In this educator session on hybrid learning, we’ll hear from Dr. Paul O’Malley, Superintendent at Butler School District 53 and Dr. Victor Simon, Superintendent at Gower School District 62. According to Dr. Simon, “We have a full sort of option for folks that are in our community to be here in person. But if they want to choose a remote learning option, they certainly can. And the in-person or remote choices, there are many schools that are set up that way. But what's unique, I think is the parallel, or we call it a simultaneous learning environment, where you have teachers that have students in front of them. And you also have teachers at the same time in that same classroom with students that have chosen remote Zoomed in or Google Meet. So, that simultaneous or parallel instruction is happening.” So that's something we'd like to walk through and hope it will be helpful. We believe that it's replicable and scalable, the approach that we have and we're happy to share.”

Dr. O’Malley adds, “We opened on August 24th, 2021, in person learning with a choice model and remained open all the school year. In addition, the parent choice has increased over the course of the year. We started about 60 percent during the beginning of the year, and we shifted over the semesters and we've seen a gradual increase to the point where we now allow the parents to choose whether or not they believe it's safe to return based on their circumstances. So it's very, very flexible and it's remained flexible. We started with a transitional hybrid and that was to allow our staff to become really acclimated to the conditions, especially with the amount of planning that is required for the remote learners. And it has just been awesome from that point forward. Has there been lumps in the oatmeal? As I say, yes, there has, but we've been able to work through those lumps that we've gotten better and better and better.”

You’ll want to join this interesting discussion, as you gain insight from these two very dedicated superintendents. There’s a lot to learn here, and you’ll bring back a number of ideas you can use at home in your own school or district.