St. Rita School for the Deaf found new ways to connect with students in 2020

When St. Rita School for the Deaf in Evendale learned that it would soon have to close its doors on March 13 this year, President Angela Firth knew they were in for a big change.

“We have always been in person and technology has been a huge part of our program and we use it every day in the classrooms, but to go from in-person to remote and trying to get our kids, who have sometimes a hard time communicating and don’t have as much language as some other students, to get online and still learn in the capacity that they were learning before…” says Firth of the challenge posed by COVID-19.

But adapt St. Rita did. And in tackling this challenge, Firth says that school has been able to create positive changes that could have impact for many years to come.

“I used the word embrace,” says Firth of what her staff has done. “Within five days of closing down and being in person and we were able to do it online.”

While teaching online in general is difficult, St. Rita faced additional obstacles for the students it serves. The school works with students who may have hearing loss or communication difficulties, challenges that many online learning programs don’t account for.

“Not all of those resources are captioned so it’s not like we could say, ‘Oh, watch this video and do the lesson,’” says Firth. “Our teachers got into researching and got creative, started using other websites, and would go online and videotape themselves, listening to the lesson, then teaching it and then put the video of them interpreting it online.”

Teaching remotely led teachers to discover new online resources, resources Firth says the school will be able to use for in-person classes as well.

Another obstacle the school faced was maintaining its tightknit community while they couldn’t see each other in person. The school of 120-plus students tailors its lessons for each student, creating a close, family-like atmosphere. With students learning from home, Frith turned to St. Rita’s Facebook page to maintain that connection. She led virtual dance parties, tried jelly beans of questionable flavors, played Pictionary and more on Facebook Live, all the while responding to students’ comments online.

“Even though it’s not face-to-face, I thought, ‘Oh, I’ll just put myself out there and start trying to connect that way to the students,’” she says. “If you can’t have fun during this time and you can’t make people smile or make people laugh during these times, that’s what you need.”

The school returned to in-person classes in August, but Firth says what they’ve learned this year is something they will take with them into the future.

“I think now when something is presented to us, in our natural state, we would be saying, ‘Oh, you know, I can’t do this,’ or, ‘Oh my gosh, we’ve never done that before.’ We can now take that attitude of, ‘You know, if we were able to do this, then we can find a way to do this,’ and open up those doors and opportunities,” she says.