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Dysart district schools move to remote learning

Students will finish year from their homes

Posted 3/31/20

The Dysart Unified School District began remote learning this week, with students receiving and completing assignments online. All teachers and students in Surprise and across Arizona are getting used to the new arrangement thanks to concerns from COVID-19, or the coronavirus.

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Dysart district schools move to remote learning

Students will finish year from their homes

Posted

Lori Johnson is a fourth-grade teacher at Marley Park Elementary School, 15042 W. Sweetwater Ave.

But for the next few weeks anyway, her new office is in her Litchfield Park home.

She has made herself a makeshift office with her books, iPad and phone all spread out on the table.

However, the rotation of the Earth determines what room where she sets up the office.

“I keep bouncing back between the room with the great afternoon sun and one that has the great morning sun,” Ms. Johnson said.

Ms. Johnson’s new arrangement is something all teachers and students in Surprise and across Arizona are getting used to thanks to concerns from COVID-19, or the coronavirus.

The Dysart Unified School District began remote learning this week, with students receiving and completing assignments online.

It will last throughout the end of the semester after Gov. Doug Ducey ordered all schools closed for the rest of the year.

Students have already been home since the scheduled spring break two weeks ago. Parents have had to adjust their schedules to help accommodate their children while they learn at home.

Remote learning requires access to a computer and Internet, and the district is trying to help those who don’t have them. Students can check out Chromebooks if they need it, and at the very worst Internet access is available in the parking lots of school campuses and facilities.

“Dysart families have come to expect an extraordinary learning experience, and as we shift to remote learning, we are committed to continue doing just that,” Dr. Quinn Kellis said in an online letter to parents. “Lessons will be meaningful and relevant, and teachers will be responsive to the diverse needs of our entire community of learners.”

All classes, including specials and electives, are offering some form of remote learning, said district spokeswoman Renee Ryon said.

For students in kindergarten through eighth grade, teachers will provide weekly lesson plans for them to work on. For high school students, Schoology, the main iSchool platform for online courses, will be used to give them their daily assignments.

Teachers will provide feedback after receiving student work. They’ll correspond with the student by video and by using Google Classrooms.

Most of the district’s upper grade students already have experience using Schoology.

The cloud-based, virtual learning environment for schools allows users to create, manage, and share academic content. 

Michele Feist, the English Department Chair at Shadow Ridge High School, 10909 Perryville Road, said students who previously have had issues with technology have already been identified.

“I don’t foresee any new problems,” she said.

Starting early

Even the younger kids already seem to be computer savvy.

Chrysti Erman, the parent of a third-grader at Canyon Ridge Elementary School, 17359 W. Surprise Farms Loop North, said her daughter, Chelsea, is fortunate to go to a STEM school.

“Kids frequently use technology on a regular basis,” Ms. Erman said. “Thankfully, she has the tools to say ‘OK, I know where to go find these resources. I know to log on to this platform.’ She’s very well-equipped to step in.”

Ms. Erman said she recognized how advanced her daughter’s school was when a neighbor told her about their experience of a traditional charter school.

“She heard how happy we were,” Ms. Erman said. “She made the decision to pull her daughter out of that charter and put her into Canyon. When she did that she discovered her daughter had never picked up a laptop, didn’t know how to type. She didn’t realize she was behind. Nobody at the school did.”

Because of her daughter’s STEM education, Ms. Erman said she doesn’t expect any negative issues.

“She can adjust between different platforms,” Ms. Erman said. “There are ones specific to math, and specific to reading. She can move seamlessly between the two. I don’t think she’s going to have any problems.”

Be flexible

To help students navigate the changes, the district’s curriculum staff wanted to offer some flexibility for parents and students.

“We know that remote learning puts an additional burden on our families, and that many parents are also juggling many other responsibilities as well,” Ms. Ryon said. “Our teachers will be understanding and flexible during this transition.”

Ms. Johnson said teachers are also aware that some families have multiple children sharing one computer, which could present problems.

