How HVRHS teachers are adapting

FALLS VILLAGE — Last March, as the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Region One schools closed abruptly and shifted to remote or distance learning.

For the 2020-21 school year, the six K-8 schools reopened for in-person learning, and Housatonic Valley Regional High School (HVRHS) used a hybrid model, combining in-person and online instruction.

Some of the teachers at the high school are in the building, and some opted to work remotely.

Three HVRHS teachers spoke to The Lakeville Journal about their experience in the current school year.

Science teacher Letitia Garcia-Tripp said the problem of doing lab assignments for biology and chemistry students was overcome by a grant from the 21st Century Fund for HVRHS. The grant allowed for the purchase of lab kits that were sent home to students.

Garcia-Tripp is working from home, so she has to maneuver between the students who are in the building and those who are at home.

“We find ways to make it work,” she said.

“It’s very different than last spring,” she continued, referring to the total shift to remote learning. “We were in survival mode then.”

Garcia-Tripp said in an effort to get her students away from the computer and out of the house, she assigns activities that require the students to go outside.

Challenges to
hands-on learning

Agriculture education teacher Rene Boardman, who is working in the building, said one good thing that has come out of the combination of distance and in-person learning is adopting new digital tools, such as the Jamboard, which she described as “an interactive whiteboard.”

One disadvantage is the difficulty of maintaining a high level of classroom discussion, she noted.

She said some students seem to thrive during online discussions, while others remain quiet. 

And because agriculture education relies on hands-on experiences, the department has been looking for ways to combine the practical with the remote.

One example: A seed-starting activity that can be done from home.

Boardman said she has had to make changes on the fly. In a “farm-to-table” class involving food preparation, she thought she had her in-person students at a sufficient distance from each other, but she ended up having to spread the students out over a much larger area.

“We keep a positive attitude, and share it with the kids,” she said. “It can only get better.”

Social studies teacher Deron Bayer is working from home. He echoed Boardman’s observation about the difficulties of class discussion when some students (and the teacher) are online and some students are in the school building.

He said he has found an application in the Google suite of apps that is useful. It allows him to post a question based on assigned reading, and for students to post their responses and react to other students’ replies.

Bayer said when HVRHS shifted to all-remote learning prior to Christmas (and through Jan. 19) he noticed that participation in class discussion improved dramatically. Bayer chalked it up to the students in different “cohorts” interacting with each other for the first time in the school year.

But the improvement was short-lived, he said. “The first week was great, but then it died down.”

Bayer said he is available online for one-on-one work as needed, and keeps his lines of communication open with Google Hangout, another application in the Google suite.

Bayer said he is a proponent of document-based questions, and the online format works reasonably well for this type of instruction.

Latest News

State intervenes in sale of Torrington Transfer Station

The entrance to Torrington Transfer Station.

Photo by Jennifer Almquist

TORRINGTON — Municipalities holding out for a public solid waste solution in the Northwest Corner have new hope.

An amendment to House Bill No. 7287, known as the Implementor Bill, signed by Governor Ned Lamont, has put the $3.25 million sale of the Torrington Transfer Station to USA Waste & Recycling on hold.

Keep ReadingShow less
Juneteenth and Mumbet’s legacy
Sheffield resident, singer Wanda Houston will play Mumbet in "1781" on June 19 at 7 p.m. at The Center on Main, Falls Village.
Jeffery Serratt

In August of 1781, after spending thirty years as an enslaved woman in the household of Colonel John Ashley in Sheffield, Massachusetts, Elizabeth Freeman, also known as Mumbet, was the first enslaved person to sue for her freedom in court. At the time of her trial there were 5,000 enslaved people in the state. MumBet’s legal victory set a precedent for the abolition of slavery in Massachusetts in 1790, the first in the nation. She took the name Elizabeth Freeman.

Local playwrights Lonnie Carter and Linda Rossi will tell her story in a staged reading of “1781” to celebrate Juneteenth, ay 7 p.m. at The Center on Main in Falls Village, Connecticut.Singer Wanda Houston will play MumBet, joined by actors Chantell McCulloch, Tarik Shah, Kim Canning, Sherie Berk, Howard Platt, Gloria Parker and Ruby Cameron Miller. Musical composer Donald Sosin added, “MumBet is an American hero whose story deserves to be known much more widely.”

Keep ReadingShow less
A sweet collaboration with students in Torrington

The new mural painted by students at Saint John Paul The Great Academy in Torrington, Connecticut.

Photo by Kristy Barto, owner of The Nutmeg Fudge Company

Thanks to a unique collaboration between The Nutmeg Fudge Company, local artist Gerald Incandela, and Saint John Paul The Great Academy in Torrington, Connecticut a mural — designed and painted entirely by students — now graces the interior of the fudge company.

The Nutmeg Fudge Company owner Kristy Barto was looking to brighten her party space with a mural that celebrated both old and new Torrington. She worked with school board member Susan Cook and Incandela to reach out to the Academy’s art teacher, Rachael Martinelli.

Keep ReadingShow less