Contact: Interim Superintendent Donald Andrews, 864-369-7364 or dandrews@asd2.org

Mary Boarts, Principal, Belton-Honea Path High School, 864-369-7382

Oct. 2, 2020

Photo: Belton-Honea Path High students work apart in a science lab

Longtime Belton-Honea Path High educators say COVID-19 challenges helping them be better teachers

Two veteran teachers at Belton-Honea Path High School say the COVID-19 challenges have been many – but have helped them become better teachers.

Schools in Anderson County School District Two are open for in-person learning, although about one-third of families opted to continue the online remote learning that started last spring when the coronavirus shut down schools in South Carolina and most of the nation.  

At BHP High, of the 1,073 students there are 300 students who are learning remotely online, about 28 percent of the high school body. The other 700 attend school but follow strict rules about wearing masks, carrying their portable plastic desk shields with them to each class, using hand sanitizer at every opportunity and having their temperatures checked each morning before entering the building, said Mary Boarts, principal at the district’s only high school.

“We work together as a team, and we’ve been working on these plans since late spring-early summer,” Boarts said. “We ask our students and our families to be patient with us, and we do value their feedback and suggestions on how we can improve on this situation.”

Melissa Henderson is a 22-year veteran teacher, all in Anderson 2. She teaches music appreciation, Chamber Singers, Choraleers, Lyric Choir, and piano.

“There have been a lot of adjustments this year and we are all doing the best we can. It’s been tough,” Henderson said. 

“Most teachers never received formal training in teaching virtually, so we are learning as we go, committed to do our absolute best to provide our students with a quality education and provide a safe and clean environment. 

“This may not be an ideal situation, but we are not using it as an excuse for students to fall behind or for us to not do our absolute best,” Henderson said. “Our school and district administration have been helpful, patient, and supportive and that certainly has helped us to remain calm during these crazy times.   

Jennifer Simpson, a 24-year teaching veteran with12 of them in Anderson 2, teaches Advanced Placement Biology, Anatomy and Physiology, and Biology 2 Honors. To her, it’s been a learning challenge to help students attack complex subject matter with some students attending in person and others online.

“Managing students in-person and virtually simultaneously has been a challenge.  Interactions between students, and interactions between students and teachers, have been different due to social distancing regulations,” she said.

“One of my classes is all in-person, while the others have multiple virtual students streaming in. I have been mostly using virtual labs that students can complete online because they are still able to collect data and draw conclusions.  

“I have done some labs as a demonstration,” Simpson said. “In a couple of my classes, I have few enough students that they can complete labs individually or with a partner across the lab table, to meet social distancing requirements, rather than the usual lab groups of three or four people.

“While this year has been vastly different and, in many ways, incredibly difficult, the administration at our school and at the District has been more than supportive,” Simpson said. “I am grateful for their guidance and assistance as we move forward this school year, and it’s helping me continue to learn to be a better teacher.”  

Donald Andrews, interim superintendent for Anderson 2, said he is pleased with the way teachers have embraced the many challenges of the new school year.

“I haven’t heard many complaints,” he said. “I’ve heard some good suggestions and new ways for us to look at teaching and learning, and that’s huge. We all have to be lifelong learners and if there was ever an opportunity learn more, this COVID situation is it.”

Henderson, the music teacher, said that after 22 years at BHP High she thought she had the procedures down pat. All that changed last spring.

“This year felt like Year One all over again with learning all new procedures,” she said. “I also didn’t know what to expect in terms of virtual learning, how the students would respond to the new rules and procedures, and basically how anything would work, especially in the field of music where so much of it is based on direct instruction.”

While she teaches chorus in-person, Henderson built in contingency plans if one or more student has to stay home under quarantine.

“If choir students are quarantined for any reason, they simply record the songs we are working on with their computers and email those recordings to me. If we were to have our school or district have to close completely, then the course would become more of a voice class, where I would instruct the students one-on-one and work on issues specific to that individual student online,” she said. 

“It hasn’t been easy, but then the best things come with hard work, right? I am proud of our school and how we all are pulling together,” Henderson said.

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