Castle Heights Elementary teacher Steve Lasslo instructs his second grade students on proper printing and writing using video with devices that are connected to the students’ homes during the dismissal.
Carbon School District Press Release
It has been six weeks since the school dismissal took place across the state and teachers in Carbon School District have dealt with a lot of new situations that they have never had to face before.
“It’s been interesting to say the least,” said Marcos Navarro, the band and coral instructor at Helper Middle School. “We have had to design a lot on the fly and come up with something brand new for this situation. My biggest challenge has been how to take this, put it online and make it engaging for the students.”
Navarro said he went through a lot of things and now has settled on what works and what kinds of things students want to engage in so that assignments can be accomplished.
“The world, in these very uncertain times, is sending out so many messages to these kids, that I felt it is my job to give them some semblance of normalcy,” stated Navarro. “Kids really want to be back in school.”
At Carbon High, Wes Thompson, who teaches financial literacy, computer hardware classes, moderate math and debate, is finding there are things that have taken place that he has been surprised by as well.
“This situation is placing high school students in a spot where they have to be more independent and more motivated to do things,” said Thompson.
He said the financial literacy instruction plays right into this situation and actually lends itself to instruction because students are seeing and tackling real life problems face to face.
“In that class, they learn about budgeting, having emergency funds, having a career that can provide for them and other things,” Thompson said. “Now, they are seeing those things firsthand. It’s a real life example of why all the things we teach in that class are important.”
At Wellington Elementary, Kadie Nielsen teaches fourth grade and she said the challenge to make sure kids are learning during the dismissal has been great.
She said they do a Google Meet with the students every Tuesday and Thursday and that it “has been amazing watching the interactions between students.”
Nielsen stated one of the frustrations is that she knows that parents are struggling with helping their students with their work.
“They didn’t sign up to be teachers, that’s what we did,” she said. “And not being able to be there, right at the moment when they need that help, is frustrating. Giving the students emotional support is another challenge as well and our counselor has been great to call and talk with students.”
For the teachers themselves, this has been a tough experience. Thompson put it well when he spoke about the hardest obstacle to overcome about the entire situation and what it has done to education, teachers and students.
“This whole virus thing has taken away the best thing about teaching,” he said. “It’s taken away the kids from us.”