Area Schools Practicing Social

Distancing with ‘Distance Learning’ 

By Nichole Richardson

In an unprecedented turn of events, schools across the nation have closed their doors to students and staff, and have instead, now turned to online learning. Area school district  administrators announced that school closings have currently been extended until Wednesday, April 22 , but could go longer, depending on pandemic circumstances. With such fluid conditions happening across the globe, the only thing parents can be certain of, is that virtual education isn’t going anywhere soon.

In the Ferguson-Florissant School District, 5800 Chromebooks have been loaned to students who are in grades 3-12. Charter has also offered free Spectrum broadband and Wi-Fi access for 60 days to households with K-12 and/or college students and waive installation fees for new student households. (To enroll call 1-844-488-8395.) In addition, Charter has opened its Wi-Fi hotspots across our footprint for public use.

District Chromebooks allow students to connect to their peers and teachers more easily, while giving all students an equal advantage to online learning. Sites such as YouTube have been blocked from the computers, thus giving parents an added measure of cyber security for their children.

While Ferguson-Florissant School District does not require their students to login at a certain time and provides lesson plans and assignments, other districts such as St. Charles County, mandate their pupils to be online at 10:30 a.m. and attend live classes taught on the Zoom application. Tess Lay has two children in that county and feels her district is handling the outbreak successfully as well. “As far as I know, nothing will be counted against them. I’m glad schools are going through these extra lengths to make sure thier students stay on track and don’t regress,” said Lay.

Students in all districts are expected to log in to their virtual classrooms and participate in lessons directed online. Classes such as Homeroom, Science, and Math can be retrieved with the codes given out by the students’ teachers, and even elective courses, or “specials” as they call them now, have assignments for students to complete.

Online PE classes may require the student to do 30 minutes of physical activity and record it in a log, while Music classes might ask students to craft their own musical instruments using everyday items from their homes. As a spinoff, children who would regularly attend Band class have been asked to record a video of themselves practicing their instruments and send it to their teacher. Even Art class has not been abandoned in this ‘distance learning,’ and some schools have directed students to do certain steps of an art project each week until the project is progressively finished.

As predicted, some kids are having a tougher time with this transition than others. Florissant resident Matt King has two children in the district and discovered there was a learning curve to online education. “My son would log in and check his assignments. Pick a hard one and work on that. There were online learning games that he had to do when he needed a break but I would basically sit in his room with him for hours,” explained King. Luckily,, as with anything else, the curve gets easier with time.

Class of 2020 seniors have it a bit trickier. DESE has developed adjusted standards for the A+ Program and for the 2019–20 AP exam administration only, students can take a 45-minute online free-response exam at home. Educator-led development committees are currently selecting the exam questions that will be administered. You can find additional AP information at https://bit.ly/2UeCUt3 and updates on graduation if adjustments are needed.Younger children, such as preschool through second grade, have been given work packets for home and can even watch videos posted of their teachers in order to stay connected, keep up routines, and alleviate social isolation.

But it’s not just school-aged children who are affected by this virus; even the ‘littles’ who benefit from programs such as Parents as Teachers, which is eligible to kids prenatally through age five, are losing the benefit of face-to-face learning experiences. Some PAT educators are even scheduling “phone visits” to tots and their parents in order to keep abreast of the child’s development and support parents through these crucial, early learning years.

Hazelwood resident Brittany Sterns, says even though she has only a newborn, the pandemic is still affecting her daughter’s beginning months of life. “Her social interactions have been very limited because of the Coronavirus, obviously. Meeting relatives, being snuggled…these are vital moments in a newborn’s life that are now on hold from quarantine,” said Sterns. There is no doubt that this pandemic has changed life as we know it. There is still so much goodness shining through these gray days though. Spend time with your family, stay safe, and stay sane!

“I am grateful to be a part of this incredible district and community. Please continue to stay home and be safe, stay in touch online, support one another, and we will show the world our community’s strength and resilience. We are #FergFlorUnited,” said Ferguson-Florissant Superintendent Joseph Davis.

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