Youngstown teachers use creative strategies to reach students during shutdown

YOUNGSTOWN — While schools are shut down, Youngstown City School District teachers are taking creative steps to ensure that learning isn't.

District teachers are using YouTube, Facebook and other platforms to reach their students, making sure they're keeping up with their school work, sharing words of encouragement and letting them know they care.

Volney Rogers Elementary School kindergarten teachers Krista Calai and Liz D'Apolito developed the Volney Roger Kindergarten Facebook page to bring lessons to their young students in their homes.

"Miss Calai and I are constantly bouncing ideas off of each other to try to help our students grow academically while sparking curiosity and heightening their love of learning," D'Apolito said. "This year we started seeing the most growth we have ever seen in kindergarten, and we couldn't help but try to continue to reach our scholars despite the school shutdown."

With the Volney Rogers Kindergarten Facebook page, she and Calai can continue to teach students through mini lessons. The teachers hope their efforts take some pressure off parents who find themselves taking on the teacher role for their home-bound children.

"We felt that these videos could provide some consistency and normalcy for the students at home during this unnerving time," Calai said. "We wanted the students to see our smiling faces and to understand that we are still there for them, despite not seeing them in person."

Besides the Facebook page, the teachers conduct online meetings, send out daily reminders using an app called Remind and make phone calls "in the hopes that we reach every scholar," Calai said.

Both she and D'Apolito said they want to ease some of the difficulty for families during the pandemic.

"We understand the difficulty for families during this time, especially in households where guardians are still working and trying to homeschool," Calai said. "It is our hope that our videos take some of the stress out of homeschooling for not only families in our school but families around the rest of the community as well."

D'Apolito agreed.

"These are circumstances we never imagined could be our reality, so by making this page public, we might be able to give other teachers and parents ideas for their kids at home, too," she said.

"Teachers are creative, out-of-the-box thinkers by nature — they have to be to reach scholars who don't all learn the same way," district CEO Justin Jennings said. "Seeing some of the inventive ways our teachers are continuing to educate our young people through this pandemic isn't surprising. But it is impressive, and I appreciate the many ways they're working to make sure education continues despite this national crisis."

Christine Sawicki, chief academic officer, believes the methods YCSD educators are using to reach students show their dedication.

"As educators, we are committed to providing scholars with learning opportunities that will help them grow individually," she said. "Even though things may look a little different right now, our teachers are getting creative to ensure our scholars still have opportunities to continue learning."

East High School government teacher John Drummond is using Facebook and YouTube in addition to the online meetings and Remind app to draw students to lessons.

He started with an online meeting platform to record and post videos to Google Classroom.

"I then decided that if I made a YouTube channel, they would be easier to share, and if I put it on Facebook, more people might be able to get some use out of them, both inside and outside of the district," Drummond said. "I had heard so many friends and family talk about how much they were struggling with homeschooling, so I figured I would put these videos out and offer to do more if it could help anyone."

A recent video focused on the basics of the Ohio Constitution.

Choffin Career and Technical Center culinary instructor Tricia Goodnough made a video to virtually cook with her students. She prepared Mexican rice and beans, pointing out that getting into the kitchen can be a good way to cope with feelings of stress and upset.

"So today we're going to cook it out," Goodnough said in her video.

Anna Ragghanti-Crowe is an intervention specialist at Harding Elementary School and brings lessons to students using YouTube — and Pumpkin Pie, a hand puppet.

In a lesson this week, Ragghanti-Crowe used the puppet to read to students and ask them questions about what they read.

"At school, my classroom is called The Studio," she explained. "I have a variety of puppets that help students learn and specifically help with social/emotional issues."

In a lesson this week, Ragghanti-Crowe used the puppet to read an excerpt from Dr. Seuss' "Oh the Places You'll Go."

She plans to branch out even more.

"This week I will be posting a video on how to make soup as well as how to play a physical activity," she said.

This story was originally published April 2, 2020 at 7:42 AM with the headline "Youngstown teachers use creative strategies to reach students during shutdown."