School Progress

On January 30, 2020, the World Health Organization  declared a Global Health Emergency after the outbreak of the Novel Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in Wuhan, China. By March 11, the emergency had reached epidemic proportions, and Guam Governor Lou Leon Guerrero declared a State of Emergency on March 14. By March 15, Guam had confirmed its first positive case of COVID-19. With the declaration of the State of Emergency, Guam Department of Education schools were closed, initially for 14 days then eventually until the end of the school year. In the meantime, many plans had to be established to safely conduct Distance Learning, the closing of the school year, the training of teachers and staff, and the opening of classes.  Classes were slated to resume on August 17, so GDOE offered parents three models of learning: face-to-face, distance learning online, or distance learning hard-copy. However, the Governor extended the State of Emergency and schools only offered online and hard copy models of learning.

The LPUMS Community has done many tasks at the onset of school closures.  Many members of our school community went above and beyond. At the regularly scheduled district Zoom meetings, our principal and teacher leaders are very vocal in providing input and have been highly motivated in helping implement district guidance and mandates. Our school was the only middle school to have its own online learning portal, which catered to our students with resources and links from the school's teachers. Our school was the first to create a hard copy lesson packet, the LPUMS Calendar of Learning Activities. Several LPUMS teachers jumped in front of the camera to provide video lessons on PBS University. Our school held regular Zoom meetings even before schools were closed in preparation for closure. Our school held a successful drive-thru promotional ceremony and rewarded those students who worked hard to fundraiser for their team activities that were cancelled because of COVID-19.  Our school was the first middle school to take the initiative and provide Google Classroom training to its faculty and provide training for other schools. Our school staff made sure that the campus was ready to receive face-to-face students by ensuring that signage, proper safety protocols, and personal protective equipment were available for staff and students. Our school's website provided video tutorials on activating student emails and accepting Google Classroom invitations—tutorials that were also used by students and teachers from other schools. These and many other activities were all done by the school community of wildcats. Please look over the team presentations below.

During the November 3 Professional Development Day, the Luis P. Untalan Middle School Community logged on to a Zoom session to collaborate with their Personal Learning Communities (teams, staff group, electives group, administration).  Through breakout sessions, the PLC's discussed what their group had done since schools were closed to provide education for our students in the face of the global health emergency.  The groups met for an hour and created a presentation.  Each team then showcased their presentations  to the school community.  At the end of the session, all faculty and staff filled out a self-evaluation form on Googledocs about personal improvements they would like to do to their distance learning classes and experience.

In summary, much of the discussion by the faculty was on the challenges of getting parents to register their child, and for those who did register, for parents to be satisfied with their chosen Model of Learning. In a typical school year, communicating with parents is already a challenge but is obtainable with the help of the child who must face the teacher.  In Distance Learning, the challenge of communication is compounded by unknown circumstances, such as COVID-related family health issues, emotional hardship, and financial instability.  Additionally, the effective use distance learning technology was an issue for everyone--students, parents, teachers--further hindering the learning process.  There were successes noted that required the teams to work collaboratively and creatively to reach parents via phone call, email, or text message.  Many teachers also took the initiative to train their colleagues or to take optional training to become more adept at using distance education technology.

For the administration and staff, much of the challenge was in adapting to the change of working with a pandemic. Collaboration among the members of the largest government agency was essential.  From determining the proper safety protocols for holding a promotional ceremony to ensuring that everyone is prepared for the opening of classes in August, many virtual meetings, discussions, and compromises had to take place in order for everyone to be on board. As a school, LPUMS's success was in its bold preparations in pushing for campus preparedness, curriculum training, and health and safety training.