Reading For Treasure: Winter Break Reading

Reading for Treasure is my list of articles (and other readings) that are worth your attention. Click here for an introduction.

I started creating lists of articles because what I really wanted to do was either to email them to my teacher friends or post them on social media – but I didn’t want to be that retired guy who is always sending me articles I don’t have time (or desire) to read. I often do a short description of the article, but today I am trying only providing a quotation to whet your appetite. Let me know if that matters at all. Perhaps all we need is the title? Nonetheless, these are six good education-related articles worth your attention. 

“Trust the Teachers” by David W. Blight, The Atlantic 
 “What American teachers most need is autonomy, community respect, the right to some creativity within their craft, time to read, and, perhaps above all, support for their intellectual lives. Most would not mind a pay raise.” 

“When parents scream at school board meetings, how can I teach their children?” by Jennifer Wolfe, CNN
“My students know that to move forward toward understanding and engagement, we have to be willing to talk about the hard stuff….Our country deserves people willing to have difficult conversations and solve problems together. We need to turn toward each other, not away from each other into spaces where uncomfortable discussions are treated like a crime. Without civil discourse, we risk tumbling toward civil unrest.” 

“Parents slam state board’s proposal to triple number of annual standardized assessments for students: ‘We must keep testing at the absolute minimum’” by Karen Ann Cullotta, Chicago Tribune
“A state plan that could triple the number of federally mandated tests Illinois students must take in the coming years is being slammed by some educators and parents who say after the recent loss of classroom learning during the COVID-19 pandemic, the last thing kids need is more testing.” 

“Voice, Chat and DM: Remote Learning Tools That Make Sense In Person” by Caroline Smith, KQED Mindshift
"But Cohn discovered advantages to her students typing some of their assignments during virtual education. Watching her students’ writing appear on their respective Google Docs in real time meant she could provide simultaneous feedback. The process of editing on the computer — liberated from the messiness of revising on a piece of paper — made the process less burdensome and more enjoyable for her students."

“College Admissions Are Still Unfair” by James S. Murphy, The Atlantic
“There is also an important component of racial justice in dropping legacy preferences. The practice overwhelmingly benefits white applicants and harms first-generation, immigrant, low-income, and nonwhite students. A 2018 lawsuit against Harvard revealed that 77 percent of legacy admits were white, while just 5 percent were Black and 7 percent were Hispanic. At Notre Dame, the class of 2024 had five times as many legacies as Black students.” 

“School Stumbles Upon Chalkboards From 1917 During Renovation, Perfectly Preserved Lessons Provide Rare Look Into Past” Dusty Old Thing
“Construction workers were removing chalkboards– taking them down to replace them with new Smart Boards– when they stumbled upon some older chalkboards underneath. Luckily, they stopped to examine the chalkboards before destroying them, and they quickly realized that the boards were from 1917… Nearly 100 years ago! Stuck underneath layers of other boards, these antique chalkboards had been preserved with the chalk still on them, providing an amazing view of life in a mid-20th-century classroom.”

I am currently rereading The Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler  

Will We Still Zoom?

Slowly, things are opening up. I got a haircut, ate inside a restaurant, and shopped at Costco! Life is in person again (somewhat), and, slowly, it is feeling more normal. 

Yet the digital adaptations we made during this pandemic had advantages, too. The commute was fantastic. I loved being able to attend events wearing whatever I wanted. And those events were not restricted by geography.  

What parts of the digital quarantine will we keep? How will our immersion in Zoom and other video chat systems change now that it is safe to come together inside again (provided we are vaccinated)? 

We may see that many, if not most, events are hybrid. Some will merely stream so those who are not in the room can witness them. Others may go further and create ways that allow distant participants to be actively engaged. 

However, telepresence is not always an adequate substitute for physical presence; often, if you were on a screen and some of the other attendees are in person, you can become a second-class participant. Getting a word in is difficult when everyone is on Zoom. When some are sitting in a room and some are on Zoom, it is even harder for the Zoomers to cut into the conversation. While some meetings can be replaced this way, sometimes, traveling to be in person is going to be necessary. 

One of the most wonderful parts of Zoom culture was that participation was not hindered by geography or disability. I participate in a book club that now has members from all over the country. In addition, we have members who have physical difficulties that make attending in-person too challenging. Zoom lets everyone be together without the travails of travel. 

I attended a few virtual conventions. While I missed the social aspects, I thought the panels were great! Some of my pet peeves about panels vanish when they are on Zoom. My biggest pet peeve is that sometimes audience members think they are part of the panel. They speak up without being acknowledged by the moderator, comment freely, and often dominate discussion. Not on Zoom, they don’t! Audience members only get to participate when the moderator allows. I loved that. 

