Digital field trips, cameras on: What Miami-Dade, Broward’s virtual school will look like
A 100 percent virtual schedule of interactive lessons, activities and events will be waiting for kids headed back to public school next week in Broward County and at the end of the month in Miami-Dade County.
Everything — from regular lessons to band practice to PE classes and field trips — will be held virtually at least until early October, the districts announced this month.
In Broward, eLearning will begin on Monday and continue at least until Oct. 1, according to Broward County Public School’s newly approved “Log In, Launch, Learn” reopening plan. In October, the district said it will revisit its plan and consider welcoming students back to campus if virus-containment trends are favorable.
Miami-Dade County Public Schools, which delayed the first day of the school year from Aug. 24 to Aug. 31, will also reevaluate local conditions on Oct. 5 and consider resuming instruction in brick-and-mortar schools, according to the district’s “Reopen Smart, Return Safe” reopening plan.
As long as lessons are held online, the districts said they are committed to integrating all student and family services into their distance learning systems to offer an educational experience as similar as possible to in-person learning.
Here’s what distance learning will look like in Miami-Dade
Classes will be held on the K12 platform, which offers an interactive virtual curriculum and a web conferencing platform similar to Zoom where kids will participate in large- and small-group live lessons and discussions.
School schedules are mostly unchanged. Elementary school kids and middle schoolers will follow regular schedules, while high school students will begin and end classes one hour later, from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., as long as classes are held online.
Attendance will be mandatory and will be taken during the first class of each day. If a student is not present while teachers take attendance but shows up later in the day, they will be marked as late.
Cameras need to be on so that teachers can identify students. If a student doesn’t turn on their camera during a live lesson, they may be marked as absent from that lesson.
Field trips, open houses and pep rallies are on schedule, but will be held virtually. Job training, hands-on classes and “Specials” – including PE, Health Ed and Driver’s Ed – will also be conducted remotely. These classes may be held on the school portal or through Microsoft Teams, depending on the activity.
Remote student and family support services, including counseling, therapies and mental health support — will be available. Online learning webinars and training workshops for families will also be available at www.parentacademymiami.com.
The high school sports season was delayed. Practices for fall sports will begin Aug 24 and the regular season won’t start until at least two weeks later.
Therapy platforms will be available for students with disabilities to deliver individualized services such as sign language interpretation, skill building and other accommodations. Individualized education plans will continue to be offered online.
Remote gifted students and advanced placement exam courses will be available. The district said it does not know whether AP, IB and AICE exams will be administered online, at school or at home this spring.
In Broward
Students and teachers will meet on Microsoft Teams, a web conferencing application recently enhanced by the district to allow teachers to view all their students simultaneously during class time. Assignments, files and other learning materials will be shared on the district’s learning management system, Canvas.
The school calendar won’t change, although it will be more “flexible and agile” than in previous years, according to BCPS. The district said the schedule may adapt to the needs of the new online learning environment.
Teachers will monitor attendance virtually by counting “virtually connected” students.
Clubs, bands, student government and academic games will continue virtually at least for the first quarter of the school year.
Fun and enrichment activities will be integrated in the district’s eLearning schedule. The timing of “specials,” hands-on and activity classes, will vary based on grade-level and subject area.
Targeted mental health and social services will be available remotely for students and families. The district’s School Counseling Department will also hold mental health and mindfulness lessons during school days and after hours.
The district will hold eLearning workshops for parents from Aug. 12 to Aug. 17. The webinars are available on BCPS’s Parent University page.
Student athlete training will be outdoors only for the first week after fall season practice begins. Athletes will be screened by trained staff and assigned to “pods” or groups no larger than 10. The Broward County Athletic Association has not yet released an official start date for fall sports.
Students with disabilities will have access to improved eLearning individualized plans, including adaptive technologies and software, and parent training. The district is investigating the possibility of creating a pilot in-person instruction program with a group of volunteers — staff members and families with children with disabilities — which may begin on or after Aug. 31 in a limited number of schools.
