Students returned to online learning Wednesday to mark the first day of fall classes for Daviess County Public Schools.
School board officials said teachers and students had both become more prepared and better equipped for Non-Traditional Instruction (NTI) since last semester, paving the way for a fairly smooth first day.
Superintendent Matt Robbins joined Daviess County Middle School Principal Kelly Skeens on Wednesday to see how things were operating from the classrooms. With only teachers and minimal administrative staff allowed inside the building, empty hallways and classrooms were void of the hustle accompanied by a new school year, but teachers remained positive and upbeat as they got to know their new students through their laptops.
“It feels good to see the kids, even though we’re seeing them online,” Robbins said. “It is different. We’re hoping to get them back in-person, but even with as good of instruction we’re seeing here today, we know the best instruction happens when our kids are with us in-person.”
Robbins said he was pleased with what he saw from DCMS teachers on Wednesday, calling the start of the 2020-21 school year a big improvement from last year, when teachers and students were forced to transition to NTI without much warning or preparation.
One thing that made the transition easier for students was the development of a DCMS website related specifically to NTI. Instructional Coach Sara Appleby created the site for students to use throughout the next few weeks of virtual learning.
“She has worked nonstop to help all teachers with their Google Meets and Google Classroom,” Skeens said. “We wanted to make sure we were consistent with how every teacher set up their Google Classroom so it wasn’t confusing. When the kids open up their screen at home, it takes them directly to this site.”
The site answers any and all questions students might have regarding their NTI experience, their schedule, their login problems, contact information for teachers, and more. Every team at DCMS created “Welcome Back” videos for their students as well, Skeens said.
“Just to help parents and the kids feel comfortable. Typically you have that excitement from seeing the kids, and that’s where teachers get that energy from — feeding off the kids,” she said. “When you don’t have that connection, it gets pretty difficult.”
One of the biggest hurdles DCPS has faced throughout NTI has been providing all students with reliable internet access. Robbins noted the ten WiFi busses stationed across the county, saying he believed they’d be hugely helpful for those without strong internet connections at home or internet access at all.
“We selected those sites based on prioritized needs to the various sites we’ve assigned the school busses,” he said. “We do anticipate there will be a high need for them. We turned all the outdoor WiFi on at our buildings. Yesterday we were able to announce several community partners who’ve reached out and offered to open their outdoor WiFi access.”
One group of special needs students showed up for in-person instruction on Wednesday, and that group will continue to learn onsite four days a week, Robbins said. He added that only those with the highest-prioritized needs became eligible for in-person instruction.
“We’re able to do a lot of speech therapy online. We’re keeping track of the number of special needs students we have meeting in person, and [those with speech disabilities] makes up our biggest number of special needs students,” he said. “From a cognitive standpoint, [online learning] is not an issue for them.”
