Teaching During a Pandemic

When the coronavirus pandemic hit the world schools around the world and country moved class from being in person to online. This move was mostly done to help prevent the spread of COVID-19 to students, staff, teachers, and family members. In the United States schools began to shut down in the spring and many only remained close in the spring. Although some states like the State of California, having strict coronavirus precautions in place have made it difficult to reopen schools in the fall making thousands of students continue online education in the fall semester.

One school district that continues to remain closed during the pandemic is the Santa Maria-Bonita School District. The Santa Maria-Bonita School District is an elementary school district and has to take a very different way to online teaching compared to their high school and college counterparts.

Adaptation has been key to the success of online elementary school. School districts like the Santa Maria-Bonita School District has given students textbooks for home, science kits for home, and computers for home. This is something you might see at a college but has now become the norm for kids in kindergarten to graduate students.

"I have had to adjust they way I teach to make the students as successful as possible. This includes doing flash cards on a screen, coloring on a screen, teaching them to use a computer, and sending home books and packets for them," said Laflin.

With Santa Barbara County (the county Santa Maria Bonita-School District is located in) still being in the red tier schools in the county can expect to remain online for the foreseeable future. Schools will have to continue to adapt and change to make online education successful for a long period of time.