The first couple of weeks of unprecedented online and at-home teaching have gone relatively smoothly, USD 257 administrators said. With schools shuttered due to the coronavirus pandemic, school districts have had to develop plans for students to continue their studies from home.
The biggest problem appears to be the anxiety and depression in younger students who miss their teachers and interaction with their peers. It’s also not a piece of cake for parents to be suddenly put into the position as teachers.
Older students have required adjustments in how lessons are developed, as students switch between online learning and receiving paper packets.
Overall, though, the USD 257 motto of “less is more” seems to have helped families and teachers cope, instructional coach Jenna Higginbotham told board members in a Zoom meeting Monday evening.
“I think we got it right,” Higginbotham said, basing her answer off conversations and social media postings from other districts.
“We do have some stressed parents and the kids aren’t as into learning, but our administrators and our teachers tell them ‘no stress and less is more. It’s OK. Our kids are going to be fine,’” she said.
At the beginning, students and parents were eager to get the ball rolling, said Angie Linn, principal at McKinley Elementary School.
Now, not so much.
“Parents are getting frustrated. Our teachers are encouraging them to put the lessons aside and do something fun. Pick that up another day,” she said. McKinley serves preschool and kindergarten students.
Both Linn and Tiffany Koehn, principal at Jefferson Elementary, said parents are concerned students won’t be prepared for next year, both academically and socially. Jefferson teaches students in first and second grade.
“Teachers have reached out to their students who are really struggling with not being in school, not seeing their teachers, feeling depressed,” Koehn said. “We still have mental health and counselors doing Zoom meetings and Facebook pages where they are contacting parents.”
Linn, Koehn and Lincoln Elementary School principal Andy Gottlob said they all have been popping into classroom Zoom meetings from time to time. The students seem to enjoy seeing their faces, they said.
“The kids were surprised to see me on there,” Gottlob said. “I couldn’t get them to say much, but I could tell they thought it was a cool thing.”
His third and fourth grade students began turning in their first two weeks worth of assignments today, and he planned to extend the deadline for parents who missed it.
“We’ll have a better idea who is getting the work done when we look at those packets,” he said.
Middle and high school students seem to be adjusting well, Iola Middle School principal Brad Crusinbery and Iola High School principal Scott Crenshaw said. Their biggest challenge has been figuring out which students prefer online-only and which ones need paper packets.
At first, administrators at both schools found only a few students who didn’t have access to the internet.
