STAY-AT-HOME STUDIES: Early e-learning report card: Students, teachers adapting to new normal

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With all the comforts of home at their fingertips, Cole Wooten, left, and Kendall Steele collaborate on assignments handed out online by their teacher. Students and teachers at Eastern Hancock and Southern Hancock schools -- the first to roll out full-time e-learning last week -- said the transition has been smooth. (Tom Russo | Daily Reporter)

HANCOCK COUNTY — Two weeks ago, Hancock County students were looking forward to going on spring break.

At the time, there was no reason to question heading back to class after returning from their vacations or two weeks of taking it easy at home.

Then COVID-19 started spiraling out of control in the United States, prompting education leaders in Hancock County to shut down schools before breaks even began. Not long after that, Gov. Eric Holcomb announced all Indiana schools will be closed until at least May 1.

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Schools use e-learning intermittently throughout an academic year, often during inclement weather. Now students and teachers are looking at weeks of doing school from home. Teachers will keep coming up with ways to instruct through computers and cameras, while students will continue deflecting distractions at home to keep focused on their work.

Classroom to

bedroom

The Community School Corporation of Southern Hancock County is on spring break this week and next but did e-learning last week. Kendall Steele, a seventh-grader at New Palestine Junior High School, said he did a lot of his classwork in his bedroom on the Apple MacBook laptop computer the corporation provides fifth- through 12th-graders.

“It’s kind of weird for me, because I’m not on a schedule,” Kendall said of doing school from home.

He said he woke up around 11 a.m. each day, adding he’s not a morning person. After breakfast, he worked on schoolwork for a couple hours.

“It’s normally not as challenging as being at school because it’s hard to teach from a distance,” Kendall said.

For his math class, he visited a website his teacher shared with students to take notes on how to do problems and then answered questions.

His father, Russ Steele, who can work remotely, said he tries to regiment when his kids start their e-learning and when they need brain breaks and snacks.

“The biggest challenge, quite honestly, is there’s so many distractions here,” he said.

Kendall agreed.

“At school you’re in a classroom, and everyone is working, and nothing else is going on,” he said. But when you’re at home, you have other stuff that you will want to do. But you have to say, OK, I need to put everything aside and work on e-learning right now and get it done.”

He said when he focuses, it doesn’t take him longer than two or three hours to complete a day’s worth of e-learning tasks.

It’s a worthy substitute, he said, given the circumstances, but he feels traditional learning is much more effective. Plus, he misses his friends.

Education adaptation

Megan Wallace teaches English to juniors and seniors at Eastern Hancock High School, which did e-learning last week before starting spring break this week. She said it wasn’t difficult to adapt, adding a lot of the assignments she gives in class have a digital component anyway. Wallace often shares assignments through the online word processing platform Google Docs, and her students work on their Google Chromebook devices almost every day in class.

Last week, she did a lot of conferencing with her students over essays they were writing. Students wrote them in Google Docs, which allows her to view their work and communicate with them about it.

They don’t even have to be viewing the work at the same time.

“They can work on their paper at 10 o’clock at night; they can do what they need to do, and I can comment on it the next morning,” Wallace said.

In school, she’s able to conference with several students at once. Online, it’s one at a time, which can take more time, she said.

Wallace also said in the classroom, if one student has a question, everyone hears it. If others had that same question, it’s answered. But with e-learning, she might get several emails with the same question that she responds to individually.

Despite her ability to adapt her class digitally, she thinks education is better in person.

“I don’t think e-learning can ever replace what happens in the classroom,” she said. “As much as I’m trying to replicate that experience through e-learning, it’s just not the same.”

Wallace expects the school closures will be particularly hard on seniors, especially if those closures have to be extended past May 1.

“This is a very unfortunate way for them to end their high school careers,” she said.

But she remains positive.

“This changes everything, but in some ways it doesn’t change anything because our focus is still going to be on what’s best for our students, how to take care of them, how to take care of each other,” she said.

An important semester

Makayla Whyde, a junior at Eastern Hancock High School, said she spent much of her e-learning time doing math homework on her Chromebook through a website and with the help of instructional videos her teacher posted. She also worked on a history paper, read a novel for English class and took a Spanish test online. Like Kendall, she said she spent around three hours a day on schoolwork last week.

“Some teachers have assigned one assignment for the whole week, some have for every day; it just depends on the teacher, depends on the class,” she said.

