It’s Elementary, My Dear Students! Bay Path Professor Takes Elementary Education Online.

Longmeadow, MA— This month parents everywhere suddenly found themselves moonlighting as educators as schools around the country shut their doors and school-aged children were sent home. When faced with this new reality, what is a parent to do? If you’re Dr. Jennifer Stratton, Bay Path University’s Coordinator of Undergraduate Education and Associate Professor Of Education, the solution was simple: you start your own virtual school.  One short week later, The Stratton School was up and running and online, serving over 50 kids in five states with two literacy lessons a week.

Stratton was teaching her Spring 2020 semester EDU323 class,  with a  focus on her students not only learning reading instruction fundamentals, but also on how these students would contribute to their communities and to society at large. Half way through the semester that focus took on a new role as schools everywhere closed down, leaving children without teachers and leaving her students without a classroom to teach in.

The Stratton School runs on the Zoom platform, where everyone convenes together via video and audio so that the students and teachers can all see each other. Getting The Stratton School ready for students within four days has been an all hands on deck experience, with Stratton’s own two elementary school aged children being present in team meetings and even running Zoom training lessons for young students getting ready to partake in Stratton School classes.

The Bay Path student stepping into the roles of teachers must plan lessons that are culturally responsive, incorporate universal design, and implement all of the best practices that they have learned thus far in their courses. “Each class had a purposeful objective, which the BPU students must adhere to,” shared Stratton.  “But maybe even more importantly they’re helping these kids connect to each other and to books.” Elizabeth Murphy, a Bay Path University senior and practicum student who is teaching at The Stratton School shared, “The students were really engaged. In addition to the content they love to see each other and talk to each other.”

While her students may be teaching children across the country, Stratton’s students are learning, too, getting a lesson in flexibility and fluidity. “We don’t know the enrollment per day. We don’t know how long this is going to last,” Stratton shared. “It’s just – carpe diem – we are living for every day.” “We teach them, and they teach us. They learn, and we learn,” Murphy added.

Stratton credits both Bay Path President Dr. Carol Leary and Provost Dr. Melissa Morris-Olson for creating a culture that allows for such creativity and quick thinking. While this innate need for online learning may be temporary for most school aged children, Stratton has long term plans for The Stratton School, including teaming up with local teachers to provide Zoom-based online classroom support to small groups of students, and to eventually teach children who are, for many reasons, unable to attend a physical classroom.  “People think online learning is taking what’s learned in the classroom and putting it online, but that’s not it,” she shared. “It’s a place to build connections. I hope we’re helping people re-think what online learning can be.”

For more information on how your child can join The Stratton School, please email Dr. Jennifer Stratton at jestratton@baypath.edu.

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About Bay Path University

Bay Path University was founded in 1897. With locations in Longmeadow (main), East Longmeadow (Philip H. Ryan Health Science Center), Springfield (MA), Sturbridge (MA), and Concord (MA), Bay Path’s innovative program offerings include traditional undergraduate degrees for women, The American Women's College on-ground and online, the first all-women, all-online accredited bachelor’s degree programs in the country; over 30 graduate programs for women and men, including doctoral degrees; and Strategic Alliances, offering professional development courses for individuals and organizations.  Bay Path’s goal is to give students confidence in the fundamentals of their chosen field, the curiosity to question the ordinary, the leadership to show initiative, and the desire to make a difference.