On March 16, 2020, our lives, and the way we did school changed drastically when it was announced that it would no longer be possible to do school in person. This change was due to the rising cases of people who were suffering from Covid-19, during that time all schools and businesses were forced to close as a way of reducing the spread of the virus. For the first week because there was such short notice there was no school at all because equipment had to be tested, and supplies needed to be purchased and delivered but eventually, after all the preparations were complete school was able to start the following Monday.
When school did start there were many changes. The most significant one being that everyone was at home and we did school by connecting on Google Hangouts or Zoom. Some Students needed to borrow computers from Bellcate. Another challenge was that some students did not have internet at their house so they could not do remote, therefore Bellcate staff had to work on getting families internet service. Some students also had trouble finding quiet places to do their work. Many people were very anxious about what was going on so when they were trapped at home together tempers sometimes flared and made it difficult for students to do their work for school. Some students were easily distracted while in remote and would go to other sites, message other students, or be on their phones when they weren’t supposed to be, while other students had a hard time sitting still and would get up constantly in class. Other times animals can be distracting, you might need to feed your dog or cat, and let them in or out.
While some students had issues with remote, other students were able to do much better in remote than they did in person. Some students were able to focus better and get more work done in remote due to not having all the distractions of regular in-person school. Another benefit of remote over in person is that people did not have to go outside when the weather was terrible. We learned how to use “new” technology such as video calling.
Despite the challenges that came from the need to go remote we were able to get back on track with accommodations to have most people doing in person school starting in June, 2020. The fact that we were able to get through this challenge shows the perseverance and resiliency of the Bellcate community.