PEORIA, Ill. — Switching to all remote learning in a short time was a challenge for teachers.
Jane Kresl, teacher at Manaul Academy, said teachers had to get really creative with their lessons, but teachers had experience already with the district’s e-learning days.
“But, to do it everyday and to actually get online with your kids and teach online was kind of surprising, and it was hard, it’s new,” Kresl said.
Maintaining communication with the students has been important during this time.
“A lot of what our kids like is the interaction when you do video calls and stuff with them,” Kresl said.
If teachers can not get a hold of their students, faculty will go out and do house visits to see how they are doing.
“Down at Manual, we have a lot of support staff and teachers, that we know number one is the social emotional part with our kids,” Kresl said.
The senior class at Manual this year is a very close class, according to Kresl.
“They’ve been taking it a lot better than I think most teenagers would. Of course they are sad, but then we tell them this is going to go down in history books,” Kresl said.
Kresl said the staff knew that this senior class would go out with a bang.
“It was sad for us at Manual because we always knew that this class would go out with a bang, but we didn’t think it would be like this,” Kresl said. “They have a lot of class spirit, a lot of them are going to be successful no matter what they do.”
Seniors at Manual were adopted through the Adopt a Senior campaign.
“Every single one of our seniors was adopted by somebody either in the school or in the community,” Kresl said.
Yard signs were delivered to students who are seniors and a virtual graduation will be held for the students.