I also loved the commentary that went on in the chat during panels and events. I was used to sitting with my friends and whispering or texting each other occasionally. With Zoom, there is another layer of conversation that does not intrude on the primary event but can interact with it. I loved hearing, “Someone in the chat said…” or “An example of this was provided in the chat…” The audio/video was complemented by the text in the chat. It was a good outlet for that person who might be tempted to become the intrusive self-appointed panelist. 

Certainly, schools and colleges were changed by Zoom. While some may have liked learning online, getting back to “normal” school has been a primary goal. But might classes be streamed, especially large lecture-based classes in universities?  Since we can have remote and asynchronous learning days, does this mean school never needs to be canceled for snow or weather again? Could homebound students be connected to school resources through the computer?   

The fact that events could be recorded was also a benefit and one that we certainly could retain. Recently, I watched an interview from the Art Institute of Chicago that was streamed live during a time when I was unavailable. Since I was watching a recording, I couldn’t ask questions, but I am not sure I would have anyway. If not for the recording, I would have missed the event, but now I got to see it when it worked for my schedule. 

Accessing doctors and other medical resources by video was just starting to be offered before the pandemic. Now it has become a standard option for receiving services. For the same reason I noted above, telemedicine may not replace in-person examinations or consultations, but it certainly could help those who are too far away or for whom getting to the doctor is extremely challenging. And no one is sitting in a waiting room with sick people!  

I haven’t even begun to discuss how Zoom and its kin have facilitated the ability to work distantly for some. Zoom meetings, conferences, and calls are not perfect equivalents of the old normal, and they have both advantages and issues, but the option of working from home will be on the table far more than we ever imagined before the pandemic. 

Video engagement will now be an option for more and more of the activities that we used to assume had to be done in person. However, including disabled or distant participants, creating hybrid meeting structures, and navigating in-person events with both live and distant participants is going to take creativity and flexibility. 

We are not going back to the old normal. Our new routine will reflect the changes and innovations of the pandemic.  

Reading For Treasure: Hey, Educators! Read This!

Reading for Treasure is my list of articles (and other readings) that are worth your attention. Click here for an introduction!

While I was teaching, my colleagues and I would send articles to each other about things related to parts of our personal and professional lives. When I retired, I continued to find these reading gems (call them treasures), but I didn’t want to be that voice from beyond that keeps assigning busy working folks more things to read! That is one of the reasons I started posting Reading for Treasure. 

Yet, I’ve been finding wonderful things I want to send my friends who are still in the classroom. Some of them are for a broad educational audience and some are extremely narrow. I have lost track of the number of times a week (or a day) that I think to myself, “Oh! I know what I would do with that in the classroom!” So here are a few pieces of summer reading about education for anyone interested! 

KQED Mindshift shared an article reprinted from Equity-Centered Trauma-Informed Education that expresses one of my core teaching tenets: every student should feel that they are the teacher’s secret favorite. Teachers, please read this. New and pre-service teachers, you must read this!  “How Unconditional Positive Regard Can Help Students Feel Cared For”

KQED Mindshift also republished an NPR article titled,  “Colorado Becomes 1st State To Ban Legacy College Admissions.” When we discuss affirmative action, can we also discuss legacy admissions, elite sports, and other ways that the college admission game is not based on students’ merit and is rigged in favor of affluent mostly white students? One of the pandemic side effects has been this kind of shaking up of college admissions! 

Speaking of ways that affluent, usually white, students get advantages in education, can we talk about private education? The Atlantic’s cover makes the statement, “Private Schools are Indefensible.” This highly detailed and very powerful piece argues that private schools not only give students a leg up, but they also have a detrimental effect on everyone! The actual title of the article is “Private Schools Have Become Truly Obscene.” 

This past year was not easy for teachers, students, parents, or anyone connected to schools (or anyone in general). So the argument that many classrooms were only just getting by before schools closed feels harsh. However, the pandemic pushed these teetering teachers over the edge. Jennifer Gonzales, writing in Cult of Pedagogy, asks teachers not to hit the “easy button.” “No More Easy Button: A Suggested Approach to Post-Pandemic Teaching” makes highly specific recommendations about what school should look like next year. I would argue that Ms. Gonzales’ suggestions are just what school should look like – always. 

I love Math With Bad Drawings. If you haven’t looked at that blog, please do. It is magnificent. In this satiric entry, “Kafka Explains Math Education,” Ben Orlin is specifically talking about math education but his points apply to many (if not all) subject areas. He even uses real Kafka quotes!   

American Lit teachers, look at this! A new book takes a magical new look at The Great Gatsby. It focuses on Jordan Baker, who in this telling is a Vietnamese adoptee who was raised by a wealthy white woman. She is also queer! Read the review from Tor.com:  “A Greater Gatsby: The Chosen and the Beautiful by Nghi Vo”

I am currently reading Think Again by Adam Grant

The Pandemic Proceeds: Looking Back at 2020, Part 2- April and May

February and March introduced us to COVID-19. In April, it moved in. I was living in a state of heightened anxiety. After each walk outside, trip to the gas station, store, or anywhere, I scrubbed my hands. I felt like I was being hunted by an invisible foe. 

