Teachers In W. Michigan Find New Ways To Reach Students

With the statewide school shutdown, some West Michigan teachers have been getting creative on how to still connect with their students.

According to WOOD, to keep the kids learning, the St. Paul the Apostle Catholic School in Grand Rapids acted fast in figuring out a way.

Principal Michelle Morrow said, "instead of kind of hemming and hawing on what we were going to do, I created a schedule that from 8 a.m. until 12 p.m., all of our staff was going to be available online."

Morrow said, "we are not a one to one school and we are not a heavy tech school. So, we are your average school out there that has made it happen."

The school put to use an app called Zoom. This allows the preschool through 8th grade kids and chance to keep up with their classes online. Also, this puts students and teachers back together but in a much safer way.

English language arts teacher Caroline Strong said, "this keeps us connected. It also allows each of us to see one another and wave. I check in with them to see how they're doing."

For the kids who didn't have access to the app at home, the school stepped up and allowed the students to check out their Chromebooks and take them home.

Morrow said, "being able to go through their calendar time, being able to see their teachers every day allows them a sense of normalcy."

These two women have really found a bright side to this situation and just prove that anything is possible if we just put are minds to the task.