For the past six years, St. Cassian School has implemented a successful distance learning program, connecting teachers with students through the use of technology to allow for classes to continue when circumstances require the school to close. Each day, students connecting to instruction remotely meet with their teachers online for full class instruction in each of their core subjects through a video conferencing platform. In the current time, which requires a blended model of instruction incorporating learners on a hybrid schedule and those opting for 100% remote learning simultaneously, special subjects are also offered to remote learners on alternating weeks, offering a period of direct instruction via the video conferencing platform, followed by a week of application and independent work.
In addition to daily online instruction, students have access to a wide variety of instructional material and curriculum resources, including teacher-created instructional videos and online textbooks for Mathematics, Reading, English Language Arts, Science, Social Studies, and Religion. Through the use of Google Classroom, students are able to access supplemental instructional materials as well as complete and submit their daily assignments to their teachers for feedback and grading. Tools such as ClassWorks, which has been used both in and out of the classroom to provide differentiated instruction, learning materials, and assessments to each of our students, also continue to be used as a part of learning.
To meet the needs of the technological demands that a long-term blended model of instruction creates, the school has invested in recent technology upgrades that allow classes to be live-streamed and support real-time interaction between those receiving in-person instruction and those opting to connect to class remotely. Particularly,
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50" screens that display the students connecting remotely have been installed and are used daily to facilitate interaction, dialogue, and collaboration between those connecting remotely and those present for in-person instruction.
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Wireless microphones have been purchased for each teacher to wear, ensuring the sound quality of each lesson being live streamed is crisp and clear, while the voices of the students connecting remotely are broadcast through the speakers of the classroom's SmartBoard or Promethean Board for all who are attending class in-person to hear.
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Each class is now equipped with a document camera so that print materials and demonstrations can be projected on the interactive whiteboard, making them easily seen by all students, regardless of whether they are participating in-person or remotely.
These upgrades, coupled with our strong existing foundation in technology (e.g., Google Classroom, one-to-one deployment of devices, online textbooks, and differentiated programs) and years of experience delivering remote instruction when circumstances have required the physical school building to close have and will certainly continue to support the effective delivery of a comprehensive curriculum.
