Mamie Krupczak Allegretti teaches French. She described how her teaching will change when school reopens during the pandemic. The lesson I draw from her note is that the most pressing issue facing our nation is not opening the schools but getting the disease under control so it is safe to return to school.
I’ve been thinking a lot about how I am actually going to teach if we go back to school in person.
I think people might have the idea that everything will be “normal” in schools if we go back in person. Kids will be able to socialize and everything will be fine.
I imagine me standing more than 12 feet from the kids giving a lesson. I’m wearing a mask and a face shield and kids are wearing masks (hopefully). They all have their laptops in front of them. After I give my spiel, they do some work on the laptop and submit it to me.
All the windows are open regardless of outside temperature.
I am NOT circulating around the room helping kids. I will have students minimize talking so as not to spread the virus (or other cold, flu germs for that matter!!!).
I may hand out papers but to do this I will have to go into the faculty room (which is small and has no windows) to make copies. I’m NOT going to have students hand in any papers. There won’t be any group or pair work.
Since we won’t be able to do that, what will I substitute for communicative activities (I teach French.)? Maybe we will watch more French movies. Maybe I’ll read them a French book. They may do more writing on their laptops. No more art projects because even if they have their own materials, they will want to talk to each other while doing their project. I’m not encouraging that.
So, my teaching is not going to look like it normally would, and it’s possible that I’m not going to be teaching much of the same material.
I’m certainly not going to stay after school to help kids with work. And even if I did, we would have to stay far apart.
Kids aren’t going to be able to socialize as they normally would. They won’t be able to sit with friends for the most part. They may have to stay with a particular group.
I’m concerned about going into the small faculty bathrooms that have no ventilation. They are also close to student bathrooms which are small and have no ventilation.
So, just because kids are back in school doesn’t mean a whole lot of socializing will take place. Of course, it will probably be different at the elementary level.
I’ve also brought up the psychological issues of constantly being aware of the safety of one’s environment and how learning will take place therein. I’m wondering how the teachers out there are envisioning teaching in person in school. Have they thought about the logistics of this and if they will have to change their curriculum at all and if so, how? Thank you.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
This is exactly what I think teaching will look like when I go back. Add to that wondering where to eat, not using bathrooms all day, and worrying about making my family sick every minute of every day.
I read this and weep. Mamie is clearly an extremely thoughtful person, and she is heedlessly being placed at risk.
Yes, Most decisions about the structure of “opening up schools” are being made at the district level with little attention to the many decisions that teachers need to make in particular schools and in meeting the requirments of their job assignments, usually grade level classes organized by subject matter. Mamie’s concerns extend to the architecture of the building in which she teaches, the flow of air, and other dimensions of the teaching environment not normally considered a major hazards. She is not alone, but that does not minimize the risks she and her students are facing.
as is so often the way: decisions are being made at the district level with little attention [OR CARE] to the many decisions that teachers need to make in meeting the requirements of their job assignments
Truly a tragedy emerging right in front of our eyes. A couple of months ago I had a biking accident and for a split second before it happened, I knew what was coming and that there was nothing I could do about it. Teachers have months to see it coming and no one gives a damn about them or the students everyone purports to cherish. Sadly, where I live, the school board and administration wouldn’t have the slightest clue about Mamie’s accurate, dreadful foresight.
And how about this, free living wills for teachers!
https://www.wfla.com/community/health/coronavirus/st-pete-law-firm-offering-free-wills-for-teachers-returning-to-school-amid-coronavirus-surge/
Well, no prob going back into the classroom, then!
Politicians, even the most progressive, who have no idea what teaching is all about are so intent on opening physical classrooms that they are willing to take a very dangerous chance, an experiment, with the lives of the real people involved. For too many it’s follow the Leader.
I sent an email to a colleague last week saying much the same thing. How can I move about the room and still social distance? I cannot. I will teach from behind my desk.
Maslow before Bloom.
Darned right!!!!
This editorial is from a colleague.
Commentary
Don’t rush to restart classes
By sandy Backlund
Time is up. On July 21 at 3 p.m., our school board’s meeting to plan reopening schools during the COVID-19 pandemic is streaming. What the board decides will affect every child, parent, grandparent, and teacher in Boulder Valley School District, as well as their neighbors and their friends.
As a retired schoolteacher, I know the irreplaceable value of school to children and their parents. Not opening schools is a disaster, educationally and economically. Even Dr. Anthony Fauci says we must do our best to open schools.
However, as an informed citizen, I also know opening schools could be disastrous for losing something else that is irreplaceable — human life. How well we do it is more important than when.