April felt like the month of cancelations. We canceled our plans to visit our daughter in D.C. I co-teach the Confirmation Class at our congregation. and we canceled the service and prepared to move it online. We had planned a special family trip to Norway and we began taking it apart. We canceled all service people coming into our home. We canceled our plans to attend weddings, which were then canceled. It was a very different version of cancel culture. 

Meanwhile, my book club chose to read The Doomsday Book by Connie Willis. Strangely, a story of duel pandemics was comforting. 

My friends at Deerfield High School were struggling to teach students online. Students were distracted, upset, and often absent. Teachers were trying to balance their own families’ needs and take care of students. Teaching in an online environment was new to everyone! I helped a few teachers map routes through Deerfield so they could drop off gifts, goodies, and greetings at their students’ homes. 

May years ago, I recorded A Tale of Two Cities on audio as a teaching text. I read and taught it. My colleagues were teaching this way all the time, but it only seemed like the worst of times. 

We made trips to grocery stores wearing gloves. We brought my parents groceries and they brought us food, too. Every time we saw toilet paper, we grabbed it! Our prescriptions arrived by mail. 

It looked like we might want masks, so I ordered some from a DHS alumnus whose business made bed linens and was now making masks. I ordered a lot: some for us, some for the rest of the family. 

I set my parents up on Zoom and helped them use it. I found an old lamp in the basement that would give me more face light when I was on a video call. 

We began to meet people on our patio, outside, masked and distanced. We still called, texted, emailed, and video chatted regularly too. We continued our effort to stay in touch and reach out to friends and family. 

I started a group sourced poem called “When This is Over” on Facebook and published it here. The end of this time felt far closer then than it does now.  

My anxiety kept rising. My emotions were very close to the surface and I had to remind myself frequently about what I could or could not control. 

Many of the appliances in the house were running far more than in the past. My wife needed ice on her back several times a day. We ran the dishwasher constantly and it was spitting out strange melted pieces of plastic. I didn’t even want to think about what would occur if the computer broke or we lost our internet connection! 

Before the pandemic, we spent a great deal of time with my parents, and now we feared that these visits might kill them. We met on patios, but it wasn’t enough. They were still not in the same place about the gravity of the situation. My mother would mock my precautions and tell me to hide in the basement when she was coming over. We would call daily and see each other at least once a week outdoors. 

My wife recovered from her surgery, but she was in the same condition as she was before the surgery. We had unsatisfying telehealth visits with the surgeon. My wife tried shots in her spine. No help. New meds. Didn’t work. Her MRIs looked exactly like the ones from January! She started physical therapy. We looked for a new surgeon and talked about a second surgery! 

We were concerned about our daughter who was working long hours on the Federal Government’s response to COVID in D.C. Our public health expert was going to work herself sick. How do you help someone who is 600 miles away? 

I signed up for an online service that alerted me when disinfecting wipes became available. I was able to buy some once or twice. We shared them with everyone! 

Passover was online. I wondered if it was safe to go to doctor or dental appointments. I was hesitant to go into a building for anything! Although the weather was getting better, the list of people who had died grew longer. Several friends on social media talked about their experience wrestling with COVID. I attended more Zoom funerals and saw postings about the loss of loved ones. 

Throughout the spring, we brought in the mail wearing gloves and then left it on the dining room table for three days before opening it; then we washed our hands. 

Restaurants started doing curbside pick up and we began to order out more. I made signs for the cars that said, “Order for Hirsch, please” on one side and “Thank you” on the other. I participated in a birthday car parade for a friend’s sixtieth. 

The pull of college was still strong for our son. His a capella group wanted to make a video of the concert they planned for the spring. That would mean traveling back to Ohio for several days and staying somewhere – and then singing, an activity that was highly problematic. While he knew it was too dangerous, it was yet another loss. He recorded at home and sent his work in, but it was far from satisfying. 

School was still online. I made a montage for my senior homeroom with the photos I had taken over the years. I sent my former Freshman English students the letters they wrote to themselves on their first day of high school. I emailed my other former students wishing them well. 

Anxiety was growing in the pit of my stomach. I found that tears welled up at surprising times. Our daughter called often. She was working very hard both at her job and with her new puppy. 

My son’s college glee club held a virtual concert using submitted recordings, old video, and recorded material. It was wonderful. It was the first time I sat next to my singer son during one of his concerts. 

My Sunday school students were struggling with Zoom fatigue. Our classes were shorter, so we needed more of them to get ready for an online Confirmation service. 

