`Forever memorable'
OKC schools return with virtual first day
What a difference a year has made.
Last year, Oklahoma City Public Schools began a new era with its first day of school. A major consolidation plan, called Pathway to Greatness, had closed 15 schools and reconfigured 17 over summer 2019.
But ,2020' sf ir st day of school was even more of a novelty, as 32,000 Oklahoma City students logged in to their online classrooms. The district started the 2020- 21 school year on Monday. Nine weeks of virtual learning lay ahead.
“This was my 35th first day of school,” Superintendent Sean McDaniel said in a virtual news conference Monday afternoon. “I'll tell you, this is going to be forever memorable. A lot of work went into the launch today.”
Teachers stood in front of empty classrooms, talking with students over video calls. Students attended classes from their kitchen tables and living room couches, with a Google Chromebook or Apple iPad as the gateway to their education.
For Lynne Zahn, principal of Belle Isle Enterprise Middle School, last year's first day of school feels like“a million years ago.”
“Today for all of our teachers is like the first year that they ever taught school, whether this really is their first day of being a teacher or if they've taught 30 years,” Zahn said. “It's a whole new way of delivering instruction.”
Yet, some parts of the first day never change. School staff at Belle Isle felt the same buzz of excitement to see their students again. Classes began with familiar “first-day glitches.”
In a normal year, students might have trouble opening a locker or finding their next classroom. With online schooling, parents called in to report trouble logging into virtual classes.
“Those kinds of things happen n or mally,”Zahn said. “It's the same level in terms of helping children navigate the first day of school. It's just being done over the phone or through email.”
Time flew by for fifth-grade teacher Winston Prescott. He spent the school day in his math and science classroom at F.D. Moon Middle School's fifth-grade center.
The professional development needed to reach this point was daunting, but the outcome was worth the effort, Prescott said. To keep a video call full of fifth graders engaged, he stayed animated and prompted back-and-forth dialogue with his students.
“Today, to see the children and see them smiling and see them l earning and building relationships — this is what we're made f or, ” Prescott said. “This is why I'm here. I'm just so glad to be part of this.”
Students never returned from spring break in March, when Oklahoma first recognized a COVID-19 outbreak. The Oklahoma State Board of Education ordered all schools to close and switch to distance learning for the remainder of the 2019-20 school year.
Oklahoma City schools
elected to start the 202021 school year virtually as COVID- 19 cases increased dramatically over the summer.
Schools distributed Chrome books andi Pads for students to continue at-home learning. Unlike the spring, teachers
will take attendance, and students will receive grades for the work they complete at home.
Though the roll out of Pathway to Greatness was a year and one pandemic ago, Oklahoma City schools are better prepared to support
students' social- emotional needs because of the consolidation plan, McDaniel said.
Closing schools f reed up dollars to hire more school counselors, nurses and social workers. The district allocated more funds to its EmbraceOKC
initiative, which supports student mental health through community partnerships.
“For a lot of reasons, I think (Pathway to Greatness) really helped us — without us even knowing it—prepare for something like a pandemic,” McDaniel said.