Teachers go above and beyond during pandemic

Treasure Valley Classical Academy, the Treasure Valley’s newest school option for grade school students, was included in a nationwide study covering different schools’ excellence during the COVID-19 pandemic.
 “Promised in Quarantine” highlighted 12 schools around the United States that did particularly well with the unprecedented transition to distant learning during the COVID shutdown. Conducted by the Bellweather Education Partners, the study covered what was referred to as “promising practices” implemented by the schools.
 “No one school has found the perfect approach to distance learning. Every school struggled. But the schools profiled here adopted promising practices in response to common challenges, offering lessons for other schools seeking to improve their distance learning models,” according to the study.
 After an initial screening of beaming the classroom into the living room and a lot of our parents kind of saw for the first time our teachers practicing their craft,” he said. “I think it was noticed that we take [teaching] seriously.”
 As school is in its first year of operation, Lambert said a concern he had in transitioning to distributed learning was losing the culture and community of the school. To combat this, the faculty and staff devised ways the school could collectively go above and beyond to provide as many services to parents and families as possible.
 Teachers were required to call every family once a week to maintain a personal contact with parents. Teachers facilitated at least one live online class a day, with average daily attendance almost 90 percent. Other classes were prerecorded by teachers and made available for students. Student Services provided 1:1 support with students with special needs.
 Buses were sent on routes, delivering lunches and dropping off and picking up homework, with specific teachers joining the buses to help foster relationships with parents.
 “I think the community saw that we worked hard to maintain support during a tough time,” said Lambert. “[We] did everything possible to help and sustain our families.”
 The families that attend TVCA stretch throughout the Treasure Valley, including Weiser. Weiser parents such as Becky Lattin and Natalie Bumgarner noted the smoothness of the transition as well as the efforts made to help families in a difficult time. No panic was felt as the school shut down, and the structure of distributed learning kept routines similar. Consistent and constructive communication as well helped both families to feel at ease.
 “It just felt very put together,” said Bumgarner. “They had it in place beforehand, they kept their schedule so even though the rest of us were hanging out, [students] still had to be on their computer by 7:30 in the morning.”
 Teachers remained professional, attending live sessions in professional clothing and keeping as much as possible to the structure that students would be used to.
 Learning from the experience that online learning is not ideal, the school pushed to reopen as soon as possible in the fall. The only way to educate well, said Lambert, is to build relationships between teacher and student, and fostering that relationship over time through electronics proved itself not easy.
 While in-person schooling is preferred overall, both Lattin and Bumgarner said they would not be concerned if the transition to distributed learning had to be revisited.
 “We know how to go back to half days, and we know how to go back to distributed learning,” said Lambert. “I think we’ve proven that we can do that and if necessary, we will go back to it.”