Fulton County Responds

Meghana Ramineni, Features Editor

Language Arts teacher Megan Hart-Sekman hosts her British Literature class through Zoom.

Jennifer Xia, Editor-in-Chief

COVID-19, first detected in Wuhan, China in December 2019, has spread rapidly within and among countries due to its extremely infectious nature. Similar to the response to other global health pandemics, scientists immediately worked to identify methods of transmission and prevention and to develop a vaccine for this novel coronavirus. While the research is still ongoing, people are practicing social distancing, taking shelter in their homes and only going out for essential errands. Schools and universities across the world have closed to fight the spread of the virus; however, the resulting shift to online learning has created some issues of its own. 

With the official announcement for Fulton County schools to be closed until further notice- that date now determined to be until April 24- students went home unsure of the changes in lessons, testing, and more, while teachers attended meetings the following day to prepare for this indefinite break from school utilizing online learning methods. In many school districts, there are challenges with online learning, as some counties are limited in digital resources available to be distributed. Other counties, including Fulton, have these resources and have distributed them to students to try to maintain ongoing learning through online platforms. 

Earlier in the year, many Fulton schools began device deployment to students, enabling them to complete and submit schoolwork online. Currently, devices are being given to students who did not previously receive one and additional technical support is available for those who may need it. In the span of the first two days of device deployment, a total of 3,238 devices were distributed along with printed packets for the younger students. 

Principal Brian Downey is grateful for the amount of resources available in our community and that most students have access to these resources to continue with online learning, however understands that a lot of other communities and schools do not have these facilities. 

“In our community we are fortunate that a vast majority of our families do have the supports in place to support [online] learning. There are many other communities where the vast majority of families don't have those resources,” Downey said.

On Twitter, teachers are using the hashtag #FCSrising to post different ways they are approaching digital learning, etc. Several Northview teachers have discovered different ways for their classes to communicate and connect with each other through programs such as Microsoft Teams, Microsoft Flipgrid, or the most common source of communication among students and teachers: Google Classroom. Megan Hart-Sekman, a language arts teacher at Northview who has experience using online platforms, has assigned her students digital discussion boards to encourage communication and stimulate discussion among her students. 

“I actually like [digital discussion boards] because everyone is required to ‘talk’ as  sometimes quieter students do not speak up in class,” Hart-Sekman said. “This gives them a chance to use their voice. It is nice to be able to ‘hear’ from everyone.”

Hart-Sekman is also hosting optional meetings on Zoom for her Honors British Literature classes as these meetings allow her classes to read together and maintain a sense of community. 

“It gives me something to look forward to and keeps me connected to my students. I miss them,” Hart-Sekman said. 

For others, such as chemistry teacher Laurel Rogers, shifting to online learning may present more challenges. Rogers, along with fellow chemistry teacher Rebecca Bingham, filmed videos of labs their honors chemistry classes were supposed to participate in if not for school closure. They demonstrated the labs in videos and explained each step to help students visualize and better understand the material. 

Another set of challenges comes with AP courses, as AP exams are scheduled towards the end of the year to assess students on the year’s material. Recently, College Board decided against canceling exams and instead opted for an alternative format of the tests. As opposed to a common structure of multiple choice questions followed by free response questions, College Board has now decided to make the exams 45 minutes long and all free response questions. Although there is not a lot of information specific to each exam yet, College Board is expected to release these details in early April. 

Academics has not been the only thing affected due to school closings, as many students’ living situations have shifted. Fulton County has set up meal distribution sites for students that may be unable to afford food or are on food programs at their schools. This is part of the USDA’s Seamless Summer Option to serve meals during school closure, specifically to underserved students during the summer months. In Fulton County, they have expanded from six to 21 sites where families can pick up meals, free of charge, for children under the age of 18 or children with special needs under the age of 21. The meal distributions have been extremely successful, with 16,200 meals distributed the first Monday and 15,176 meals given out the following distribution day. 

Assistant Principal LeMetra Dismuke is new to Northview and did not expect this change to happen during her first year on the job. Despite this situation, Dismuke is grateful for the learning experience she has gained from this and the initiative taken by administrators, teachers, and students during such a difficult time. 

“I think the administrative team as well as the teachers have done an amazing job of being on call, collaborating, and doing whatever it takes to support students, which is the number one goal,” Dismuke said. “I have been thoroughly amazed at how everyone has come together to make this happen for [the students]. I have learned quite a bit in a short amount of time [that] when we have a crisis like this, it takes a positive, all hands on approach for everyone to come together and get it done.” 

Honors Chemistry teachers Laural Rogers and Rebecca Bingham record chemistry labs for their students.

Video: Scott Lee