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The Hechinger Report
A padlocked drinking fountain, tree stump seats and a caution-taped library: See how the coronavirus has transformed schools
Readers shared their photos and videos of how the pandemic has modified
school buildings and inspired new ‘Covid classrooms’ this fall
By Neal Morton
October 6, 2020
The Hechinger Report is a national nonprofit newsroom that reports on
one topic: education. Sign up for our weekly newsletters to get stories
like this delivered directly to your inbox.
In Florida and Wisconsin, schools have padlocked or sealed drinking
fountains to keep kids from using them. Students at a private school in
San Rafael, California, are learning in outdoor classrooms created from
tree stumps and hay bales. And in Houston, students at home and on
campus played songs together on makeshift instruments for a hybrid
music class.
Those are just a few examples of how the coronavirus pandemic has
transformed school buildings and inspired new “Covid classrooms” this
fall, as illustrated by photographs and videos readers submitted to The
Hechinger Report.
A few weeks before students returned to Biloxi High School in
Mississippi, broadcast journalism teacher Olivia Dunwoody joined a
virtual faculty meeting to review new safety procedures the
administration had set for the new year.
Dunwoody and other teachers wanted to share that guidance widely with
students and teachers in advance of school reopenings. So they
recruited members of the student council and a theater group to
demonstrate the new procedures — for arriving at bus stops and at
school, sanitizing classrooms and behaving in the cafeteria, among
other rules — in a series of videos.
At one school in Stoneham, Massachusetts, classroom desks are spread
far apart to maintain physical distance among students. Federal and
state guidelines differ on how much distancing is necessary.
Elsewhere, a school used caution tape to prevent students from roaming
through bookshelves in the library. While the American Association of
School Librarians (AASL) has encouraged librarians to follow social
distancing and manage traffic flow in stacks, nearly a quarter of
school-level librarians told the AASL in an August survey that their
school’s library would not be open or used at all.
In Newark, New Jersey, more than 200 students and families joined the
KIPP TEAM Academy, a charter school that started the year remotely, for
a back-to-school book swap and supply distribution day in August. The
charter network’s Liberty and Sunrise academies in Miami held similar
events, not pictured here, for students to pick up laptops, uniforms
and other supplies in a safe and socially distanced way, said
spokeswoman Jessica Shearer.
“This event allowed students to safely see some of their teachers in
person before the start of the school year online,” she said in an
email.
First graders take a tour of outdoor classrooms with teacher Roland
Baril at the Marin Waldorf School in San Rafael, California. Credit:
Michael Weber
On the West Coast, the Marin Waldorf School in San Rafael, California,
moved instruction completely outdoors when it resumed preschool through
eighth grade classes on Sept. 8.
Admissions director Chantal Valentine said the private school recently
built 13 outdoor classrooms, using tree stumps as seats and bales of
hay for walls in redwood groves.
Meghan Mayer, a language arts teacher and popular TikTok creator in
Sarasota, Florida, posted this tour of Brookside Middle School to show
viewers safety precautions — including one-way stairwells and plastic
dividers on students’ desks — being adopted during the pandemic.
“No more water fountains,” Mayer commented regarding the trash bags
that had been taped over a pair of drinking fountains. “Students have
to bring their own water bottles, and they have to be clear plastic.”
Her video also included a gallon of hand sanitizer that Mayer said was
in every schoolroom: “I wish the sanitizer smelled good, but honestly
it smells awful, so bring your own.”
At Navajo Technical University, roughly 1 in 4 students have no access
to the internet at home, prompting the public, tribally controlled
university in Crownpoint, New Mexico, to search for alternatives to
remote learning. Some students attend hybrid classes at least one day a
week on campus, where the university has installed sneeze guards and
limited access to the library, according to Daniel Vandever, the
communications director.
Enrollment in the university’s vocational programs, which prepare
students for jobs in the skilled trades, has declined, since those
courses typically require face-to-face instruction. But Vandever said
instructors have found workarounds: for example, dividing classes in
fields such as welding technology, with half the students working
indoors while the others work outside.
The Village School, a private pre-K through high school in Houston,
reopened with hybrid classes this fall. In these visuals, middle
schoolers learned to play “La Bamba” with plastic buckets and other
materials they could find in class or at home.
Columbus, Ohio, mother Amy Sumner hosts a learning pod for her
10-year-old daughter, Caitlin, left, and children from two other
families after their schools started the year with fully remote
instruction. Credit: Amy Sumner
At K-12 schools that stayed fully remote, parents and teachers alike have gotten creative.
At Paradise High School in Northern California, English and
broadcasting teacher Doug Carroll prepared to instruct students from
his empty classroom in the school building. Amy Sumner, in Columbus,
Ohio, began the year with her three children in fully remote classes,
but their schools have since switched to a hybrid model.
“The bright red padlock on a water fountain … just struck me as sad.”
Skylar Primm, teacher, High Marq Environmental Charter School
Sumner created a “learning pod” with two other families and converted
her basement into a classroom, where she oversees work sent from the
district and manages individualized education programs for two of the
kids. Sumner’s mother-in-law also helps with a virtual art class.
“I hosted Zoom meetings this summer to decide on a school name and
mascot, and the Sumnerds Private Academy, Home of the Brainiacs, was
created,” she said. “So far it’s going great!”
Staff at the High Marq Environmental Charter School in Montello,
Wisconsin, locked up a drinking fountain to prevent students from using
it.
Teacher Skylar Primm noticed the change while visiting the school in
August for a much-delayed outdoor graduation ceremony for the Class of
2020.
“The bright red padlock on a water fountain … just struck me as sad,” he said in an email.
After four weeks of in-person classes, High Marq has yet to record any
cases of coronavirus transmission on campus, said Primm. But
“Wisconsin’s cases are exploding,” he added, “so I think we all feel
like the walls are closing in.”
To see photos, click here
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