Area schools change educational approach to reach students during pandemic

The art of teaching looks drastically different today than it did a month ago. 

All over the country, educators and students alike are relearning what it means to attend a class or give a lecture. 

Last week, Gov. Mike Parson announced all public and charter schools will be closed for the remainder of the academic year in an effort to slow the spread of COVID-19.

Now more than ever, teachers are finding creative ways to continue offering students a remote education — and it looks different across schoolhouses and districts.

Higher education

At the university level, the abrupt transition to online-only course delivery has been handled swiftly and with relatively few issues, according to Southeast Missouri State University vice provost Doug Koch.

Koch, who spoke with the Southeast Missourian by phone in early April, said Southeast had transitioned more than 2,000 face-to-face courses or sections to online delivery.

“Faculty, staff and students have all been outstanding,” Koch said. “Not to say that there aren’t some challenges and some anxiety and things that still have to be worked through, but overall, it appears that things are going as well as [they] can be.”

While the methods of instruction have changed, Koch said faculty members are doing what they can to recreate the community feeling of an in-person class setting. One such solution has been to create Facebook groups specific to a course and inviting students to interact in a less formal environment. 

That has been the experience of senior Sarah Gratza, who is finishing a bachelor’s degree in corporate communications with minors in social work and human resources management. 

“We’ve just kind of been having conversations in the private [Facebook] group, which is kind of neat because we can all kind of still be in touch and, like, it’s more of a casual environment because the professors will just get on there and be ... sharing what’s on their hearts [in] less of a professional setting,” Gratza said in early April. “You get to know people in totally different ways.”

In one of her classes, Gratza said the students will have to deliver presentations over Facebook Live, which will allow her peers to ask questions in real-time. “I’ve never given a presentation via Facebook before, so I’m kind of nervous about that,” Gratza said.  

After all, in-person courses are “what those students signed up for,” Koch said. 

“They want those interactions; that’s why they chose to take face-to-face courses,” he said. “So there are many faculty that are trying to simulate that the best they can.”

But certain classes are just difficult to facilitate online, Koch said, such as lab-based science classes or music courses. Some professors have used Zoom chat functions to encourage students to ask questions and offer feedback during lectures, Koch said. 

“ ... It’s definitely a new environment for all of higher [education],” Koch said. “We haven’t had anything like this, to my knowledge, in the existence of higher [education], where it’s been this much of an impact across the country and even the world.”

Elementary, secondary learning

Successful remote learning at the elementary and secondary education levels is not one-size-fits-all. 

Learning objectives, assignment expectations and grading systems vary, depending on factors such as school location and population. 

Students in the Nell Holcomb School District will no longer be graded on assignments, according to superintendent Bleau Deckerd.

“We’re not taking a grade on anything as of this time, and the reasoning being for that is we’re not able to service our special needs students, students with [Individualized Education Programs],” Deckerd explained, noting he believes many other public schools are in similar situations. Instead, he said, teachers are developing enrichment materials to keep students engaged.

“We want to keep students engaged while they are at home. We want to do our best to keep their brains moving,” Deckerd said Tuesday.

In the Nell Holcomb district, Deckerd said earlier this month, connectivity is sometimes an issue.

“A lot of our parents and students have very limited access to internet,” Deckerd said, noting sometimes, it’s tough even to get cellular service in the district.

In an effort to reach those students, school officials have been delivering enrichment packets — along with meals — to students on a regular basis. And for those who can access the internet, Deckerd said teachers have been using FaceTime, Zoom and other online resources to stay in touch with students and parents. 

The Jackson School District has focused remote learning efforts around engaging, fun and meaningful activities students can do at home, according to associate superintendent Matt Lacy. All students in kindergarten through 12th grade have 1:1 devices to use for online learning, he said. 

“Overall ... our philosophy going into this was just to make sure we reduced the gap as much as possible since students are out of school,” Lacy said in an April 8 phone call with the Southeast Missourian. 

Asked whether the district had received guidance from the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE), Lacy said the state officials had removed obstacles, allowing the district to focus on serving the students.

“We’re not having standardized tests this year,” he said as an example. “They’ve waived some graduation requirements as far as civics exams, things that were going to be very problematic to make up while we’re out.”

For now, the district has implemented a “held-harmless” model to replace the traditional grading system, meaning students’ grades can only be improved by the completion of assignments. 

“It’s hard to punish a student when they’re not receiving daily direct instruction from their teacher like they’re used to at school,” Lacy said, noting the held-harmless model has “gained a lot of traction” across the state. “ ... You want to give [students] meaningful work. You don’t want to punish them, though, for an experience that they’re figuring out on the fly.”

Notre Dame Regional High School principal Tim Garner said in early April teachers were still taking grades but have been much more flexible in their expectations. Educators in each department have “virtual office hours,” he added, and students have been given general windows of time for which assignments are to be submitted. 

“They are still trying to progress through, definitely not at the same pace that they normally would, but ... doing some kind of regular work,” Garner said. “[We are] definitely not just giving them busy work, but trying to simplify the concept and get the nuts and bolts of what the material is.”

At Cape Girardeau Central High School, English teacher Kate Longmeyer said the use of technology in teaching was nothing new. 

“The regular use of technology in my physical classroom has certainly streamlined the transition to virtual learning,” Longmeyer said. “Although my students no longer fill seats in my classroom, my virtual classroom is similar to my physical classroom.” 

For example, Longmeyer said she would typically greet students at the door and check in with them before class began. Now, she does “wellness checks” virtually, using a “Daily Door Checks” Google form.

CHS senior Macee Hoskins said the communication from her teachers has helped her find the motivation to continue with school work. But she said it has been difficult to adapt to the change in instruction methods.

“The homework that I’ve been assigned is about the same as it was when school was in session, but it’s been harder to understand,” Hoskins said. “It’s difficult to not have face-to-face classes for subjects like math or composition.”

Longmeyer said her main focus for the rest of this year is to maintain and review previous knowledge and to give students an opportunity to explore educational avenues they would not be able to in a traditional classroom setting. 
“I have reached out to many members of the district and community to act as guest lecturers to provide my students with information that they are curious about,” she said.

Some of those community members include Jared Ritter, who is a member of the Cape Girardeau School Board, and Helen Schmidt, an English teacher at CHS. Longmeyer said she was even able to show a tutorial in the care and keeping of house plants from Mother Earth by Annie Laurie’s.

Education isn’t limited to a whiteboard, Longmeyer said, emphasizing parents, teachers and community members should work together to continue educating students. 

“I hope that our students use this time to educate themselves in a variety of useful ways — not just state-mandated curriculum,” she said. “It is vital that education continues for our students, but it certainly does not have to continue in a traditional way.”