More teachers are asked to double up, instructing kids at school and at home simultaneously - The Washington Post

More teachers are asked to double up, instructing kids at school and at home simultaneously - The Washington Post

More teachers are asked to double up, instructing kids at school and at home simultaneously

With third grade back in the building, Meghan Foster was teaching math one recent morning to two classes at once: 14 students who filled her classroom on Maryland’s Eastern Shore and another six children logging in from laptops at home.

To make it work, the veteran teacher from Caroline County used a desktop computer, a laptop and a document camera, adjusting for glitches as she went along. She strove to meld the in-person with the virtual, to strike a balance between children who are near and far.

During a pandemic school year when nothing in education has been perfect, the kind of double duty needed for simultaneous instruction is its own kind of lesson, Foster says.

“Sometimes, I want to teach them how to multiply, but I end up teaching them how to persevere when things get tough or how to problem solve,” said Foster, 41, who called it the greatest challenge she has faced in 20 years of teaching.

Parents and teachers: Tell The Post how you’re handling school during the pandemic

Simultaneous teaching — also called simulcast or concurrent — is what many districts across the country have settled on in an attempt to solve the logistical jigsaw puzzle involved in bringing back some students for in-person instruction while others continue learning from home.

And it’s about to get ramped up in dramatic fashion. Under pressure from President Biden and governors, and facing mounting evidence that schools can reopen if safety measures are followed, districts in the Washington region and nationwide are embarking on the difficult mission of returning hundreds of thousands of children to classrooms that have been shuttered for nearly a year. CONTINUE READING:  More teachers are asked to double up, instructing kids at school and at home simultaneously - The Washington Post

Open Letter Regarding Continued Hybrid Reopening Plan Failures – Parents United for Public Education

Open Letter Regarding Continued Hybrid Reopening Plan Failures – Parents United for Public Education

Open Letter Regarding Continued Hybrid Reopening Plan Failures

Dr. William Hite, Superintendent, School District of Philadelphia
Philadelphia Board of Education
Philadelphia City Council

2/18/2021

Dr. Hite, Board of Education members, and Council members:

We are glad to hear that the School District of Philadelphia has pushed back the date for return to school buildings. Like the majority of parents across the district, we were never excited about sending our children back into toxic, poorly ventilated buildings without a solid plan in place. We are very concerned about putting staff members who have not had the opportunity to get fully vaccinated at risk of illness and death, as well as the potential for children to get sick themselves and/or to spread the virus to their own family members at home.

We believe that delaying the reopening of buildings to ensure safety is the right choice, however we are disturbed with the district’s leadership’s insistence in saying that the delay is due to the ongoing mediation with the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers. 

In seeking to unfairly shift the blame to teachers via the union, the district continues to minimize the role and the voice of parents and caregivers across the district who have said “no” to this reopening plan. District leadership has also refused to take any responsibility for their failures in planning, collaboration, and CONTINUE READING: Open Letter Regarding Continued Hybrid Reopening Plan Failures – Parents United for Public Education

Should we talk about blended learning? Some in the UFT do not think so | JD2718

Should we talk about blended learning? Some in the UFT do not think so | JD2718

Should we talk about blended learning? Some in the UFT do not think so

I submitted a resolution to this month’s Delegate Assembly – to move away from Blended Learning. I am attaching the text at the bottom. I submitted as late as possible – five minutes before the deadline – assuming that I would be #14 on the list and it would not come up. I was a bit surprised – there were only two submissions. The Stop Blended Learning reso would come up.

However, with today’s closure, no one is teaching blended tomorrow. And the agenda included a dozen resolutions, and #1 and #12 I really want to vote on (#1, Black Lives Matter, has already passed).

So I was prepared to withdraw the resolution for today. I drafted what I would say:

Jonathan Halabi, Chapter Leader, High School of American Studies at Lehman College. – bear with me for a moment. We really do need to talk about blended learning. All of our members need to be part of that conversation. But we have a dozen important resolutions coming up; I want to get to them all. And, with today’s announcement, no one is teaching “blended” tomorrow. Michael, I’m not making a motion today. Let’s move the agenda.

