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Robert Athmer is a 10th grade geometry and special education teacher at Columbia Heights Education Campus (CHEC). He is four weeks into distance learning and his students are participating and engaged more than when they were in physical classrooms before the pandemic.

鈥淚 think we鈥檙e tapping into a lot of kids and reaching more kids than we could inside the building where we鈥檙e scramming around the floors and running room from room,鈥� Athmer said.

With the high participation from his students, Athmer said he feels like he鈥檚 in a physical classroom.听

鈥淚鈥檓 very proud of our kids for showing up and logging on. I鈥檝e seen about 85% to 90% attendance rates which are phenomenal.鈥�

Laura Freshley, another CHEC teacher, agrees with Athmer.

鈥淚鈥檝e had more engagement, higher work quality, better student turnout in terms of attendance,鈥� Freshley said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 all been better for me since we鈥檝e done virtual learning these last four weeks.鈥澛�

A teacher since 2010, Athmer and other teachers weren鈥檛 provided with resources to help ease the transition of online instruction when the pandemic hit. They were required by CHEC to adapt to the transition on their own.听

鈥淭hey relied on us, the experts and the teachers to come up with a 鈥榲irtual game plan鈥� for students,鈥� Athmer said.听

Most of his summer consisted of creating schedules and modifying lesson plans to gear up for the school year.听

On Sept. 17, Mayor Muriel Bowser held a press conference announcing she expects students to return to public and charter schools starting Nov. 9, according to .听

Athmer said his students enjoy the virtual learning model but the main challenge right now is 鈥渂ringing to life鈥� the learning process and keeping the students interested in the lessons.听

Some SPED students need tactile tools, paper-based materials or videos to watch so they can better interpret lessons, Athmer said. If students need smaller items like pencils, paper or highlighters, he usually sends them in the mail.

鈥淚t simply depends on what teachers need to provide students. Mailing a letter or a few altered worksheets is easy, but if a student needs a laptop, or a hotspot or bigger things like notebooks or calculators, a drive-by is maybe best, especially if you live close to a student,鈥� Athmer said.听

CHEC provides teachers $200 for supplies every year but the money was not adjusted for distance learning, Athmer said. With the money, Athmer bought envelopes, rulers, protractors, pens and highlighters.听

Freshley said her students have mild to moderate learning disabilities.

聽In addition to more engagement, Freshley believes her students have easier access to their instructors and health advisors through the click of a button.

鈥淚n terms of accessibility, my students have been able to have access to not only me, their special education teacher but to their social workers, therapists and speech-language pathologists.鈥�

Transportation used to be one of the main issues when students were in physical classrooms, Freshley noticed. Some students didn鈥檛 have transportation to school and were often not able to attend class because of it.听

鈥淣ow students don鈥檛 have to worry about missing class or being late,鈥� Freshley said.听

But not all teachers are seeing the same results and not all teachers are enjoying virtual learning. Michael Dettloff, a teacher at Jefferson Middle School Academy is sometimes stuck creating lesson plans till 9 or 10 p.m.

Dettloff said teaching online is 鈥渁 little more stressful.鈥� He teaches math and science to seventh and eighth-grade students and is also a mentor for two teachers.

鈥淚 think the students that I teach are not getting the full benefit of online learning but we are starting to see some success with assessments,鈥� Dettloff said.听

Dettloff said some of his students are thriving in the virtual learning environment. However, he would still prefer an in-person learning environment to virtual.

鈥淏ut only when it鈥檚 safe,鈥� Dettloff said.听