuesday afternoon meeting with the principals would provide a look into any unforeseen problems that might come up.
"But the feedback that I'm getting is pretty positive. People are keeping a positive attitude, and I think that is going to go a long way," Hoffman said. "Educators are pretty resilient. You throw something at them and it's like 'well.' You can have the best laid plans, but we know it's not always going to go like that. They can adapt pretty quickly. And if anything, our staff has adapted pretty quickly in this situation."
When Thursday morning arrived, Hoffman said everything went quite smoothly.
"As of right now - knock on wood - it's been a pretty quiet morning for us. I think things were rolled out pretty efficiently," Hoffman said Thursday. "We did have a little problem with our Google Classroom, but it's on Google's end, not ours."
She said at about 10 a.m., the Google servers were seeing so much traffic "it was taking a little while longer to upload some of our videos,"
"It's just across the nation, there is an increased demand on their servers," she explained. "But otherwise, on our end all systems appear to be up and running."
By late afternoon, Hoffman said a workaround on the upload problem had been found.
Jamie Taylor may be reached via email at [email protected].
Comments:
You must login to comment.