I continued to be tech support for my parents. They received more than their share of phish and scam emails. We talked, at length, about how to recognize a fraudulent email or text. 

In May, we finally made plans for our daughter to come home. Once her puppy had all his shots, she could make the trek. A long car ride with a four-month-old puppy would not be easy. 

My book clubs met online. I wondered if they would ever meet in person again. I had a reunion with some college friends via Zoom. A friend and her husband did a chamber music concert from their home in Israel via Zoom. The DHS retirees, who usually gathered for lunch in town, had an online get together. All functions of our congregation were on Zoom. The choir met on Zoom to talk about what we would do since we couldn’t sing at High Holiday services. I attended funerals and weddings online. While I have always spent a good deal of time in front of the computer, I was now spending much more time staring into a screen! 

I was still working hard to stay in touch and support my teacher friends. They were barely keeping their eyeballs above water! Yet, the school board berated teachers calling them lazy and said they were shirking their responsibilities. It was shocking and disrespectful. Teachers were working harder than ever! My wife and I wrote a letter to the board expressing our disappointment and outrage. We were not alone. The board apologized. 

I wondered if I had this disease if I coughed or sneezed or caught my breath. Was it my allergies or was it something far worse? 

We became Instacart experts. Many houses were on sale in the neighborhood and they were selling quickly. We waved at people on our walks but crossed the street to avoid them. Not everyone understood the idea of distancing, especially cyclists. Friends started to lose their jobs, get furloughed or reduced. 

At the end of May, my son graduated from college via an online ceremony. There was even a virtual reality component where he was given an avatar and could walk around a virtual campus. It was Minecraft meets Legos. He tried it for a few minutes and then joined us watching the polished video presentation that featured video of my son’s musical groups! I think he liked graduating this way better than all the hubbub of being in a big stadium. The concerts, however, were deeply missed. 

Once he was done with college, the job search began in earnest. He started reaching out to people for informational interviews. By the end of the summer, he had spoken to more than one hundred people in dozens of organizations. He was a networker! 

We had Mother’s Day distanced on my folks’ patio. They still needed quite a bit of technical support but were becoming good Zoomers. I signed them up for Instagram so they could hear a concert by my brother’s daughter. We had several family gatherings in backyards. Thank goodness for nice weather. 

For my birthday, I got Star Trek masks and a tin of Garrett’s caramel corn! I ate it. All of it. I read the nominees for the Hugo awards. All of them. 

Our daughter trekked west over Memorial Day weekend. My son and I met her in Ohio and helped drive her home. We rented a car, sanitized it, planned the logistics, and drove my daughter and her dog to Illinois in the pouring rain. 

Finally, all of us were home and safe. For the first time since this started, I could breathe easier. For the first time, I slept well. We would face the summer together. 

Reading For Treasure: Schools in the Pandemic

Reading for Treasure is my list of articles (and other readings) that are worth your attention. Click here for an introduction!

As I took my walk, I saw many parents walking their children to our local elementary school. I see signs about opening school and posts addressing concerns if we do. So this month, let’s talk about school. 

Usually, the articles I recommend from McSweeney’s are satire. This one is not. The writer is a high school English teacher who sarcastically says, “I Started School In Person This Week, And It Went Fine.”  Reopening schools does not mean schools as they used to be at all. 

A second piece from McSweeney’s is a masterful parody of the short piece “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid. This one is called “Teacher” and it is a great complement to the piece above. 

I am not sure how I landed at the Des Moines Register’s article, “9 ways America is having the wrong conversation about 'reopening' schools.” But it outlines the issues we are talking about – and those we are ignoring when we discuss going back to in-person classes. 

Education is built on relationships. Starting a relationship through a Zoom class is difficult for adults and extremely challenging for children and teenagers. Mindshift from KQED examines a wonderful solution in this article about looping, the practice where students have the same teacher for multiple years: “How Teacher Looping Can Ease the Learning Disruptions Caused by Coronavirus”

As a retired teacher and former dungeon master, I loved the idea that, especially as we use computers to reach our students, we can use some of the best lessons from Dungeons and Dragons to engage our students! This second article from Mindshift from KEQD provides, “Five Best Practices Teachers Can Learn from Dungeon Masters.”

It’s not only classroom experiences that have transformed as schools moved to remote learning. Students in the performing arts have adapted their work to the screen, too. This short radio story from NPR focuses on one high school’s play, but I have heard concerts and watched performances that have been artfully adapted so students can still create beautiful work, even in this frightening time “Performing In A Pandemic: Taking The High School Play Online”

Three articles from The Atlantic; The first two deal with issues regarding the college admission process. First, a professor from Tufts recommends, “The Easiest Reform for College Admissions.” Then, the president of Johns Hopkins University explains, “Why We Ended Legacy Admissions at Johns Hopkins.”

