Staying Connected

With almost every single school closed down in the United States there is always the question of how education is going to look. Many educators are at a loss at this point. How are kids going to learn? At first we thought it was just going to be a three week break. Most schools also had spring break fall in one of those three weeks. So, we were only supposed to miss two weeks. That would not be that detrimental to learning. Now the closing has extended to a full eight weeks, with a possible closure for the rest of the school year.

Depending on the level of education this could look very different for each student. Colleges have already made the decision to shut down completely for the remainder of the school year. All of their classes have gone to online work. Professors can host online lectures and question and answer sessions. The majority of college work has transitioned online in the past few years, anyways. College students can adapt to their learning online now. Because it was already expected that all college students have laptops, they can complete all tasks online.

High school learning is going to look pretty similar to this. Almost all districts have put funding into school wide laptops for all high school students. Or it is expected that the students have access to a laptop at home. They can work on their assignments from home and refer to videos or links their teachers have posted.

Elementary, though, looks completely different. Some students may receive chromebooks, but they do not leave the classroom. Some districts have adopted a sort of online, extended learning. But, not all families have access to the internet or even computers in their home. Also, first graders might have a heck of a time trying to do their assignments on a website they have never used before.

Another option most elementary schools are shifting toward is shipping envelopes from shipping supplies. Teachers are taking days to prepare packets to be shipped out to students and then mailing the envelopes using shipping supplies to their students. Teachers then have their e-mail and phone numbers attached to the packets for students or parents to e-mail or call with questions. The packets can then either be mailed back to the school, or the school can set up a drop-off spot for parents to come and drop off their students work.

There is no perfect solution for this craziness. There is definitely going to be gaps in education for years to come after this crisis.