Education As You Like It: Some Elementary Students Thrive with Online, Distance Learning

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By: Gracie Swind, Managing Editor

During the second half of the 2019-2020 school year, K-12 schools across the country closed down and moved shop online, giving every student a taste of digital, long-distance learning. While many students saw their grades and focus level flagging due to being removed from the classroom, others flourished in the online learning environment provided by their teachers.

Students raising their hands in a classroom — *Students who thrive with hands-on, classroom-based learning will be able to do so at schools who are choosing to open their physical locations.*

Michelle Swind, a fourth-grade teacher at Ozona Elementary School, saw just such a change in several of her young scholars.

“One of the male students in my class who was easily distracted in the classroom was hyper-focused and stayed on task,” Swind said. “He turned in higher-quality work, completed assignments on time, and took a leadership role in the chatrooms to support his classmates.”

Group of young students looking at a laptop screen — *At Ozona Elementary, and many other elementary schools like it, funding is being put towards getting reliably functional computers for each student, so that sharing can be eliminated.*

Although the experience of transitioning online was difficult, this discovery has proved to be a silver-lining to those students who found themselves better suited for learning from home. Simultaneously, many other students found with great certainty that they excel in a hands-on classroom experience, and were able to dash the idea of switching to online schooling for good.

Students sitting in a circle with teacher — *For students who return to the classroom, many communal activities like groupwork, story time, and gathering on the rug will no longer be practiced in an effort to avoid contact among students.*

Reopening plans for schools in Florida have been left up the counties and to each individual school, with all concrete plans being led by principals. At Ozona elementary, students are given three options for returning in the fall: traditional schooling on the campus, distance schooling where lessons are provided live, or Florida Virtual School (FLVS), which would be entirely online.

Students sitting at desks with masks on — Schools are being encouraged to avoid “mixing cohorts” whenever possible, making elementary classes largely isolated from other each other to avoid large webs of contact and potential rapid spreading.

“We try to accommodate the needs of every student, but sometimes it’s just impossible to tell what environment students will thrive in the best without seeing firsthand how they perform,” Swind said. “With the shutdown in April, students were given the chance to try something new and in some cases, learn what works best for them.”

With strict new regulations being put in place to keep kids socially distant, it would not be a surprise if many students who found a perfect classroom right at home do not return to campuses in August.