By VERNON ROBISON
Moapa Valley Progress
Classrooms throughout the Clark County School District (CCSD) have been dark for nearly two weeks now as response to the COVID-19 has washed across the country and around the world. But that hasn’t kept local teachers from continuing their mission of educating Moapa Valley kids.
Undaunted, many local teachers have traded in their traditional classroom setting for an all-online platform to keep in contact with students and to provide instruction to kids that want it. This is possible because local high school and middle school students are all equipped with Chrome Book computers.
Furthermore, students are familiar with online tools like Google Classroom, ZOOM meeting space and other platforms that have been used in the classroom for several years now.
In interviews last week, local principals reported that these tools have become standard in local schools and can provide a smooth transition to all online instruction in times such as this. But they also emphasized that CCSD as a whole has not authorized a full switch to online classes.
“We have been told that any online assignments given right now must be optional,” said MVHS principal Hal Mortensen. “They can’t count for actual grades.”
Mortensen said that a group of CCSD principals from online-ready schools had approached CCSD administration and asked if their schools might be allowed to move forward with the school year with online classes. “They considered that request for a time,” Mortensen said. “But finally they came back and told us to hold off and just make the materials available to students who want them.”
Mack Lyon Middle School (MLMS) principal Ken Paul explained that the district policy was set that way to keep a sense of equity across the whole of CCSD. “Our valley would be pretty good because all the kids are equipped with Chromebooks,” Paul said. “But even here, there are some kids who don’t have internet at home. And in Las Vegas not all kids have the Chromebooks. So a lot of kids in CCSD would be left behind. That is why the district as a whole could not move forward with online school.”
But a growing number of Moapa Valley teachers are moving forward with instruction all the same.
MLMS Assistant Principal Aimee Lewis explained that she had spent much of last week gathering resources and preparing online platforms for her school’s teachers to start engaging students online.
“We are getting Accelerated Reader (AR) tests set up so that kids can do them online from home,” Lewis said. “That will encourage kids to keep reading at least.”
In addition many MLMS teachers are pointing their students to online resources like IXL, Khan Academy and other activities to keep them learning.
“We are really just getting started on this,” Lewis said. “There is a lot still to come from here.”
At MVHS, some teachers are continuing without much interruption at all.
MVHS English teacher Kenna Higgins said that she is fortunate that her subject lends itself easy to online learning models.
“I had already assigned my classes to read a book before Spring Break anyway,” Higgins said. “So now, though it’s not required at this point, I’m just messaging the kids and encouraging them to read. They might as well since they are stuck at home with nothing much to do.”
Twice per week, Higgins is posting questions about the reading materials on a discussion board in Google Classroom. Students are then encouraged to post responses to these questions. And a few are actually doing it.
“It’s pretty much what we would have been doing in class, and what we will be doing if class resumes later on,” Higgins said. “So it’s not required for them to do it. But if they do, it will put them ahead in the work.”
MVHS Math teacher Robin Fulmer had to do some quick shuffling to go forward online. But she has posted practice tests, exercizes and other resources that could keep her students active, if they choose to be. Fulmer said that her focus is on preparing her classes for Advanced Placement Testing in her classes in Probability/Statistics and Computer Science. Those tests are set to go on later this spring with online home exams, she said.
Fulmer is making herself available to students who need extra help with difficult concepts. “Kids can message me if they need help and I will get back to them to set up a time to work with them depending upon the need,” she said.
Fulmer has already met with small groups of kids in the ZOOM online meeting platform to give help and instruction where needed.
“It is not required, but there is plenty of material I’ve made available to them,” Fulmer said. “So all of them should be doing something.”
MVHS Video/Graphic production teacher Kim Hardy said that she already had plenty of resources to keep her students going. Most of her classwork is done via computer online anyway, she said.
“Frankly, we could easily just continue our curriculum without any interruption and I could grade their work as always, if we were allowed to,” Hardy said.
Hardy said that she had sent out messages to all her students to find out who was interested in continuing their work. She had 10-15 kids who responded and have been sending her completed projects regularly. This has been ideal because the kids who really want to learn are doing so, unfettered from those who are only there because they have to be, Hardy said.
Hardy said that the experience, has actually refreshed her memory of what motivated her to be a teacher in the first place.
“It’s easy as a CCSD teacher to get bogged down in all that we are required to do to stay in compliance,” Hardy said. “But this challenge returns us to the question of, morally, as teachers, what we must do to educate our students. It’s a chance for us to be what we dreamed about being when we first came out of college with stars in our eyes and entered the classroom. It returns us to that ideal.”