But I didn’t get a chance to graciously withdraw the reso. The leadership of the United Federation of Teachers filibustered. Mulgrew dragged out the first motion, and added three minutes of commentary CONTINUE READING: Should we talk about blended learning? Some in the UFT do not think so | JD2718

Teachers Are On A Tightrope With No Safety Net - PopularResistance.Org

Teachers Are On A Tightrope With No Safety Net - PopularResistance.Org

TEACHERS ARE ON A TIGHTROPE WITH NO SAFETY NET

The Hybrid Model Teachers Are Being Thrust Into During The Pandemic Isn’t Sustainable Without More Resources And Support.

After more than a month into New York City’s experiment with reopening schools in a hybrid format that has students alternating between classrooms and their homes, teacher Sapphira Hendrix still finds herself working until 1 or 2 o’clock in the morning, planning lessons and responding to students. One night, in particular, she recounts, when finishing up a lesson plan for one of her classes, she glanced at the clock and noticed it was 4:30 a.m. “I realized I had just finished my work for the night at about the same time I normally would be getting up to start my day.”

Hendrix says this was one of the moments she finally was struck with the absurdity of what educators in her community, and in many school districts across America, are doing to carry their work in a pandemic. “This isn’t healthy or sustainable,” she says.

When New York City schools opened their doors with a plan for students to cycle in and out of classrooms and learn remotely the rest of the time, many doubted this big city would pull it off. Educators, parents, and students had questions about the logistics of an undertaking so enormous by a Department of Education that has struggled for years, even without a pandemic.

Hudson High School of Learning Technologies in Manhattan, where Hendrix works, seems like a great example of a school that’s doing hybrid learning right. CONTINUE READING: Teachers Are On A Tightrope With No Safety Net - PopularResistance.Org

Virtual learning exacerbates racial disparities: There are better ways to guard against COVID-19 while prioritizing all kids’ education - New York Daily News

Virtual learning exacerbates racial disparities: There are better ways to guard against COVID-19 while prioritizing all kids’ education - New York Daily News

Virtual learning exacerbates racial disparities: There are better ways to guard against COVID-19 while prioritizing all kids’ education

Despite society’s earnest push to confront systemic racism head on, we have actually fallen further behind in ensuring an equitable education for our nation’s children. Virtual school is widening racial disparities, as in-person learning has become yet another white privilege.

Race is a strong predictor of whether students are receiving in-person instruction. A survey of public schools covering more than 13 million children, found that districts where the vast majority of students are white were three times as likely as school districts that enroll mostly students of color to be open for in-person learning.

It’s not only that in-classroom instruction is likely to be superior to online classes, especially when too many low-income kids lack the devices or quality internet connection they need; the social interactions that happen in school buildings contribute to children’s overall emotional wellbeing.

Low-income children in particular rely on in-person school for basic needs, and when in-person school is unavailable, we are perpetuating inequalities. Nearly 32 million underserved children rely on school-based meals, and millions more receive vital access to special education, therapy and counseling services.

Despite society’s earnest push to confront systemic racism head on, we have actually fallen further behind in ensuring an equitable education for our nation’s children. Virtual school is widening racial disparities, as in-person learning has become yet another white privilege.

Race is a strong predictor of whether students are receiving in-person instruction. A survey of public schools covering more than 13 million children, found that districts where the vast majority of students are white were three times as likely as school districts that enroll mostly students of color to be open for in-person learning.

It’s not only that in-classroom instruction is likely to be superior to online classes, especially when too many low-income kids lack the devices or quality internet connection they need; the social interactions that happen in school buildings contribute to children’s overall emotional wellbeing.

Low-income children in particular rely on in-person school for basic needs, and when in-person school is unavailable, we are perpetuating inequalities. Nearly 32 million underserved children rely on school-based meals, and millions more receive vital access to special education, therapy and counseling services. CONTINUE READING: Virtual learning exacerbates racial disparities: There are better ways to guard against COVID-19 while prioritizing all kids’ education - New York Daily News

Hybrid school might be worse than remote or all in-person school - Vox

Hybrid school might be worse than remote or all in-person school - Vox

Hybrid school might be the worst of both worlds

Part-time school during the pandemic might create as many problems as it solves.

