Upper Schoolers Adapt to Hybrid Classes
An 11th Grade student doing a lab for his Genetics Class, October 2020. The Upper School schedule has allowed students to participate in Science Labs once per in person week. “Labs have helped me understand content I am learning in Science this year,” Jamie S. ‘22 said.
This past fall, the Upper School transitioned to a hybrid schooling model; some feel that adjustments made since the spring like transitioning to Canvas have allowed for learning to be easier, but many are still adjusting to online learning.
“The experience is pretty good considering the circumstances we have,” Ander P. ’24 said. “However, I believe that Canvas, our learning platform, is not user-friendly and hard to navigate.”
The Upper School introduced Canvas as a learning platform this fall. Students use it to submit assignments and to find information about the classes.
Aaron Grill, Director of Program Innovation, believes that the switch has allowed students to learn more easily.
“We moved to Canvas for the long term benefit of the school, curriculum design and online interactions,” Mr. Grill said. “Canvas includes many more methods of online interactions as well as assessment tools that support both online and hybrid learning such as video responses, discussion boards, content integrations, mastery pathways, administrative monitoring, and parent notification systems for student progress.”
Over the summer, administration decided that grades 9-12 would be functioning under a hybrid model, with the Upper School boys coming into school on A weeks and doing online learning on B weeks to follow CDC guidelines.
In order to make this model efficient, the Upper School has transitioned to having fewer but longer class periods. This has allowed students to understand material more deeply, while also having the opportunity to have inquiry projects.
“The research is pretty clear; it shows that the more transitions you have to make, the more learning time you lose out on,” Gene Campbell, Head of Upper School said. “We wanted to engage in a depth that made inquiry based learning meaningful, which is hard to do in short amounts of time.”
The Upper School student body was polled by the Grytte after completing the first month of school. They were asked questions about their experience about certain aspects of the school year.
Upper School students generally found the in person instruction to be not as great as the remote experience. Students are required to stay in their pod for the whole day and wear masks, but are unable to communicate with their peers in person. However, some students have also found the experience to be helpful and engaging.
“I have friends in my pod who I can talk to in breaks, free periods and lunch,” Edgar S ’21 said. “I also think that being in a classroom environment helps keep me focused on my work.”
Jack M. ’23 believes that the in person experience is not great.
“Other than seeing friends, it is less helpful because we have zoom classes with people we are in the same building as,” he said.
Sam Permutt, Dean of Student Life, believes that the in person experience has benefitted students.
Poll: On a scale from 1-5, with 5 being the highest and 1 being the lowest, how would you rate the in-person weeks? (25 responses)
“While the pod model was limiting in a lot of ways, it also afforded teachers to spend a lot of time with the same group of students,” Mr. Permutt said. “Developing close relationships between adults and students, where students are really known and heard, is an essential part of the Browning experience. Taking walks outside to the park, playing games in homeroom, and having individual conversations throughout the day certainly helps build those relationships. “
The remote weeks are much more popular among students. Unlike in pod weeks, where students do not have live classes in order to keep noise levels in pods down, students have classes fully on Zoom and have the comfort of being in their homes.
“The experience during the remote weeks is much better,” Joe F. ’22 said. “I am able to have discussions with all of my class and communicate with teachers.”
Poll: On a scale from 1-5, with 5 being the highest and 1 being the lowest, how would you rate the remote weeks? (26 responses)
Before the year started, some students opted to take all of their classes from home. As a result, they are missing in person experiences, but do not have to travel.
“The experience of taking all remote classes is pretty good. It helps because time can be more flexible.”
The switch to Zoom, a video communication platform, has been a popular decision because it is easier to see everyone with a grid view and teachers are somewhat able to recreate small discussions with breakout rooms.
“I am enjoying Zoom more than Google Meet because there are not as many glitches and it is more engaging” Will B. ’22 said.
Overall, Upper Schoolers have adjusted well to the changes brought on this Fall. Many of the changes have been hard to adjust to, but Upper School students have been acclimating to the new learning environment well well.