Social distancing, hand sanitizing, masks and virtual learning are all new customs that add challenges for the 2020 school year. The entire school district has had to adapt to the new procedures, but the hands-on classes had to make significant changes to meet these guidelines. 

Art teacher Brenda Christeleit has taught a hands-on class for the past 15 years, but she said she has spent more time on the computer this year rather than working with the materials. Christeleit said it was a struggle to shift to a whole new teaching process. 

     Ceramics classes will be focused more on the process rather than the finished products, as it will be challenging to construct as many projects a normal year would contain. Cristeleit said she prepared for the hybrid schedule and online students by sending take home kits with clay and tools for all students. For her online students, there are firing pickups and drop offs for projects. This year is all about taking it “case by case and student by student,” Christeleit added.

According to Patty Arzenti who has been a physical education teacher for many years, being a hands on teacher is fun. Arzenti loves to see her students active and progress at what they are doing. The struggle for her this year is the small class numbers that make it difficult to play certain games, and incorporate tournaments.

     Arzenti said it has been difficult to come up with new activities that work with the class size. Pickleball, nitro ball, and even the new putt putt golf will be incorporated to this year’s gym classes.  

     For students who are online, Arzenti said it is important that they still get up and moving even when at home. Online students are required to to track their steps, and reach the goal of 5,000 which equivalates to the time they would have in class. 

For lab based classes such as Forensic Science, it has been a struggle for students who are at home. An online student, Hanna Fichtner, said when you are online communication is really important for this class, because you have to schedule times to come into the school to do labs. 

     If you rather not come into the school, there is an option to do another assignment instead of the hands on lab work, but “you would be missing out on the many interesting forensic experiments” said Fichtner. She added that you have to make it a priority to stay on top of due dates and email the teacher, James Rocco, to schedule a lab time that works for both of you. 

Even though this school year has given hands on learning many challenges, the district’s staff and students have learned to adapt and get through these difficult times. 

Staff Editor, Madison Klobucar