Top 6 Administrative Failures of the Pandemic Classroom | gadflyonthewallblog

Top 6 Administrative Failures of the Pandemic Classroom | gadflyonthewallblog

Top 6 Administrative Failures of the Pandemic Classroom

This school year has been a failure in so many ways.

But don’t get me wrong.

I’m not going to sit here and point fingers.

The Covid-19 pandemic has tested the public school system like never before.

Teachers, administrators and school directors have been under tremendous pressure and I believe most really tried their best in good faith to make things work as well as possible.

But as the year comes to a blessed close, we need to examine some of the practices common at many of our schools during this disaster and honestly evaluate their success or failure.

Some things worked well. Many made the best of a bad situation. But even more were blatant failures.

We need to know which was which.

As a classroom teacher with 17 years experience who worked through these times, CONTINUE READING: Top 6 Administrative Failures of the Pandemic Classroom | gadflyonthewallblog

The False Narrative of “Needy Kids vs Selfish Teacher Unions” | The Merrow Report

The False Narrative of “Needy Kids vs Selfish Teacher Unions” | The Merrow Report

The False Narrative of “Needy Kids vs Selfish Teacher Unions”

The giant lumbering beast known as the US Economy–akin to a conveyor belt with countless moving parts–wants public schools to reopen.  The beast needs workers, but right now too many adults are at home, supervising their children’s ‘remote learning.’  Open the schools, and the adults can go to work: it’s that simple….

But of course it isn’t simple.  Putting kids back in schools will allow adults to work, and that’s important, but it is what happens inside schools that matters more.  

A quick history lesson: We’ve always sent our children to school for three reasons: 1) Acquisition of knowledge, 2) Socialization, and 3) Custodial care.  The internet has turned that upside down because it puts infinite information at everyone’s fingertips wherever they happen to be and because thousands of apps allow for ‘socialization’ with anyone and everyone.  That left only custodial care as a vital school function, until the pandemic made even that impossible. 

However, students swimming in a sea of infinite information need guidance, because ‘information’ is not knowledge.  It takes a certain skill set to distinguish between CONTINUE READING: The False Narrative of “Needy Kids vs Selfish Teacher Unions” | The Merrow Report

MITCHELL ROBINSON: The Forgotten Voices in the School Reopening Debate: Teachers | Eclectablog

The Forgotten Voices in the School Reopening Debate: Teachers | Eclectablog

The Forgotten Voices in the School Reopening Debate: Teachers

The following post was written by an elementary school teacher. This person could be your neighbor…a friend…a family member…or just someone you know on social media. This teacher hasn’t shared how they feel with anyone outside of their family, because there is so much pushback from persons in their community, and angry demands that teachers “get back to work!”

As if teachers haven’t been working all this time.

As if teachers don’t care about their students, or miss their colleagues.

As if teachers aren’t suffering in this pandemic in the same ways that those parents demanding an immediate reopening of the schools are suffering.

So here, with a few of my own thoughts interspersed below, are the unfiltered thoughts of a public school teacher about to return to their school for the first time in nearly a year…in the hopes that persons demanding those schools reopen consider the thoughts of teachers as they grapple with this decision…

“Feeling so distraught and angry and frustrated and scared today about everything…I hope you CONTINUE READING: The Forgotten Voices in the School Reopening Debate: Teachers | Eclectablog

Union leader: Chicago teachers are battling both coronavirus pandemic and fear | Fox News

Union leader: Chicago teachers are battling both coronavirus pandemic and fear | Fox News

Union leader: Chicago teachers are battling both coronavirus pandemic and fear

Randi Weingarten says American Federation of Teachers trying to 'get the safety measures in place' for in-person classes to resume

American Federation of Teachers leader Randi Weingarten said Tuesday that Chicago educators are battling both the coronavirus pandemic and "fear" as an impasse continues over resuming in-person learning in America's third-largest city.

"We're fighting a pandemic and now we're fighting fear," Weingarten told "The Faulkner Focus." "And what we're trying to do as a union is get the safety measures in place, I'm on the phone constantly with Chicago, in trying to actually have that kind of plan so that we can address both the pandemic and the fear."

Weingarten briefed Biden White House officials last week on the standoff betweeen Chicago public officials and the Chicago Teachers Union, an affiliate of Weingarten's AFT. Members of the Chicago Teachers Union overwhelmingly voted over the weekend to refuse a district order to return for in-person instruction on Monday. The city said it viewed the move as a de facto strike.