BVSD administrators have devised the most nuanced and flexible plans possible to open schools, called phases one through five, which you can read on a simple chart on the district’s website. Phase one, with the least risk, is remote learning, as we experienced last spring. The next three phases increase risk in gradients, and the fifth is a fantasy in which the pandemic is over and it’s back to school as usual. With this plan, administrators are doing their best, under the circumstances.
Given the risks involved and BVSD’s stated intention to open at Phase 4, the higher risk end of the five choices, it is necessary for us to understand how these decisions are made. Looking to national resources, the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) holds that there are clear conditions required to open schools, including that “the average daily community infection rate among those tested must be very low.”
Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York, for example, requires the rate not to go over 5 percent for at least two weeks. I asked BVSD administrators to indicate the metrics guiding their decisions. Their answer is that they defer to the state health officials.
Looking to the state, our health officials are doing their best under the circumstances as well, but they can’t give us a reliable percentage because there is a lag between reporting and the results. And Colorado’s top epidemiologist says, and this includes Boulder, that “we’re not where we want to be.” So as usual with the virus, we are left to guesswork. This said, unfortunately, our district’s region’s accelerating rate of infection will be hard to peg down, given the timing. Unless we wait for better information.
Another AFT condition for reopening schools requires sufficient funding for health professionals in schools and enough teachers to reduce class sizes. With falling state revenues in Colorado, the estimated $2,000 per student in funding needed to make schools safe needs to arrive quickly. However, Congress won’t vote on funding this summer, so again, waiting is required. We will need more time to learn and to create the best solutions.
I’ve talked to teachers frightened of going back this August. These same educators haven’t blinked when required to teach students what to do when a shooter arrives in the hallway and they know they’d take a bullet in exchange for their students’ lives.
This time, the threat to human life is the same, but this time they must include their own families in the threat. If teachers are even considered exposed to the virus, their immediate families will need to be quarantined along with them even if they do not become ill – unless we wait for lower infection rates.
So what are we supposed to do? The virus is not going away, and passively waiting will not make it do so. We are under the circumstances we are under, and so we must do our best to lower our collective infection rate.
Waiting to put kids and teachers into classrooms while we reduce the rate of infections is a proactive choice, although of all the choices, the most difficult. We need to get out from under our circumstances — our children are the future we’re protecting. We can start by holding our horses in resuming in-person classes and choosing the safest option.
Last spring, BVSD went to phase one. We saw how that went. If we must choose, the next safest step after phase one is phase two. We should start there and wait for the next safe step.
—Sandy Backlund is a former reading specialist for Boulder Valley and Adams 12 schools, having taught every level from kindergarten through college and served as a consultant statewide. Encouraging parent involvement is her specialty. Her two grandchildren attend Boulder Valley schools.
My comment: One of my neighbors daughters hates online school. Her mother said her daughter became frustrated and upset with online learning and refused to sit in front of the screen.
Yep the teacher-student relationship is not going to be enhanced by being “in-person”. If anything, it will be worse. Kids will be mad about heat and humidity, the cold and damp, as well as workbook style lessons that I conduct from far away. Going to be taping the floor. If someone wants to erect a plexiglass maze in my room, they’re welcome to it. I am not interested in that clutter and I have the benefit of a large room. Everyone stay in your boxes! Oh and can I use my phone to document kids who ignore SDing and mask wearing and then simply walk out of the school? Can this evidence be used to get worker’s comp? What are principals planning to do with this near certain occurrence? We are at a nadir for disciplinary suspensions system-wide, maybe nation-wide (not including charters I know). What to do with non-compliance?? I say give the kid one, maybe two chances, then “remote suspension” for the semester.
I have the same concerns about non-compliance among students. A recent post in a neighborhood forum by a local council member states that teachers will be in charge of enforcing social distancing and mask-wearing using restorative justice- which means I just give the student a talking-to, but there are no real consequences for insubordination. I too wonder if I can document this behavior on my cell phone- which in itself is risky. I teach high school students in a large urban district. There is no way to make these kids be quiet. They talk loudly and incessantly.
