With four Macon County schools shutting down in-person instruction because of COVID cases and quarantines, remote learning is becoming more important to local education than ever, but parents and teachers have very different ideas about how the practice has worked so far this school year.
While acknowledging that bugs and learning curves were always going to be an issue, Macon County Schools officials have been generally pleased with the results of remote learning. STEM coordinator Jennifer Love and curriculum coordinator Josh Lynch have both said that parent feedback has been mostly positive over the first two weeks of classes. Cartoogechaye Elementary School principal Kristen Lynch reaffirmed that this week, saying that her students were doing better with their school-issued iPads than she had hoped.
“They’re picking up on things very quickly,” Lynch said. “There are things they’ve been able to do that we didn’t even have to teach them, and that’s a huge relief. They’re an extremely tech-savvy generation.”
Of course, that doesn’t make the transition to learning from a distance seamless. iPads have never been distributed this widely in the schools, especially not in lower grades. Fourth-grader Payton Manos said that working primarily in a digital environment – even when at school – is taking some getting used to.
“We’ve never had iPads before,” Manos said. “We’re used to getting everything on a sheet of paper, so it’s kind of weird.”
Younger kids aren’t the only ones having to make tough adjustments. Devonne Jimison, GED coordinator for Southwestern Community College, said that even college students are also thrown off by a sudden deficit of in-person instruction and having to run their whole classes online, especially for those who are new to the school. She said it’s gotten so bad that many students are choosing not to attend their virtual classes out of frustration.
“Even with young adults, who you would assume would all be pretty computer-savvy, it’s really rattled a lot of them,” Jimison said. “It’s not hard to see how the little ones would be having the same problems.”
The hybrid schedule itself has been a sticking point in discussions about Macon County’s return to classes. Amie Collins, the mother of a seventh-grader, has doubts that elementary school level children would take well to iPads even with a teacher right alongside them to help with their questions. When they’re at home three days per week, though, it becomes a major challenge for parents.
“We have only been in virtual for a week now, and I am so overwhelmed with this iPad as my son is also struggling with it,” Collins said. “We should have had the option of using the iPads or [take-home] packets. My son had no issues with the packets last year. I do not feel like the smaller children should be using an iPad at such a young age – it is all to much for them.”
Joanna Loops, another Macon County parent, found that learning from home was so much more effective with her son that she pulled him from Mountain View Intermediate School to homeschool him instead and not have to worry about having him switch back and forth all of the time.
“I’ve taken my kiddo out of school formally to homeschool him this year,” Loops said. “We just couldn’t take the flip-flopping any more.”
Even the students are unsure about how to feel right now. Fourth-grader Oliver Jenkins thinks that doing his schoolwork at home has been a lot more difficult to get through than while he’s in class because of the difference in distractions.
“It’s easier at school,” Jenkins said. “At home I’ve got a little brother and a dog, so it’s easy to get distracted.”
His classmate Evelyn Grant, on the other hand, has been having a good time with school so far and doesn’t mind taking her lessons on the iPad.
“It’s been really great so far,” Grant said. “Science is a lot of fun.”
One thing that families all over Macon County seem to agree on is that taking on teaching responsibilities hasn’t been as simple as they hoped. Dave Linn said these first few weeks have given him a renewed appreciation for how much teachers do for students like his son.
“We need to give plenty of praise to our teachers,” Linn said. “After just one week of virtual ‘teaching,’ I’m ready to do whatever I can to get my child back in school and do whatever I can to give his teachers the material they need to help his education and other students.”
There is no timetable to have students back in the classroom full-time, but in the meantime, everyone involved can try to be as positive as Grant.
“The masks are kind of uncomfortable, but I still think this is going to be the best school year ever!” Grant said.
All Macon County schools will utilize only remote learning during the week of Labor Day while the Macon County Board of Education evaluates the results of the first three weeks.