Skylar Webb, Gilpin County. Covid-19 has majorly impacted daily lives. These changes include the school’s learning styles and systems. At Gilpin, students were given two choices as to how the next few weeks would look, remote learning or CDLS. These two options are both online, but they each have a different strategy to teaching the students. 

CDLS, Colorado Digital Learning Solutions, is an online program unassociated with Gilpin. The teachers assign the week’s assignments on Monday, with due dates that the students can overlook, turning assignments in anytime they want if they need a break. The full semester of work is accessible on a website called Buzz, where students can work ahead of the week’s schedule or catch up. CDLS teachers are not as open to one-on-one help because the only way to contact your teacher is through email. Web meetings are not present in this style of learning. CDLS learning incorporates independent promoting techniques that allow students to be flexible with their schedule and learn in ways that suit them best. 

Remote learning the second type of learning available at Gilpin schools. The teachers are those from Gilpin, and the assignments are the same as if you were attending school, some changes made for convenience. There are Webex’s and/or Google Meets throughout the day, which makes it very possible to have one-on-one interaction with your teachers for assistance.

The work is assigned during these video chats, or it is available through Google Classroom. Depending on the teachers, most work is due by the end of the week, and new assignments are posted to Classroom on Monday. Remote learning promotes safe interactions and group learning through the Web meetings, while still allowing students a flexible schedule.

As of September 21, 2020, Gilpin remote learners have the option to return to in person learning. They have the option to go all four days a week, have a hybrid schedule of different days a week, or continue on the remote learning path. The back to school schedule is now formatted as a block schedule which will help to minimize contact throughout the day. This block schedule consists of having the same classes Monday and Tuesday, and a different set of classes Wednesday and Thursday. This allows students doing hybrid learning to go to school Monday and Wednesday, or Tuesday and Thursday to attend each set of classes. 

(Originally published in the October 1, 2020, edition of The Mountain-Ear.)