“We’re going to be sensitive to parents and their needs to not do it at a set schedule,” Ms. Johnson said. “It’ll be ‘here is your child’s agenda for the week. Here is what they’re expected to finish by Friday.’”

Ms. Erman, who is also the PTA president at Canyon Ridge, said that flexibility is key.

“They know what kind of lives they have at homes,” Ms. Erman said. “They’re not going to give them six or seven hours of homework.” 

District officials also don’t want to put pressure on parents to become their children’s teacher, either.

“We understand that this is new territory for most parents, and we certainly don’t expect them to take over the role of a school teacher, among the many other hats that they already are wearing,” Ms. Ryon said. “Our teachers and staff are working hard to make this transition as seamless as possible for everyone, and they will be communicating clear expectations with parents and students, and will be available to provide feedback or answer any questions or concerns that families may have.”

Some teachers said they’re already seeing an improvement with communication with some students despite the barriers.

“I’ve actually connected with my students more in the last week,” said Ms. Johnson, who is hosting daily office hours on Google Hangouts and Schoology.

“Families can reach out to the teacher at any point during the school day, and students can also request to Google meet with the teacher for face-to-face instruction,” Ms. Ryon said. “We encourage parents to reach out if they are struggling with any aspect of remote learning so we can provide the support needed for their child to be successful. We are committed to continue providing an extraordinary learning experience, and are excited to begin engaging students in learning once again.”

Ms. Feist said the main thing is flexibility in the lessons.

“We’ve done a weekly schedule, but they can work at their own pace,” said Ms. Feist, who is in her third year with the district after moving here from Washington state.

New lessons

Ms. Johnson teaches nearly 30 students in all subject areas, including math, reading, writing, science and social studies.

“Once I got the news we were going to go remote, I had to wrap my brain around it,” Ms. Johnson said.  “I wanted to get an idea of maybe what had been used and then I wanted to make it my own.  I really wanted it to feel like they were still in the classroom with me. I wanted it to be very engaging. I wanted to have the rigor, but I also wanted to be sensitive to their needs, too.”

Ms. Johnson said she designed her remote lessons almost like she was still in the room with them, breaking it up each day of the week.

“It fit together kind of like a puzzle piece,” Ms. Johnson said.

She set timers on various lessons with the amount of time it should take to complete them.

“I knew I needed to hook them,” Ms. Johnson said. “I feel like I really did a good job of making sure I’m covering what I’m responsible for teaching but made it in a way where it feels like they’re still in the classroom.”

Ms. Johnson is loving the change so far, partly because she has a master’s degree in educational technology.

Last week, the district conducted its first virtual staff meeting with more than 80 people on the call.

“I thought, ‘I can use this in my classroom,’” Ms. Johnson said. “The district is doing an amazing job of modeling this for us.”

Future results

Ms. Erman said she believes the remote learning will pay off dividends even when things go back to normal.

“If a kid’s sick, or there’s a family situation and they can’t come to school or an immigration situation now there’s going to be an infrastructure in place,” she said. “There’s a silver lining.”

“This is going to revolutionize homework,” Ms. Erman said.

But, for now, the main question district teachers and administrators are hearing from parents is “what is remote learning going to look like?” 

Because it’s a different mode that what most students are used to, the unknown factor is the big question.

“It’s a journey, and we’re all going to be on it together,” Ms. Johnson said.

Ms. Erman said that once word came down of the school closures, the family already began putting structure in place to set aside time for play and school work.

“We didn’t know how long they’d be at home,” she said. “We kind of put that system in place. We’re prepared to be flexible, too.”

“I’m not terribly concerned about the virus per se, but I am worried about the kind of decay of society,” Ms. Erman said. “That’s more important to me to shield my kids from that than the virus itself.”

But teachers seem to agree there could be some good that comes out of the situation in the end.

“The only part is sad we don’t see each other everyday, but we can see each other online,” Ms. Feist said. “It’s a positive response to what’s happening.”