There was a stillness in the parking lot of Castle Hills Elementary School on the morning of July 21. A hand sanitizer station was sitting inside the front door, greeting teachers. There was a coffee and breakfast taco station from the Castle Hills Parent Teacher Association (PTA) welcoming the teachers back. But the halls were quiet, that particular “first day of school” energy seemed to be missing from the campus.
Then it happened.
“Good Morning, how can we help you?” Yvette Cervera and Chris Sembera were in the front office. Merrily greeting the few visitors coming to the school today.
Then it happened again.
“Good Morning, class.”
And again.
“Let’s all stand up.”
Echoes in the halls, coming from the classrooms.
Each teacher greeted their students via Zoom with smiles and that particular “first day of school” energy.
“I’m excited to see their faces, even through Zoom,” said Castle Hills librarian, Jennifer Harrington. “The first day of school-- it’s a different feeling, but it’s just exciting to get to interact with the kids a little bit.”
Harrington was preparing to log into a Zoom meeting full of fifth-graders to tell them about all the new options they would have during this virtual learning time.
“There are so many new books to explore. I know Library Resources has invested a lot of money in making a great e-collection of books available,” said Harrington. “In these times, there are still so many avenues for them to check out books.”
Along with more virtual face-to-face time with their teachers, students will also get time with their librarians, music teachers, P.E. teachers, and other specials teachers.
“Right now, because we are 100-percent virtual, our specials teachers are going to be on live face-to-face virtually during the kid’s specials times,” Castle Hills Principal Betsy Asheim explained. “The specials teachers are going to be engaging with the students for about a 10 to 15-minute mini-lesson and then release the students to go and practice what they have learned in that enrichment class. And they will be doing that asynchronously.”
Asynchronous learning is not live, it gives students the option to work at their own pace using recorded lessons from their teacher.
Students can get lunch at school, but it will look a little different.
“We are setting up a lunch line out front,” said Castle Hills cafeteria manager Celia Esparza. “It’s going to be different, but we are excited to see the kids out in the line.”
Castle Hills parents can bring their kids up to the school to go through the lunch line and pay for lunch like they would on a typical school day.
“They love our nuggets, our pizza, our enchiladas,” added Esparza.
The team at Castle Hills is the first to show off the new virtual learning model created by North East ISD administration.
“They’ve been through extensive training that has been provided by North East for the last couple of months,” said Asheim. “They have really grown in their use of knowledge and tools. Many have said they will never go back; they will continue to integrate technology in a new way.”
The blend of live face-to-face learning and asynchronous activity time is the best of both worlds and gives students something to look forward to this school year.
“I really believe once the students log on every morning and get into a routine, they are really going to actually look forward to coming to virtual school every day,” said Asheim. “They are going to be very excited to see their teacher every day. It is like being together, but it’s just over technology right now.”
It’s easy to focus on what we aren’t getting with the start of this new year, the choices we don’t get to make and the decisions forced upon us, but if you step back and focus on what we are getting -- the chance to be together virtually, to learn something new, and the opportunity to get back to a semi-normal routine -- you’ll see we are all making the best of a tough situation. So right now, we focus on what we can do because the things we do now will better prepare us for the future opportunity to continue this school year together in-person.
