20 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY may 18-24, 2023 www.montereycountyweekly.com to change it,” Ambrose says. “This is my opportunity to try to do something different.” Her classroom is at Alisal Community School. (AVA is moving to Creekside Elementary for the 202324 school year.) The classroom itself looks deserted, with empty chairs. The activity is all on her monitor, from which students watch Ambrose and the whiteboard behind her. Ana Lucia Vazquez, a second-grade teacher at AVA, has 10 students in her class. The main difference from in-person teaching, she says, is she doesn’t have the same degree of control. If a student spends too much time away from the screen to get water or go to the bathroom, she texts parents to make them aware of the situation and bring them back to class. To get students’ attention, Vazquez uses “AVA bucks” or dojo points; students who return on time from a break get a point or a “buck.” They can later exchange them for goods like Slime, coloring books or playdough. Internet connectivity can still be a challenge, and families who are not internet savvy may have a bumpy beginning. (Virtual academies provide tools like computers and hot spots.) Besides screen time, SCESD and AUSD’s virtual schools offer field trips and monthly in-person meetups. Students learn the same content that students learn in a regular classroom including writing, reading and group projects. In the two years that Julyssa De La Mora, 10, has been in virtual learning at the Salinas City Virtual Academy, she’s gone on field trips to destinations like the first Salinas mayor’s house, the Harvey-Baker House (where they made butter), a pumpkin patch to harvest pre-Halloween, and an educational event hosted by the pro soccer team the San Jose Earthquakes. Next to Kammann Elementary School on a sunny afternoon, dozens of kids are playing with their friends, watering plants, and eating pizza during career day at SCVA. Students talk with professionals from different careers including police officers, a teacher, and firefighters (a popular destination, where they got to climb up onto a fire engine). Julyssa was there with her mom, Norma De La Mora. De La Mora found out about the new school on Facebook. She didn’t know much about it, but since she is a stay-home mom and her daughter was afraid of returning to in-person learning because of Covid, she enrolled her in the virtual school. “I’m so happy that I decided to give this school a try,” De La Mora says. She adds that she and other virtual academy parents have formed a tight community. Julyssa now attends class from the family kitchen. At AVA, students can attend school in-person once a month to interact with their classmates and work on art or science projects. Last August, during a science day, fifth-graders learn about physics and chemistry and the states of matter (solid, liquid, gas). After learning these basic science concepts, students grabbed different materials and practiced what they had learned. “We’re not teaching reading in isolation or science in isolation,” Ambrose points out. “We’re integrating the subjects, which I think helps them make it meaningful for the kids and helps them make those connections.” Shawn Quiane, a virtual kindergarten teacher at AVA, says kids connect with the objects they have at home. Quiane was reading If You Give a Mouse a Cookie to her students through Google Classroom, and one of them moved from his seat and then reappeared on the screen holding a book by the same author. Ambrose says, “We’re focusing on integrating technology, integrating science and literacy, making those connections with the kids.” Virtual learning does not work for everyone, but those who say it works for them find that it works really well. “I don’t have to sit in a chair all day,” says Reese Martinez, a 10-yearold fourth-grader. Reese’s desk is in his parents’ room, and he attends class from a bouncy ball and spinning chair. Sometimes, he lies in bed or on top of pillows behind his back. Another plus: He can choose what to eat for lunch. “Sometimes I eat bagels. I love bagels,” he says. His sister, Sienah, also attends SCVA. Their mom, Amber Ali, says both kids have excelled in online learning; she says they focused more on academics than trying to fit in at school. Reese, who has ADHD, was medicated while attending in-person school, something Ali says he needed in order to function in a regular classroom setting. “We were having a big issue with him being overly exposed [at school] and then crashing and being tired by 5pm,” she says. Then he’d be awake until 1am. Now, he doesn’t take ADHD medication anymore, has a normal sleeping schedule and doesn’t distract his classmates during class. He’s also learning how to program video games, using code from Gorilla Tag created by Axiom LLC, and he created a game he named “Happy Monkeys.” “He’s able to essentially have a personalized IEP [individualized education program],” Ali says. Both Reese and Sienah made the honor roll. Academic success in small, virtual classes is something multiple parents emphasize. “It feels like it’s almost a private school because they go above and beyond,” De La Mora says. “There are no shortcuts. Everybody is required to finish their work at a certain time.” Her daughter, Julyssa, offers: “Reading was very hard for me and now I’m getting better and better.” She now reads regularly, and her favorite books are Pinkalicious and The Otter. De La Mora says Julyssa has also bloomed socially in the virtual academy, and even became co-president of her class. She’s one of several appreciative parents who say their kids gain confidence. “They aren’t afraid to ask questions,” Núñez says. Her daughter Kayla is also excelling academically: “Kayla now reads fluently in both languages, English and Spanish.” While parents and students share stories of positive outcomes, test results show that virtual students are performing at the same level as or slightly worse than in-person students. At SCVA, 26.1 per- “If we are going to talk about the future, most jobs are in front of a computer.” Ana Lucia Vazquez, a second-grade teacher at Alisal Virtual Academy, instructs students using boards, drawings and objects. Nicole Contreras, 11, works with materials including sugar, cornstarch and oil to make slime for a lesson on solids and liquids during a monthly in-person class at Alisal Virtual Academy. Daniel Dreifuss Celia jiménez
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