FAIRMONT — Schools across the state started their distance learning adventure Monday. Under Gov. Tim Walz’s order, schools will engage in distance learning until through at least through May 3. This was the first time many districts in Minnesota had to put a plan in place and launch it within days. Fairmont Area Schools is one of them.

Superintendent Joe Brown said Fairmont Schools did not have an e-learning plan in place, but Walz announced on Sunday, March 15, that all schools across the state would need to close starting Wednesday the 18th. They would then have until Monday, March 30, to put a distance learning plan in place.

Brown said a group of teachers was at the school for six hours plotting what to do on the Sunday Walz made the announcement.

“Teachers had eight days of staff development to get ready and put a plan in place,” Brown said.

Some teachers are working from the school buildings, but most are teaching from home. They’ve used video conferencing programs, such as Zoom, to communicate.

“Zoom has become one of our best friends,” Brown said.

The school board meeting last week was also conducted though Zoom and some teachers are utilizing the program to interact with students.

Brown said they will continue to assess homework at both the elementary and high school level and give grades. Attendance will be taken at least once a week at the elementary school and daily at the high school.

In order to communicate expectations with parents, multiple emails have been sent out over the last week. The elementary school put together an eight-page document for interactive learning that was sent out last week.

Skyward is the information system used for grading and attendance but other programs, including Moodle and schoology, a popular learning management system for grades K-12, are being used.

Students at the high school are using technology to help them learn.

“Every classroom that we have has a cart of 32 chrome books. We made those available to kids to take home if they don’t have a device at home to use,” Brown explained.

While it’s nice to have a device, Brown pointed out that they also need internet in order to use it.

“We ordered 25 hot spots that we made available. We just ordered 10 more, too,” Brown said.

This way, students who might not have internet connection at home can connect as well. Brown said high school co-principals Jake Tietje and Alex Schmidt feel confident that every student has access to internet.

Teachers at the high school have the freedom and flexibility to set up their classes with what will work best depending on the subject material. Brown said they can post vocabulary, give a quiz, record a lecture and more.

As for vocational classes, he said students might not be able to weld, but they also need to be able to read blue prints and do math so lesson plans have been put together.

Louise Ostlie, a veteran science teacher at the high school, has pre-recorded some videos of experiments that students can pull up and watch on YouTube.

“They can see the results of the experiments and then they should be able to go and answer the questions and tell me what I’m looking for,” Ostlie said.

Ostlie reported that on the first day of distance learning, she held some video conferences with students in her physics class to inform them on the new class layout and let them ask questions.

“They all seemed really eager to connect again and see what’s going on,” Ostlie said.

Ostlie has told her students she’s going to learn from this experience just as they are. Another thing she commented on was how this experience has brought staff together.

“I never realized how willing my other colleagues, whether they were in my department or another, were willing to help each other. I’ve never seen so much collaboration among people to help out. Sometimes we live in our little rooms and we forget about all the other resources around us,” Ostlie said.

Things look different at the elementary school. Students will primarily be given paper assignments.

Teachers have made lessons for five days that are being distributed to parents each Monday. Next Monday, when parents come back to pick up that week’s curriculum, they’ll bring in the previous week’s homework.

“We’ll let it sit for 24 hours because that’s how long they say the virus lives on paper,” Brown said.

After a week, the papers will be sorted by grade level and class and then assessed.

Elementary co-principal, Michelle Rosen, said they would like to get the older students utilizing technology for learning. She hopes they will have a plan in place next week.

As has already been proven with this pandemic, it’s very hard to predict what the next day or even week will look like.

“Our teachers are prepared for the possibility that we might be shut down for the remainder of the year,” Brown said.

He added that this situation has really encouraged teachers to collaborate more and to also teach differently.

“This is also a good reminder to all students that learning is 24/7 and you don’t have to be in school to learn something. Many of the things that you’re going to need to learn after you graduate, you’ll need to do on your own. This is a great wake-up call for our nation that you need to do some things differently,” Brown said.