Whyde added she prefers the classroom and at times has trouble staying focused with e-learning.

“I’m easily distracted,” she said. “It’s not really that hard for me to pick up my phone and answer a text if someone’s texting me. I’m not a good e-learner. I prefer a classroom experience.”

But it’s an understandable alternative, considering the coronavirus, she continued.

“We still need our education, we still have to graduate somehow, so I think this is the right temporary situation for what we’re going through right now.”

She said she’s not looking forward to having school closed until May, however, adding her opportunities to take the SAT and ACT were canceled as well.

“I’m trying to finish strong this year to get into a good college,” she said.

Making a mark

Chris Young, strategic learning coordinator for Southern Hancock, oversees the school corporation’s e-learning efforts.

“It’s been part of the classroom and our culture, but it never seemed like a requirement until now,” Young said.

Southern Hancock schools have had e-learning for several years. Along with fifth- through 12th-graders using MacBooks, kindergarten through fourth-grade students use iPads.

“Technology is making learning more personal and more authentic then ever,” Young said.

Teachers have been doing a lot of video work, he continued. Many make instructional clips. One teacher recorded a bedtime story to share with students every night.

“The teachers are going above and beyond the call in this situation, because it’s for kids,” Young said.

A kindergarten teacher set up a way for students to share videos of themselves wishing one of their classmates a happy birthday, an occasion that normally calls for a party during class.

“Even though there’s still a lot of great teaching and instruction, some of the things I’m most proud of are the ways teachers are still connecting with students,” Young said.

He thinks how teachers use e-learning to adapt to the coronavirus pandemic will leave a mark on education.

“Schools are going to not only be better online, but in the classroom because of what teachers are doing,” he said. “As scary as this is, I’m excited to see where it takes us because we are going to have some pretty incredible educators.”

Streaming studies

Nicholas Giant, who teaches kindergarten at New Palestine Elementary School, said he already missed his students after a week of e-learning last week. After the governor’s announcement, he’s going to miss them even more.

“Teachers are social people,” he said. “Being in isolation is not easy.”

Last week, each day of e-learning had a different theme, Giant said. Students watched St. Patrick’s Day-related stories on their iPads on March 17 and wrote sentences about them. Kids also practiced counting by tallying objects like coins and shamrocks.

“Each day we’re applying the different skills we would be teaching them anyway,” Giant said.

He also recorded videos of himself explaining directions for various lessons.

“The idea, in theory, is that the kiddos can log on all by themselves and watch the videos and do the entire activity or lesson without ever having to ask an adult,” he said, adding parents and older siblings do help out when necessary.

He also said parents help with ensuring students get their work done.

“We have to rely on our parents to make sure that they are accomplishing these things within a reasonable amount of time,” Giant said.

He estimates he puts in the same amount of time planning for e-learning as he does for traditional instruction. There are countless programs and digital resources to learn about and share with his students, he said.

“It’s not going to be a perfect match as in a classroom, but I can still make sure they’re still practicing skills I want them to practice,” he said.

Giant described this part of the semester as an “a-ha moment” time of year, when kindergartners make a lot of progress.

“We don’t want those kids getting out of their school mode, because it’s tough getting back into it,” he said.

E-learning went well for the week, and he’s optimistic it will continue to, he continued. Giant added he’s thinking about setting up an area in his house specifically for recording videos of himself teaching. He may even post live activities as well.

A different return from spring break

At Greenfield-Central Schools, which is in its second week of spring break, all students have Apple devices. Superintendent Harold Olin said jumping into at least a month of e-learning is going to be difficult with such little time to plan, but he finds confidence in the training staff has received and the resources available to them.

“We feel like we had just started this journey and to have to jump into the deep waters without a lot of life vests has been difficult,” Olin said. “…It’s not going to be perfect. We’re going to need some grace from students and the community and do the best we can with the cards we’ve been dealt.”

Mt. Vernon Community School Corporation, in its second week of spring break as well, sent a message to its students and families that it will do e-learning on Tuesdays and Thursdays after the end of the break.

“This decision was made in an effort for our teachers to provide the most meaningful and engaging instruction as they can for our students, for our students to manage and embrace this method of learning, and also to help our families in their challenged efforts of administering e-learning from home,” Maria Bond, director of community relations for the school corporation, told the Daily Reporter in an email. “Our teachers will be focusing their lessons on quality, not quantity, during this extended e-learning time.”