Hybrid learning was supposed to be an improvement.

When school buildings closed in the spring due to the pandemic, students, teachers, and families all struggled with remote classes. But come fall, the virus was still raging across much of America. So many districts — including the nation’s largest, New York City — struck a compromise.

They would bring kids into buildings, but only for part of the day or week. That way, they’d reduce the number of students in schools at any one time, limiting viral spread, while still giving students crucial in-person time with their teachers and peers.

That was the idea, anyway. In practice, however, hybrid models could turn out to be the worst of both worlds, as David Zweig predicted at Wired in July.

To begin with, hybrid schedules don’t really solve one of the pandemic’s biggest problems for parents: the lack of child care. While having kids in school a few days a week or a few hours a day might give parents a bit more flexibility to do their jobs, “the benefits of being able to work a little less part-time and a little less erratically are not going to be anything like what you’d be getting from full-time school,” Michael Madowitz, an economist at the Center for American Progress who studies the impact of child care, told Vox.

And while some parents may be able to stay home with their kids on the days they’re out of school, others will need outside child care. That means kids will spend part of the week in child CONTINUE READING: Hybrid school might be worse than remote or all in-person school - Vox

NYC Educator: NYC Hybrid Model Designed to Fail

NYC Educator: NYC Hybrid Model Designed to Fail

NYC Hybrid Model Designed to Fail

So says City Council member Mark Treyger in a great piece in New York Intelligencer. Why is it designed to fail? Treyger came to the same conclusions I did when I first saw this. Where are the magical co-teachers coming from? How can we send subs and Tweedies out to teach subjects they may or may not be familiar with? How will schools find the bodies to do this, and shouldn't we be looking for something better than bodies as teachers?



UFT endorsed this program, and I think it was specifically because of the need for extra teachers. Right now de Blasio is still talking about laying off tens of thousands of city workers, including 9,000 UFT members. It's certainly better to see the city hiring thousands of teachers than firing them. Maybe, if we allow ourselves to dream, we could imagine those extra teachers hanging around and reducing class sizes. That's the impossible dream, but there it is.

In reality, of course, de Blasio hasn't hired nearly enough teachers. If I recall correctly, one year we averted Bloomberg layoffs but he let our numbers dwindle via attrition, and we're thus down thousands of teachers. This is why classes of 34 are now more the rule than the exception. Of course in the years before the apocalypse crippled our budget, de Blasio never bothered to hire back those teachers. Had he done so, the hybrid model he now advocates might have a snowball's chance in hell. As things stand, such a statement would be overly optimistic.

And now, the very first school in Queens has closed due to COVID. If that's not a harbinger of things to come, I CONTINUE READING: NYC Educator: NYC Hybrid Model Designed to Fail

NYC Public School Parents: Principals vote "no confidence" in Mayor; ability of DOE to provide an adequate education to NYC kids more in doubt than ever

NYC Public School Parents: Principals vote "no confidence" in Mayor; ability of DOE to provide an adequate education to NYC kids more in doubt than ever

Principals vote "no confidence" in Mayor; ability of DOE to provide an adequate education to NYC kids more in doubt than ever

Mark Cannizzaro, President of the CSA, the administrator's union, just announced that they had unanimously approved a resolution this morning, saying they had lost trust in the Mayor, and calling him to cede control over NYC schools and let the NY State Education Department take over.  

It is clear from the CSA resolution, press release and subsequent press conference that the frustration of principals has reached a boiling point, given all the repeated last minute changes in DOE's reopening plans and how they were not  included in any of the discussions that has made their attempt to staff their schools even more difficult that it was already, with three different teachers required for in-person learning, remote blended learning, and 100% remote learning.

The lengthy resolution says, among other things,  that DOE had "entered into grossly irresponsible staffing agreements that fail to prioritize needs of school children and families" & district superintendents have pressured principals "to falsely report their staffing needs already met."

