Students, teachers, school staff members and parents across Arkansas are adjusting to a different educational model this week.
Gov. Asa Hutchinson on Sunday declared all schools to close by today for the rest of this week and to remain closed through next week, a scheduled spring break, because of a coronavirus outbreak.
AMI
Act 862 of the 2017 legislative session allows Arkansas’ public school districts and open-enrollment charter schools to develop plans for an “alternative method of instruction” to be used on days when school is canceled because of emergency or exceptional circumstances.
Source: NWA Democrat-Gazette
Schools transitioned to their alternative method of instruction plans, which enable students and teachers to work from their homes when schools are closed without having to make up the day.
Most years, under Arkansas Division of Elementary and Secondary Education rules, the plans can be used for up to five days of the 178-day school year. The division earlier this month expanded the maximum to 10 days in recognition of the coronavirus threat.
The Bentonville School District did its best to make sure all students left school Friday with a Chromebook. While students in grades 7-12 already had their own district-issued Chromebooks, the district had to move quickly to get one into the hands of about 10,000 kids in kindergarten through sixth grade, said Thomas Rice, district technology director.
The process of issuing a Chromebook to each student at the district's 12 elementary schools and five middle schools started late last week and required all 18 technology department staff members, as well as building administrators and teachers, Rice said.
That process included cutting loose all the device chargers tied up within the carts the schools use to store their Chromebooks so students could have a charger as well.
"It was a monumental effort," Rice said.
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Rice's department also this week launched an online chat support system, available 7 a.m. to 9 p.m., to help students and parents with troubleshooting. As of midafternoon Monday, department staff members had handled 170 chats lasting an average of nine minutes each, he said.
"I think I answered five or six sitting in my recliner at home" Sunday night, he said.
They're prepared to continue offering the chat support line as long as schools remain closed, he said.
Ashley Williams, principal of Bentonville's Evening Star Elementary School, said district teachers are posting videos and working with students across the Google Classroom platform, a web service aimed at simplifying the process of sharing instructional materials between teachers and students.
The work they're doing is not just busy work, she said. They are getting instruction in literacy, math and more. Teachers of activities such as physical education, art and music are uploading lessons as well.
"Learning does not stop just because our students are not in front of us," Williams said. "We are going to make every effort to make sure our students are receiving robust instruction and they are continuing to learn."
Williams said she's still at school this week, even if teachers and students are not. Her primary roles are supporting teachers in building their online lessons and answering questions from students and parents, she said.
Springdale School District posted its alternative method of instruction at-home assignments online for each grade level. Second-graders, for example, pick one reading, writing, math, science and art/physical education activity to complete each day they're out of school.
One second-grade writing assignment asks students to choose whether they would rather be a snowball or a snowflake, and explain their answer with "lots of details." A physical education assignment involves doing 20 jumping jacks and 20 push-ups.
Justin Minkel, a second-grade teacher at Springdale's Jones Elementary, said he spent much of Monday calling his students' parents to check in with them and see if they had any questions.
Minkel also plans to make video messages for his students each day.
"Tomorrow I'll do a video where I'm reading a short picture book, to get that literacy piece going," he said.
There are challenges that come with the alternative method of instruction model, he said. Internet access at home is one concern. Another is how much adult supervision there is in the home, he said.
Minkel said he's grateful the governor closed the schools, citing health and safety concerns of not only students, but staff members.
"Challenges can be overcome. It was the right decision to keep kids out of school," he said.
The Elkins School District implemented a full-scale digital learning plan this week, with students covering new material and standards just as if they were in class, said Superintendent Jeremy Mangrum.
Each of the district's 1,250 students left school Friday with a district-owned Chromebook and charger, along with other learning materials they might need for an extended closure of school facilities, he said.
They will complete assignments and view lessons through their Google Classroom account on their Chromebook.
Completing all activities and submitting them through Google Classroom by the date due will qualify Elkins students as being counted "present" for that day, Mangrum said. It is a more robust version of the alternative plan the district has offered when it was needed for just one or two days at a time.
"We felt in order to continue our students' learning trajectory, it was not the right thing to do to just do review materials and paper work packets," Mangrum said.
For students without internet access at home, Elkins has set up throughout the district five school buses equipped with WiFi -- what the district calls "WiFi on wheels." The system on each bus has the capacity to handle up to 120 electronic devices at a time. Students can park outside a bus and connect to the WiFi to complete their work, Mangrum said.
He called this "an unprecedented time" for those working in public education. The administrators at Elkins have put in countless hours, especially in the last week, preparing for holding school outside of school buildings, he said.
NW News on 03/17/2020