Sister Jeanne Adjust to Remote Learning
Sister Jeanne Marie Akalski, fourth grade instructor at St. Joseph School, is a Felician Sister who has spent decades in educational ministry. Never in her wildest dreams would she have imagined how her teaching strategies would dramatically change in March of 2020. No longer does she stand before her fourth-grade students in her thoughtfully decorated classroom. Mandated by state and local government actions and the decrees of the Diocese of Worcester, St. Joseph School in Webster is now empty of students, but education continues during the pandemic caused by the Coronavirus.
Sister Jeanne and her teaching colleagues had little time to plan their remote teaching. However, they worked quickly to provide their students with meaningful educational activities to do at home and technology became their best friend. It was a huge effort to continue to provide excellent instruction for their pupils but has been very successful.
Already using Khan Academy to help students build important math skills, Sister Jeanne turned to Khan Academy for reading, English, social studies and science. Khan Academy offers practice exercises, instructional videos, and a personalized learning dashboard that empowers learners to study at their own pace in and outside of the classroom. Most students, including Sister Jeanne’s fourth-grade pupils, love the challenges that the program provides.
To give students assignments to work on at home and to collect their homework, Sister Jeanne and her colleagues are utilizing Google Classroom. Although she never used the platform in her regular classroom setting, Sister Jeanne has found it to be a very helpful tool and plans to continue to use it even after remote teaching concludes. Google Classroom enables teachers to create an online classroom area in which they can manage all the documents that their students need, and Sr. Jeanne has found the teacher/student interface to be especially useful.
The greatest achievement for Sister Jeanne is her ability to teach religion online. In early April she once again saw her amazing students and they saw their amazing teacher! Sister Jeanne began the class with a song as she often did in her regular classroom. She ended the class with a joke, another regular feature of her religion classes. Teaching a concept by using a story is natural to Sister Jeanne and the students interacted with her in a wonderful way. Following the online class, Eva Podgorny called Sister Jeanne to tell her how much her son Max smiled during the entire virtual learning session. “He was thrilled to see you and his classmates,” she exclaimed.
Times are critical right now, but it is a great gift to students and teachers to carry on real learning despite the conditions that exist. Many teachers, both at St. Joseph School and throughout the state and country, feel that a positive result of the pandemic is learning new and exciting ways of educating youngsters.
However, teachers and students cannot wait to get back to their regular classroom settings. “We are praying for God’s mercy,” Sister Jeanne stated. Also, Sister Jeanne’s students are creating thank you posters to tell doctors, nurses, healthcare workers, and first responders how grateful they are for their services. In addition, Sister Jeanne has put 30 holy cards of Our Lady of Mediatrix on the convent windows, asking the Blessed Virgin Mary to intercede to God for an end to the pandemic.
Sister Jeanne is truly a blessing to the St. Joseph School and Basilica Community. Although the students pray daily in their classes, serve the church as altar servers, Children of Mary, or members of the Children’s Choir, and regularly attend First Friday Mass including Benediction, Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, and recitation of the Chaplet of Divine Mercy, Sister Jeanne’s presence, as well as her knowledge, guidance, and love, furthers to strengthen the spiritual foundation of all who are part of the St. Joseph School family. Just like the smile on her student’s face when he attended his first on-line class with Sr. Jeanne, she brings a smile to all who know and love her!
To learn more about St. Joseph School, please call 508-943-0378. You may also visit our Facebook page or go to www.sjs-webster.com to take a virtual tour of the school and visit Sister Jeanne’s fourth grade classroom.
