Back to the Classroom

Thankfully, students are returning to the classroom for in-person classes! The teachers are vaccinated, the necessary adjustments have been made to ensure social distancing and the excitement of “back to school” days is truly back (albeit a new normal).

From what we can tell at Silicon STEM Academy, our students are ready to go back to school and to see their friends, and our parents are ready for their kiddos to get out of the house.

I think the experience of online learning over the last year has taught us a lot about a lot of different things!

For example, my youngest son took his first online class as a freshman at CSU (Go RAMS!) at 19 years old…and now we managed 1^st graders taking their classes online for 4 hours a day! So I think the first thing we’ve all learned is that, in fact, online learning is possible – but effectiveness and fit for each student is still questionable for some. That said, however, I know that live online classes can provide an amazing opportunity for students around the world.

And while online learning won’t necessarily be the perfect fit for all students, I have seen some students really enjoy the online format who I would have otherwise thought wouldn’t have liked it as much as they did. It’s funny how some teenagers won’t speak up or turn on their cameras, while other students saw it as an opportunity to participate and to be less intimidated than being in a traditional classroom setting.

There’s little doubt that online learning is here to stay. I think it offers some students an amazing new opportunity to gain access to literally anything that they may want to learn. I think online learning will be a permanent augment to in-person learning and will potentially offer better alignments between teachers and students and teaching and learning styles.

It’s just the beginning.