Students Adjust to Distance Learning
With schools being closed and students practicing social distancing, districts have had to come up with ways to continue feeding and educating students. All three Jackson County schools began their meal distribution plans last week and their new learning curriculum this week. For Ganado, not a lot has changed.
“Our curriculum hasn’t changed, only our delivery,” said Ganado High School Principal Dr. David Segers. “We spent the first few days letting teachers and students learn the digital platform and then moved forward from there.”
Ganado junior high and high school students have been using their Chromebooks to work on assignments so the only difference is not physically having a teacher in front of them.
“Our teachers have a way to do progress monitoring and students can send their work back to teachers,” Segers said. “We have to keep learning because there will be a point and time where we have to get ready for school next year.”
For Ganado student Eric Alvarez, the learning aspect of school is still the same, but being stuck at home has some perks and some distractions.
“I’ve done my assignments and not much has changed (having to do school work at home),” said Alvarez. “You email the teachers and they answer right away. Other than that I have mostly been chilling with my parents and playing video games. A few friends and I hang out a little bit and throw the ball around.
“It has been sad because I really enjoy track, and the baseball team was looking pretty good this year. But the worst part is, I am a big procrastinator and being around my bed is a big time distraction.”
Eleven days ago Gov. Greg Abbott announced all school in Texas would be closed until April 3 adding that date could be extended. Edna, although preparing learning packets, is also waiting to see if Gov. Abbott is going to extend the closing before they move forward with a complete online distance learning program.
“For now, until we figure out if this is a long-term closure, we are doing learning packets,” said Edna ISD Superintendent Robert O’Connor. “A learning packet is not to overwhelm people. It mostly concerns skills they have been taught so there is no regression.”
While using a wait-and-see approach concerning what Gov. Abbott will decide, Edna is piecing together what its strategy will be to get internet access to all students if the school remains closed.
“We are working on connectivity,” O’Connor said. “Even if kids have a device, there is not good internet access in all rural parts of the county. We are looking at ways we can try to creatively create internet capability. The remote work stations, even for adults, in the county are spotty. We’ve looked at wifi hot spots and stuff like that as we try to increase rural connectivity.
“Before we go down that road we want to make sure we have enough time to make sure we have the staff ready. We have excellent teachers but not all of them have a comfort level with Google Suite.” Jackson County students who are not in an area where they can get internet are encouraged to use the TestIT app to run a test on their internet.
The federal definition of minimum broadband standards are 25 megabytes per second. The National Association of Counties says “accurate connectivity data is the foundation for investments in our nation’s broadband infrastructure. Unfortunately, connectivity data provided to the FCC is often inaccurate and inflated — leaving many communities overlooked and disconnected.”
The TestIT app will run a test of connectivity from where ever you are when you run it. It will in turn let the FCC know if that area meets the minimum broadband standard. If the FCC shows the area meets the standard but the app says it doesn’t, it will let the FCC know their information about that area is incorrect. Getting the correct information about bad coverage will help the
FCC know how much funding is needed to get the area up to minimum standards. Between no school and no sports, Edna students are dealing with the bizarre situation as well as they can.
“It is not going well,” Edna senior Jahlysa Reyes said. “I am bored out of my mind. I have been playing tennis. It is not my thing, but it gives me something to do. My brother and I also walk the dog.” Like most student athletes, Reyes is still hoping the softball season isn’t completely cancelled.
“If we don’t get to come back and play, the saddest thing is I really feel, with this group of girls, we could really go far in the playoffs.
“I never really thought I would miss school so much. Until this happened, I never knew how much I would want to go back. I miss being in class. I’m missing half my senior year, and missing finishing out everything. I miss my friends.”
As the schools staff make plans moving forward with possibly more extensive outreach learning, they are also filling their morning getting meals out to students.
“We started this last Monday,” O’Connor said. “We are averaging around 800 meals a day either on buses or through a grab-and-go at the elementary cafeteria. On Friday it is around 2,400 meals as we also send meals for the weekend.
“It has been eye opening for us to see there are a lot of kids looking forward to us coming by with those meals. It’s not like it is Luby’s or anything, it is nugget strips, burgers — but they are happy to see us. And our people are so happy to see the kids too. It goes both ways. Every one of our bus drivers have showed up every day. a majority of coaching staff is there helping put meals together and with the cafeteria staff. It has been a rewarding group effort. The continuation of the meals and using different methods to teach students is still up in the air right now.
“This is kind of like building an airplane in the air as it flies,” O’Connor said.