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Beginning Monday, April 13, students of the Bellwood-Antis School district returned  to class remotely. This came after a month of leave due to the worldwide COVID-19 outbreak.

Teachers began pushing work through Google Classroom, Seasaw, Microsoft Teams, and a number of other web-based platforms, and students were responsible to check their iPads for work.

During this shift to online learning, focus will be stressed on the essential, big concepts for the remainder of the year.  The District recognizes that in this time of crisis, education is still important. It aims to provide the best education it can outside of the classroom. 

“We are offering a good faith effort to move education forward, and providing learning opportunities for our students that are reasonable and appropriate,” said high school principal Mr. Richard Schreier.

Principal Schreier shares that teachers will present students with a learning plan at the beginning of the week.  These plans will include all assignments required for the week. Some teachers have already been pushing optional learning material, and have experienced great student engagement. 

Math teacher Mrs. Stinson shared that, “My students have been amazing with participation so far.  I would say 90% of my students have completed all my assignments.”  

Furthermore, to meet requirements from university partners, College in High School classes began operating a week before the general population, starting April 6. 

CHS Debate teacher, Mr.Naylor, shared that, “Assigning work remotely has not been a difficult challenge because the way my class is formatted most of the new learning takes place from August through March.  April and May become review months, so I feel fortunate in all of this to have a class that lends itself to remote learning.” 

For Mr.Naylor the most challenge part of remote learning will be helping his children with all their school work. 

Due to the unique circumstances, the district has adopted a pass/fail grading system for the remainder of the 2019-2020 school year. 

Principal Schreier shared how this new system will work.

“Students are asked to put forth a good effort to complete the work assigned by teachers.  If the student does, then they will be considered present for that class and ‘pass’ for the week,” he said.

While remote learning will not be like traditional learning, its success requires the participation of all involved. 

Take for instance Senior Olivia Balior. 

“I will use this new academic platform to push me to be a better student,” she said.  Bailor plans on learning important skills that will be required in college. “It will force me to become more organized and to create my own schedule to make sure my work gets done because I will not have teachers constantly reminding me to complete my assignments.” 

Remote learning will be the way Bellwood-Antis finishes the year, as Governor Wolfe closed all schools until the 2020-2021 school year.  This leaves many things in the air, including senior graduation.

President Donald Trump has left the opening of state facilities on the discretion of governors.