NYC Educator: Why Can't We All Teach Live During the Apocalypse?

NYC Educator: Why Can't We All Teach Live During the Apocolypse?

Why Can't We All Teach Live During the Apocalypse?

Somehow this story in the Post got past me. The headline declares teachers across the city have abandoned live instruction. While it goes into the fact that some students lack the necessary technology to keep up with their peers, much of it is about people bemoaning the lack of available live streaming.

There's more to this story. For example, it was only yesterday that the DOE finally renewed the use of Zoom. But they did so with some crippling limitations.

For one thing, you can only use it with DOE email. How many city students actually have DOE email? Our school has a proprietary school email, and we signed every student up so as to enable remote instruction. However, my students with city-supplied iPads will still not be able to get on Zoom with our school address. Depend on the DOE to make things as difficult as possible.

There are other reasons why live instruction might not be ideal. I don't know how much experience Post readers have with it, but I've been doing it since the beginning. Imagine being a PE teacher, and demonstrating exercises for your students. Now they do it with you. Or maybe they don't, since all you can actually see is the avatars they've chosen for themselves. Who knows what they're doing on the other side of the screen?

Then you come to the undeniable fact that we do not, in fact, live in classrooms. I know a teacher who shares an apartment CONTINUE READING: NYC Educator: Why Can't We All Teach Live During the Apocolypse?