Lastly, echoing arguments I have been making since last spring, this Atlantic article states the obvious, “School Wasn’t So Great Before COVID, Either” and makes recommendations for improvements. COVID is an opportunity to reimagine and improve education. We should do far more than create an online analog! 

I am currently reading A Promised Land by Barak Obama.

To Open Schools or Not To Open Schools

That is the question. It is a fiery debate in my community and across the nation and the world. The largest school districts in the United States have gone fully remote. Communities with under 3% infection rates are closed, but others with 50% rates are open! Some European schools are open, but Israeli schools look like they are about to close. Evidence suggests that younger children may not spread the infection like older students, but concerns for staff members, who are often older, makes navigating in-person schooling extremely challenging. 

And then there is another argument: remote learning is uneven at best and remote learning disadvantages the most vulnerable students. However, you roll the data, whatever proof you provide about the dangers (or lack of them) of bringing children back into school, blaming teachers’ ability to teach remotely is not only the weakest rationalization but also a gross oversimplification of the problem. Some classes and teachers are doing a fantastic job with remote learning, while others continue to struggle. Why? Schools and classrooms are systems; the teacher is only one piece of that picture. 

The devil is in the details. 

With rising infection rates in most communities, it is difficult to argue that bringing people of any age together is a good idea right now. The logistics of having a percentage of students rotate through in-person classes have also proven problematic. Teachers in many districts are teaching a handful of students in their classrooms and the rest online. For many of these, what this really means is teaching all of them online, but some of them online in person. Is that better? Many students in these districts would prefer to be on their computers without their masks at home, rather than sitting in school doing the same thing. 

There is also the schedule question: Some schools have to change students' teachers and schedules in order to balance the numbers in each class of students who are coming in with those who are staying home. Is it worth changing teachers, times, and even courses so that students can be in the building? I can hear the complaints now, “Yes, I want my child in school, but she has to still be in Mr. Green’s class!” 

Then there is the piece that is so contentious that no one wants to touch it: even if we make schools completely safe and infection-free, what happens in the community may sabotage our precautions. On one of my many walks, I chatted with a neighbor who is a medical doctor. Although he would like to see his kids in school, he is aware of parties and gatherings going on in the community that are dangerous and defy safe practices. We may seal the schools, but the community creates leaks! 

I have seen evidence of this as I walk the neighborhood: gatherings of bikes in driveways, groups of cars picking up and dropping off at homes, and backyard parties. Some of the parents and children are wearing masks, but often they are not. 

Learning is a social and emotional experience. Anxious people don’t function well. They don’t learn or teach well. People do not thrive in stressful situations. Even if you say, just bring in those students and staff who are okay coming in, that has problems, too. We need specific numbers of certain people to come in or school doesn’t work. What if we get too many of some and not enough of others? The math teachers will come in, but the science teachers won’t. We don’t have enough custodians, secretaries, technology staff – you get the idea. How does that help? Should the burden be placed only on a few? 

Kids need to be in school. Teachers want to be in school. Right now, it is a knot we are unable to untangle. School staff should be at the front of the line to receive vaccines. Will those screaming for schools to open support closing everything else (bars, restaurants, gyms, stores, etc.) and abide by a lockdown order? That is how Europe opened schools! Can we trust our neighbors to play by the rules? 

Only once community transmission of this illness falls and staff and students are protected, can schools can. Americans don’t seem to be willing to make the trade-offs to open them any sooner. 

Staying Positive about the Promise and Peril of the New School Year

Remember lining up at the school door for the first day of school? Remember the thrill of finding out who was in your class and who would be your teacher? After the bell rang, remember running to find your new locker, unloading the boxes of crayons, smocks, sharpened pencils in spiffy cases, putting fresh binders into your desk, and presenting yourself to your new teacher with a big box of tissues. The room was bright, cheerful, and greeted you warmly. You worried about making a good impression on both your classmates and teachers. You wanted this year to be the best year ever! You had been perseverating about this first day for weeks, planning outfits, spreading rumors, peeking in windows, and pinning hopes on friendships and scholarship.

 

On the first day of classes as a teacher, I was beyond anxious. I wanted that first impression, that first class session to set the perfect tone and make every child feel welcome, excited, and joyful about our journey together. I wanted to learn everyone’s name and all about them! I want them to know that this would indeed be the best year ever!

 

How difficult it must be to muster up that kind of enthusiasm this year. How much work must it take for teachers to make a computer as welcoming and warm as a classroom? Turning on a computer cannot compare to the smell of freshly waxed floors and the din of kids in hallways. Six feet and social distance can create a chasm that will take labor to bridge.  How do we discover the real people behind the masks when we never get to see a smile in person?

