SCHOOLS

Salem kindergarteners meet teachers face-to-face in preparation for online school

Incoming kindergartner Emory Truehitt stops by Kalapuya Elementary school to pick up materials for online classes on Thursday, September 3. (Amanda Loman/Salem Reporter)

Emory Truehitt grinned, revealing a mouth of mostly missing front teeth, as he flipped through his math workbook.

The kindergartener was sitting in the back seat of the car as his mother Brittany drove him through the Kalapuya Elementary School parking lot the morning of Thursday, Sept. 3.

“We’re gonna go through all this together,” said Kara Buchheit, his kindergarten teacher, handing him a bag of school supplies and packets of schoolwork.

Brittany Truehitt explained that her son was shy, but had been talking nonstop earlier about starting school. The virtual start hadn’t dampened his enthusiasm.

“Even though it’s like this, he’s still excited,” she said.

When school starts Sept. 15, Kalapuya students will be learning online with the rest of their peers across Salem and Keizer. But many got a chance to meet their new teachers briefly in person while picking up artwork from last year’s classroom and poking through the school’s lost and found, laid out in grass beside the bus lane.

As all local schools prepare for online classes, many are getting creative in finding ways for kids to feel connected to their school and tie up loose ends from March, when all schools closed their doors with no notice.

At Kalapuya, students driven in a loop around the school parking lot as teachers and school staff collected library books and distributed white boards and jump ropes to make learning from home run more smoothly.

Many local schools are holding similar events this week and next.

Kids first said goodbye to their teachers from last year, receiving a bagged collection of art projects, old math workbooks and left-behind water bottles from their classrooms. Farther along the loop, they met their teachers for this fall and got another bag of needed items.

Buchheit, who’s been teaching for 13 years, said she knows learning online isn’t the best option for 6-year-olds. Kids that age learn best through play and touch, practicing sharing blocks with classmates while sitting on a rug between reading lessons.

But her students’ enthusiasm was infectious.

“I can see that excitement and it’s going to be important we carry that through. We’re all in this together,” she said.

After talking with kindergarten teachers, Salem-Keizer district administrators decided this week to give families the option of taking kindergarten students into schools one at a time the week of Sept. 14. Families will get information about signing up from their school.

Kindergarteners who opt in will spend about 30 minutes doing a math and reading assessment that will help their teachers understand their academic needs. The sessions will also give students and teachers a chance to connect face-to-face.

Buchheit said the email announcing that effort came as a relief.

“Kindergarten is hard because we come in with a blank slate,” she said.

In older grades, teachers have some information about a student’s reading level, how they interact with peers and other quirks that can help them tailor lessons to a student’s needs. But the early days of kindergarten are usually spent observing kids and forming those impressions to guide class for the rest of the year.

Teachers acknowledged having young children attending school online isn’t ideal for anyone. But many wanted families to know they’re better prepared to make the best of the situation than in the spring, when everything moved online with just a few weeks’ notice.

Principal Jennifer Neitzel said they heard from many families there was too much work happening on screen. In response, teachers planned out work packets for the first nine weeks of school so kids can work with a pencil and paper.

Teaching will look different too. Spring classes mixed different strategies, with some teachers leading live sessions and others recording video lectures for students to watch on their own time.

Now, she said teachers will give a lesson or explain a concept, with students responding in real time by, for example, solving a short math problem on the school-provided whiteboard and holding it up to the camera in the Zoom chat.

Then, students will be given assignments to be done with traditional pencil and paper but keeping the virtual classroom open so kids with questions can get help from a teacher. Nietzel described the computer as a “window into the classroom.”

“That’s going to be so different than in the spring,” she said.

Across the district, teachers can choose to continue working from home or teach virtually from their classrooms. Nietzel estimated more than half of Kalapuya’s teachers will opt to be in the building.

Gym class will also happen online, with live sessions ranging from 15 minutes for the youngest kids to 25 minutes for fourth and fifth graders. At Kalapuya, each student received an adjustable jump rope to use at home, purchased with the school’s regular budget, which allocates $2 annually per student for physical education supplies.

David Rasca, the school’s PE teacher, said after 17 years starting gym classes the same way every fall, he’s looking forward to the challenge of moving online.

“I’m feeling really good about it. It’s just something new,” he said. Across the district, PE teachers have been talking as a group, planning to focus on activities that can be done at home with little or no equipment.

That’s likely to mean a focus on flexibility, with activities like stretching and yoga, that can be done in a smaller space, rather than cardio and team sports. But the jump ropes will give kids a chance to burn off energy. Classes could also include other aspects of health, like mindfulness and nutrition, Rasca said.

Many teachers said seeing students in-person, even only briefly from their parents’ cars, was welcome after months of little interaction.

“We’re just going to work really hard to make it the best experience for these kids,” said Natalia Ames, a first-grade teacher.

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Contact reporter Rachel Alexander: [email protected] or 503-575-1241.

Rachel Alexander is Salem Reporter’s managing editor. She joined Salem Reporter when it was founded in 2018 and covers city news, education, nonprofits and a little bit of everything else. She’s been a journalist in Oregon and Washington for a decade. Outside of work, she’s a skater and board member with Salem’s Cherry City Roller Derby and can often be found with her nose buried in a book.