Kirk C. Watkins, Jamestown. Since the start of home quarantine was instituted throughout Boulder County, the students, teachers and parents of Jamestown Elementary School (JES) have had to drastically alter their daily routines in order to accommodate the “new normal.” 

The change started to be felt on March 12, 2020. Jamestown Elementary had planned for weeks and the children had been looking forward to going to the Arvada Center for the Arts to watch The Velveteen Rabbit and to attend a follow-up workshop. As the threat of Covid-19 began to be recognized, all of the field trips and outside activities for the Boulder Valley School District (BVSD) were cancelled including The Velveteen Rabbit. Friday, March 13, 2020, would be the last onsite school day for the rest of the 2019 - 2020 school year.

The announcement would be made that BVSD schools would not resume onsite education following Spring Break. Instead, they would switch to home learning beginning March 30. The school district had previously issued Chromebooks to all the students, which helped them to settle into their new routines of waking up and logging into their online “Classroom” and “Meetup” points. The teachers have commenced to working with individuals and groups throughout the day, and what started as a hesitant experiment out of necessity has become normalized and more easily navigated by students, teachers and parents alike.

On April 20, this update was posted on the BVSD website, “Knowing there are only five weeks left in school, in consultation with our partners in public health, Boulder County Public Health and Broomfield Public Health and Environment, BVSD has decided to continue Home Learning through the end of the current 2019 - 2020 School Year and the 2020 Summer Learning program."

The parents have had to evolve rapidly along with the students and teachers to the changes in the educational format. And while it has not been easy, the community at JES has been flexible and attentive in order to make the shift as painless as possible. Historically, one of the main issues that educators and students living in the mountains are confronted with is stable internet. 

Patrick Griffin, the teacher for the third through fifth grade class stated, “We have challenges in the mountains with respect to online learning, particularly around the area of consistent internet.  Our families all have internet access, but consistency of the connection and enough bandwidth to handle video lessons have been an ongoing struggle. Internet issues cause the students to drop off and come back on in the middle of lessons. At times the students can hear me and each other, and sometimes they can’t. Overall, because of these internet issues, the online home learning experience is more frustrating for the students. Their interaction with me, the teacher, is not nearly as consistent as working in the classroom.”

Griffin also expressed frustration with other aspects of the experience, in particular the inability to read the students and see how much they understood the material being presented. 

“Not being able to sit next to them and see their faces and emotions makes it difficult to know who needs help and who doesn’t.  I look for new ways of progress monitoring students, including having them hold work up to their camera, take pictures and upload them, have them verbally explain what they are doing,” he explained.

Gay Paxton, the teacher for the kindergarten through second grade at JES, had a similar response, listing the lack of contact with the students as being the main drawback. She also counted the breakdown in the consistency of the class times as being a hurdle she had to overcome. 

“Online learning is more challenging because I work a split shift and I am answering emails and phone calls all day every day. I work from 8 - 12:30 or so in the mornings and a few hours in the evenings. On top of that, I choose to be available to my families all day, every day, for emails and phone calls,” she said. 

The feedback from the parent’s has been mostly positive, in light of the situation. Lisa Cass, a parent to children in both Patrick and Gay’s class explained that she was happy overall with how her family had transitioned. 

“We are beyond thrilled with Patrick’s class and the level of engagement,” she said, regarding her older daughters’ classroom. “Aslyn is as happy as can be, and the whole family had a great time helping her with the land-forms project. Moe is in Patrick’s class for math, and this is going great too,” she continued, talking about her younger son, “As far as Moe with Gay’s class, we have been doing spelling and reading with him at home. He loves I-Ready and Raz Kids, as well as seeing his friends online.”

Christopher Baker also has two children at Jamestown Elementary. He had this to say about the experience, “The faculty of Jamestown Elementary have far exceeded my expectations during this time. Their energy, efforts and commitment have been second to none. In addition to continuing with high quality teaching, they have reduced our parental burden by helping keep our children motivated and occupied while we both transition to working at home.” 

He readily admitted the process was difficult, but really appreciated the efforts of the faculty and staff members at JES, and BVSD overall, “While it has been bumpy and frustrating at times (a Zoom call with Kindergarteners is mind-bending) the teachers have iteratively worked to find a best-fit solution given the situation. I think I’d further extend that praise to BVSD in general. The fact that they organized laptop resources for the students has been a life saver. I’ve also been pleased with their measured response and clear and thoughtful district-wide communications. While there are always ways to improve, compared to Chicago, this remains an educational paradise.”

Society is just beginning to navigate and develop new means of maintaining traditional structures during this Covid-19 pandemic by forcing foundations like education to rise to the forefront of our consciousness. While the situation is clearly not ideal, teachers and parents continue to navigate the rapidly changing landscape by doing their best to create a sense of normalcy and balance for their children being affected by this societal upheaval. 

(Originally published in the April 30, 2020, print edition of The Mountain-Ear.)