The 2020 school year is going to look pretty different from anything we've ever experienced before. Schools have been tasked with finding creative learning solutions for the current health situation. While some schools are sticking to virtual learning, which comes with its own set of problems for parents who are struggling to work, other schools are opening their doors and inviting kids and teachers back to the classroom.
It's frightening for a lot of people to think about schools opening their doors right now. But many schools have gone above and beyond when it comes to finding remarkable solutions. Of course, there is no perfect formula, and teachers and administrators are doing the absolute best they can to cope with the state of things. However, for most, the health and safety of those who will be working and learning in schools is a top priority.
Here are a few schools that are doing truly inspiring things to help ensure a safe environment for kids and teachers this year.
Aikahi Elementary School's Outdoor Learning Spaces
One school in Hawaii had an amazing idea. While we know that being outdoors is much safer than being inside all day, the staff at Aikahi took outdoor learning to the next level. The principal decided that in order to keep everyone as safe as possible, they would need as much outdoor learning space as they could get. That called for some new construction.
They started fundraising, and quickly people began donating to the project. Aikahi has now constructed several 20-by-40-foot outdoor learning spaces to act as the school's largest classrooms. "We can socially distance our biggest class within the school however many kids that is," Aikahi Principal Keoki Fraser said. "Twenty-plus kids if we brought them all out here at once, they could fit under here and have a class."
It's exactly the kind of innovation that is needed right now. The school received praise from the Department of Education for its efforts, saying they hope more schools look to the new learning model that Aikahi has created.
"What we are encouraging teachers and staff to do is to take full advantage of the entire campus as learning spaces and defining those learning spaces," DOE Superintendent Dr. Christina Kishimoto said.
St. Barnabas Episcopal School's Race Car Desks
It's hard for just about everyone to keep away from their friends. But for little kids? Forget about it! That's why creative efforts coming from teachers are so immensely important. A couple of first-grade teachers in Florida knew it would be a huge issue for their class, so they came up with an incredible solution.
Patricia Dovi teaches at the St. Barnabas Episcopal School in DeLand, Florida. She wanted to help ease her first graders into maintaining their distance from one another, so she turned their desks into little Jeeps! "Anything that we can do to add some silliness and some creativity to get them excited is going to be really important in the longevity of this school year," she told Insider.
Another teacher, Kim Martin, loved the idea and got in on it, too. "It's colorful and it just shows the age of innocence," she said. "If we can get them to buy into the idea that sitting in a vehicle is really exciting, maybe it won't be so hard to keep them at their desks."
These Hilarious Hats At Yangzheng Primary School in China
We've seen some pretty unconventional approaches to helping keep kids more than 6 feet apart. But nothing can top these top hats! The Yangzheng Primary School in Hangzhou, China, requested that students make the big, fun hats prior to returning to school. In addition to the hats, students are also required to wear face masks, but our guess is the kids love wearing the hilarious hats they made themselves!
The hats create a 1-meter barrier between the students. So while they're certainly fun, they also serve a hugely important purpose! "As children can see and feel these hats, and when the 'wings' hit one another, they may be more able to understand the expectations and remember to keep their physical distance," Ian Lam Chun-bun, associate head of the Department of Early Childhood Education at The Education University of Hong Kong, told The South China Morning Post.
It definitely makes a lot of sense! If you've ever been around a small child before, you know they aren't quite as aware of their movements as adults, making it harder for them to steer clear of their friends. These hats certainly help them to keep their distance. Perhaps some school will adopt this technique in the US!
The JHU Tracker
Leave it to Johns Hopkins University to outdo just about everyone, though. The college created an incredibly brilliant tracker that gives updates about the current situation at schools across the United States. The goal is to help parents make decisions about whether or not to send their kids back to school a little less overwhelming. It's not exactly a learning hack, but it's a massively important tool for helping parents make this important decision, no matter what their neighborhood school's plan looks like!