 

We must! We can! Parents, teachers, administrators, counselors, social workers, and all the adults in children’s lives must join together to help students discover the deeply buried joy in learning this year. It is a mammoth undertaking fighting the fear and anger, the feelings of being abandoned and betrayed, and the overwhelming wish for our old normal routine.

 

I don’t know if that school is coming back, but it is not coming back soon. School staff and parents have been pushed to the frontlines of a battle that politicians have fought with only wishes and promises.

 

Yet, here we are – on our computers, trapped in our homes, alone in our classrooms and offices, in reconfigured spaces that feel alien and cold. We have been given a few weeks to prepare. We have been threatened and bullied. We have been asked to recreate symphonies with sticks.

 

We must trust our teachers and other school staff members to do right by kids. That is why they are there. They, too, must juggle their own family needs as we return to school.

 

We must help children rediscover the joy of learning. We must partner with their teachers and school staff and find creative ways to help them sustain engagement with school.

We must partner with parents and the community and try to find ways to balance the many pressing and important pieces of our lives beyond the schoolhouse. We must not sacrifice some for others.

 

To everyone who is going back to the classroom, campus, school, or center, may this school year bring you joy and connection. Despite the distance, may your students, teachers, colleagues, and friends help you learn, grow, and discover the best in yourself and the best in them. Despite the fear and anger, may your community wrap you in protection and health. Despite the challenges, may the new school year reaffirm your noblest goals and passions, and may it transform you and therefore transform the world.

Physically Safe, Emotionally Supported, and Academically Engaged: Twelve Ideas for School in the Fall

In person or not in person, that is the dilemma. Schools are trying to figure out how they will engage with students in the fall. Some schools have already decided that they will continue teaching via computers distantly. The American Academy of Pediatricians has recommended that schools open in person and have provided guidance about how to do that.

 

It is a complex and dangerous problem. For the most part, schools like to play it safe. In this case, all the options are significantly problematic. Bringing students into the school building is fraught with medical risks, but teaching them at home has not been working well.

 

Some parents may choose to home school their students in the fall. Students and staff members may spend large chunks of time unable to attend or connect to school due to illness, family assistance, or other problems. The 2020-2021 school year will be the opposite of routine.

 

What should schools do?

 

Distance learning has not been successful. Returning students to their classrooms creates hygiene, space, attendance, and countless other challenges. While there appears to be evidence that children are less likely to get COVID-19 or infect others, we have already seen the problems that come of even small number of infected people in groups.

 

Recognizing that one solution will not work for every student, school, or family, here is my brainstorm list of school opening possibilities:

 

Build the Relationships First: Spend the first few weeks, regardless of whether they are in person, remote, or both, getting to know each other. Focus on building the student-teacher and classroom relationships: bonds first and give the creation of that bond significant time and priority.

 

One Student At A Time: Consider one-on-one options. Could teachers and other staff members check in with kids for brief periods a few times each week? Could teams of teachers collaborate such that they have a shared group of students with whom to connect? Fine tune curriculum for each individual student. With absences, illness, and the many challenges this time is bringing, it is likely that few students will be in the same curricular place and one size will fit no one. Focus on each student singularly. 

 

Teachers, Not Students, Change Rooms: Organize students so they are with kids who are taking the same classes and then move the teachers from room to room and leave the kids in the same place. If a group of eight to fifteen students stay in the same room and work with a team of teachers, we have limited the number of people with whom they are connecting, removed lots of hallway and lunchroom exposure, and given students a singular home that could be sanitized. In addition, we create a team of teachers working with the same students!

 

Classes In Person, Broadcast, and Recorded: Make sure that all in-person classes are simultaneously broadcast to the kids at home as well as recorded and posted. We must constantly plan for lots of short and long term absences of students and staff! This is another argument for teams of teachers working together.

 

Classes in the Community and Outside: Move classes out into the community and incorporate community service activities that connect to course concepts. Move classes outside to the greatest extent possible.

 

School Families: Create multi-age groupings of students and form families or Harry Potter style houses. Eating together helps bring people together. So does low-level self-disclosure. We all know that just because students were born in the same year does not mean they are developmentally in the same place or possess the same skills or knowledge.

 

A Huge Group Project: Make the first few weeks of school one big group project. The group might be the class or a larger team or the entire school. This could be a community service project, figuring out how school will work, career-focused, problem based, or some other highly engaging active work. What if school was transformed into a singular enterprise working together toward a shared goal?

 

Integrate the Arts and Student Support Services: Have every class have an art, music, theatre, and/or dance component – and teacher. Ask counselors, social workers, case managers, school psychologists and others to stop by classes on a regular basis. Make sure they become an integral part of the classroom community.

