Sara Ruiz
Distant Lessons HOW SCHOOLS MEET COVID CHALLENGE
H
ot August nights morph into cooler September evenings. But lately, residents wrangle with two hot topics—schools reopening and
By Corky Mau Pocket Life
8
POC SEP n 20
mail delivery problems. Let’s take a look. State coronavirus mandates mean all public and private schools in Pocket and Greenhaven will start the 2020-21 school year with distance learning. Multiple educational and logistical challenges face our teachers. Schools are using platforms such as Google Classroom, Zoom, Seesaw and Clever to conduct lessons. Teachers accustomed to in-person instruction find they need lots of training. It takes time to create internet-based lesson plans, especially
if you’re not familiar with online applications. Some younger educators such as my neighbor Sara Ruiz are more tech-savvy. Ruiz teaches second grade at Delta Elementary Charter School. She spent the summer preparing lesson plans and attending training sessions. “Last spring, distance learning was a real learning experience,” she says. Ruiz hopes distance learning will go more smoothly this time. She will conduct online lessons from her classroom, doing weekly virtual check-ins with each student. “I want
my students to know we are still one classroom family, regardless if they’re alone at home or together at school,” she says. Matsuyama Elementary School principal Judy Farina is preparing for in-person instruction when protocols allow it. “We’re planning on a hybrid model,” she says. “Small groups of students will meet on campus for four days, with one day of online instruction. During that home instruction day, the campus will be deep-cleaned.” Classrooms will be reconfigured. Student desks will be placed 6 feet apart and students will face forward. Students won’t share any materials. There will be frequent hand washing. Every student will have hand sanitizer. For all families with schoolchildren, resident Cathy Fagunes Palmer offers this advice: “Please offer grace to your child’s teacher and other school personnel during this time. They love your kids and will be doing their absolute best to educate your child.”
SPECIAL CLASSROOM Heidi Sanchez has been a special education teacher for more than 20 years. She works at Caroline Wenzel Elementary School. Her students are at the fourth- to sixth-grade age level with moderate to severe intellectual disabilities. Most students have physical impairments and intellectual delays. Sanchez depends on her instructional aides and her “classroom grandma”— retired teacher Jean Briggs. When schools closed in March, Sanchez scrambled to create custom binders for each family. Her students were given computers for distance learning. However, she says, “All my students have fine motor skills challenges. Typing and performing multi-step processes to access online educational programs on a computer is just too hard for them.”