The straw that broke the camel's back, according to President Mark Cannizzaro at a press conference this afternoon, was the latest DOE MOU with the UFT, released on Friday, that will allow teachers to stay home if they are teaching remotely,  which he said makes the orderly staffing of schools even more difficult.  He also cited a DOE email that went out to administrators, saying that they would have teach classes, even though the Chancellor had earlier agreed that this would be a voluntary decision on their part. 

FACE (DoE's office of Family and Community Empowerment) also emailed parents late on Friday, linking to the new UFT agreement and highlighting the new role of CONTINUE READING: NYC Public School Parents: Principals vote "no confidence" in Mayor; ability of DOE to provide an adequate education to NYC kids more in doubt than ever

The ‘logistical madness’ of hybrid school schedules — by nearly 50 frustrated teachers - The Washington Post

The ‘logistical madness’ of hybrid school schedules — by nearly 50 frustrated teachers - The Washington Post

The ‘logistical madness’ of hybrid school schedules — by nearly 50 frustrated teachers

The 2020-21 school year is set to start next week in New York City, the country’s largest school system, and the plan at the moment is for students to follow a hybrid model in which they would spend some days in classrooms and other days learning remotely at home.

The plan put forth by Mayor Bill de Blasio has been controversial, with some people saying the city has not done enough planning to ensure that there is enough staff at all schools and that necessary health measures will be taken to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

The city has a very low coronavirus infection rate now after being a pandemic hot spot in the spring, and de Blasio and others argue schools should open for students who want to attend.

On Monday, the mayor announced 55 positive coronavirus tests among New York City school employees who have been on campuses getting ready for the opening. That amounts to a 0.3 percent positivity rate among nearly 17,000 personnel tested, de Blasio said.

In this post, nearly 50 faculty members at the Metropolitan Expeditionary Learning School, a public school serving grades 6-12 in Queens, came together to write about the problems they see with the hybrid plan. They call it “logistical madness.”

By Faculty Members at the Metropolitan Expeditionary Learning School (Q167)

Candice Abreu, Aisha Ali, Jennifer Avellino, Sadhya Bailey, Katie Blouse, Cheryl Bolton, Hannah Brenman, Melissa Bright, Stacy Brown, Robin Baumgarten, Milreyly Cas, Denise Del Gaudio, Rachel Demalderis, Shoshi Doza, Sandra Drozd, Rachel Ellis, Arthur James Gary, Kathleen Glatthaar, Meghan Gosselin, Ilana Gutman, William Hendrick, Thomas Hurth, Gus Jacobson, Dawoun Jyung, Rebecca Kleinbart, Lauren Kosasa, Tejal Kothari, Keiri Lagos, Joe Masco, Allison Maxfield, Aaron Morales, Andreina Nunez, Evan O’Connell, Margaret O’Connor, Seyi Okuneye, Lucy Robins, Jonathan Rosado, Elyse Rosenberg, Kimberly Scher, Laura Shah, Eric Shieh, Michael Stern, Kimron Thomas, Kristen Tomanocy, Brooke Winter-DiGirolamo, Claire Wolff and Jenna-Lyn Zaino CONTINUE READING: The ‘logistical madness’ of hybrid school schedules — by nearly 50 frustrated teachers - The Washington Post

NYC Educator: A Hybrid that Works + First Day Back--Fishbowl Teaching

NYC Educator: A Hybrid that Works

A Hybrid that Works

I was speaking with someone from a Long Island district who described to me what they're doing in his town. Things are easier there, evidently, since they're fairly well to do and they haven't overcrowded the schools to some obscene level. I'm pretty familiar with overcrowding. Our school is at 220% capacity, and the most we can have most students report is once a week.

In the Long Island district, students come in every other day. Teachers give lessons and they are broadcast in real time. Half the students are in the classroom and half are home. Only the students in the classroom on any given day are allowed to ask questions or interact with the teacher. Now I'm not about to jump up and down and declare this is a wonderful system. There are clearly flaws.

The only thing I'll say about it is it's actually practical. You can do it. In that respect, it's superior to the models the DOE has designed. In fact, though we're only two weeks away from students coming in, the DOE is still looking for teachers to cover these programs. It's kind of incredible that the DOE would pay some firm millions to come up with a program that required who knows how many new teachers to make it happen. There are 80,000 teachers around. Why don't they ask us before paying all that cash?

