NC students begin school year with online classes. It’s ‘not going to be the same.’
Computer log-ins and digital high fives have replaced school bus rides and hugs for many North Carolina students and teachers at the start of this new school year.
More than 70% of the state’s 1.5 million public school students held their first day of classes on Monday online instead of getting in-person instruction. It’s a situation that will last for two months for many schools, and potentially longer, if the coronavirus pandemic doesn’t lessen.
Some students reported problems logging online Monday into the state’s NCEdCloud computer system, preventing them from accessing their classes. The problem was eventually fixed.
The glitch was felt in Durham County. Wake County reported “minimal impact” on Monday and said the state’s computer issues did not affect instruction. It didn’t mean everything was perfect.
“Sometimes it’s kind of annoying to just only have virtual,” Harper Grimmett, 11, a sixth-grade student at Ligon Middle School in Raleigh, said in an interview. “Because sometimes it messes up. It lags. No one lags in real life.”
The majority of school districts, including Wake, Durham, Johnston, Orange, Chatham and Franklin counties and Chapel Hill-Carrboro, are starting the school year with only remote instruction. School leaders there say it’s not yet safe to resume in-person instruction.
Some districts, including Moore and Person counties, are bringing students back for face-to-face classes for the first time since Gov. Roy Cooper ordered schools to close in mid-March to try to slow the spread of COVID-19.
Schools that are resuming face-to-face classes are following new state requirements such as doing daily temperature checks and mandating that students and staff wear face coverings.
Even in reopened schools, most students won’t go on campus everyday. They’ll get a mix of in-person and online classes to help schools meet social distancing requirements that limit how many people can ride buses and be on campus.
Face-to-face contact missed
The absence of face-to-face classes isn’t easy on teachers, students and parents.
“I don’t know a single teacher, myself included, who doesn’t want to be able to high-five kids and give them hugs on their way to the door and to see their kids from the year before,” Amy Craddock, a fourth-grade teacher at Richland Creek Elementary School in Wake Forest, said in an interview. “That first day of school is not going to be the same.”
Shilo DeShield, a kindergarten teacher at Southeast Raleigh Elementary School, is still keeping to traditions such as having her students sing a song at the start and end of every school day.
“Kids only get one kindergarten year,” DeShield said in an interview. “I’m going to try to do my best to make it as normal as possible for them.
“I’m going to make it fun for them as much as possible. I’m not going to have them sit in front of a computer all the time.”
It’s nice seeing his friends online, but Sky Grimmett, 8, a third-grade student at Hunter Elementary School in Raleigh, said he’ll miss not playing with them during recess each day. His parents will try to arrange some group activities to provide socialization.
Orientation activities to start school year
Schools are mainly using the first two weeks back to provide orientation activities to help students get used to operating in the new online environment. Unlike the online classes used in the spring, schools will take attendance and grade students for work done in the new school year.
Sky only had two classes on Monday. He’ll spend his mornings in his living room sitting next to his brother Harper as they take their classes online.
“It’s going to be fine,” Sky said in an interview. “It’s going to be be really weird, but I’m going to have to deal with it.”
Sky eventually got online after his parents figured out how to get him connected. They’re among the majority of students who signed up for the Wake County school system’s Virtual Academy, a program guaranteeing students can stay with online classes even if the district resumes in-person classes.
“I’m not mad,” said Juliette Grimmett, Harper’s and Sky’s mother. “It’s a miracle to me that any of this working, to be honest.”
The two-week orientation period will also give Wake County time to distribute 44,000 computers and 11,000 hotspots requested by families. Marlo Gaddis, Wake’s chief technology officer, said it will take time as they try to safely distribute all the devices while following social distancing requirements.
“I hope that parents will continue to be patient as we move forward,” Gaddis said at a news conference Monday. “But I think overall, I’m really proud of our team and although we have tweaks here and there that we will fix, overall it has been a successful day Kids have walked out with devices.”
School leaders are also asking families to give schools grace as classes begin.
“We don’t expect it to be 100% smooth from day one,” Heather Shepherd, an Apex parent of two students, said in an interview. “But we’re ready to make things work. They know we expect them (her children) to take it seriously and act as if they were in school.”
This story was originally published August 17, 2020 at 5:30 AM.
