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Polk County teachers share their experience with distance learning during COVID-19 school closures

Three teachers spoke to 10News via Zoom.
Credit: WTSP

POLK COUNTY, Fla. — Three Polk County school teachers sat down via Zoom to give 10News a glimpse into their remote learning experience with their students.

Dr. Vincent M. Miller II teaches math at Winter Haven High School. He’s also the 2020 Polk County Teacher of the year. He says he noticed problems his students had with technology right away. He says a lot of students didn’t even know how to write emails.

“I think the learning curve for me is especially going back in next year is day one like I’m going to make sure that my students know how to use their school emails and how to simply log on to class link because that in it’s first week was spinning,” Miller said.

He adds the majority of the time last week was spent teaching his kids how to log on to get to the school apps so they could get to their assignments.

“We’re all in this together,” says 8th-grade teacher, Erin Lavelle. She teaches students at Lawton Chiles Middle Academy. She says, “I teach language arts to eighth-graders and what this forced me to do was to say how can I take the environment that I’ve already established and put it online. And that I think was a challenge, but also really rewarding. “

As for, Jennifer Horvatin who teaches 5th grade at Highland City Elementary, she’s hearing positive feedback about the digital learning from the students. 

Her students are writing her messages: “They wrote I love being able to talk to my teacher on Zoom and not being disrupted by my classmates. I love being able to have one on one conversations with you that I don’t necessarily always get to have because there is a classroom of 26 people.” 

Horvatin wants the students to know, “We might not see that you need help, but we’re here, just let us know. “

Polk County Public Schools now has a helpline to assist parents and students with technology issues related to distance learning. 

The helpline can be reached at 863-614-1600 on weekdays from 8:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. 

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