WADESBORO — A new way of virtual learning may be implemented during the 2023-2024 school year.
During the School Board meeting on Monday, May 22, board members discussed that Anson County schools may introduce Virtual Reality headsets with software that replicated real world jobs, bringing a number of different types of instructors into the classrooms.
“I had to change the oil in a car,” CTE Director Denise Stevens explained. “Which was really kind of cool because I was using the tools and turning things and I feel like I can get under a car and at least know halfway what I’m doing.”
Each program’s instructor is someone in the profession, such as a mechanic or doctor, and walks the students through each step of the job in through interactive learning.
“It’s teaching critical skills for in demand jobs through hands on simulated training,” Stevens said. “It’s not just for trades,” she added. “It’s also for nursing and doctors and any careers or pathways that have any kind of reality based learning.”
The headsets are advantageous to rural and underfunded or underserved schools. They bring in instructors for real world jobs, giving students in areas where there is little industry, real world skills. It also saves the school money on bringing in instructors and transportation, while still bringing in instruction.
The headsets were supposed to have been used in the 2022-2023 school year, but they are projected to to be in rotation for the 2023-2024 school year.
Other business
Due to staffing shortages, there are some curriculum adjustments and updates making their way into the schools to better help students. These include summer training session, as well as additional training sessions throughout the year.
“Over the summer, my plan is for the curriculum team and instructional coaches to come in and we’re going to create a pacing guide and create a claiming document to assist teachers while they are planning for that green block,” explained Instructional Coach Angela Adams, who laid out what the changes in English and social studies would look like.
Throughout the year, CKLA (Core Knowledge Language Arts) experts will conduct walkthroughs and and provide feedback to administrators and teachers.
There has also been an adoption of a new math program that will help parents and help teachers focus on understanding and teaching the necessary material, as opposed to planning it.
“This program will allow teachers less time planning and more time internalizing the lesson and practicing, and delivering instruction,” District Curriculum support Lawanda McLendon said. “It also provides parents and guardians support in reinforcing their math skills.”
The program would allow for parents to review the content so they don’t have to show their kid the way they learned, allowing for them to help with their work.
“This program is the only math program aligned to the North Carolina requirements,” McLendon added.
The overall update would allow for teachers to also aid students in the areas where they struggle, as well as know where the student struggles, and give them support before the lesson.
“Students are reading about Betsy Ross,” Executive Administrator of Curriculum Jennifer Collard used as an example. “Well if the teacher knows that a child’s background wasn’t as strong in history, they could pull up a video about Betsy Ross.”
The same approach would be open in the math and science areas, to help support struggling students. The program overall aims to avoid the “This is how I was taught” and “This is what the teacher taught” arguments and confusion in math areas, and help students wherever they may need it.