As if that's not enough, the fact is the mayor is looking at the possibility of firing 23,000 city employees, including 9,000 teachers. Why would anyone contemplating layoffs go on a hiring spree? And why would that someone, who's known of this possibility for months, accept a program that requires thousands of new teachers? Your guess is as good as mine.

I know someone who was recently excessed. This person tells me that the same school is now looking for new teachers. How do you excess experienced teachers and then go off CONTINUE READING: NYC Educator: A Hybrid that Works

NYC Educator: First Day Back--Fishbowl Teaching - http://nyceducator.com/2020/09/first-day-back-fishbowl-teaching.html

What happened? | JD2718

What happened? | JD2718

What happened?

August 19 and August 20 the United Federation of Teachers leadership began work towards a school reopening job action. NYC and the NYC Department of Education had been mostly uncooperative all summer. Disagreements about safety were not close to be resolved. The Department wanted minimal testing requirements, the union wanted stringent testing requirements.

There had been cooperation over the summer – but the results were generally bad for teachers and schools: Blended learning with impossible constraints, 1800 plans written by 1800 principals (with training in pedagogy, not in safety planning), Instructional lunch, and just now more roles than teachers.

So August 19 and 20 the UFT holds a press conference, announces safety non-negotiables, and begins organizing meetings. First chapter leaders were invited to borough-wide meetings. Then members were invited to meetings in smaller groups.

My union is run top-down. Central gives instructions to the boroughs, and often directly to District Reps. District Reps give directions to Chapter Leaders – some of whom follow them – and that’s all that’s really expected. In a few chapters there is actual discussion, but in many the CL doesn’t even communicate information from the Central, and in most the CL just communicates from Central. There is not much two-way flow of information. The idea of Officers and Reps “serving” members is paternalistic, at best. (with very notable exceptions – if you almost jumped out of your chair when you read those words – you are probably in that minority. And we are incredibly thankful to the handful of you)

So Chapter Leaders, then members got invited to meetings. And the stakes, possible job action, questions about personal safety and safety of our students, were high. Very high. Higher than at any other union meeting most of us have been to. Ever. And the reaction was not what they leaders expected. In the UFT, instructions are given, chapter leaders follow them, or ignore them. But here there were questions. Lots of questions.

• Do we have to strike? (Quite a bit of nervousness)
• Why aren’t we demanding full remote (Quite a few challenges to Central’s “We want to go in, but safely” strategy)
• What’s the timeline? (Central had not prepared a timeline. These were designed a bit like pep rallies)
• When’s the vote? There was no answer.
• What steps should chapter leaders take? The answers were absent or nebulous, came from a variety of sources, but not central. I was asked to organize a chapter meeting, but not yet. And there was no follow-up to say “now” (passive voice there, intentionally so) (Central had not prepared next steps. These were designed a bit like pep rallies)

The process gets repeated in the member meetings, but attendance is gooooood… but not excellent. And members might ask fewer difficult questions, but there is a clear “enthusiasm gap” (larger when considering the significant numbers who did not come).

What happened? 

That’s easy. You should not run a union top-down. You cannot organize a strike  CONTINUE READING: What happened? | JD2718

NYC Educator: Magical Blended Teachers

NYC Educator: Magical Blended Teachers

Magical Blended Teachers

It's taken me days to understand what the last DOE memo meant. I've discussed it with several people, I've been to a meeting, and now I finally get it.

You have four kinds of teachers--you have the remote teacher, who teaches five full classes on line. You have the live teacher, who teaches five partial classes in person. Then you have the Blended Learning Remote teacher, the one everyone is complaining about around the net. 

There's one more, a Virtual Content Specialist. This position would be posted and people would have to apply. I'm going to ignore that one for now. I don't know what the hell that person does, and I'm not gonna bother finding out. Given the issues with the blended teachers, I''m not sure that one's worth talking about. In fact, I very much doubt any principal has the capacity to engage such a person. This system has created a pretty severe teacher shortage that won't be corrected any time soon.

