Fairview Faculty Prepare to Transition to Online School Methods

Ava Svolos, Co Editor-in-Chief
March 29, 2020

Tomorrow BVSD schools will start their online learning programs, and teachers have been preparing for the transition to online class due to the expansion of COVID-19. Applications such as Zoom and Kahn Academy will be used to teach students the necessary material.

Teachers will be holding office hours twice a week through email or video chatting platforms. The schedule for these office hours are listed below the story. Teachers will be putting their instruction and classwork on either Schoology or Google Classroom, and this should have been communicated to each student by their teachers.

Daniel Albritton, a science teacher, has had to do a lot of learning to acquaint himself with this type of technology.

“Most of my students and fellow teachers know that I use pretty antiquated technology, meaning I usually teach with an overhead projector, that just involves a little light bulb and a mirror,” he said. “It’s been a bit of a transition.”

However, he remains positive.

“Not only will it be a way to connect with the students and provide a certain amount of instruction, but also, I think it will help me personally arrive in the 21st century.”

Albritton plans to keep his schedule for his classes relatively open.

“Personally I’m willing to do just a little bit of content each day, like 10 minutes hopefully and then upload or link a lot of the different animations that we can use in chemistry, different YouTube segments, there’s some virtual labs at the students can do, and then by offering some office hours and classroom chats, I hope that will be kind of a nice blend,” said Albritton.

Albritton discussed the importance of school not only in terms of education but as a place of social interaction.

“From a student aspect and to a certain extent teachers too, school is a way to interact and connect with other people. You have your friends, your colleagues, you meet new people and it’s very, it’s really fun in that way,” he said. “I think that will be one of the big challenges, is not having that social connection the way that we usually do.”

Outside of trying to get familiar with the new technology, the outbreak has caused other challenges for Albritton.

“Trying to stay calm and kind of, grounded because there’s a lot of hype around it,” he said. “Along with that, trying to separate what’s the reasonable set of actions to take with all that anxiety and fear out there.”

Tuesday:

8:30-10:15 Math

10:15 – 12:00 LA

12:00 – 1:45 Science

1:45 – 3:30 Social Studies

Wednesday:

8:30 – 10:15. World languages

10:15 – 12:00. Fine Arts

12:00 – 1:45. Practical Arts

1:45 – 3:30. PE and Health

Thursday

8:30 – 10:15. Social studies