Quite a few folks are missing out on adventures they had planned, and many students (and teachers!) are understandably bummed, even if we know it’s for the best. Many of our students’ personal travel plans have been cancelled. Because it’s such an unprecedented event, our school is creating guidelines regarding cancelled plans. Our school made the tough (but correct) call to cancel all school-sponsored travel for students and teachers. Our head of school emphasized that none of this can replace the in-class experience, so we’re doing the best we can in these circumstances. Many teachers already use online learning systems in which students receive, complete, and submit assignments online, and all students also have their own laptops. Fortunately, our school has already set up systems of digital learning in grades 6-12. We’ve met three times already in departments, with department heads and other school leaders meeting even more frequently. Like many schools, we’re planning for remote teaching if the school needs to close. Paul Kelly is the principal of Elk Grove High School in Elk Grove Village, Ill. What better way for aspiring teachers to learn the process of selecting learning targets and developing quality assessments! At one of our partner schools, students in the educator-prep academy have been tasked with designing prospective approaches to e-learning that would allow them to utilize school-issued devices to engage with teachers and coursework in the event of school closure. On the other hand, the unpredictability of this moment has pushed us to analyze internal processes and practices, with students even joining in the conversation. We are currently quarantined in Montgomery County, Pa., but are connected to the kids through the idea that we are living history.Ĭhad Towarnicki is an 8th grade English/language arts teacher in Ambler, Pa.įor all our coverage of COVID-19, please visit: Coronavirus and Schools. If and when we return to class, we certainly will have a lot to discuss. Tom Wolf’s press conference, fully aware the necessary precautions that were being outlined. Just one week ago, we assigned this research to students as a “what if” scenario for a journaling activity, and by Thursday the students were listening to Gov. In the beginning, we joked about what is now our reality: Our students will be well-informed citizens as they head into a quarantine scenario. We used the opportunity to put research skills to the test and to craft legitimate claims from a flurry of ever-changing global data. The students had articles, infographics, news clips, and even a Skype chat with an Italian teacher in quarantine. What lessons are we teaching our students?Ī science teacher colleague and I scrambled to establish a menu of informational texts related to the COVID-19 outbreak, trying to take advantage of an interesting topic developing in real time.

It is sad that in the current climate, the district administration is stuck waiting for partisan state officials, and the parents in our district are engaging in point-scoring screaming matches on community Facebook forums. With so many digital scaffolds built into our curricula on a daily basis, the staff is wishing that we were in a better position to proactively close and have students work productively in a socially isolated setting. Brenna Bushweller is a high school junior in South Burlington, Vt.Ĭurrently in my district in southeastern Pennsylvania, we have students being pulled and taken to facilities for testing, as well as staff members already in quarantine.

Elk grove high school covid