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North Vermilion freshman Aryelle Cormier practices on her new Chromebook before Wednesday.

‘Distance Learning’: North Vermilion High School students staying home this week to learn on their brand new Chromebooks

All public school students in Vermilion Parish will return to school on Wednesday, except for students at one high school.
North Vermilion High School students will be learning, but it will not be in a classroom. They will be at home, sitting in front of their brand new Chromebook computer. Each parish high school student and middle school student was loaned a $250 Chromebook laptop to be used whenever there is no school. In addition, the school district purchased 11,000 Chromebooks.
Due to the high numbers of COVID-19 at North Vermilion High, Vermilion Parish Superintendent Tommy Byler decided to experiment with “Distance Learning.”
Abbeville High and Erath High did distance learning last year during COVID.
The NV students will be learning from home on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. There will be no tests given for the three days.
Byler said he felt that this week would be a good time to experiment with Distance Learning because of the school district missing two days of school because of the hurricane.
“This was perfect timing with us having two days off due to the hurricane,” said Byler. “Normally, we have to take two days off of school even though the hurricane missed the parish.”
He gave the example that it takes a day for schools to get ready to welcome students back and another day for family members to return to the parish after evacuating.
North Vermilion teachers and the administration will attend the school those three days and teach from their classrooms. The students will be home and attend each class like they usually do when they are at school.
If they have biology for the first hour, they will sign in to their biology class at 8 a.m., and the teacher will begin teaching. The classes will only last 25 minutes, which Byler explained is about the attention span for most students on a computer.
From around 12:15 to 2 p.m., the students who have trouble understanding a subject can set up a meeting with the teacher on the computer. Or, another example is the biology teacher may want to meet with all of her biology students at a particular time after lunch.
The teacher will see students on her screen, while the students will probably be looking at the board.
Byler plans to be at North Vermilion to see what works and does not work with Distance Learning.
“It is time for Vermilion Parish to step up its technology game. Unfortunately, we are behind,” he added.

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