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Volusia teacher makes remote learning work for gifted 5th graders
Vicki Fritz’s head is just visible over the top of her computer monitor in the back of the room. The portable at Tomoka Elementary school classroom is … empty?
Upon closer inspection, an entire class of fifth graders is on Fritz’s computer screen 13 squares that show a glimpse of a student’s home. Their voices filter in through a speaker under the window, turned up to give the illusion that they’re right there with her.
Fritz is teaching fifth grade gifted students from around the district who would otherwise not be able to participate in the advanced program from home. It’s a regional Volusia Live class and she loves it.
Amazing Teacher nominees
High School: Vanoss HS (Ada, Okla.)
College: East Central Univ.
From her nomination: This educator goes above and beyond the call of her duty. When distance learning first launched, she began thinking out of the box to reach her PreK students to meet their individual needs. She made drive by visits, orchestrated drive by parades with music to make it fun for her students. Her online learning platform is very creative bringing the classroom right into her students homes. Her students aren t missing the beat to their educational experience. Everything she would have done in the traditional classroom setting, she has adapted and made it work virtually. She is a true example of an outstanding educator making the best of any situation for to benefit her students.
Boerman has utilized strong community partnerships to help bring opportunities to his students that they wouldn’t otherwise have.
“I’ve just been humbled by the community in West Michigan,” Boerman said. “In reaching out to different businesses or organizations or churches, there’s just people who say ‘How can we help? What can we do?’ Because of that, we’ve been able to obtain a host of different equipment that has provided opportunities for our students that they normally wouldn’t have.”
That equipment ranges from 3D printers and virtual reality headsets to a mobile kitchen unit and the school’s greenhouse.
At Deltona High School, between walls decorated with literature posters, African face masks and a portrait of a vampiric Mona Lisa, the words of Macbeth rang out.
When not reciting Macbeth’s lines early Wednesday morning, English teacher Dylan Emerick-Brown looked on as his students read the end of the play aloud. He stopped the class when an important moment came up to analyze the lines in their context, to answer a question, and to elicit a round of laughter when pulling the fake severed head of the fictional Scottish General out of a drawer.
And while some students might not care about Shakespearean plot twists or the importance of foreshadowing in literature, the death of Lady Macbeth and the Cesarean section surprise was met with cries of ‘Oh no!’ and gasps from the seven-student audience.