The Switch: Smithtown Begins Remote Live Streaming

On Tuesday, October 13th, all Smithtown schools began their first day of live streaming classes for students that are at home, as Smithtown is currently using the hybrid schedule for schooling. All students of these schools during remote days have to attend all of their google meets on time according to the regular bell schedule as if they were in school.

The start of the year went very slowly for remote students at Smithtown schools. With students unable to be taught by their scheduled teachers, they felt they did not receive a proper education. The hybrid model had some problems coming into it, and education is the most important factor in the model chosen by the school. Because of these complaints of students not learning enough, a change was made. On the week of September 27th, all Smithtown families received emails and notices about this change.

This change has helped teachers overall with the teaching process. Many teachers complained about having to reteach the same information multiple times. This problem has other consequences as well, which involves the students. Dan Shanley, age 16 at Smithtown West High School, went on record to say, “On multiple occasions I was stuck teaching myself things such as math lessons because my teachers sometimes skipped essential information.” Dan is one of many unfortunate group 2 students who are in school on Thursdays, Fridays, and alternating Wednesdays. Before live-streaming began, group 2 classes are all repetitions of classes taught earlier in the week to group 1 students. This means that teachers are forced to reteach everything to these students, which has led to them possibly forgetting information.

Overall, the switch to live streaming on remote days has benefited just about everybody in Smithtown. Teachers can give their full attention to teaching all students at once. Students no longer have to teach themselves lessons during their remote days. Parents do not have to be at work worrying about their kids’ education, and whether or not they were learning enough when at home. The beginning of live streaming classes has made the school year as similar to a normal school year as possible, while still using the hybrid schedule to keep all students safe from the ongoing pandemic.