NYC is not ready to open schools – It’s not just about testing
Mayor de Blasio insists schools will open for students September 10.
The UFT says not so fast.
The CSA (principals union) has called for a remote opening.
The UFT wants to open, but only if a safety checklist gets met.
Mulgrew:
We have a responsibility to try to reopen school buildings because the infection rate in New York City is so low.
OK, but…
I mean I would rather teach in a classroom than in a Zoom. It’s not even a close call. Face to face teaching is actual teaching. Zoom is a pale imitation.
But a “responsibility to reopen”? I don’t know. I think we met the “responsibility to try” and it didn’t work.
We had a “responsibility to try”, we did try, and it did not work.
There are limits. When the UFT proposed “blended learning” it sounded tricky. After working with schedules for weeks, it was pretty clearly a mess. I am talking about programmers, schedulers. Not politicians. Not union officials.
We tried. Blended will not work.
Today? Blended learning creates more questions than answers. Who is teaching the students when they are at home? How do we maintain continuity if different parts (cohorts) in the same class get different in-person lessons? How do we maintain similar content for some classes that are occasionally in person (blended) and some that are fully remote? How do we prepare lessons that are remote for some students and in person for others?
These questions are exhausting. All-remote in the Spring was exhausting for teachers. Some nearly CONTINUE READING: NYC is not ready to open schools – It’s not just about testing | JD2718