Hello Sacred Heart!
Distance learning has been quite the challenge, yet we think it is a challenge that the students, teachers, and parents have, not only met, but conquered!!! For the Secondary Social Science classes, this transition was a bit more seamless because of the nature of our discipline. Both Mrs. Kilby and Ms. McMullin were able to continue to deliver their curriculum without a great deal of interruption.
Ms. McMullin, being old school, embraced the technology (just enough) to be able to continue to present information to her classes. She started the very first day the students were out of the school building. The only big change she had to make was in test assessments. Therefore, she focused on preparing students for the types of tests they might see in online classes when they are in college.
She hopes her students realize that her main motivation was to keep things as normal as possible. McMullin stated, “The only thing that really changed from Tuesday to Wednesday was that we weren’t meeting in our classroom but in our virtual classroom instead. I think having that one constant was important for the students.”
Mrs. Kilby has worked to learn and embrace technology to help her students succeed in the digital learning environment. She was able to utilize the technology that she was already using and adapt it to her virtual learning classrooms. The students continued to use Google Docs and Slides, as well as Google Earth. Other applications such as Quizizz, Google Forms, and Breakout Rooms were used to help assess student progress.
These are applications that the students regularly used in the classroom. While these were applications the students were already familiar with, there were kinks that needed to be resolved along the way. Overall, Mrs. Kilby’s classes were able to continue with instruction and assignments as they normally would in the classroom. As a team, the teachers, parents, and students were resilient and worked hard to ensure that the education at Sacred Heart did not skip a beat!
