MASON, Mich. — As schools get into the swing of this year’s back to learning plans. Many districts have noticed that technology remains a major struggle.
Fox 47 caught up with Tiffany Henfling, a middle school teacher with the Mason Public School District, to ask what families can do to make it work.
“We need to be patient with each other and we need to be flexible. You know, it’s not ideal. I don’t think you’re going to find a single teacher that will say that this is the ideal situation that we should be in,” said Henfling.
Henfling had her second virtual class on Thursday and says she’s treating everything as if she was teaching face-to-face.
“The kids, overall, they seemed excited. They were participating. We were asking questions. We were having a group activity getting started where kids were working in small groups today to make a little project.”
With kids being at home in their own space, Henfling says there seems to be less anxiety in the classroom.
“There’s some pretty cool features of online learning where, for example, they can send private messages to the teacher to ask questions that their classmates don’t know the questions come from them, which I think is causing a little less anxiety for a lot of our students.”
One thing that Henfling is focusing on this year is how to connect and build relationships with her students during this online teaching experience.
“There’s thousands of people in this world who’ve found their significant other online and so I have to believe that it is capable it is a possibility that we’re going to be able to build a community and maybe we’ll be able to build a better community than we have in the past,”she said.
Henfling believes this generation of students will have skills that no other generation will have.
“This is going to be a year for the history books. All of these kids are going to have the opportunity to tell their friends and family about this for the rest of their lives. They are living through history.”
While kids aren’t heading back to the classroom right now, the ultimate goal for Henfling and the Mason Public School District is the kids’ safety.
Families in the Mason Public School District looking for a little extra help can reach out to the Harvey Education Center.
It’s offering childcare for K through 5th grade students who cannot stay home during the workday. For more information, head to its site HERE.
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