The Blaine County Journal News-Opinion - We've Got The County Covered

Although we are all making adjustments in the way we live our lives during the health crisis we are facing, many people have performed as heroes. Some of those acts of heroism are small, like having to cook seven days a week without the luxury of restaurant dining. Others are larger, like sewing masks and scrubs for health professionals.

The Blaine County Journal-News-Opinion wishes to join local school administrators in celebrating area teachers who have faced the school closure challenge with a level of professionalism and dedication to their students. Harlem Superintendent Doreen Warren expressed pride in every administrator, teacher, para, cook, bus driver, and custodian.

Likewise, Chinook School District Superintendent, Darin Hannum claims: "The staff has been phenomenal in this process. They are showing everyone their leadership and emerging as the heroes that they are."

To celebrate their efforts and to share their perspectives, we asked teachers to share not only the greatest challenges that they have faced in providing this alternate platform for curriculum delivery but their greatest joys and happy surprises since this model came on the scene.

This installment, which captures the perspectives of middle school teachers-those teaching grades four through six-represents the first in a three part series.

Michelene Edwards, a K-6 Art Teacher at Harlem Elementary School, probably summed up every educator's sentiments when she said, "School is SO much better WITH kids!"

Fourth Grade Teacher and Technology Liaison at Meadowlark Elementary School in Chinook, Shandel Fouts further captured the sentiments of many of her colleagues when she said, "I think one of the greatest challenges that I have faced in this transition to distance learning is not being able to see my students every day. It's hard to continue to teach new topics without getting to physically see how they are doing. I don't get to see that look of excitement when they figure something out, nor can I see their frustration if they're struggling. It makes me question whether I am doing enough to provide them with the best education possible. Educational issues aside, I hope they are doing okay. This is a scary time for everyone, and I often wonder what my students are thinking or how they're handling all of this."

Fouts continued: "The technology end of things has kind of been a roller coaster. My biggest challenge to begin with was figuring out how to balance my time between technology and my classroom. I was not only trying to figure out how to convert my fourth grade classroom over to a distance based learning platform but also trying to determine the best platform for our school to use and then be available to help and train the other teachers in that platform.

"The first few days were crazy! Every technology company out there was reaching out offering free subscriptions and options, which was awesome, but also overwhelming. Trying to decide which programs we wanted to use took some time because a lot of them perform basically the same. I jokingly told my coworkers they were only allowed one tech question an hour unless they paid a fine I would name. I also told them they couldn't judge me if they saw me eating microwave s'mores at any hour of the day because that is my go-to stress food!"

Currently, Meadowlark Elementary School teachers are utilizing Google classroom to post all of their assignments, Zoom to conduct class meetings, Screencastify and document cameras to pre-record lessons, and a variety of digital learning sites such as Lexia, Spelling City, Mystery Science, and Discovery Education to provide supplemental material. Every teacher has his/her classroom set up a little differently. Many teach their lessons over Zoom-a video conferencing platform-while others have pre-recorded all of their lessons so that the students can watch them at their convenience.

According to Fouts, some teachers post an entire week's worth of assignments on Mondays, and others post assignments daily. "The teachers have been really flexible and are discovering the methods that best suit each class. They have been awesome at being patient with the technology and trying new things."

The school district was already using one-to-one Chromebooks in grades 3-6 so that helped to smooth the transition to a digital delivery model because each student already had a device with his/her information on it.

"Prior to this we didn't allow the students to take those Chromebooks home, so we had to develop a policy for checking out devices. We also had to ensure that the filtering system we use at the school would still function on those devices at home. The teachers called all of their students to see who had access to the internet and whether they would need a device checked out to them or not," Fouts explained.

Although school officials were expecting a deluge of phone calls and emails with technology issues once about 65 devices were checked out, they report not having had too many. "I'm so impressed by how smoothly the process went," Fouts reported. "Parents, students, and staff have had a positive attitude through this whole process. Not having a full time technology person has been a little challenging at times, but between Schoolhouse IT (the company we contract with out of Great Falls) and staff members working really hard to troubleshoot any technology-related issues before asking for help, everything has gone much better than I could have ever anticipated."

Another pleasant surprise arrived in the form of student response to change. "My students have truly blown me away with how well they have transitioned to something so new and challenging, and they continue to amaze me every day with their involvement and positive attitudes.

"My greatest joy came when we did our first class Zoom meeting. I have been prerecording all of my educational lessons so that when we have our class Zoom meetings, we try not to talk about too much school stuff. We just talk about life. It was so fun to see them so excited to see everyone during the first Zoom meeting. I also got to meet a lot of their pets. I look forward to our Zoom meetings each week. I want to thank all of the parents and students for being so understanding, patient, and supportive. Things would not be going as smoothly as they are without their help and support," Fouts claimed.

Jessica Cochran, Sixth Grade Teacher at Harlem Elementary, also described her greatest challenge as having to face this new way of learning without being physically available to her students. "I have a few that are doing excellent in this situation, but I have a few that I know are struggling. I am just having a hard time not being able to physically be there for them when they are stuck. That's one of the best parts of teaching, leading students to those 'lightbulb' moments.

"I am also having a tough time having to grade my students the same way I would if they were physically in class. How do I give a child a grade that did not have an opportunity to ask for help? A few students and parents reach out to me, and I reach out to them, but a small number do not have access to the internet and phones to reach out if they wanted to. I am not sure what other learning options we have at this time, though. I think we are all just doing our best," Cochran shared.

Although Cochran wishes she could be at work teaching the traditional way, she expressed joy in this time to spend with her own children. "I truly do love being in the classroom around my students, teaching and learning from them. However, my greatest joy since this model has come on the scene is being able to spend more time with my children.

"I am happy that am I am able to sit at my table in my home and get a phone call from a student asking for help on math. We work out a problem together, and the student doesn't mind me speaking to my kids on the side to close the door or put something away. It is a compromise that I am willing to make until we are all safe and ready to get back into the classroom," she said.