The Examiner
EPIC Charter Schools offers Free
Virtual Help for Teachers, Schools
Apr
03
moving to Distance Learning
2020
EPIC Charter Schools an-
nounced today its pledge to aid
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005 tricts as they gear up to provide
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resized distance learning, including
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online instruction.
“This is a time when everyone
in public education must come
together,” said EPIC Superin-
tendent Bart Banfield. “With
so many school districts across
the state and nation struggling
to keep students on track aca-
demically during this crisis, we
at EPIC are in a unique posi-
tion, as the state’s largest virtual
charter school, to help them.
We are not competing. We are
not recruiting students.”
The State Board of Educa-
tion unanimously voted that
distance learning of all pub-
lic school students is to begin
April 6. When that happens,
many students and teachers
will likely find themselves in
unfamiliar territory. Since the
vast majority of EPIC’s 30,000
students work remotely via
such tools as ZOOM, Google
Hangout and FaceTime, the
state’s third-largest public
school system is providing
traditional school districts the
following free tools aimed at
helping them navigate distance
learning:
· EPIC Ed, a free bank of les-
sons for every grade level, with
Property of OPS News Tracker and members of the Oklahoma Press Association.
at least one lesson for each
state academic core standard.
The site is live and will be mo-
bile friendly by April 6 so that
households without Internet
access but with a cellular phone
can access the lessons. The site
has been made public and can
be reached at www.epiced.on-
line.
· Onlineteachinghelp.com,
a repository of best practices
and online resources created
by EPIC teachers with dem-
onstrated success in distance
learning.
· Free two-hours of profes-
sional development conducted
by a state certified Epic educa-
tor that could be utilized by any
traditional school district. The
professional development will
be made available as a Power-
Point presentation accompa-
nied by a two-hour, interac-
tive staff development session
through ZOOM that includes
questions and answers.
Erin Barnes, an EPIC princi-
pal co-developing the profes-
sional development presenta-
tion, said the chance to help
her traditional education col-
leagues during this unprece-
dented crisis is an opportunity
to bridge the divide and bring
all public educators together
for the common purpose of
helping Oklahoma families.
 Guymon Daily Herald

Apr
09

2020

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Property of OPS News Tracker and members of the Oklahoma Press Association.