Working from the comfort of their homes, members of the Tabernacle School District’s board of education learned at their April 6 virtual meeting how teachers are reaching out to students.
During the session’s public comment, Tabernacle Elementary School Collaboratory teacher Brittney Murro explained that the school’s related arts teachers are getting instruction and materials to students.
Gov. Phil Murphy ordered all schools in New Jersey to close indefinitely starting on March 17 to allow for schools to transition to online learning. The closure set off the Tabernacle district’s implementation of remote learning plans.
Murro, who works in the school’s engineering and creative arts room — referred to as the Collaboratory — mentioned that teachers post plans and assignments on their websites and the school’s sites to keep parents in the loop on access to their child’s classroom.
Recognizing some families may have more than one child learning virtually, flexible deadlines were attached to the assignments to allow students to complete them at their leisure. Those deadlines have helped children be less overwhelmed with the work as their lives have changed during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We also asked teachers to include us in their plans with whatever they were doing and to invite us to their Zoom meetings,” Murro explained. “Our hope through this process was to encourage more windows into our subject area and to have online opportunities for our students.”
Allowing the related arts teachers to access Zoom video meetings gives students a sense of their online transitions to classes. Murro added that teachers’ inboxes had been filled with images of students working on their assignments, allowing teachers to see students’ faces. Many teachers responded to the messages to learn about how the children and their families are doing emotionally, offering advice where necessary.
As many in the community became more familiar with the capacity Google Classroom (an online learning platform in Google’s G Suite) and Zoom have in education, Murro said teams of teachers created various joint Google Classrooms, by grade level, to keep plans in one place.
“In the event that we are out of school longer, additional plans will be provided in three of these locations,” she noted, referring to the district’s website, teachers’ websites and the related arts teachers’ websites.
Tabernacle Education Association Co-President Julie Toone applauded her colleagues for rising to the occasion when schools were ordered to close and thanked the district administration for helping teachers transition to the new platform.
As teachers are using technology more to communicate with students, Toone requested the board review all of its policies concerning technology being used to contact students. She clarified that the request is in the best interest of teacher and student safety.
“When all of this started, in a matter of days, we were being asked to use technology in a way that in the past has been frowned upon, specifically with kids accessing Google Classroom on their personal phones,” Toone explained.
The board of education will hold its next meeting April 27 at 7 p.m., via Zoom video conference. Instructions on viewing the meeting are available on the district’s website at TabSchools.org. The 2020-2021 school budget’s public hearing also will be held that evening. Those with questions are asked to email board President Megan Chamberlain in advance.
