The bell no longer rings.

Morning announcements are muted.

Once lively classrooms and hallways are empty.

Closed for one month on Monday, all of Pennsylvania’s public and private schools will remain that way through the end of the 2019-20 school year following an announcement from Gov. Tom Wolf last week. While physical buildings sit idle, however, efforts to educate children roll on as online learning has taken center stage.

Parents playing a key role

“Online learning has gone better than expected,” said Tiffany Strausberger, third-grade teacher in Lehighton Area School District. “Parent cooperation and flexibility has by far been the best. My biggest challenge is to find the best way to give my students an experience close to the classroom. I hope to host guided reading classes online where we can read together, work on fluency, monitor their reading just as if we were sitting at a table together at school. We need to interact beyond the computer screen as best we can.”

Programs used by teachers to get information and assignments to their students vary by district and grade level. Common programs include Seesaw, Canvas, Schoology, ClassDojo and Google Classroom among others. When communicating with students, the video conferencing app Zoom has been a popular choice.

Brooke Breiner, third-grade teacher at Lehighton, said Zoom has been a great tool for touching base with her students and their families.

“A few of my other online sources or programs I have been using include Brainpop, Time For Kids, Epic, Prodigy, Code.org and Dreamscape,” she said. “The parents have been very patient and really supportive. They have really stepped up. My students have been working hard on their assignments. The biggest challenge is the majority of my parents are working from home, and some are essential employees and still reporting to work like normal. This can be difficult for some students who still need some extra support using some of the programs or online sources to complete their assignments.”

Putting families at ease

The first few weeks following the school shutdown brought a lot of uncertainty, Lehighton Area Elementary Center fifth-grade teacher Ron Rabenold said. His first goal was to try to put students and families at ease.

“The biggest challenge for us right now is not overburdening families,” Rabenold said. “They’re facing a lot of battles right now, some of them trying to figure out how to get food on the table three times a day. Students are worried they’re not going to see their friends again. There are guidance counselors and social workers. I’m really proud of what our district has done in a short amount of time.”

Rabenold’s use of the Canvas system in his traditional setting made for a quicker adjustment when students were no longer in the school buildings. Rhonda Zerbe, who has been teaching first grade for 26 years, said the technological learning curve is a little steeper for younger students.

“Older students are a little more technologically savvy, so at our level we’re trying to learn some things that are a little bit foreign to us,” Zerbe said. “The students have been wonderful and the parents have been extremely cooperative.”

Early on, Zerbe said she’s met a lot of family pets during Zoom meetings, and her classes have shared book reports together as they get accustomed to the process.

“We want them to stay as academically fresh as can be,” she said. “We’re going to start some new material, so that will be a new challenge, but I think everyone’s attitude is positive. We had three marking periods before this hit, so we do have a pretty good barometer to go off of as far as where students are. At the start of the next school year, there is going to be more re-teaching and review than we usually have.”

Amanda Rex, an elementary computer teacher in Lehighton Area School District, challenged her students to an online typing contest. While Rex said nothing could replace the face-to-face interaction with students on a daily basis, she hopes to continue providing the best resources for children in this new world of virtual education.

“Reaching out doesn’t just mean teaching new material, it means checking in on the students to see how they are doing during this time,” Rex said. “It is those connections we usually make face to face during the school day. I hope my students continuing learning new material, connecting with each other virtually, improving their typing skills, and exploring some new activities or crafts that they normally don’t have time to do.”

Timing of shutdown posed challenge

The timing of Wolf’s school shutdown announcement, just after classes ended on a Friday, threw a wrench into some districts’ plans. Aaron Sebelin, Lehighton Area Elementary Center K-2 principal, said Lehighton was not among the districts that had planned to host online schooling sessions in the event of excessive snow days this winter, and therefore, professional development was thrown into overdrive.

“We had just begun to plan and prepare for a possible closure,” Sebelin said. “It has been challenging to provide professional development for an entire staff without having the staff present. The most important action our teachers took was to reach out to all parents and speak to them directly via telephone calls. They also followed up with emails, Dojos, and Zoom meetings. Over the past two weeks, teachers have been constantly reaching out to parents to assure them that we will all get through this new form of education together.”

Sebelin said he recognizes the issues facing parents, such as being out of work, trying to help multiple children in the home with their schooling, and working from home themselves, just to name a few. He encouraged parents to communicate with their child’s teacher daily to let them know the struggles they are having at home in the hopes they can work together to help the family and the child.

“It’s so hard for me as a principal, too,” Sebelin said. “I really miss being able to walk down the hall to meet with a teacher or paraprofessional. I’m not able to pull a child aside to have a discussion about academics or a social issue. We are working on new, creative ways to make this format work effectively for the remainder of this year.”

Parent/guardian reaction

The transition to online learning has been a mixed bag for parents and guardians, many of who are dealing with other COVID-19 impacts such as their own employment situations. The adjustment has been easier for some, while others face more challenges.

“We are understanding that this is new for everyone and there’s no clear path to follow,” said Amanda Knappenberer of Palmerton. “We are stepping up as parents and supporting our daughter, son and teachers through this. The teachers understand if you can’t complete something or if the email doesn’t work. So we are doing the best we can. I’ve sat through some Zoom classes with my daughter and I see how tough it is to be a teacher.”

Karen Misskerg of Summit Hill said her family doesn’t have full Internet access and is using an outdated desktop computer.

“My kids are frustrated,” Misskerg said. “They’re struggling not really knowing some of the work. Then I have a senior who is very upset about her year getting cut short. I understand why this has to be done but it’s very, very hard.”

Victoria Balogh of Walnutport is trying to juggle working from home with helping her daughter, who has a learning disability.

“She needs help,” Balogh said, “so after work I need to help her and I have to watch the videos and new ways because I have no idea how to teach her if I don’t. It’s mentally exhausting.”

In Lehighton, bus driver Nikki Heckman said her daughter, a freshman in high school, her daughter is thankful for the roughly three hours of schooling she is doing daily.

Martha Zink, a grandmother raising a seventh-grade student and fourth-grade student in Palmerton Area School District, praised teachers for their efforts through the online learning process. Her granddaughter, she said, is getting her work done with no help from her, while she has had to structure her grandson’s time to make sure he is making the most of it.

“This was not in our control, but I praise the teachers for all the work they are doing,” Zink said. “Parents should be stepping up to help their children. I have major health issues raising two grandkids. If I can do this, why can’t other parents?”

Moving forward

Sebelin said Lehighton’s elementary center, and likely many other schools, will spend the summer evaluating and revising online programs.

“This may be ‘a new normal’ during some times in a school year,” he said.

Nothing replaces the classroom interaction, Rabenold added, but he continues to urge his colleagues and his students to keep the faith.

“Now more than ever,” he said, “it is incumbent on us teachers to instill a love of learning in our students. So that they can achieve toward greatness on a more independent basis.”