 

Slow Down and Focus on the People – not the Content: Slow down the curriculum and the content and focus on the people instead. Make sure that students and staff get to know each other really really really well. Rather than focusing on coverage and content, be sure that social-emotional needs are met and that students are psychologically and physically well. Treat every student as if they are suffering from trauma – because they are. 

 

Look at Grading Differently: Make evaluation far more in-depth than letter grades. Ask students to create criteria and then to self-evaluate. Make these evaluations meaningful and relevant to students. Ask kids to track their growth over time. Make sure that every child knows that the goal is for that they succeed and earn an A  - whatever A looks like.

 

Create a Department of Parent Connection: Support parents and families that are struggling with childcare, food, shelter, and other issues. Many universities now have offices of parent communications. Perhaps having some staff dedicated to coordinating assistance to and communication with parents would be a good way to open school’s door wider – and thus provide even more support for kids! 

 

Each Teacher and Class Must Partner With Parents: Include and partner with parents and families. This means reaching out to parents on a regularly. Elementary schools often have a home newsletter, why couldn’t middle and high school classes also reach out to home in both directions? Parent phone calls and emails will be critical, too!  Home and school must be even more closely connected than ever before.

 

I have not addressed nitty-gritty issues like busses, making hallways one way or having two-stage passing periods (even rooms, odd rooms). Such logistics must not be allowed to overshadow making sure that students are physically safe, emotionally supported, and academically engaged. Schools must focus on how to best support students and their families.

 

Some old structures will be useful, but many will be restrictive and problematic. Schools staffs must be willing to reinvent school, let go of rigid mindsets, and be highly creative. They should talk to each other and learn from each other – and from any source they can!

 

Here is an outstanding article that I saw after I finished this entry that goes into more depth into some of the same ideas and some even better ones!

Letter to the Educators

 

Dear Educators,

 

Thank you. Thank you for being essential to our children and the entire country. Thank you for changing all you do at a moment’s notice. Thank you for not giving up on our children or their parents. Thank you for staying up late after taking care of your own family, and reaching deep into that already low reservoir of energy and using it to care for someone else’s kids.

 

No matter what your role, you have been striving to meet student needs; thank you to teachers, counselors, social workers, nurses, psychologists, coaches, teaching assistants, tutors, librarians, administrative assistants, custodians, student teachers, interns, administrators, technology staff, paraprofessionals, trainers, guards, resource staff, cafeteria staff, bus drivers, transportation support staff, coordinators and everyone else at school whose hands are holding the student safety net.

 

Thank you for reaching out. Thank you for trying different approaches to meet different needs. Thank you for meeting kids’ emotional needs and attending to far more than the curriculum and the cognitive, but providing another layer of support and assistance to children living in a terrible and frightening time.

 

Parents have worked hard to be your assistants and in doing so gained a new and renewed admiration for your skill and expertise. We knew you were doing something very challenging and complex and now we have a deeper understanding and appreciation of what it means to be an educator.

Because we went to school does not mean we can be a teacher. Because we visited the nurse’s or counselor’s or tutor’s office, does not mean we have even a fraction of a view of what it takes to do a good job in those roles. After being our children’s teachers’ helpers as well as their parents, we understand more about what it takes to be with them at school.  

There was a photo of a large SUV with the words, “You lied. My children are not a joy to have in class” written on the windows. Thank you for fostering sides of our children we don’t see at home. Thank you for being another adult with whom our children could find shelter. Thank you for loving our children in a way that we ourselves found challenging.

We all miss your physical presence as school becomes increasingly remote. We crave your classroom and the power of your smile and gentle way of communicating without words. We want the interactions that Zoom could not replicate, that we could not feel across the distance. Thank you for those extra special visits at home, car parade, care packages, and special appearances. The power of our relationship was so strong that it could sustain us distantly. But your absence is like an uncovered wound we can’t keep from touching.

 

We know you are being beaten up and berated by some. We know that there are those who do not appreciate the miracles you have wrought. We wish they could sit on your shoulders, cover your eyes and ears, and tell you to just listen to us! We wish the critics had someone who cared for them the way you have cherished our children. We wish everyone had someone calling out across the gulf the way you have bridged this time for us.

 

The summer beckons. You always earned your summers, what little of them you actually get for yourselves. More than ever before, you deserve a break. 

 

We are worried about the fall. We know you share this concern. Please know that we trust you. We trust that you will continue to do what you have done throughout this ordeal: Do what is best for all of our children.

 

That is why you are essential, precious, and extraordinary. Thank you is inadequate.

 

All our love and wishing you health and peace,

 

Your grateful students, their parents, and members of the community

 

 

How’s Distance Learning Working For You? Ideas for the Fall

It is not hard to hear the cries of teachers, parents, and students right now. Distance learning, e-learning, or whatever you want to call it is not a big success. It is difficult and cumbersome. It is a very poor substitute for what happens in classrooms across the country. At best, it is a stopgap, and at worst it is a sham. 

