Santa Barbara County teachers are quickly modifying classroom instruction to make remote education effective and engaging while schools are closed to slow the spread of COVID-19/coronavirus.
It’s an opportunity to turn the online environment into a new tool — both for students and educators to learn, stay connected and remotely collaborate in the same virtual space.
The hallways of Cold Spring Elementary School were filled with silence Friday, and colorful backpacks weren’t seen hanging in a row on hooks. The public K-6 school was closed with locked gates, and only a few teachers were in the classrooms on campus.
Inside, students’ chairs were flipped upside down on the desks.
However, school was in session.
Students played violin during music class, asked questions of their teachers, and discussed their week. All of the activities were executed from their home.
Cold Spring Elementary School made its transition from in-person classes to remote learning this week.
Johanna Thorpe, a fourth-grade teacher, had a one-on-one conference with her student via the videoconferencing platform Zoom.
Closing schools has decreased social interactions in the community and increased isolation. Children are maintaining socialization and virtual face-to-face connections through remote conferencing during classes.
“Social bonding has been absent,” said Thorpe, who has taught at Cold Spring for six years. “One way we curve that, or make it possible, is through the Zoom meeting, which is why I decided to end the week with it.”
Students can see and hear Thorpe, and she can see and hear them. The 15-minute sessions were open-ended and lively.
“Hi,” Thorpe said through her laptop speaker. “Good morning.”
From their homes, students were interacting with Thorpe in real time.
Laguna Blanca School physical education teacher Andra Wilson teaches students through remote education.
Google Calendar helped organize Thorpe’s virtual gathering with 17 students. She used resources such as Screencastify and Google Classroom to stay connected with her young learners.
Students can access their remote learning assignments online, and teachers can make tasks and share announcements. Homework and other PDF documents were uploaded online for the students to download at home.
“What I liked was how super easy some were because it had links, so I could immediately go to the vocabulary, for example,” a young girl told Thorpe. “What was kind of hard was for the math. … My computer wouldn’t print it out, so I had to go to my parents for them to print it out.”
Cold Spring educators had the option to teach from their home or on campus starting this week.
The school, at 2243 Sycamore Canyon Road, has a community of more than 170 students.
“My teachers have been extraordinary,” Superintendent/Principal Amy Alzina said. “They have been hitting it out of the ballpark.”
Just like several other school districts in Santa Barbara County, Cold Spring Elementary School has spring break next week.
Gov. Gavin Newsom said this week that some California schools most likely will stay closed for the academic year because of coronavirus concerns.
Students and educators across the county are adjusting to learning outside of their classroom.
Laguna Blanca School — an early kindergarten through grade 12 co-educational, college preparatory day school in Santa Barbara — also began remote learning this week. The school has more than 350 students.
Sitting at a desk inside her home, a sixth-grade student used a video-chat program to communicate with her teacher and classmates.
Lower School art teacher Courtney Guay kept her students engaged with a bright color wheel scavenger hunt. Longtime instructor Paul Chiment used a web-based platform for math instruction, and physical education teacher Andra Wilson kept kids active while learning remotely.
Laguna Blanca School has students learning in different ways depending on their developmental stages, said Anna Alldredge, Laguna Blanca School’s director of curriculum.
It’s important to maintain a sense of routine and keep up with regular educational patterns as best as possible, Alldredge said.
“We are trying to connect with our kids remotely and have them feel like school, learning, growing and connection are maintained,” Alldredge said. “The sense of normalcy is important, not only for their learning, but for their social and emotional well-being during these uncertain times.”
— Noozhawk staff writer Brooke Holland can be reached at bholland@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.
