Article from our 2020 Spring Fulcrum News
In 2019, St. Michael Catholic School in Snohomish received a Fulcrum Foundation School Partnership Grant to upgrade their technology. The school used the grant to purchase 40 additional laptops and began ramping up its usage of online learning platforms.
Months later, St. Michael’s students are thoroughly engaged in remote learning during the COVID-19 crisis, utilizing the exact tools that Fulcrum provided them with.
“I really appreciate the support Fulcrum gave us,” said Karen Matthews, the principal of St. Michael’s. “If we hadn’t had the grant, transitioning to remote learning really would have been much more difficult. The laptops have really helped us communicate with our students.”
About 50 of St. Michael’s 98 students currently use the school’s laptops to learn from home. “We’ve been able to reach all our students,” Karen said. “We had parents who were confused about the online learning in the beginning, but we were able to get them laptops with the learning programs already loaded. It’s made the process so much easier. You would not believe how much it helped.”
Now, due to the access to technology, all K-8 students at St. Michael’s can enjoy educational activities such as direct instruction from their teachers, face-to-face-meetings with their classmates, fluency practice, and all school activities while keeping up with the day-to-day curriculum.
“The technology has sewn everything together and helped create a sense of family,” Karen said. “Our parents feel very supported and we have been able to keep our curriculum pretty much the same. We’ve really been able to show our community that we are here and ready to help.”