And now we are learning that we may not be able to return to school as usual in the fall! Does that mean that teachers get all summer to get better at the bad solution? One could rationalize that we are only now learning how to do learning online and, by next fall, we’ll all be experts and do it beautifully! I don’t know who might say that, but whoever would has never been in education – or they are experiencing quarantine delusions.

Kids are disengaged, teachers are frustrated, and parents feel like they don’t have the tools to help their children. The technology is buggy, the content feels overwhelming, and so many other factors are at play. Providing an online analog for school is not working.  

So what do we do? More of the same? Amp up what isn’t working anyway? Become stricter and create more punishments if students don’t comply? Threaten kids with grades, demotions, or failure? What a great formula for success!

We must create better options and reinvent the way online school functions. Rather than a failing attempt to replicate regular school online, let’s use what we know about what makes learning successful to create new options.

The relationship between student and teacher sits at the heart of education. Anything that disrupts this relationship will have a devastating effect on learning. Whatever we do in the fall, it must allow teachers and students to build powerful interpersonal bonds. This is especially important since teachers and students may not have met each other prior to this crisis.

Students must be actively engaged in learning and that engagement must be maintained over time. Teachers are talking about digital fatigue. Students are complaining about school being turned into a series of worksheets, readings, online quizzes, videos, and Zoom meetings.

More is not better, no matter what the highly materialistic parts of our culture may argue. Students are not empty vessels waiting to be filled with formulas, dates, and texts. Education is not a constant barrage of information. Without active involvement, interactive experiences, and engaging ideas, students either disengage or robotically play the game.

So what do we do? How do we make the best use of this time with our students even though we can’t be in the same classroom with them? Here are alternative ways we might structure school in the fall:

Less is More: Some high schools have as many as nine periods a day. Some schools use a block schedule and have two, three, or four longer classes for any given time period. Beloit College in Wisconsin is considering  breaking its first semester into two parts. Students would only take two classes during each part. Teachers would teach fewer classes, too. These classes would be more immersive and in-depth.

What if, instead of taking five, six, or more classes, each student only took two? This would allow for more in-depth contact with the teachers, more time to explore in more depth, and prevent some overload. Instead of a long semester with many classes, what about two classes at a time for four weeks each? 

Teachers and schools must be flexible with their curriculums and standards. This is an unprecedented situation and insisting that we cover all thirty-seven chapters, quiz on each, and take the unit test is not the path to success now. Fewer classes give teachers and students a better chance to develop a relationship. It gives them more time to find engaging activities that might go beyond the computer screen. It could also provide a natural limit on the content.

Beloit is also using their two at a time as a way to be able to pivot when the actual building can be opened again. After the first set of two classes, maybe we can then get back together. If not, we do it again.

Interdisciplinary Teams: Another approach would be to bundle several classes together. Instead of a single teacher and twenty-some student several times a day, what if we had a group of teachers and a group of students working together? Instead of Science, Math, English, Art, and Social Studies, what if we had a team of teachers working with a group of students? They would not divide into individual subject areas but create an integrated curriculum. The group of teachers might also include a counselor or social worker. Perhaps these classes would focus on social issues like climate change, racial identity, or a particular art form, period in history, or scientific concept. Perhaps they would employ a variety of experiences both on and off the computer. Perhaps they could engage parents and community members who had specific talents or backgrounds.

This approach must not be “today is social studies day, look at the document.” To function well, each activity and assignment should challenge students to explore. The connections would be the focus of the course! We could feed one bird from several feeders!

Again, teachers and schools will have to say that they are not covering the entire AP curriculum and be willing to go deeper with a more narrow focus.

If they build it, you will come: We can take both of these ideas one step further. What if we let students drive the curricular choices? What if we put them in charge and make teachers their guides and coaches instead of their directors?

What if we ask kids what they would like to learn and organize courses around student generated interests? Students and teachers would be paired based on suggestions, maybe some from the adult staff and some from the students. These teams would then design their own courses as a team, students and teachers working side by side. Could everyone “do the work?” Could assignments, activities, and assessments apply to everyone, adults and kids alike?

This would also mean that some courses might need outside experts as consultants. Teachers might have to move beyond their areas of expertise and learn with the kids.

After school activities could be approached in the same way. Could we have e-sports teams? Could we move from theatre productions to short films? What about puppetry? Electronic music? The school newspaper online could be a critical piece of keeping the community informed and connected!

We must be able to relax rigid structures that stand in the way of student success during this time of learning apart. We must be willing to make relationships, engagement, and depth the educational priorities. Why can’t we have multi-age classes? Why can’t art, physical education, and world languages be integrated with traditional academic subjects? Now is the time to go as far as is necessary to help students learn and thrive. They deserve no less.