Marshall, Ohio County Students Do Remote Learning Again
WHEELING – Schools in Ohio and Marshall counties were closed again Friday due to weather conditions, but school officials believe there’s a greater than remote chance students are actively learning at home.
Both counties have used up their allotted five days for snow cancellations this year permitted under West Virginia law, and both are now working on using the next five “remote” days during which students work from home when school is cancelled.
The school districts have each exhausted two of their remote learning days, leaving three remaining if harsh winter conditions continue. Any days canceled beyond that will be tacked on to the existing school calendar.
Casey Storm, director of student services for Marshall County Schools, looked into a nearly empty kindergarten classroom on Friday. He reported seeing the teacher there online conducting live lessons with 16 of her 18 students via Microsoft Teams.
“We do one-to-one teaching with iPads,” Storm said. “It looks different at the elementary schools than at the secondary schools.
“The elementary students are given packets, and they also do live lessons online – one in the morning, or one in the afternoon. The attention span of an elementary student isn’t that of a secondary student. It depends on the assignment, but their lessons tend to be more brief.”
Middle school and high school students, meanwhile, work on a two-hour delay schedule before logging on to Microsoft Teams for live classes.
“They understand how to participate,” Storm continued. “Our secondary students submit several assignments during the year that way (through Microsoft Teams), so the transition was easy.”
Storm said the school district did learn much from the remote learning experiences happening during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We must put out communications in advance, and express our expectations in advance,” he said. “And we know feedback is important.”
In Ohio County Schools, administrators asked students and parents to send in photos of the students participating in remote learning so they could be posted on the school district’s Facebook page. There were about 160 photos received, according to Karin Butyn, public relations director for the school district.
“Overall, it has been a positive experience,” she said. “We kept families informed through social media. And there seems to be a full community effort. Some of the photos we received came from aunts, grandparents, or parents looking after three or four neighborhood children.
“We know this is not ideal. We would much rather have students in a building with their teachers.”
Ohio County elementary school students have received learning packets for remote learning that really don’t focus on any new lessons, Butyn acknowledged.
“The work in the packets focuses on the reinforcement of skills and practicing the skills (students have been learning),” she explained. “For the younger kids, they focus on colors and numbers, and for the older students it’s about reading passages and fluency.”
Meanwhile, high school and middle school students in Ohio County Schools are downloading their lessons and submitting their work online through Schoology. Teachers have until 10:30 a.m. to post their lessons for the day.
“I hesitate to say anything good came out of COVID, but it gave us the flexibility to now move into remote learning,” she said.
“They know how to send email and a message through Schoology. They realize they can get through this, and things will get back to normal soon. We’re all powering through.”
Educators certainly learned the importance of human connection as a component in remote learning during COVID, Butyn continued. Teachers remain at their keyboards during stated times to field any questions the students have, and make themselves available for one-on-one chats.
Lessons posted are typically standard math and language assignments, she said.
“If any new skills are being taught, they will utilize video,” Butyn explained. “Mostly the lessons are just reinforcement of standards.
“No one is assigning 300-page novels.”
She noted that some of the photos submitted to Ohio County Schools depicted special education students continuing their therapy at home.
“It’s heartwarming to know we can figure this out for a few days,” Butyn said.