‘It’s going to be radically different’ when Wake students start class again on Monday
Update April 9
Remote learning will look very different for Wake County students than the way they’ve been taught face-to-face by their teachers this school year.
Most of the Wake County school system’s 162,000 students will begin receiving daily online instruction on Monday, as their teachers try to cope with school buildings being closed due to the coronavirus pandemic.
But school leaders and teachers say parents and students should be prepared for changes such as shorter school days and extensive use of pre-recorded lessons.
“It’s not intended to be a full instructional day,” said Kelly O’Hare, a second-grade teacher at Olive Chapel Elementary School in Apex. “That’s not what remote learning is.
“We are looking at providing engaging and rigorous learning for students while understanding that both teachers and families are adjusting to their new schedule at home.”
O’Hare said she can relate to the issues her families face having to work from home while also taking care of their children. She’s juggling teaching her 20 students while caring for a 6-year-old kindergarten student.
Teachers nationally have had to drastically alter the way they educate their students due to the COVID-19 outbreak. In North Carolina, schools know they’ll need to provide remote learning to students through at least May 15 — and possibly longer — if the school closure order is extended.
Students at Wake County’s modified-calendar schools and early college high schools began receiving remote instruction this week. Year-round and traditional-calendar students, who make up the bulk of Wake’s students, start Monday.
Teachers get training in using remote instruction
Wake provided review material for families to use while it spent the past few weeks training teachers and distributing computers and mobile hotspots to families who lack home wifi access.
“It’s going to be radically different,” said Matt Scialdone, an English teacher at Middle Creek High School in Apex and 2015 Wake County Teacher of the Year. “I told someone the other day that even though it’s going to be my 19th year as a teacher I’m feeling like I’m a 1st year teacher again.”
Mariah Morris, the 2019 North Carolina Teacher of the Year, has partnered with school and district Teacher of the Year winners to create online lessons their colleagues can use. They’re posted at YouTube at https://bit.ly/2RkS4e8.
Wake released additional details about the remote learning plan on Friday (https://www.wcpss.net/Page/42482), including expectations of what will happen and how work will be assessed.
Schedules will vary by school. But a model many Wake schools will use is classes from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m., with teachers holding “virtual office hours” in the afternoon. Fridays will be more flexible, with schools using the time for things such as teachers working with small groups of students.
Flexible school hours for students
Ed McFarland, Wake’s chief academic advancement officer, said the district realizes that not all students can go online at the same time. With much of the material being pre-recorded by teachers, he said students can log on when they have the time.
“We’re not in a brick-and-mortar building,” McFarland said. “Students can work any time. We need to be flexible.”
Students will be learning new material moving forward, but it will be coming from the pre-recorded sessions. McFarland said Wake didn’t want access to learning activities to be dependent on using a device at a specific time.
O’Hare said teachers at her school will use the live class time to make sure students understand the material that’s been taught during the recorded sessions. Teachers will use the feedback from parents and students to adjust how the lessons are taught.
“Education and teaching is a partnership,” O’Hare said. “It’s families and teachers working this out together. It always has been and it’s never more important I think than right now in the times that we’re in.”
McFarland said high school students can expect to spend 20 to 25 hours a week of work. He said it will be less for younger students, with elementary students getting around two hours a day of instruction.
“I don’t think we can’t use the old model of a kid getting 6 1/2 hours of seat time a day because we’re not under that old system anymore,” Scialdone said. “We’re trying to provide learning during a national emergency.”
O’Hare said she realizes that even finding time to go online two hours a day may be difficult for some students. But for those families who want more to do, she suggested using resources provided by the school and on the district’s remote learning website (https://sites.google.com/wcpss.net/instructional-continuity-wcpss).
Teachers stay connected with students
Wake is telling families that teachers will provide feedback on the work that’s done and keep a record of student performance. Wake County Superintendent Cathy Moore said at a news conference Thursday that students should still do the work, even though it’s not being graded, because traditional letter grades may still be issued later this semester.
District leaders and teachers are talking about how grading will be less of a focus in the period moving forward.
“Our focus is on being a safe place for students and families, providing instruction so there’s continuous learning but with the understanding we don’t have lower expectations,” O’Hare said. “But our expectations will look different at this time.”
In addition to keeping their students learning, O’Hare and Scialdone said they want to use the time to make sure the students are doing well socially and emotionally during this crisis.
“We want to make sure that when we move to distance learning we bring everyone along, and that’s an incredible difficult thing to do,” Scialdone said.
This story was originally published April 8, 2020 at 8:00 AM with the headline "‘It’s going to be radically different’ when Wake students start class again on Monday."
