New Hanover County begins school year with remote learning

NEW HANOVER COUNTY, NC (WWAY) — Students began with online learning only in New Hanover County on Monday.

Teachers greeted students through screens instead of face to face.

The school district voted to go with remote learning for the first grading period.

Teachers like Jenna Parker at Porters Neck Elementary say it is a work in progress, but they know they’ll gt through it together.

“As we plan, we plan as much as we can and we understand that there’s going to be bumps a long the way and we’ve been very flexible with that and we hope that parents understand that we are very understanding of that and we expect it and we’re here to support them,” Parker said.

Students will begin and end the day with face to face online interaction with their teachers. Staff say they have been working tirelessly over the summer to make things feel as normal as possible for the children.

“We’ve been working in our teams very regularly to ensure we have all the materials that we need to deliver instruction,”says Porters Neck Elementary second grade Teacher Allison Maready. “We’ve been designing lessons that are fun and engaging. So, that were still able to get to know our students throughout these first few weeks as we would if we were in the classroom setting.”

While a some of the teachers across the district are facing even bigger challenges. One second grade teacher says she is trying to help her child get into the swing of things, while planning to teach almost 20 students remotely herself.

“I am juggling helping my own children enter first grade um on an Ipad, while also planning second grade on my laptop,”said New Hanover County teacher Brittany Candela. “It’s certainly a struggle, we have to be flexible. We have to be patient and we kind of have to balance our time while also taking care of ourselves.”

The unknown of the school years still looms large, but these teachers plan to make the best of a tough situation in 2020.

“The children are in different situations throughout the day, but our first zoom meeting this morning almost all my kids were logged on,”says Parker. “They were all excited and happy. It was just great for us all to see each other and start it off in a positive way that this is going to be a great year no matter what.”