'There's no right or wrong right now': Montgomery begins new virtual school year

Tyler Merriweather's fifth-grade classroom sounds different this year. 

Instead of sneakers squeaking against polished floors and pencils clattering on desks, the brightly decorated classroom at Southlawn Elementary was largely quiet on Monday morning. With no students chattering to their neighbors, background noise from homes around Montgomery drifted through the math teacher's laptop as his cell phone buzzed on the table. 

For the first time, Montgomery public school students began their school year totally online as Alabama and the country at large struggle to contain the coronavirus pandemic, which already cut short the previous school year. 

On Monday morning, Merriweather and fellow teacher Joseph Brinson began shepherding their combined classes online in a Zoom video conference, walking them through multiple apps they would be expected to master for at least the next nine weeks. 

Between the two teachers, they're responsible for 34 students in all. About half were able to log in to the video chat for the first day, even if some struggled with the other apps. As Merriweather worked the Zoom call, Brinson paced the corners of the classroom on his cell phone, trying to help parents who were having trouble logging into the system. 

Virtual schooling is a gargantuan task for educators, families and students. Teachers have spent recent weekends trying to bring families up to speed on new technology as parents and caregivers attempt to juggle work schedules around at-home instruction. 

"There's no right or wrong right now," Merriweather said after class. "Everybody is trying every avenue, every thing they can do to potentially support the students and the parents, as well as provide that enriching instruction."

The first day began in stops and starts as Merriweather tried to lead students through the syllabus for the year and show them an app called Whiteboard, where they can share their work. Only a handful of students were able to log on immediately. One student, frustration clouding his face, unmuted his computer mic to ask Merriweather to spell the web address again. 

"Can you start over?"

"Yes, sir," Merriweather said into his laptop camera. "I'm going to start with W, OK?"

Through the late summer, many Alabama districts communicated with families their intentions to re-open schools for at least some traditional instruction in the fall. But an alarming spread of the virus throughout the state in July, accompanied by record-high death rates and hospitalizations, prompted Gov. Kay Ivey to press pause on overall re-opening plans and institute a statewide mask mandate, something that she had previously resisted. 

Meanwhile, some teachers across the state protested school re-opening plans, saying they would be "terrified" to return to full classrooms as the virus continued to spread uncontrolled. 

After initially offering opt-ins for either in-person or virtual learning, MPS Superintendent Ann Roy Moore announced July 22 the district would move to virtual only. 

"We have been bombarding our teachers this summer with training on how to teach in a virtual environment. We are still conducting that virtual training so teachers know how to teach virtually. Additionally, we will also have it for parents and for students so everyone will be as comfortable as possible," Moore said to reassure families at the virtual-only announcement. 

Though still among the worst-hit states in the nation, data in Alabama may be trending in the right direction. Hospitalization numbers remain among the highest Alabama has seen since its first infection in March, but the extreme day-over-day increases seen in mid-July have leveled off. The seven-day average of daily cases has steadily dropped, though Alabama public officials cautioned July 31 there are serious testing issues in the state, which are causing 7-14 day delays in testing turnaround. 

With some tentative gains possibly related to a consistent mask mandate around the state, public health officials will be eyeing school re-openings closely. Thousands of college students will be returning to towns like Tuscaloosa and Auburn in coming days, in addition to K-12 schools in some districts. For schools with in-person instruction, the burden on staff will be to isolate and mitigate the spread of coronavirus infections, which are almost an inevitability considering continued testing delays in the state.

In Saraland, Alabama, a student who was unknowingly infected walked through the doors of the first day of school. The students started experiencing symptoms that night, ABC 33/40 reported, and soon tested positive.

Some school re-openings have already shown how one infection can quickly cause a chain reaction. 

Within two weeks of school re-openings in Corinth, Mississippi, nine people in total were diagnosed with coronavirus. But the infections — seven in high school students, one in middle school and one elementary school teacher — caused a cascade in potential exposures. As of Aug. 7, 130 faculty and students were undergoing a 14-day quarantine. Many were tied to potential exposure on sports teams, the Clarion Ledger reported. 

More:Corinth School District: More than 100 in quarantine, including members of 2 sports teams

Of Alabama's largest school districts, some Baldwin County students are set to return to the classroom on Friday as the district offers blended instruction. Jefferson County canceled plans to offer traditional instruction for the first nine-week grading period, in addition to delaying the start of school one week. The earliest possible date Jefferson County students could return to the classroom is now in November. 

If virtual school is not extended past the first grading period, Montgomery public students could return to the classroom on Oct. 13. 

"We know that we are going to have a very difficult year," State Superintendent Dr. Eric Mackey said in late July. "We have spent the summer planning for it, and we have said all along we will have to amend our plans as we go."

But for the myriad challenges impacting the education system during the pandemic, Merriweather is equally buoyed by its possibilities. Walking students through a new digital landscape is tedious, but the young teacher also believes this new world will give Montgomery's students a leg up in the 21st century. 

"If I go ahead and teach them [technology] now, I feel like we're really preparing them for a global society," Merriweather said. Not far removed from college himself, he said he knows what skills students are expected to bring to the table, whether at a four-year college, night school or online. Digital literacy is at the top of the list. 

With $170 million pandemic allocation to Alabama public schools, each district is set to received a minimum of $170,000 to be spent on "minimizing the exposure and spread" of coronavirus in schools and equipment purchases needed for remote learning.  Merriweather hopes this will bring MPS to an "one-to-one" district, meaning each student will have access to a digital device. 

Despite the stops and starts and a few frustrated faces, laughs eventually swept through Merriweather's classroom room, both in-person and through the screen, as the two men led their students through a get-to-know-the-teacher quiz. Students guessed Merriweather's favorite animal and Brinson's favorite sport: "Why do you like baseball?" a fervent football fan asked to giggles. 

MPS students were dismissed after just a few hours on Monday, as the district attempts to ease them into a new routine. The teachers spend the rest of the day checking in with students who weren't on the conference call and troubleshooting technical issues. Merriweather planned to hand-deliver two prizes to the winners of the pop quiz at their homes before he called it day. 

He signed off the call with a classroom directive with a little bit of the old world and a little bit of the new. 

"Be safe, stay sanitized and make sure you get your homework done," he said, signing off.