Biden sided with the union on Monday, saying that teachers want to work as long as it's in a safe environment.

BIDEN DECLINES TO TELL CHICAGO TEACHERS REFUSING TO TEACH IN-PERSON TO GO BACK TO WORK

"We should make school classrooms safe and secure for the students, for the teachers and for the help that is in those schools maintaining those facilities," said Biden, who has vowed to reopen most schools within his first 100 days.

"I think that President Biden's goal is really important, and I think that unless we have a variant like what happened in Great Britain or Germany that created those kind of CONTINUE READING: Union leader: Chicago teachers are battling both coronavirus pandemic and fear | Fox News

NANCY BAILEY: How the Media and School Districts Shame Teachers During Covid-19

How the Media and School Districts Shame Teachers During Covid-19

How the Media and School Districts Shame Teachers During Covid-19

Listen to the news one moment, and you’re warned about the new variants of the virus. There’s uncertainty about it and whether it’s more deadly than the current strain. Next, the media gives voice to critics who belittle teachers and their unions for not returning to school or being afraid.

There’s a dislike of teachers and disrespect in school districts across the country. When three Cobb County school employees died of Covid, the Superintendent and a school board member wouldn’t put on a mask when asked to honor one of the deceased victims who was a teacher.

Can’t everyone hang on until teachers are safely vaccinated? Teachers have been working diligently with students remotely and in-person since the start of the pandemic. They deserve better.

The Media 

The Washington Post

Here’s an opinion piece. Teachers are vital public servants. Time for them to start acting like it. This title sounds like teachers are throwing a tantrum! The author expresses a dislike for online learning.

He understands teachers are worried about being in the classroom, but since they bargain for better pay, tenure, and a decent pension, that means to him that they’re CONTINUE READING: How the Media and School Districts Shame Teachers During Covid-19

NYC Public School Parents: The impact of Covid on NYC schools and class size & critique of DOE's plans for next year

NYC Public School Parents: The impact of Covid on NYC schools and class size & critique of DOE's plans for next year

The impact of Covid on NYC schools and class size & critique of DOE's plans for next year

My testimony at the City Council hearings on the impact of Covid on education and class size. This exchange already occurred this morning:

Of course, they know very well how many students are in classes over 30, but prefer not to answer and have repeatedly delayed releasing any class size data as legally required by Nov. 15.  

On Oct. 26, at the Mayor's press conference, Chancellor Carranza reported that the DOE has been collecting attendance data and thus class size in "literally three buckets of attendance every single day": in-person classes, remote blended learning classes and full-time remote.

See my testimony below, which includes class size data from a parent survey undertaken by survey undertaken by Special Support Services LLC.  My testimony also critiques the administration's plans to double down on online learning next year. 

NYC Public School Parents: The impact of Covid on NYC schools and class size & critique of DOE's plans for next year

The week in coveducation: New school quarantine policy met with criticism

The week in coveducation: New school quarantine policy met with criticism

The week in coveducation: New school quarantine policy met with criticism

A new state policy that gives school districts the option not to require students to quarantine if they’ve been exposed to someone with COVID-19 — as long as their school district is enforcing a masking policy and other preventative measures — was met with criticism by school leaders.

Catch up on that and a packed week of education news with this collection of headlines from reporters around Oklahoma.

New policy seeks to incentivize schools to offer in-person options

On Tuesday, Gov. Kevin Stitt announced a new policy from the Oklahoma State Department of Health that would gives districts the option to allow asymptomatic students exposed to someone positive for COVID-19 not to have to quarantine if their school is enforcing a mask policy and protocols like social distancing.

NonDoc reported that Stitt also announced increased delivery of COVID-19 tests to school districts, increased delivery of personal protective equipment to school districts and the start of vaccinations of teachers age 65+ this week.

Oklahoma Superintendent of Public Instruction Joy Hofmeister, the Oklahoma Education Association and the Oklahoma City American Federation of Teachers released statements CONTINUE READING: The week in coveducation: New school quarantine policy met with criticism

New studies provide more info for in-person school and community spread

New studies provide more info for in-person school and community spread

PROOF POINTS: Two new studies point to virus thresholds for in-person school

Researchers looked at hospitalization and coronavirus case rates

Two new studies on whether to keep schools open during the coronavirus pandemic come to strikingly similar conclusions: it’s not a simple yes or no. Instead, there are public health thresholds that can indicate when in-person classes are safe. 

