La Lumiere Adapts to Remote Learning
Nicole Guenin put it simply: “La Lumiere hit the ground running.” The parent of two current students, with her third child slated to start this coming fall, went on: “They started online classes within days, running full schedules for some challenging academic loads. Teachers engaged, students excelling. La Lu could have stopped there, but I’m finding that is not the La Lu way. Its strength lies in the close-knit community. How would they replicate in a virtual environment what they have built with all students during countless hours face-to-face interactions? By doing what La Lumiere does best, innovating.”
La Lumiere’s students were on spring break when the COVID-19 pandemic started to impact school life in Indiana and across the country. Within days after the first confirmed case in Indiana was announced in early March, the La Lumiere administration made the decision to adjust to remote learning for the first two weeks following spring break and not bring boarding students back to campus, except for about a dozen international students who weren’t able to return to their home countries.
“Everything we do here is about relationship,” said Adam Kronk, La Lumiere’s head of school. “It’s the foundation on which we form character, cultivate scholarship, and explore faith. In this unprecedented global crisis, connection and continuity are more important than ever. So we pivoted immediately and went all-in on finding every possible avenue for our school community to remain engaged—not only with classwork, but with one another. I’ve been blown away by the initiative, effort, and resilience our faculty and students have all demonstrated.”
The school had to be nimble, adapting all classes (which have an average of only 10 students per section) from a close-knit classroom setting to a remote one. It also consulted healthcare experts to put strict protocols in place to prevent its residential faculty and small group of remaining boarding students from getting or spreading the virus. It soon became clear that this phase wouldn’t be for a couple weeks, but would in fact last for the remainder of the semester.
It wasn’t long before state after state ended up closing on-campus education for students across the nation. At La Lumiere, students and teachers were well into remote learning, which provides the high-quality and well-rounded education that the school is known for, in an altered format.
“We use the term ‘remote learning’ to describe what we're doing rather than ‘online learning’ or ‘working remotely.’ It's not just about doing work, it's about learning. It's also not all about being ‘online.’ And while our teachers have used video-conferencing and online classroom tools effectively, we're also encouraging students to go for nature walks, write in a notebook, conduct experiments in the kitchen or the backyard, and read books,” Andrew Hoyt, the academic dean and an assistant head of school, said.
“The mode of social distancing,” elaborated Kronk, “is obviously antithetical to how we do everything here. Yet I know we can do it, for two reasons. First, the personal connections we’ve built throughout each day of ‘normal time’ here have forged bonds we can rely on to undergird these remote exchanges. Second, our faculty and students have already stepped up and in countless ways, from hosting trivia nights and virtual open mics to continuing our fabled ‘Heads Cup’ competitions (a year-long contest with the student divvied up into four teams named after the first four headmasters of the school) and sharing a ‘daily moment of light.’”
The goal during this time is for an education at La Lumiere to go beyond the confines of the screen and continue to cultivate the whole student and the school community. Even though students and teachers can’t gather together in the Fine Arts Building every day, each day begins with one of the school leaders broadcasting the morning meeting via YouTube Live. And the community is coming together and sharing their experience, insights, and talents via virtual meetups. A daily digital “dispatch” was created to showcase the work students are doing and inform the La Lumiere community about events that can be shared remotely. Student leaders are stepping into their roles in new and unique ways: hosting moderated film club events, teaching yoga classes, and sharing poems and artwork. Although COVID-19 has upended daily life for everyone, the La Lumiere community is finding comfort in maintaining continuity and consistency as its students and educators remain committed to staying on track academically as well as growing as individuals and community members.
“This whole experience from day one has been amazing and is a true testimony to the Laker spirit, with teachers rallying the kids to still have a scheduled school day and structure,” said Line Mullins, whose daughter is a sophomore and is following in the footsteps of her older sister, a 2019 La Lumiere grad. “It has brought us together as a community. We are so happy with the way the school has responded to this crisis and that my daughter is still receiving top quality teaching to prepare her for college and beyond.”