{"id":805806,"date":"2020-03-28T18:24:21","date_gmt":"2020-03-29T00:24:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/?p=381130"},"modified":"2020-03-28T18:24:21","modified_gmt":"2020-03-29T00:24:21","slug":"at-home-summit-students-teachers-parents-learn-as-they-go-through-coronavirus-quarantine-situation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/local-news\/at-home-summit-students-teachers-parents-learn-as-they-go-through-coronavirus-quarantine-situation\/","title":{"rendered":"At home, Summit students, teachers, parents learn as they go through coronavirus quarantine situation"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Upper Blue Elementary School teacher Ashley Girodo (upper right) virtually interacts with students in her fifth-grade class during at-home schooling during quarantine amid the coronavirus pandemic.<\/strong>
Courtesy Ashley Girodo<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

DILLON \u2014 A mother of six children in school, Laura Brown of Breckenridge and her family have been through a trying situation that disrupted schooling before. It came a few years back when the family was living in Puerto Rico as the island was affected by the devastating Hurricane Maria.<\/p>\n

With the Summit School District school buildings closed amid the coronavirus pandemic, the current school-from-home situation for the Browns, in some ways, is like that experience in Puerto Rico two-and-a-half years ago. Brown said overall the remote academic situation for her children has been a positive experience, with teachers at Summit High School, The Peak School and Colorado Learning Connections doing their best to make the unprecedented situation a positive one.<\/p>\n

But for her children, especially Summit High School seniors Courtney and Tommy, the experience has been more difficult in certain and important ways.<\/p>\n

\u201cEmotionally, for them,\u201d the mother Laura said, \u201cThis is a totally different experience with them not being able to have things, like the ways that they experience their friends and extracurricular activities.\u201d<\/p>\n

For two weeks school children, teachers and parents across Summit County have adjusted to the sudden, foreign situation of schooling from home. For many families across Summit County like the Browns \u2014 who now have a college student, three high schoolers, a middle schooler and an elementary student all on varying remote-learning schedules under one roof \u2014 this has been a one day at a time learning experience.<\/p>\n

At times it\u2019s been turbulent. The biggest challenge for many parents and teachers has been keeping students upbeat and interested in classes despite social-distancing measures \u2014 measures that, several families said, have been tortuous in moments for their energetic, restless outdoors-loving Summit County kids.<\/p>\n

From one student, one class and one school to another, the approaches and strategies employed by teachers have been on a wide spectrum. Some teachers, like Summit High School world language teacher Liz Waddick and physical education and health teacher James Wagner, have opted for sharing with students content and exercises via pre-made video lessons. Other teachers, like Upper Blue Elementary School fifth-grade teacher Ashley Girodo, have opted for a more regular habit of live video conferences via software like Zoom.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first day she sent out work for students,\u201d Naomi McMahon said, talking about Girodo, \u201cit\u2019s like she just knew instantly after their first Zoom as a class that some students were going to need more, some would need less. \u2026What my son Luke looks forward to the most is getting up and Zooming with class.\u201d<\/p>\n

Waddick balances her own teaching with that of her first-grade son Marty, who loves going on FaceTime to video chat with his Dillon Valley Elementary teacher Hollyanna Bates each morning .<\/p>\n

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Fifth-grade student Isabella Brown completes schoolwork in the fort she made at her home in Breckenridge during quarantine amid the coronavirus pandemic.<\/strong>
Laura Brown \/ Special to The Daily<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s about finding balance,\u201d Waddick said. \u201cThey\u2019re not forcing him to do things. We want him to love it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Parents and students across the county have said instructors have done a good job understanding local parents and kids are in a never-before-experienced situation.<\/p>\n

According to district spokeswoman Mikki Grebetz, the district is terming the at-home schooling situation from Monday, March 16 through, as of now, Friday, April 17 as a \u201cdismissal.\u201d Grebetz shared the district is looking at the month-long situation as one where students are provided learning opportunities while all district staff deliver lessons and provide support services. Some schools, such as Summit High School, already had an established remote-learning infrastructure in place.<\/p>\n

Grebetz said students were not expected to engage online on March 16 and March 17, as the two days were devoted to providing time for teachers to set up their online learning spaces and lessons for virtual learning.<\/p>\n

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Upper Blue Elementary School fifth-grade student Luke McMahon looks up from his fort he built at his home in Breckenridge while home-schooling during quarantine amid the coronavirus pandemic.<\/strong>
Naomi McMahon \/ Special to The Daily<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

For the students across the county like Summit High senior Mackenna Simson, who usually depart school early as part of the Academic Athlete program, the current scenario is a little more familiar. Simson says she feels better prepared for the quarantine than friends of her\u2019s down on the Front Range. Simson hears stories from her friends of how teachers elsewhere are less prepared or familiar with remote education, and how students don\u2019t have the same opportunities the Summit School District provides, such as the One2World program that provides an electronic device to every student to access their schoolwork.<\/p>\n

But just because the infrastructure is there doesn\u2019t mean it hasn\u2019t had its share of hurdles. Simson said students like her who are taking International Baccalaureate courses are facing uncertainty as the IB exams they\u2019ve studied two years for have been canceled.<\/p>\n

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Summit High School senior Jeremiah Vaille completes schoolwork during at-home schooling during quarantine amid the coronavirus pandemic.<\/strong>
Kendal Wright Vaille \/ Special to The Daily<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Summit High School ninth grader David Reid said he feels kids lack a motivation right now to complete work or attend remote classes, though the district\u2019s programs have given him a chance to get ahead in chemistry classes and he\u2019s liked how his teachers have used Zoom meetings. He said he completes his work early each day, but notices a lot of kids skimping out on sessions.<\/p>\n

Wagner\u2019s health class has changed from teaching traditional topics like traumatic brain injuries to lessons on viruses and diseases like COVID-19.<\/p>\n

Snowy Peaks School eighth grader Miles Vaille was halfway into completing his Rube Goldberg machine before the quarantine. With the project on hold, his science class has changed to questions about Rube Goldberg sent out via Google Classroom. He\u2019s also bummed he\u2019s not able to make rings out of copper pipe and steel in one of his hands-on classes.<\/p>\n

Instead, he goes out to the family shed and works on an eagle carpentry project for his brother, Summit High senior Jeremiah, who recently became an Eagle Scout. Though this experience has been fun, he says he misses his teachers.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I could go back to school on Monday,  I would,\u201d Miles said.<\/p>\n

via:: Summit Daily<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Upper Blue Elementary School teacher Ashley Girodo (upper right) virtually interacts with students in her fifth-grade class during at-home schooling during quarantine amid the coronavirus pandemic.Courtesy Ashley Girodo DILLON \u2014 A mother of six children in school, Laura Brown of Breckenridge and her family have been through a trying situation that disrupted schooling before. It […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[99],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-805806","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-18 00:02:32","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":"KSMT The Mountain","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/805806","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=805806"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/805806\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=805806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=805806"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=805806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}