DEWITT, N.Y. (NCC News) — The Jamesville-DeWitt Central School District is a month into the school year, using a hybrid learning model for the first time to limit potential exposure to COVID-19. While this plan is designed to balance safety and education, the experience of a local family reveals that the scale is tipped against student learning.
This school year is different for Jamesville-DeWitt students because they still attend classes in person, but just not every day. The student body of each school is divided into two groups. One group goes to school on Mondays and Tuesdays while the other group works from home. On Thursdays and Fridays, the two groups switch places, and everyone is remote on Wednesdays so that schools can be cleaned.
One of the biggest challenges of this new reality is keeping track of her children’s work, said Kristin Hennessey, the mother of an 8th grader and 5th grader at Jamesville-DeWitte Middle School.
“Having this model where a couple of days are at school, a couple of days are at home, I find completely confusing,” she said. “Trying to track their assignments, when they’re due, what’s been completed, and what’s not been completed is a big struggle.”
Kristin explained that all her children’s assignments are posted to Google Classroom so that the students working from home can access it. However, on Mondays and Tuesdays, when her children go to school and do the work in person, their assignments will show up as “missing” online, she said.
“It’s another thing you have to keep track of,” Kristin said. “While they’ve actually completed the work at school, I have no way of knowing that as the parent. Trying to figure out what’s been done, what needs to be done, and trying to keep your kid on task is a headache.”
“It can cause a lot of arguments with the kids if I’m telling them to go do something that they think they have already completed,” Kristin added. “The more my husband and I stay on top of it, the easier it is to keep track of all of the kids’ work.”
Kristin’s sons are also still adjusting to the hybrid school year. Braeden, an eighth-grader at Jamesville-DeWitt Middle School thinks hybrid school is slowly getting better, but it’s still not great, he said.
“The first two weeks were not good,” Braeden said. “Everybody was just trying to learn how it would go only going to school two times a week. It’s a little easier now, but it’s still stressful and confusing.”
On the days that students are online, teachers must post all work for the day on Google Classroom by 8 a.m. This is one of the only things that is not confusing about hybrid learning, Braeden said.
“It helps to know when you wake up in the morning all your work will be there,” he said. “It limits big surprises.”
Braeden added, “Everything else is up to the teacher. Some teachers require zoom meetings at certain times and others don’t, which is confusing. It’s hard to keep track of zoom calls on top of all the assignments.”
Even the in-person days have new challenges for Braeden.
“Classes are shorter so we have time to go outside for a mask break in the morning and afternoon,” Braeden said. “It feels like we don’t get as much done in class this year. I feel like we’re learning, but not as much.”
One of the biggest disappointments for Braeden this year is lunch, he said.
“The cafeteria is the worst part,” he explained. “You have an assigned seat, and it’s 12 feet apart from each other. You can’t sit anywhere near your friends, and it’s confusing and kind of lonely.”
Even though there are new challenges at home and school, it is important to stay positive, Kristin said.
“I’m really fortunate and happy that they do get to go to school,” she explained. “I know the teachers are doing the best that they can under these crazy circumstances because every family has different needs.”
Kristin added, “For one teacher to meet the needs of all these families in school and at home, that’s a lot for them to take on. The least we can do is be flexible and understanding because that makes it easier on us and everyone else.”
