Hartselle City Schools Online Curriculum

Hartselle City Schools Online Curriculum

Waay 31 is your back to school information station.

Every day, we're bringing you important information you need to know as you prepare to send your kids back to school - or choose one of the many virtual options.

Waay 31's evening news anchor dan shaffer talked to the principal at crestline elementary school - part of the hartselle city schools district - about their virtual learning program and lessons learned after the unexpected end to the last school year.

"so, all of our teachers have been using the google classroom platform..."

Karissa lang is starting her fourth year as crestline elementary school's principal.

Her team has been working nearly non-stop over the summer on the roll-out for their virtual learning plan.

"this is a new journey.

And though we're a little nervous or apprehensive, i believe we're excited because i think that we're kind of blazing a trail for our future."

Up to fifteen percent of students in hartselle city schools are enrolled in off- campus virtual learning.

The goal is to make sure those who choose to opt out of a brick and mortar school don't miss out on a quality education.

Lang is putting a special emphasis on a personal connection even for those students who won't be in school in person.

"we want to make sure that our students still feel connected to the school system; they still feel connected to the schools; and that they have a person that they can reach out to.

Because, if they were to make the transition back to a traditional, we want them to make that in a manner that is easy for them.

If they choose traditional, we still want them to feel like they're part of the community.

So one of the biggest things we've been tasked with is what can we do to keep that personal connection with our kids.

So we're going to have google meets.

We're going to reach out and have conversations.

We're going to have google meets in a classroom setting where's there's a teacher and many students.

But we're also going to have those one-on-one sessions because we want to make sure that kids are learning.

But we want to make sure that they still know that we're here and that we care for them and that they're still a hartselle city schools student."

This year's curriculum is supplemented with "google classroom" - a program accessible to students on their chromebooks.

Every student in the district gets one - along with hotspots, provided for families who need them.

Traditional and virtual students will all be on the same - albeit electronic - page.

Lang says the plan they've put in place was honed from lessons learned last spring when schools shut down and everyone was forced into virtual learning for the first time.

"so what we found is, for our elementary students and teachers, virtual learning was something that was extremely new to them.

And it was difficult at first, and we learned a lot of things along the way.

And one of those things was that we needed to teach our students, even as young as pre-k and kindergarten, here's your email address.

Here's your password.

Let's teach you how to log into google classroom.

Let's teach your parents how to log into google classroom.

Because google classroom was a platform for us to send out videos and lessons and resources.

And so we realized we had to start that from day one.

So, as soon as school starts, we will be one to one with chromebook, all the way down to our littles, and we're going to make sure that our kids and our parents know how to access that.

The springtime also taught us that we had a lot of teachers that had anxiety about how to roll that out, how you manage your google classroom, how you communicate with parents effectively, how you make sure that the kids are doing their work.

Those lessons along the way taught us that we had to have a much better plan in place, that we had to have specifics, that we had to have teacher training, that we had to walk teachers through how they handle these things.

What does it look like?

But we also needed training for our parents and our kids.

What are the expectations?

What does this look like?

What is expected within the traditional school day.

But what is expected outside the school day.

And how do you communicate with your teacher if you are a virtual learner?"

Parents who select the distance learning program commit their children to it for one full semester.

At that time, students can transition to traditional schools or continue in the virtual program.

Administrators and teachers want to make that transition as seamless as possible.

And lang wants you to know - you're not going it alone.

"the main thing we want parents to know is, is that we are here for you.

We are here to answer your questions.

We are here to walk you through this process.

We are trying to make this process as easy as possible.

We're working on informational videos that we can send out on how to access the virtual program, how you submit assignments.

Then that was they still feel connected.

I would encourage parents to ask questions, to email the principal of the school that the go to.

We are going to have administrators who will be a point of contact for virtual students.

We're going to get that information out.

But we would just encourage you guys to just let us know.

Give us your feedback.

Let us know how you're doing.

Keep that line of communication open so that was your child continues to grow, whether they are virtual or traditional."

Despite the challenges - there are and will be many - lang - and everyone in hartselle city schools - is confident that this is a plan and curriculum that will work for every student in the district.

"and i believe some benefits that come out of all these options that we're providing our parents are going to be things that we keep around.

They're going to be things that we realize, this is more efficient, or this is better for our kids, or this is better for our parents.

I just believe that's a great thing to learn from."

Let's turn our attention from morgan county-- to dekalb