The similarity in the results is striking considering that the research teams used different data and took different approaches to crunching the numbers.

“The fact that it seems safe [to open schools] in some places but perhaps not in others isn’t surprising,” said Tulane University economist Douglas Harris, a researcher on one of the studies. “Schools should spread the virus less in places where there is less of it to spread.”

Harris’s study, released on Jan. 4, looked at every 2020 school opening in the country through the fall and tracked how many people in each county landed in the hospital because of COVID-19 for the following six weeks. Harris and two Tulane health researchers found that school openings didn’t add to the number of people in the hospital, as long as the COVID-19 hospitalization rate was below 36 to 44 people per 100,000 residents per week CONTINUE READING: New studies provide more info for in-person school and community spread

Education Matters: Let's talk about social distancing in DCPS

Education Matters: Let's talk about social distancing in DCPS

Let's talk about social distancing in DCPS

 Social distancing is part of the whole trinity of protecting oneself and others from the coronavirus. It's also a lie that it is happening in our schools. I know it, you know it, and Greene and the board know it too, the difference is where we might be outraged and horrified the board and super are shrugging their shoulders. 

Have you ever heard the phrase bread and circuses? It's how the Roman emperors kept people content. The idea wasn't to fix their problems but to distract them from their problems. It's also the ancient version of telling parents we will protect your children by having them social distancing.

Let me tell you about my room. My room has nine students and three adults, and social distancing is impossible. Now imagine a class of 15, 20, or 30 children?  Well, it's a nightmare because most classes are that size or bigger, a byproduct of Greene and the board cajoling families to send students back to our schools. 

From the Tampa Times, 

Medical experts stress that masks and social distancing are key to mitigating the illness, noted Joanne McCall, the union’s executive director.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends staying at least 6 feet away from people you don’t live with. 

District negotiators said they empathized. But they suggested that, from a practical standpoint, keeping CONTINUE READING: Education Matters: Let's talk about social distancing in DCPS

CURMUDGUCATION: In Seattle, A Tough Back To School Choice

CURMUDGUCATION: In Seattle, A Tough Back To School Choice

In Seattle, A Tough Back To School Choice

Seattle's school board made a decision, just a few weeks ago, to re-open face-to-face school for pre-K, kindergarten, some special ed, and 1st grade students. It's a good example of the kinds of re-opening challenges that parents and teachers are facing, the kind of thing that is being pushed out as a "plan" by a major district.

Parents received an e-mail inviting them to complete a "survey" and commit themselves to either continuing at-home instruction via computer, or sending their child back for in-person learning on March 1st.

The e-mail was sent out January 5th. The decision must be made by January 10th. 

The e-mail includes a link to a FAQ page that is not, well, as helpful as it might be. For one thing, the tone is perhaps not unpleasant, but certainly brusque. For instance, on the matter of the deadline.

Can I change my decision after March 1?

The decision a family makes by January 10 will continue through the end of the CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: In Seattle, A Tough Back To School Choice

Treehouse teaching and laundry art: Educators find creative ways to reach kids - The Washington Post

Treehouse teaching and laundry art: Educators find creative ways to reach kids - The Washington Post

Treehouse teaching and laundry art: Educators find creative ways to reach kids

The year 2020 was tough for everyone — and unprecedented for the U.S. educational system, which was forced to go online overnight, with innumerable glitches at the start and long-term consequences that are still becoming clear.

But while school districts grappled with health metrics and decisions to open or close buildings, hard-working teachers across America found ways to reach their students. Ideas ran the gamut — making art from laundry, taking bike rides as a class, teaching from an old treehouse.

The Washington Post gathered stories of creative teaching from throughout the Washington region. The anecdotes collected below do not represent everyone’s experience, but they highlight notes of grace — and offer sparks of hope.

'Everyone's got laundry!'

As the weeks of online learning stretched into months, art teacher Abigail Dillingham was struggling.

She kept thinking about the projects cut short by the pandemic: The crown-wearing dinosaurs her kindergartners would never finish painting. The cityscapes her second-graders would never finish crafting.

Dillingham, who teaches at James K. Polk Elementary School in Alexandria, was also concerned about her students’ lack of engagement — so few were completing the assignments she emailed to parents. She couldn’t be sure whether her kids were uninterested or whether they lacked the necessary pens, paper and crayons at home.