So this is what a Blended Learning Remote teacher does--Let's say that you and I each teach English One five periods a day. Let's say we both teach onsite, in person. That means we see somewhere between seven and twelve students live, every period, each and every day. Under this model, the Blended Learning Remote teacher would teach all of our other students from both classes.

So this Blended Learning Remote teacher could have between 44 to 55 students each period daily. That's a hell of a student load. Now that teacher could teach them all at once. Or, that teacher could see them in smaller groups. Or, that teacher could figure out some other way to CONTINUE READING: NYC Educator: Magical Blended Teachers

High School Scheduling Will Not Work With the Carranza Hybrid Plan | JD2718

High School Scheduling Will Not Work With the Carranza Hybrid Plan | JD2718

High School Scheduling Will Not Work With the Carranza Hybrid Plan

Putting the “right” number of students into a building does not guarantee the “right” number of students goes into each room. In fact, in most high schools, it’s not possible under the Carranza Hybrid plan.

Why not?

First period, my school, juniors and seniors.  Normally we’d have about 200 upperclassmen divide into 7 classes, anywhere from 20 to 34 in a class. Mostly upper 20s. I’ve got last fall’s program in front of me: AP English Literature and Composition, Vectors and Matrices, Calculus AB, Vertebrate Physiology, AP English Language and Composition, Spanish Level III, AP US History

But today, socially distanced and hybridized, only 50 upperclassmen are in, divided into 7 classes, carefully selected so that there are 5 to 9 in a class. Mostly 7 or 8.

Those are good numbers. Our classrooms are small, and most have capacity between 7 and 11, including teacher.

The bell rings, second period. 7 classes again. AP English Literature and Composition. AP Spanish, Vectors and Matrices, AP Biology, AP English Language and Composition, Spanish Level IV, AP US History. Good, right?

Wrong. There are way too many kids in Spanish Level IV and AP Bio (15 each) and the rest of the classes CONTINUE READING: High School Scheduling Will Not Work With the Carranza Hybrid Plan | JD2718

Personalized Learning May Appear to Solve Pandemic Education Challenges but New Research Raises Big Concerns | janresseger

Personalized Learning May Appear to Solve Pandemic Education Challenges but New Research Raises Big Concerns | janresseger

Personalized Learning May Appear to Solve Pandemic Education Challenges but New Research Raises Big Concerns

Here we are at the beginning of July, and the COVID-19 numbers are soaring across many states. The recessionary collapse of state budgets makes public school funding look shaky, and nobody can quite say how to make school safe. With the 2020-21 school year expected to start in six weeks, school leaders face overwhelming uncertainty. It is easy to imagine that a well-known, free, online learning platform and curriculum, funded entirely by tech philanthropists, might be extremely tempting.

But there are reasons for caution. Last week, the Washington Post‘s Valerie Strauss published a guest column from researchers at the National Education Policy Center (NEPC), a guest column describing the Summit Learning Platform, and warning about some of the reasons for school district leaders to be cautious. These researchers, Alex Molnar and Faith Boninger, have documented serious concerns about protecting the privacy of student data collected by Summit Learning and its sponsors. To underscore the seriousness of their concerns, they describe the powerful people behind Summit Learning:

“Summit Public Schools, founded in 2003, currently operates 11 schools enrolling approximately 4,675 students in California and Washington State. In 2013-2014, there was no Summit Learning Program or ‘partner’ schools. Things changed quickly after a 2014-2015 agreement between Summit and Facebook established the goals of enhancing Summit’s self-created software platform and collaborating on a marketing strategy for its nationwide adoption. Since then, Summit Public Schools has received extensive technical support from Facebook and the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative and almost $200 million in funding from the Chan Zuckerberg Iniative, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and others.”

