In the wake of coronavirus closures, students
of diocesan Catholic schools are entering a new learning environment — their
own homes. Gov. Ralph Northam issued a directive for a two-week closure for all
Virginia schools March 13-27, and some counties have canceled school past that
date. Diocesan Catholic schools will follow their respective counties, according
to Superintendent of Schools Joseph Vorbach.
“As all this has been unfolding, schools
have been working to launch e-learning models, and over the course of this week
that will be unfolding across the diocese,” said Vorbach. “Our school leaders have
been making a lot of adjustments on the fly for a number of days, and I express
my gratitude for their adaptability and creativity.”
St. Thomas More Cathedral School in Arlington
had a few things in place that made them as prepared as they could be for home
schooling, said Jennifer McDermitt, development associate. Last year, each of
the school’s more than 400 students was assigned a portable computer device. Throughout this school year, students and teachers
used the devices to access online learning tools such as Seesaw and Google Classroom
in school. Once they knew school building closures were imminent, teachers used
a development day March 13 to turn their in-class lesson plans into e-learning.
McDermitt says that for three days this
week, students will be learning via their “snowflakes studies” packets, a bag
full of assignments that can be completed on snow days. But at the end of the
week, they’ll transition to teachers educating students using live video for
about three hours a day.
Anna Landry, a second-grader at St. Thomas More Cathedral
School in Arlington, studies at home during the school closure due to the
coronavirus. COURTESY
“It’s still an experiment for all of
us, we have not done this in an in-home environment,” said McDermitt. “(But)
we’ve been dabbling in this all along. We feel our students are prepared, we
feel our teachers are prepared.”
Students at St. Paul VI Catholic High School in Fairfax also
have the benefit of each having their own school-issued laptop. They began
e-learning March 19 after teachers went through thorough online-learning training.
“This is new territory for all of us: teachers, students and families. There
will be bumps on the road, but we are people of faith and we can do this,” said
Principal Tom Opfer. “We know there will be questions. We will be patient and
support one another. Most importantly, we will pray for one another.”
St. Bernadette School in Springfield was
able to prepare for the impact of the coronavirus by speaking to the principal
of an elementary school in Beijing who just had gone through the same thing,
said Principal Barbara Dalmut. The Chinese principal encouraged them to think
ahead.
Though the school had planned to send students
home with supplies over the weekend, after the closure was announced, families
of St. Bernadette stopped by the school March 13 to pick up textbooks, library
books, e-learning packets and whatever else was needed from the school. Families
that didn't have a computer device available for children to use during the
quarantine were able to pick up a school Chromebook. By Monday morning, the
homebound students were hopefully at work in their “cardinal corners” or home
study areas named after the school mascot.
“Our goal is to keep the students
learning — we didn’t want them to lose that time, education-wise,” said Dalmut.
“One of our worries is that the anxiety is going to take over, and we want to
give parents tips for how to keep kids engaged. Routine is a wonderful antidote
for anxiety.”
Even with an education-based routine,
the school day will look a lot different. Per usual, the day will begin with
prayer and announcements from Dalmut, but the students will be able to hear and
watch only via Facebook live. Throughout the day, there will be no live-video
learning, but teachers will communicate with students through Google Classroom,
a safe online conduit between teachers and classmates. “We had been using it
all year but not to this extent. Now, this is going to be our lifeline,” said
Dalmut. Students and parents will still have access to the learning resource
teachers, the school nurse and counselor.
Once the students finish their
assignments, the school is encouraging lots of quality family activities, such
as cooking, reading, playing board games, choosing toys and clothes to donate
and writing cards to the elderly and homebound. “Quarantine will get monotonous
unless we make it joyful,” Dalmut said in an email to the parents. “We always
say, ‘If I only had time.’ Well, here we will have time at home. Make the most
of it.”