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Filling the need: Schools step up to provide for students, families
As measures to help slow the spread of COVID-19 continue to impact local businesses and social routines, schools have been hit especially hard.
Following on the heels of Gov. Eric Holcomb’s declaration two weeks ago that all Indiana schools were to be closed until at least May 1, administrators and teachers have been trying to cover the needs of those they serve.
Remaining a fluid situation, Superintendent of Public Instruction Jennifer McCormick announced Thursday afternoon that all K-12 schools were to conduct online learning for the remainder of the 2019-20 school year.
All four county school corporations have implemented programs for providing food for students and their families. How best to work through e-learning has remained a challenge in and of itself.
“Adaptation has been the biggie,” South Putnam Superintendent Bruce Bernhardt recently told the Banner Graphic. “It goes easier in grades six through 12.”
Middle school and high school students were allowed to take home the Chromebook devices they have been provided through South Putnam’s one-to-one program.
For their students in the elementary grades, teachers have been preparing activity packets which can be picked up at the same time as food service is being offered.
Teachers across South Putnam Schools are using Tuesdays and Thursdays to prepare e-learning lessons and activities. As such, online instruction is on a Monday-Wednesday-Friday schedule.
“It’s not a tremendously difficult situation,” Bernhardt provided. “However, it has been a big learning curve for our older teachers who may not be used to the technology.”
While he said e-learning was effectively thrown into the laps of teachers, the superintendent believed the new routine has only encouraged everyone to collaborate on how to best involve students and their colleagues.
“It is forcing us to think outside the box, and it has allowed us to look at what we’re doing,” Bernhardt said. “The more familiar we get with it, the better we’re going to be.”
Though there was some criticism of South Putnam adopting one-to-one when it was introduced there in 2016, students have been able to keep up and adapt in an unpredictable “new normal.”
“It’s proving invaluable now,” Bernhardt said. “I guess people didn’t see a need for it at the time. However, when you look at people all across America who are now working from home, you can see the advantages.
“Our goal with one-to-one was to prepare our kids for the future,” he added, “because technology will be a part of whatever their work will be beyond graduation.”
North Putnam High School principal Jason Chew said the new emphasis on e-learning and how it is being utilized will continue to develop. He described this as part of the “fog of war” during these times.
He believes teachers and students at the high school have been adapting well to the new routine, and that there is as much direct communication as possible. He pointed to North Putnam’s presence on social media as being an asset.
Chew still provided that for all teachers, not having the face-to-face interaction in the classroom has been difficult. However, no one is being left behind.
“Where would we be?” Chew asked. “Everyone is pitching in and going above and beyond for our students to provide food and a consistent educational experience.
“Three years ago, we couldn’t have done this as well as we have now,” he added. “But we’re still learning on a daily basis, and I have 100-percent faith in our teachers.”
What has helped is that expectations for using Chromebooks were already established. As such, teachers and students can now “run with it” and get creative.
“Continuing to have educational progress is what is most important,” Cloverdale Schools’ curriculum director Cathy Ames told the Banner Graphic. “Technology can never take the place of face-to-face learning in the classroom.”
She said that teachers and administration at Cloverdale are, and have been, making a consistent effort to connect as much as possible with students and their families at home.
She said it was important to understand that some households may not have internet access. The little things, such as inserting educational activities into their lunch bags, can make a big difference.
When it comes to figuring out how best to implement e-learning, it is no less a team effort at Cloverdale that has to be collaborative.
“We’re taking it week by week, and we’re consulting with out tech departments regularly,” Ames said. “It isn’t an ideal situation, but we’re all working together on this.”
Students and teachers have been sending in photos of their e-learning experiences, which in turn have been shared on the school corporation’s Twitter account.
“We may be a smaller school corporation, but we have a close-knit community that will come together,” she said. “They need to know that we’re here for our students.”
Ames also related that questions and concerns shared with staff about e-learning and food service have been “minimal” thus far.
“Students know that they are able to complete them with confidence, and teachers are able to put lessons online,” she said. “It wasn’t a total shock, because we had already implemented e-learning into our regular schedule.”
The Cloverdale School Board gave the go-ahead for e-learning last October. Students and staff participated in two training days later in December.
Two weeks ago, Greencastle teachers met in their respective buildings to discuss on how to tackle e-learning. Since then, they and administrators have held weekly check-ins to discuss challenges and ideas.
“We were already familiar with the occasional e-learning day expectations of both teachers and students,” Kristien Hamilton, a seventh-grade math teacher, wrote to the Banner Graphic. “Teachers feel very supported with the integration of technology-rich instruction.”
One of those resources being used in Greencastle’s schools is Google Meet, which is similar to the Google Hangouts and Google Classroom programs being used elsewhere.
“Thankfully, we were able to shift our focus away from test prep and instead focus on teaching and making connections with our students,” Hamilton added, echoing a sentiment shared across the spectrum.
In the long term, Hamilton says teachers are concerned about how e-learning will carry over, and whether economically disadvantaged students will get further behind.
“We’re all holding our breath to see what the future brings,” she concluded.