Students in Flordia’s Orange County Public Schools turned in 13 million assignments during the nine weeks school buildings were closed this spring.
District educators hosted nearly 230,000 virtual sessions, proving “education and learning still took place,” Robert Bixler, the associate superintendent for curriculum and digital learning, said during a webinar this week on lessons Florida districts learned during school closures.
This district’s shift to online learning was made smoother by a 1-to-1 device program that had been in place for several years.
But administrators also found that Orange County’s own teachers provided some of the most effective professional development sessions in helping their colleagues adjust to online learning.
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District leaders recognized the need to have a comprehensive social-emotional learning plan in place when students return.
The initiative will begin during summer school as teachers provide extra support to students who fell behind during spring online learning, Bixler says.
“We still expect to take attendance and that assignments will be turned in,” Bixler says. “One of our guiding philosophies is that we have to be compassionate during this time when students are home with parents who are trying to do their jobs, too.”
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