That’s when she spotted it, shared on an online forum for art teachers: Someone had twisted the CONTINUE READING: Treehouse teaching and laundry art: Educators find creative ways to reach kids - The Washington Post

NYC Educator: Today in PTA (Pass Them All)

NYC Educator: Today in PTA (Pass Them All)

Today in PTA (Pass Them All)

Yesterday, I got a prescient comment from SC Math Teacher, and I'll repost it here. The first part is a quote from me, but he comes to an inescapable conclusion directly afterward:

“The last I heard, the DOE was holding individual teachers responsible this year for NX students. That means that next semester we could be burdened with not only our regular caseload, but also following up on students who didn't pass.”

This sounds like an incentive — an awful one, but an incentive nonetheless— for teachers to just pass everyone so the DOE can boast about fantastic graduation rates.

It's true. There are two possible interpretations here, and that's one of them. The other is that de Blasio and Carranza have decided to cut down on expenses, via not paying people to examine their "NX" grades. After all, why pay people to work when you can get them to do it for free? This is exactly the sort of thing we'd have expected from Bloomberg.

Currently, in my building, there are all sorts of per session gigs looking after previous NX grades. So teachers looking for extra hours can sift through work these kids may or may not do, make calls to which they may or may not respond, and try to get as many kids as possible pass these courses. I'm happy for the teachers who make CONTINUE READING: NYC Educator: Today in PTA (Pass Them All)

glen brown: Of course, teachers are considering quitting because of the pandemic

glen brown: Of course, teachers are considering quitting because of the pandemic

Of course, teachers are considering quitting because of the pandemic

"The coronavirus pandemic has put significant pressure on America’s teachers. Some have been asked to weigh risks to their personal health and teach in person. Some have been asked to teach from behind computer screens and perfect distance learning. Many have been asked to do both. These pressures are taking a toll on teachers across the country. 

"According to a new report, 77% of educators are working more today than a year ago; 60% enjoy their job less, and 59% do not feel secure in their school district’s health and safety precautions. Roughly 27% say they are considering leaving their job, retiring early or taking a leave of absence because of the pandemic.

"Horace Mann Educators Corporation surveyed 1,240 U.S. educators from K-12 public schools for the report. 'Before the pandemic, large numbers of U.S. educators were already leaving the profession due to the financial pressure the job puts on their lives. Then COVID-19 came along.'

"Richard Milner, professor of education at Vanderbilt University says these figures do not surprise him.  'In fact, I suspect those numbers will probably increase over time,' he says. 'Many teachers are barely keeping their heads above water and we don’t know how much longer we’re going to be in this space.'

"Teachers have long raised concerns about the difficult financial circumstances that educators often face. Over the past several years, tens of thousands of teachers have gone on strike for improved pay and school funding.

"These financial concerns are also highlighted in the Horace Mann report: CONTINUE READING: glen brown: Of course, teachers are considering quitting because of the pandemic

Opinion: Teachers are more than Covid data points - CNN

Opinion: Teachers are more than Covid data points - CNN

Too many parents and decision makers treat teachers like they don't matter

(CNN)Julie Davis, 49, was an inspirational third grade teacher, a "mother to everyone," who attended her students' extracurriculars and donated to children in need. About three weeks after a student at her North Carolina school tested positive for Covid-19, Davis fell ill. This mother and grandmother died certain, her brother said, that she caught the virus at school (an assessment the superintendent said was unproven). One week after Davis's death, her school system shifted to virtual instruction because of rampant Covid-19 infections in the schools and community.

Alexandra Robbins

Amid growing numbers of Covid-19 hospitalizations and deaths, I've spoken to educators who told me they're afraid for their lives and the health of their loved ones. Meanwhile, some organized groups of parents are issuing increasingly forceful calls to reopen schools. But too many of them neglect the teachers.

This neglect fits a pattern. In March, some districts initially failed to heed teachers' pleas to close, forcing them to keep working in person; at least 70 school-based staff died in New York City alone, though it's unclear whether they contracted the disease in schools. In a statement emailed to New York City outlet THE CITY in response to questions in May about how the Department of Education had handled the situation, a spokeswoman said that DOE's practice was to "immediately" notify school communities about Covid cases confirmed by the state Department of Health and added, "All our decisions are informed by public health experts in order to protect the health and safety of our students and staff." In the summer, some decision makers excluded teachers from discussions about how to operate pandemic classrooms. And now, many parents and pundits alike are ignoring teachers again.

