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Written by: Hannah Cooper
Covid-19 Changes within VBCPS
Due to Covid-19 Va Beach City Public School has fluctuated greatly in the method of teaching and environment of students learning throughout the pandemic. VBCPS In the beginning of the pandemic switched to an online asynchronous method of learning. Teachers were to pre-record their lessons, and upload them to the schoology/google classroom for students to watch/learn vs live zoom class meetings. Starting back online in Fall of 2020 teachers held live zoom classes that students were required to attend and assignments were given both in class (on zoom) and homework to do outside of class. Testing/assessments were limited during this time because again students were lacking in person learning and teachers had no classroom control of who was helping students on assignments. Currently, February 2021 students are back to inperson learning with masks required and vast changes to classrooms and weekdays of attendance.
Learning Targets:
At the end of this lesson readers will be able to describe how VA Beach City Public Schools (VBCPS) responded to the Covid 19 pandemic.
Interview target:
At the end of this lesson readers will be able to explain the changes within students/teachers during the pandemic.
-Explain how the pandemic impacted the ways teachers teach and give assessments:
-Explain how did the pandemic impacted students' motivation:
-Explain how the pandemic was handled in a teacher's perspective from the beginning (early 2020) to present time (2021)
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< Click Here to watch a video on Covid's effect on education! <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
Who is Mrs. Widel?
Charlene Widel, or Mrs. Widel is a Va Beach City Public Schools first grade teacher. She teaches at Pembroke Meadow Elementary School and has for 27 years. She stated “never in a million years would I have thought I’d be teaching in a global pandemic, but here I am.” She teaches all subjects and as of right now she is teaching in person to 17 students. Mrs. Widel's personal philosophies include using humor to create an environment for her students to laugh in and correlate their learning to the happiness they have in her classroom. She also uses encouraging verbal tactics which have shown her students continued wanting to succeed after being praised.
Interview takeaway 1: What Changes were made?
Activities went from Hands on to virtual & major changes in rules and numbers.
Physical Books students could read-> Ebooks, View sonic board.
In person (sitting close together) small groups-> Breakout rooms on zoom or "Turn & Talk" to their social distanced neighbor in their class
-Sitting on the "colorful carpet" together-> Having to stay in their seats.
-(C. Widel, personal communication, January 13, 2021).
Presently small groups are even smaller consisting of 3 students at a time and remain the same every-time students meet. Students are required to sit in the same place every time and Mrs. Widel cleans in between each group. This allows for contact tracing if a student was to test positive. The benefit of this is she is still getting personal time with her students and seeing their levels of learning when doing activities, but the negatives is less per group means more groups which takes up more class time. (C. Widel, personal communication, January 13, 2021).
Interview takeaway 2: How are students affected?
-The sudden switch to online learning had a detrimental effect on young students' motivation. The lack of being in a physical classroom was difficult on students especially since Mrs. Widel's students are ages 6-7. With students being at home with their parents they tend to lack the work ethic required to do the school work they need to do.
-The advice that was given to the teachers when school went online was to “continue teaching as normal” which obviously was not possible due to the lack of classroom control. Mrs.Widel explained to me making virtual activities was vital in her teaching and although she felt silly using puppets and silly voices in front of parents who were typically sitting with their kids, it did the job.
-Using her main philosophies of laughter and encouragement her student proved to persevere through virtual school. When school went back to in person students were so driven and excited just to be back in the classroom that they wanted to do work.
(C. Widel, personal communication, January 13, 2021).
Interview takeaway 3: How was the pandemic handled in the eyes of an educator?
-She explained that when the first switch happened to online learning in March of 2020, students nor teachers knew they would not be returning. When the school system released that they would be doing classes asynchronously, many panicked due to a lack of technology experience and how to deliver instruction virtually as well as a lack of specific direction from admin and VBCPS.
-Lower grade level students had very little experience with online learning that was a learning curve for students and parents. Mrs. Widel stated it was a very frustrating time, due to the lack of clear expectations. The bar of education remained high, but without specific instructions being given it was a challenging time. Despite the challenges she stated that she was grateful for the understanding and leniency from her administrative team and VBCPS for this was new to everyone involved and needed time to evolve.
- Flash forward to the release of the VBCPS instructional plan for the 2020-2021 school year. Although she started the school year off virtually with students she had never met, VBCPS had much more clear expectations given to teachers as well as more resources for students to be engaged with. Overall she stated that it was very rough in the beginning for everyone involved but from then to know much has changed and as she said “they doing their best” (C. Widel, personal communication, January 13, 2021).
Conclusion/Takeaways
Based on my interview and in depth research of VBCPS I find that the pandemic was handled in the best manner possible. I find it very hard to criticize VBCPS overall for going through something no one would have imagined happening. I think the resources offered to help teachers could’ve been more in depth but again I acknowledge the lack of readiness for an event like this to take place. I can criticize the fact that in the beginning like Mrs.Widel had stated that teachers were hearing information at the same time the general public was and that is a big no. Teachers/Staff should be the first people informed on upcoming events/announcements. I think another area which is just a sticky situation in general is the choices teachers had to make about going back to in person or sticking to online. I found it upsetting that it was a choice but then just became a preference when times got tough, especially with covid numbers still rising. I do give credit to VBCPS for releasing an in-depth plan for the 2020-2021 school year explaining clearly and specifically levels of education (elementary, middle, and high school) plans for going back in person or maintaining online.
Questions:
1) Why are students required to sit in the same place in the classroom & every-time they are broken up into groups?
A) Because her students are bad.
B) It is against the law not to.
C) For the purpose of contact tracing.
D) So they don't talk to their friends
2) When school first went virtual what online education method did VBCPS begin to implement?
A) Synchronous online meetings
B) Asynchronous lesson postings
C) At home activities (no lessons)
D) School was Cancelled
Answers to Questions
Answers to Questions
Question 1) C.
Question 2) B.
References:
(2020) VBCPS Instructional Plan for 2020-2021 Department of Communications and Community Engagement for the Department of Teaching and Learning
for Virginia Beach City Public Schools. https://www.vbschools.com/UserFiles/Servers/Server_78010/File/Parents/Fall%202020%20Plan/InstructionalPlan.pdf
(2020) Virginia Beach City Public Schools Pandemic Continuity of Operations Guide
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