{"id":22554,"date":"2020-04-23T16:45:40","date_gmt":"2020-04-23T22:45:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.skyhinews.com\/?p=64335"},"modified":"2020-04-23T16:45:40","modified_gmt":"2020-04-23T22:45:40","slug":"east-grands-focus-on-tech-helps-students-adapt-to-distance-learning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/local-news\/east-grands-focus-on-tech-helps-students-adapt-to-distance-learning\/","title":{"rendered":"East Grand\u2019s focus on tech helps students adapt to distance learning"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"wp-block-image p402_hide\">\n<div class=\"caption-container\"> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"720\" height=\"960\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.skyhinews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2020\/04\/Granby-Elementary.jpg\" class=\"attachment-large size-large wp-post-image\" alt srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.skyhinews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2020\/04\/Granby-Elementary.jpg 720w, https:\/\/cdn.skyhinews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2020\/04\/Granby-Elementary-225x300.jpg 225w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 720px) 100vw, 720px\"><figcaption><strong>Granby Elementary School teachers share messages with their students during the school closures, which have been extended to the end of the school year.<\/strong><br \/><em>Courtesy EGSD<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>A fifth grade student from Granby Elementary stood outside her garage, holding up a cell phone to record her smiling face.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s a beautiful day out,\u201d the student said to the camera. \u201cEnjoy your backyards. Enjoy your front yards. Enjoy life. It\u2019s just awesome. Animals that we haven\u2019t seen in years are coming out! It\u2019s amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In the background, taped on her garage was a sign with the letters S-G-N. The SGN stands for \u201cSome Good News,\u201d like the popular web series hosted by actor John Kransinki.<\/p>\n<p>Sarahbeth Bankert had her fifth grade students film their own clips of \u201cSome Good News\u201d to share with their peers. She and many teachers at East Grand School District have used video as a way to complete assignments after the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the school year.<\/p>\n<div class=\"row\">\n<div class=\"col\">\n<div class=\"row shn-donation shn-donation-mobile p-0\">\n<div class=\"col-xl-4 p-2\">\n<div data-bg=\"url(https:\/\/cdn.skyhinews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2020\/02\/shn-logo-2x-wht.png)\" class=\"p-0 mt-2 mb-2 h-75 text-center rocket-lazyload\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.skyhinews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2020\/02\/shn-logo-2x-wht.png\" class=\"logo m-0 p-0 invisible\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"col-xl-8 p-3 text-center\">\n<h3 class=\"d-inline mr-3\">Support Local Journalism<\/h3>\n<p><button class=\"btn d-inline\" type=\"button\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.skyhinews.com\/donate\/?utm_source=article&amp;utm_medium=website&amp;utm_campaign=donation&amp;utm_term=&amp;utm_content=mid-article\">Donate<\/a><\/button><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>East Grand has had to quickly adapt after closing to in person learning in March. And all districts are going to have to continue with distance learning after Gov. Jared Polis announced this week that all schools in the state would be closed through the rest of the school year.<\/p>\n<p>Even though in person learning is over, school must go on. Tuesday\u2019s East Grand Board of Education meeting started with each school highlighting how teachers have adapted to the virtual classroom at different grade levels.<\/p>\n<p>For Bankert and many teachers, East Grand\u2019s emphasis on technology has eased the transition. All high school and middle school students had a personal Chromebook issued by the school, an initiative rolled out in 2015, and elementary students were already getting technology training before the closures.<\/p>\n<p>Bethany Good, a first grade teacher at Granby Elementary, said having a technology teacher at the elementary school has allowed her students to get familiar with Google Classroom. Her class learned how to create Google Slideshows a month before the closure.<\/p>\n<p>Technology also means her class still gets to socialize. Last week, Good met with her entire first grade class online for the first time.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOh my gosh, those first graders were walking around with their Chromebooks showing us everything in their bedrooms and everything in their house,\u201d she said. \u201cThey were so excited to see one another, just to talk to each other and just to see somebody.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Older students at the elementary school, like Bankert\u2019s fifth graders, were already familiar with Google Classroom. For middle school and high school students, technology was even less of a barrier.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe technology piece has been seamless, which is wonderful,\u201d said eighth grade English teacher Emily Lamont. \u201cI have friends who are teaching all around the country \u2026 who are not in a district that values what we value in terms of our technology, and it\u2019s a whole other story.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>While her eighth-graders have adapted to online schooling, many students miss seeing their friends. Lamont checks in with each class for 30 minutes a week and has them give a rating from 0-10 of how the last seven days went.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe kids are pretty honest,\u201d Lamont said. \u201cSome kids are pretty excited to be at home, and some kids are just not. Things are going a bit more challenging for them at home.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>All East Grand schools have been attempting to connect with students who aren\u2019t logging on. With emotional and social health being the top priority for the district during this time, teachers want to connect.<\/p>\n<p>Teachers and administration expressed a desire to get those students the resources they might be lacking, whether that\u2019s Wi-Fi or just someone to talk to. The district is trying to not let students slide during this strange time.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ve been keeping quite close tabs on who we\u2019re not hearing anything from at the middle school, which I think has been very valuable,\u201d Lamont said. \u201cWe\u2019re contacting them and making sure we\u2019re getting in touch with those kids.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>With the school year disrupted, the Colorado High School Activities Association announced this week that springs sports were also canceled. The district has had to therefore accept that there would be little semblance of \u201cnormal,\u201d whether a baseball game or a full classroom, to round out the spring.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen (Polis) actually said it this morning, I just got a pit in my stomach,\u201d Superintendent Frank Reeves said of the decision to close schools for the year. \u201cI was just kind of holding on to that last vestige of hope that we could make something happen this year \u2014 not a great feeling with that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Reeves brought up his own concerns about how reopening school in August might look. Students in fifth and eighth grade especially, who haven\u2019t sat down in a classroom since March, will have to transition to a brand new school with little preparation.<\/p>\n<p>Reeves said the district will be talking with county health officials to see what, if any, in person contact might be permitted for the rest of the school year. One of the biggest questions is what graduation will look like for high school seniors and if any sort of live celebration might be possible.<\/p>\n<p>Convening any group of students in the coming months depends on conversations with local health officials and what accommodations the district can pull off, Reeves said.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.skyhinews.com\/news\/east-grands-focus-on-tech-helps-students-adapt-to-distance-learning\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">via:: Sky-Hi News<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Granby Elementary School teachers share messages with their students during the school closures, which have been extended to the end of the school year.Courtesy EGSD A fifth grade student from Granby Elementary stood outside her garage, holding up a cell phone to record her smiling face. \u201cIt\u2019s a beautiful day out,\u201d the student said to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-22554","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-20 12:44:05","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KRKY Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22554","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22554"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22554\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}