School lending teachers hand on remote classes
HOT SPRINGS — Instructors at Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences, and the Arts are offering additional content and resources for educators on the school’s website to help them deal with the challenges of remote instruction during the coronavirus pandemic.
The resources can be found at https://asmsa.me/resources, the school said.
Instructors involved in the school’s Coding Arkansas’ Future and Advanced Biology Plus programs also are providing advice for instructors who may not have conducted remote instruction before, according to a school email.
The Hot Springs school is the only public residential high school in the state. The school is for 11th and 12th graders who have an interest and aptitude in mathematics, sciences, or the fine and performing arts. The school opened in 1993.
Since 2015, the school has provided computer-science teachers with professional development, digitally delivered content aligned to state standards and ongoing support to students and teachers through the Coding Arkansas’ Future initiative.
The school added Advanced Biology Plus to its digital learning program in 2017, allowing “Arkansas school districts to work with its biology instructors to provide digital and on-site opportunities for students and daily support for Advanced Placement Biology teachers,” officials said.
Both Coding Arkansas’ Future and Advanced Biology Plus programs use Zoom, an online teleconference service, and Canvas, a learning management system.
“In addition to computer science and biology, educators can find lessons from [the school’s] physics and mathematics instructors as well as college admissions tips and other resources,” according to a news release.
Daniel Moix, the director of Coding Arkansas’ Future, is releasing a new module each week focused on various areas of computer science, the school said. The materials are designed to be viewed on a computer but are accessible on mobile devices as well.
Jennifer Cox, a science teacher at Fountain Lake Charter High School, said participating in the biology program has made the transition to remote teaching easier.
“During the [alternative-instruction] period of time,” Cox said in the news release, referring to the the alternative methods of instruction program, “I have been able to continue to get quality content to my students. “This ability has helped my students to continue to prepare for their upcoming AP exam. When our school began to prepare for a large number of AMI days, I felt no stress for my AP Biology course.”
Whitney Holden, a life-science specialist at the math, science and arts school, said it is important to maintain a positive attitude and take advantage of the various online resources available to educators.
“First, I advise teachers to look on the bright side wherever possible,” Holden said. “Teaching remotely brings with it opportunities to use various online resources that can be very interactive, like virtual labs and simulations, that would otherwise not be used. The sudden shift to remote instruction is a great opportunity to have students use multiple resources and then assess which ones were the most effective (and most enjoyed) before then deciding which resources are worth incorporating into future classes once in-person teaching has resumed,” she said.
“Teachers should give themselves permission to try something new, evaluate it and then make changes,” Holden said. “Just remember to keep it simple and keep the lines of communication open so students can report what is working well and what may need to be reassessed.”
Many services are offering their products temporarily free to educators and students, including Labster.com, an experiment simulator, Quizlet.com and Quizizz.com, practice quizzes, and peardeck.com, an interactive assessment tool for Google Slides.