Ava Hendrickson ‘22 | Kathryn Lynn ‘22
Weeks before school actually closed on March 12 due to the COVID-19 outbreak, EA’s administrators were preparing for the transition. In regards to the decision to transfer to online learning, T.J. Locke, Head of School, said, “The biggest decision was to close. At the time, we were waiting for a confirmed case, and we didn’t have one, so that was a big decision, but we felt that there was a growing anxiety in our community.” Because of this anxiety, and the importance of “flattening the curve,” the school closed before having a confirmed case in the community.
The growing concerns about COVID-19 in the United States encouraged teachers to begin making preparations long before school actually closed, and before the virus arrived on the East Coast. Michael Letts, Head of Upper School, explained, “I think we started really talking two, maybe even three weeks before we actually closed. We were hearing things on the West Coast that prompted us as an administrative group to meet regularly and have conversations that we need to prepare just in case.” In regards to the school’s virtual schedule, Letts states, “Mrs. Anderson (Academic Dean), Mrs. Legette, and myself talked about what would work best. We figured that if we had to close, continuing in the block rotation would make the most sense.”
While work was being done at the main administrative level, much was also done within departments by working with and training teachers. Letts says, “That was kind of the next step, so as we talked with the chairs, we decided to have 40 minute blocks and we set some basic expectations.” This included specifying the guidelines for asynchronous versus live instruction, homework, and more preparation to develop the base of the system for teaching students post-closure. Additionally, individual departments held in-depth discussions about exactly how class would be run. Locke elaborates on this, saying that it was done by “giving everyone their area of responsibility and expecting them to come through.” He expressed his pleasure with how this decision worked out, explaining, “I’ve been so impressed about how everyone has stepped up and exceeded expectations.”
One of the departments most concerned over the switch to virtual classrooms was the Science Department. Grace Limaye, Science Department Chair, stated that their biggest concern was the lab aspect of science. In order to prepare for the challenges of online labs, the teachers “created a masterlist of all of the resources that were online that they could use in the event that they wanted to run a lab or a demo” and “took material from their classrooms” to facilitate such labs. The teachers also brought dry erase boards home in order to teach more effectively.
Episcopal’s math department also held extensive discussions on the best way to carry on classes after the school’s closing. Kelly Edwards, Math Department Chair, explains, “We decided as a group that it would be important to mesh asynchronous instruction with synchronous meeting times to make sure the continuity of our curriculum continued.” In addition, Edwards states, “The bottom line is we all agree that we need to be able to write out the math we are explaining. Typing it out is not a good option for us. We also are very cognizant of the fact that our curriculum is incredibly cumulative in nature.”