Hancock schools start virtual classes

By Ralph Dickerson
School started Wednesday in Hancock County, but students did not arrive at school like normal. Instead, students got up, went to their computers, logged into Google Classroom and started their day. According to Hancock County Middle School Principal Tracey Sanders, about 70-percent of the school’s 400 students managed to attend the first day of virtual school.
“It’s gone really well,” Sanders said. “We still have students getting devices.”
Sanders said the school plans to reach out to parents and do what it needs to do to get devices into students’ hands. Of course, having an Internet capable device does not help the student if no Internet connection exists. Sanders said the school developed a plan to help with this situation.
Through Student Support Services, the school will bring in students that lack Internet services at home and let them come to the school and use the wifi. She said the state allows school to bring in a certain percentage of students as long as social distancing requirements are met.
“We are going to allow 10-percent of our students to take advantage of this option,” Sanders said. “For us it is 39 students.”
She said students given this option will be bused to school each day, fed breakfast and lunch, and also given temperature checks. Sanders said the school district divided the county up into zones, and may rotate the students each day if needed.
For example, if 70 students sign up for this option, all 70 cannot be at the school on the same day. In this case, one group would come one day, the other group the next.
“We want to serve the students as often as we can,” Sanders said.
For teachers, not much really changes. They come to school each day, but instead of seeing the students’ faces in the classroom, the teacher sees them on a large computer screen. Google Classroom allows the teachers and students to talk via microphone when needed, and also has a chat function where a student can privately send the teacher a question, or other important information.
Seventh grade Science teacher Laura Hagedorn walked her students through the Google Classroom process on Wednesday morning. Hagedorn told the students she planned to put her itinerary on Google Classroom each day, and told the students how to find this information. She then moved on to other important topics.
“I want to hear from you guys right now,” Hagedorn said. “What do you think should be some rules that we have for Google Meets?”
She and the students talked about several issues, and decided that students that needed to take a break would send her a private chat saying he or she needed a quick break. The student would then take a quick break then come back to the session.
After setting these ground rules, Hagedorn started on her lesson. She told the students the day’s lesson concerned the Scientific Method.
Principal Sanders said the Google Classroom set up allows her to access any class from her computer at her desk. Sanders said she joined each of the classes at the middle school.
“I can choose any class and see what is going on,” Sanders said. “It is really nice.”
With this school year being so different by using virtual learning, the school needed to make allowances for students needing extra help with his or her lessons. Sanders said a couple of days each week teachers will have afterschool office hours so students can contact them for any needed help.
The school district also allowed parents some flexibility due to the pandemic. If a parent wants to keep a child home all school year, it is allowed. If and when students are allowed to return to school, some may attend in person classes while others may join virtually. Sanders said this option is called blended learning.