feature | remote learning
LOGGING ON TO LEARN
Lakota’s staff and students are faced with changes as Ohio’s schools close for the rest of the academic year due to the coronavirus. story alexandra fernholz | art kelly johagntes
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mid the stacks of binders, piles of paper, and scattered notes that now make up his at-home office, he opens up his laptop, turns on the document camera he brought home from his classroom, and begins to work. For East chemistry teacher John Severns, this is the new reality of his job after Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine closed all Ohio K-12 schools due to coronavirus concerns. On the afternoon of March 12, 2020 DeWine announced that, effective March 16, all Ohio K-12 schools would close through April 3, 2020, meaning Lakota schools would not be in session again until April 6, the following Monday. Lakota teachers, who, under the direction of Lakota Superintendent Matt Miller, had already been planning to implement a Remote Learning Day that Friday, were given the day to remove any equipment they’d need to begin teaching online. “It was very chaotic,” Severns says. “Teachers were grabbing things left and right. I personally made like three trips out to my car. It’s like, if we’re going to be back in four weeks, then I need this but not this. If it’s even remotely possible that we won’t be back for the semester, holy crap, I need lots and lots and lots of stuff.” After returning from spring break, Lakota students began their schooling from home on March 25, 2020. However, before they could return to school that April, DeWine announced an extension of the closure until May 1, 2020 as Ohio’s confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus neared 2,000. According to Lakota Executive Director of Curriculum and Instruction Andrew Wheatley, Lakota officials were prepared for this change in plans. “The Curriculum Department has been planning for an extended school closure since
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March 9, when the district announced the March 13 Remote Learning day,” Wheatley says. “Since March 9, we have been working collaboratively with teachers, building principals and district administration to develop guidelines, resources, plans and processes for both remote learning and remote leadership.” Then, a final announcement came from DeWine on April 20, 2020, extending Remote Learning for all Ohio K-12 schools through the end of the school
year, meaning students would not return to their school buildings for the rest of the academic year. “Governor DeWine today announced that schools will stay on remote learning for the rest of the academic year, [and] we’re going to do that in Lakota the best way we can,” Lakota Superintendent Matt Miller told the community on a Facebook Live session just an hour after DeWine’s press conference. “It’s not perfect. It’s not what any of us want to be going on or what we want to happen. But it’s,
East ceramics and photography teacher Karen Saunders works in her home office.
