Alumni

ALUMNI ON THE FRONTLINES - Matt Buck ’87

Matt Buck ’87, Head of Middle School at Calvert, has been on the educational frontlines of the COVID-19 epidemic. He has witnessed both the growing pains and strides made since the school shifted to remote learning roughly six weeks ago. “In the beginning, it was like we were starting not just a new school year, but a whole new school. Our curriculum was in place, but the way that we are doing school is completely different. This meant long, 12-14-hour days in the first several weeks as my faculty and I figured out systems and communication in terms of how we would present our work and receive it back from students. Even still, spring break gave us a head start in planning. Some schools had to switch to online learning overnight.”

That said, this unusual situation has also presented benefits. “One amazing silver lining has been that there are some students who are really good at this type of learning and have just thrived. There are always a few kids in a physical school that tend to be more on the quiet side and rarely speak in class, and yet somehow in this digital format, they’ve risen to the top. This type of learning emphasizes executive function skills.”

Middle school, even in the best of circumstances, always represents a time of emotional growth for students, something every bit as important as their academic instruction. With this in mind, Calvert launched advisory and club enrichment time to give context to the students’ academic learning and provide connection.

Some adjustments to the traditional curriculum may continue to have an impact at Calvert once students return to the classroom. For one thing, teachers are more in-tune with the length of assignments and what is digestible. Advantages have also come with the asynchronous learning model. The result – future middle school classes may have teachers provide content and video for direct instruction at home, which in turn will allow for more collaboration and cooperative learning while students are physically together in school. “We can come into the physical classroom and really make use of cooperative learning, which is the essence of middle school education and proven to be effective.”

The major takeaway, however, has been the strength of the community of teachers at the school. “I definitely want to acknowledge the teachers and faculty at Calvert – both at the lower and middle school. Many are parents, often of young children, and yet all have met this challenge and exceeded expectations.”
 
 
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Calvert School is a coed independent lower and middle school.

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