SHERIDAN — Sheridan County School District 2 met via Zoom Thursday to present a plan of action to the board regarding the COVID-19 school closure.

The hybrid model of having some students attend brick-and-mortar school while others learn online has been abandoned in favor of educating all students virtually.

SCSD2 Technology Director Ryan Schasteen said the district will focus on using already-familiar technology tools and plans to use devices that students know how to operate and teachers know how to help with from a distance.

Employing platforms involving video is important to the district, as they want to ensure students can still see their teachers’ faces and hear their voices.

Google Classroom and Seesaw are two platforms the district was utilizing prior to the shutdown. Both of these can provide recorded lessons which, in this situation, will be functioning similarly to a “flipped classroom” or “flipped learning,” which many teachers already know how to facilitate.

The district is considering Zoom (or a similar platform) for “face-to-face,” live opportunities for students to share their work with teachers, ask questions or receive assistance. This window might be open for an hour a day. Potentially, a similar option could happen where counselors or other support staff are available for real-time videoing for maybe an hour a day where students could “drop in” if needed.

To make the transition to online smoother, the district will treat the first week of virtual learning similar to the first week of school.

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