Moving classes online in March after closing schools down because of the coronavirus gave Bedford County Public Schools the chance to learn through their mistakes.
“We were able to see some of the gaps we had, what training we needed,” Karen Woodford, chief learning officer, said.
That training will now be put to the test in August.
Woodford said their more tech-savvy teachers were trained two weeks ago on a free state-provided platform called Canvas.
“We are spending a lot of time demonstrating ourselves so when the teachers take the course, we have staff who are doing the face-to-face modules. They’re doing video modules. They’re doing Zoom meetings,” Woodford said.
Students in Pre-K through 6th grade will be learning in person every day.
Right now, only 7th through 12th grade teachers are going through the week-long in-depth process.
And it’s because their students will be the only ones learning in the classroom and online.
“It’s a module where we teach them what good blended learning looks like, different ways they can interact and build relationships with their students.” Woodford said.
Woodford said at some point, elementary school teachers will be included with hopes of having everyone trained by September.
“From what I’ve heard from teachers it’s very well done. They feel like they’re learning a lot, not only about good teaching strategy, but how to do that in a blended learning environment,” Woodford said.