America faces a dissonant, CONTINUE READING: Opinion: Teachers are more than Covid data points - CNN

Kids Are NOT Falling Behind. They Are Surviving a Pandemic | gadflyonthewallblog

Kids Are NOT Falling Behind. They Are Surviving a Pandemic | gadflyonthewallblog

Kids Are NOT Falling Behind. They Are Surviving a Pandemic

Everyone is worried about how the Coronavirus pandemic is affecting children.

And it IS affecting them.  

But so much worry is being wasted on the wrong things. 

Instead of agonizing about kids being put in danger of infection at in-person schools where the virus is out of control, we’re told to worry about academic regression.

Instead of feeling anxiety about abandoning kids at home as outbreaks close their schools and parents still have to go in to work, we’re told to agonize over failing test scores.  

In nearly every case, the reality is papered over by concern trolls clutching their pearls and demanding we point our attention away from the real dangers in favor of CONTINUE READING: Kids Are NOT Falling Behind. They Are Surviving a Pandemic | gadflyonthewallblog

Richard Carranza, Austin Beutner and Janice Jackson | We need a Marshall Plan for our schools. And we need it now. - The Washington Post

Opinion | We need a Marshall Plan for our schools. And we need it now. - The Washington Post

We need a Marshall Plan for our schools. And we need it now

Richard Carranza, Austin Beutner and Janice Jackson are superintendents of the nation’s three largest school districts, New York, Los Angeles and Chicago, respectively.

President-elect Joe Biden has described the crisis in public schools caused by the pandemic as a “national emergency.” As the superintendents of the nation’s three largest public school districts — New York, Los Angeles and Chicago — every day we grapple with the challenges that worry not just the president-elect but also the students and families we serve. Our schools, like thousands more across the nation, need help from the federal government, and we need it now.

The challenges school communities face aren’t for lack of effort by principals, teachers, staff, parents and students. Among our three districts, more than 2 million students and hundreds of thousands of educators have worked to transform teaching and learning from the inside out. We’ve seen teachers tackle long division from their kitchens and students debate the Constitution in Spanish from their living rooms.

But the fact is that for many — if not most — children, online and even hybrid education pales in comparison to what’s possible in a classroom led by a great teacher. Too many children are falling behind, threatening not just their individual futures but also America’s global competitiveness.

In Los Angeles Unified, where almost 80 percent of students live in poverty and 82 percent are Latino and African American, Ds and Fs by high school students have increased about 15 percent compared with last year. Meanwhile, reading proficiency in elementary grades has fallen 10 percent. In Illinois, students have lost more than a year of math progress. In New York City, 82 percent of students are children of color, largely from communities that have been disproportionately impacted by the virus, suffering tremendous loss and trauma that accompanies kids into the classroom. Across the country, math performance on standardized tests lags the prior year by 5 to 10 percentile points.

Full coverage of the coronavirus pandemic

It’s time to treat the dire situation facing public school students with the same federal mobilization we have come to expect for other national emergencies, such as floods, wildfires and hurricanes. A major, coordinated nationwide effort — imagine a Marshall Plan for schools — is needed to return children to public schools quickly in the safest way possible. CONTINUE READING: Opinion | We need a Marshall Plan for our schools. And we need it now. - The Washington Post

We are 'scared, frustrated, and anxious'; Weingarten says this Yale course can help educators

We are 'scared, frustrated, and anxious'; Weingarten says this Yale course can help educators

We are 'scared, frustrated, and anxious'; Weingarten says this Yale course can help educators

NEW HAVEN — The Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence has created an online course designed to aid educators battling the anxiety and stress of teaching during the pandemic and, in turn, students.

The course came after a recent YCEI survey “of over 2,500 educators nationwide found that their top emotions were anxious, exhausted, frustrated, stressed, and overwhelmed,” prompting members of the center to strive to “preserve the well-being of the nation’s school staff and their ability to teach and work” through the new educational offering, according to a university statement.

The course, “Managing Emotions in Times of Uncertainty and Stress,” will offer participants information on “why social and emotional learning is an important component of education” and how to “identify and manage emotions, including how to support their students with their emotions in scientific and culturally responsive ways.”

Participants will use what they’ve learned to fill out weekly plans, which as designed to give them a guide toward lasting change, according to the statement.

“Research shows that school staff who are better at managing their emotions have greater physical health, well-being, and job satisfaction,” said Dr. Marc Brackett, founding director of the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence and professor in the Child Study Center. “They also create more supportive learning environments for students where there’s more CONTINUE READING: We are 'scared, frustrated, and anxious'; Weingarten says this Yale course can help educators