IT TAKES A VILLAGE Sumter Family YMCA helps students, parents adjust to virtual learning BY KAYLA GREEN
Walk around any normal day inside the YMCA of Sumter, and you can likely find adults working out and children playing basketball, swimming or finding active ways to have fun. But days are no longer normal. Pandemic-induced adjustments can be seen in full force at the family health and wellness center on weekdays, where students are taking part in its new Y Virtual Learning Academy. "A lot of parents have to work, so they can't stay home, or they're single parents," said Fannie Lockett, youth development director at the Y. Lockett usually runs the Y's after-school and summer programs, and they realized they could fill a need for families when Sumter School District announced it would begin the school year in an all-virtual capacity. As of the beginning of the second semester, which is back to all-virtual learning after a stint of in-person options, 37 students were spending their day at the Y, getting help from counselors during school and getting their daily dose of physical activity in the afternoon. Parents who can't work from home don't have to worry about leaving their young children home alone and can rest assured they are not falling behind in school. Students have a folder with websites and QR codes from their teachers that connect them to an array of online classrooms, and counselors help them log in and answer connectivity questions while they work. Lockett said the students' class schedule varies between watching teachers give live instruction, completing assignments on their own and engaging with their class on their Chromebooks. At 2:15 p.m., the academy transitions to a more traditional after-school program. They do arts and crafts, camp activities, play. They're incorporating yoga and zumba into their physical activity options. "We're making sure we're maintaining social distancing. They're wearing masks, and we sanitize. Every time we move, we sanitize," Lockett said. Much of the setting is the same as a classroom, but there are differences dotted among the routine. Kids plugged into headphones and Chromebooks instead of playing together. Each student has his or her own table bigger than the desk that would normally be allocated. Instead of sitting next to students they've grown up with, classmates converge from all over the city, signified by a row of 32 |
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tables featuring blue Chromebooks from one elementary school, yellow from another, maroon, purple, red. Masks come in different colors and patterns, each student's a testament to his or her personality, a varietal display akin to a cubby full of backpacks and lunchboxes. The program has a $25 one-time registration fee, then a weekly fee of $125 for members and $175 for non-members, but Lockett said there is financial assistance available. Discounts are also available for siblings. They are prepared to have room for up to 160 students and charge students in part because they plan to bring on more counselors as students join to keep counselor-to-camper contact ratios low. "A lot of the kids here now went through the summer program," Lockett said. "It's a blessing to the parents to be able to go to work and know they're being taken care of." Counselors can communicate between parents and teachers, serving as a bridge between all the adults in a student's life trying to navigate COVID-19. The benefits of the program are clear to Brandon Yando. The Y's youth enrichment coordinator is studying early childhood education and said he has seen the impact of the academy on a young girl. She came into the program shy and nervous, having gotten used to quarantine and scared of illness. He wants students in the program to know they have someone to talk to. During the summer, there were no known cases among 160 campers. "At first, she didn't even want to talk to the counselors," Yando said. "Now that she realizes we're all safe and she's not going to get sick, she comes in the room screaming good morning to everyone."