David Volke’s sixth-grade humanities classroom at Camas’ Liberty Middle School has waited almost 11 months to be filled with students — max capacity allowed under current state guidance, of course.
Come Monday, sixth graders in the Camas School District will be at school for twice-a-week in-person instruction for three hours a day. Students are split into two cohorts — A and B — and remain in those cohorts for core classes. For the time being, electives will continue being taught remotely.
In recent weeks, area school districts welcomed younger learners into a hybrid setting. At Camas, middle schools will transition to small-group settings as sixth graders kick off secondary students’ return to class.
Volke is ready for Monday, and so is his classroom. Floor tape designates where forward-facing tables can be, and stickers show where students can sit while maintaining a 6-foot distance from a classmate. Waiting for them inside Volke’s classroom are sheets of paper, where students will trace their hand and write what makes them unique. They’re displayed on a classroom wall for all to view.
Volke’s classroom is a reflection of him, and this proves a good way for not only him getting to know his students better, but students becoming better classmates.
“One of the most important things to realize is we are in this community together,” Volke said, “and we want to start to have them do that.”
Next door to Volke, fellow sixth-grade humanities teacher Chrissie Woodruff said goodbye to some students over Zoom this week who have elected to stay fully remote. They’ll have a new teacher besides Woodruff starting Monday. Woodruff said she has mixed emotions for what next week will bring: anxious, excited, and also sensing optimism and hope.
“It’s all the gamuts of emotions,” she said.
Once local COVID-19 metrics are met allowing middle school students to transition into hybrid learning — 50-350 cases per 100,000 over 14 days — students whose families chose in-person instruction will transition to a full day of learning. The difference between the small-group settings and hybrid learning will be the length of time in school, Liberty associated principal Stephen Baranowski said.
Building staff worked to create COVID-19 mitigation plans, including socially distanced dots, hand-sanitizer stations and one-way routes for kids and staff to safely navigate the halls.
But there’s also a more personalized touch, too. In preparation for next week, the district’s middle schools invited sixth graders for school tours. One of the reasons Superintendent Jeff Snell had for allowing sixth graders to leapfrog ahead of fourth and fifth graders for returning in groups of 15 or fewer students is because many sixth graders aren’t familiar with their new school.
Knowing the lay of the land is important, Baranowski said, especially transitioning from elementary to middle school. Liberty has 750 students in grades sixth to eighth.
“It’s such a big year,” Baranowski said. “It’s such a change and how they’ve experienced school, but we want to make that as soft a transition as possible.”
Student tours proved beneficial for 12-year-old Justin Fisher. Before the start of middle school, Fisher moved into the Camas School District from Carson, and saw first hand just how large Liberty — the previous Camas High School — really is.
“It’s most definitely cool,” Fisher said. “It’s super big. It’s a little confusing getting around the school, but once you get it down, you get it down.”
He also got to meet Volke, the humanities teacher, for the first time not on a screen. Fisher calls Volke his favorite teacher.
“Literally, every single day, he has a dad joke,” he said.
