Going Digital: The shift to remote learning

Due to a lack of substitute teachers and rising COVID-19 cases in Johnson County, the district held a board meeting on Monday, Nov. 16 where they voted 4-3 to approve to move the district to the orange zone under their gating criteria. The board's decision means that middle and high school students are switching from a hybrid learning instruction model to a remote-only model effective on Nov. 30. ...

The decision to change the district learning model from hybrid to fully remote affected all aspects of school life. One of the most impacted departments at the school has been the art department.  A large part of art classes is watching students’ creative processes and helping them overcome challenges as they encounter them. Now, because of the remote setting, art teacher Jodi Ellis is finding ...

The RealCare baby project in teacher Ellen Gray’s Human Growth and Development class is a favorite among students, and this year Gray hasn’t let COVID-19 put a halt to this project. Gray listed some changes to the project specific to our current remote setup: a Google Form replaced the permission slip to sign up, students are not required to complete the extra assignments that go along with the...

Due to the board’s decision for all secondary schools in the district to take on a fully-remote schedule, students and teachers have been spending plenty of time on the video-chatting platform Zoom. Zoom has many different features that make teaching during remote learning much easier and more enjoyable.  Some of the various Zoom features teachers use include screen share, the chat and breakout rooms. Some ...

With the new dynamic of virtual school, many students are struggling to get the help they need in their more difficult classes. In order to remedy that, math teacher Kevin Mosher is hosting study halls every Monday and Wednesday evening to assist students with math.  Mosher says when it was announced that Mill Valley would be going fully-remote, he knew he needed to offer a way for students to c...