Socorro ISD prepares for non-traditional first day of school
EL PASO, Texas (KFOX14) — Staff at the Socorro Independent School District returned to work Monday to prepare for the first day of school next week.
Students won’t be going back to in-person teaching for the first four weeks, at least. They’ll be spending a lot of time doing work online from home.
Teachers are hard at work, preparing for the school year, as they normally would. But of course with restrictions.
School grounds at Lujan Chavez Elementary School are a little less quiet as teachers are back prepping virtually and physically, for a virtual and not so traditional start of the year.
“In our classrooms, we’re already set up, just in case we do decide to bring students back,” said Xochitl Valdez, a bilingual kindergarten teacher at Lujan Chavez Elementary School.
Teachers have set up their classrooms with new COVID-19 safe practices in place for when students return to campus.
We created space between our students, where they’re six feet apart,” said Valdez. “We’re going to have to do a lot of training and reteaching, [like] washing our hands, keeping our masks on.
The principal of Lujan Chavez Elementary School, Jina Eksaengsri, said students will have the chance to do online or offline learning, starting off the school year.
Students working online will work with teachers virtually and then independently, when they log off.
“Students who may not have access, or don’t have someone at home to help support them during remote learning will also have the opportunity to complete offline lessons which will include text book work, packets, that are also aligned with our state curriculum,” said Eksaengsri.
Lucia Borrego, Socorro ISD chief academic officer said doing school work from home will look different for every grade level.
“Pre-K, kinder, first-graders, will obviously be online a lot less than high schoolers,” said Borrego.
Borrego said high schoolers will still have four classes a day.
They’re going to go through a schedule, just like you would any other day,” said Borrego. “It is seven and a half hours of instruction. But it’s not just virtual instruction. It’s independent work, it’s projects, it’s small group instruction.
Teachers eager to reconnect with students are keeping spirits high, ready to make adjustments as necessary.
Class sizes will of course be smaller for elementary, split up between A and B groups.
Socorro ISD officials recommend that all parents keep their students on a schedule, just as if they were going to school every day to make things feel as normal as possible.
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