Molnar and Boninger review Summit’s marketing claims: “Summit Public Schools claims that its educational program does an exceptional job of preparing students for college and that its graduates succeed in college. Its specific claims are that its students are ‘100 percent Eligible CONTINUE READING: Personalized Learning May Appear to Solve Pandemic Education Challenges but New Research Raises Big Concerns | janresseger

NYC Educator: More Questions on Hybrid Learning

NYC Educator: More Questions on Hybrid Learning

More Questions on Hybrid Learning

Here's another photo of the hybrid Rav4 I bought from Toyota. It's supposed to run over 500 miles on a tank of gas, but the gas tank will not fill. Toyota says they're working on a fix, but they've been telling me that since September. I'm rapidly losing faith in hybrids, and I'm not well-disposed toward trying a new one at this juncture.

I just had a column in the Daily News about how proposed hybrid learning is impractical and undesirable. My vision was giving a lesson while standing in one place. I figured some students would see me live while most would watch remotely. Even that, though, is hard to figure out.

In our sorely overcrowded school, for example, students would only come in once every five days. When we did our walkthrough yesterday, our principal had set up a model room with ten chairs. The idea would be the room could accommodate nine students and one paraprofessional at a time. Okay. Assuming every student and adult practiced social distancing and wore masks all the time, it was something we might be able to accomplish.

The think is, though, with five groups, I'd only see an average of seven students. That's not necessarily an issue in itself. Were I on camera, I'd still have a full class. But how exactly would we interact? All the students in the classroom would need devices to interact with the students who weren't in the room. I couldn't fairly focus on only those present, and I'd argue, in fact, that seven might be a too small a class size anyway. You need to have a mix of students, and in a group that small I could easily draw seven painfully shy kids who would might follow each other's examples.

But let's say we did find a way for the entire class to communicate. It's possible that we could direct the stream to the screens we have in front of most of our classrooms. That way, the students attending the class could easily see those not attending, and we could interact. Of course, to do that, the students in the actual classroom would need to have their own devices so that those learning remotely could see them as well. Once we get to this point, I have to ask once more--What is the actual point of my students and CONTINUE READING: NYC Educator: More Questions on Hybrid Learning

NYC Educator: Hybrid Learning

NYC Educator: Hybrid Learning

Hybrid Learning

I'm wary of hybrids. About a year ago, I bought the car you see here, a Rav4 hybrid. It's supposed to get over 500 miles to a tank of gas, but for some reason, it registers full at 10 rather than 14.5 gallons. Toyota tells me they're working on the problem, but they've been saying that since September. I'm growing to doubt their good intentions.

Speaking of September, it's rapidly approaching. What the hell are we going to do with 1.1 million kids who need an education? In our school, we're now discussing having a third of the students come in, while the other two-thirds watch us remotely. That way, we'd have no more than 12 students in a classroom at a time, and perhaps we could meet CVC guidelines. In a moderately imperfect world, that would work, I suppose.

So remote learning will go on, one way or another. My feeling is remote learning is better than nothing. The TV commercials pushing cyber-charters make it out as a panacea, but that's only because they're watching their bottom line and ignoring reality. Human interaction is a huge factor in education, and I'd never have been in it this long otherwise. But better than nothing, so far, is the best thing I can say about it.

Here's the thing, though. If we, say, group our students into A, B, and C, let's say alphabetically, that would indeed mean only a third of the population was in the building at any given time. However, that does not indicate that there would only be 12 students in my classroom, or yours. Maybe, because of the way the alphabet falls, there would only be eight. Or maybe there would be eight in your class and fifteen in mine.

Actually, as an ESL teacher, I have a lot of Chinese students, and a lot of their names favor the end of the alphabet. I'd probably have more students on the third day than the first or second. Of course we could redistribute the names, but your class may not have the same alphabetical idiosyncrasies. In fact, no matter how we fix this, I can't envision a way in which class sizes will be uniform.

So what do we do when the class sizes get too high for safety? Send the kids to the auditorium to watch the classes remotely? That might work, if we trusted the students to do so. Maybe they could wear earphones, so they don't have to listen to 99 other classes. Certainly a lot of students have them, and wired earphone, at least, are fairly inexpensive.

Are we going to continue to allow students to show avatars rather than faces? While the students are in their homes, and while their homes are none of our business, I'm certain CONTINUE READING: NYC Educator: Hybrid Learning