Wadesboro Elementary Principal Daniel Burrows helps students load the buses during the first day back on Nov. 2.
Wadesboro Elementary Principal Daniel Burrows helps students load the buses during the first day back on Nov. 2.
Students returning to in-person school follow the six-feet apart rule while in the hallways and in class.
K-5 students return to in-person school on Nov. 2 following a three-week rotation schedule.
Teachers welcome back students to their classroom on Nov. 2.
WADESBORO — Elementary students broke from virtual learning and returned to their building for the first time this school year on Nov. 2.
The Anson County School Board approved this return to in-person learning during a school board meeting in Oct. This first day is only for K-5 students. Secondary students will not return until the start of 2021.
Students are split into a three-week rotational schedule. The week of Nov. 2 to Nov. 6 will have students in cohort one returning to school, while cohorts two and three are still learning virtually. The following week cohort two will rotate in and so on for a three-week cycle.
About 30 students returned to Wadesboro Elementary for the first day of in-person teaching. Wadesboro Elementary’s procedure then splits up those students in the building again into three sections to allow for small classroom sizes.
Teachers are also rotating in the building to limit students moving from classroom to classroom.
A teacher will be in one classroom with students for a certain amount of time. Then that teacher hops to a another classroom with a different group of students to teach the same lesson. Finally, that teacher will end in a virtual classroom, meaning he or she will only be teaching online for those virtual students.
Lunch looks different at Wadesboro Elementary. Staff will bring the lunches into the classroom and students will be participating in a “stop, drop and listen” activity while on their lunch break.
Principal Daniel Burrows explained how students want to socialize during lunch but COVID-19 is forcing limited interactions. Instead, “stop, drop and listen” will give the students a break from wearing masks to eat lunch and they will listen to an audio book. This also gives teachers a small break during this time.
After explaining this idea during a walk-thru with Superintendent Howard McLean, McLean encouraged Burrows to introduce this idea to other schools.
Students also will be getting a breath of fresh air while at school. Wadesboro Elementary outlined a path around the building where teachers will take a socially-distance walks with their students. Students and teachers must wear the masks during the walk.
The in-person school day ends at 12:30 p.m. when buses come to pick up students, but the day continues online. There is some additional work and office hours for students until 3:15 p.m. These office hours could be smaller break out sessions to check in with students or go over a lesson, according to Burrows.
One student described waking up from a bad dream in the middle of the night nervous about coming into school, not because of COVID, but because he thought he would answers all of the teacher’s questions wrong. Turns out, he enjoyed his first day back and he said he was worried about nothing.
The first week will only continue to get better as both students and staff adjust to this schedule. Any last minute changes or kinks will be ironed out as the next two cohorts come into school in the upcoming weeks.
Reach Liz O’Connell at 267-467-5613 or at eoconnell@ansonrecord.com. Follow on Twitter @TheAnsonRecord.