A lot of teachers have written essays and letters to board members, to parents, and to members of the public to describe what in-person classes will look and feel like in the fall. As this French teacher describes, it will be impersonal and challenging on all levels. World language and ELD teachers will be teaching words and sounds behind muffled and expressionless faces. From my blog post:
We will be in masks, separated by 6 feet in desks, afraid of each other’s air, afraid of the lack of proper ventilation or windowless classrooms, and afraid of moving to the next classroom. Teachers’ voices will be muffled; facial expressions covered. No pair work, no group work, no Four Corners, no Socratic Seminars, no writing on the board, no manipulatives, flashcards, or cultural realia, no teacher walking by to observe student work. A walk to the bathroom will become an agonizing chore in hygiene and waiting in line. As students and teachers work across classrooms, our computers will mostly remain on our desks connecting us to the lesson, and to each other. Coming to school to experience this type of learning will be expensive, frustrating, isolating, and possibly frightening. This is not the social experience we all desire.
https://teachingmalinche.com/2020/06/25/letters-to-the-smuhsd-board-about-distance-learning-and-school-support-services/
MAIME, you did your best for your students and yourselfe. Stay smart and ignore the idiots
Thanks for putting into words what so many teachers are thinking.
The issues we are facing for September are staggering….
Good morning Diane and everyone,
Thank you, Diane for posting my comments. It’s very kind of you, and I’m happy to contribute to the discussion. Thank you, everyone, for your comments. I’m sure many teachers are now scrambling to figure out HOW they are going to teach whether it’s in person or online. I’m happy and interested to hear your ideas and perspectives. Thank you.
As a former Spanish teacher, I would like to offer a different and more positive point of view of what I would do to teacher under those circumstances, as hard and as awful as they would be. I am making an assumption when you say 12 students, Maime, your class will be split in half–half remote, half in person.
On the in person days, I would engage kids in directed dialogues–presenting the situation, kids respond one to another. If kids have masks on, I do believe it would be fine. We speak that way in the grocery store and while its muffled, it’s not impossible. We have to learn to speak that way when we are in public until the virus is conquered which could be years.
I would project readings on the smartboard, asking students questions, sometimes with oral responses, other times with written responses that they can email to you. Having students write while in the classroom is important. Much of the realia we use is written, certainly, that can be projected on a smartboard or sent via the computer. As second language teachers, we all know that with google translate what students write from home is not always a good reflection of what they know. Certainly, this would also be a good time to provide direct instruction in vocabulary and grammar development.
The “virtual” days could be used for more independent work and practice. The very best to you. I am certain that your in-person teaching will be much more than “a spiel.”
Hello Carol and thank you.
Yes, I have thought of a variety of ways to approach this. I also thought that it might be helpful to use an online textbook. However, I don’t DARE ask for anything that costs money at this point. French programs have been the victim of cuts all over New York. Also, I have so many games, etc. that I won’t be able to use anymore. This forces me to try to think of other ways of teaching. I am finding it really hard to do this. And I’ve been teaching for almost 30 years! So, I’m not new to the game. Either in person or online, this whole thing will be a BEAR!!! Thank you again for your comments.
You are welcome. This might be an interesting time to find email pen pals for your students in France. Correspondence regarding COVID and their experiences would be fascinating a wonderful source of vocabulary development. Your students will have great joy in your physical presence. Thank you for your courage and for all that you do.
Sadly I won’t be able to see my little ones next year. I’ve been a free-lance Spanish enrichment to regional PreK’s for 20 yrs. That makes me a “visiting teacher,” which of course doesn’t work in covid times.
But I’m fascinated by the question of teaching L2 to beginners while masked. Mamie KA, and Maestra Malinche, I will be picking your brains about this when your in-person classes can safely resume. Personally, I lean heavily on watching lips for pronunciation, and listening comp, in the langs I speak. But I’m not sure that was true when I was a child, & no doubt varies w/the individual.
All of Carol’s suggestions reflect how I would proceed w/older students. And regardless of whether school has access to an online textbook (middle-class towns near me do), I have found some terrific online resources in the last 5 yrs or so compared to in years past– referring here to working w/Fr II-IV level tutees– best resources I found were out of Canada.
A free online introductory French textbook
https://open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/textbooks/liberte
Diane and Bob Shepherd,
A few weeks ago we were discussing the relationship of mythology and history. On one thread, I also commented that one reason given for studying history is so that we don’t repeat mistakes of the past. I asked why it is that we often do repeat those mistakes. Might I suggest the book Carl Jung and Arnold Toynbee: The Social Meaning of Inner Work by J. Gary Sparks. I’m in the middle of it now and it’s fascinating. Thank you.
Thanks for the suggestion, Mamie! I’ll have a look at it.
All this planning and related angst will be for naught by October when most schools are forced back to remote instruction for all. Widespread student absenteeism, teacher/sub shortages, unmanageable disciplinary issues, and of course infections, quarantining, illness, and in some cases deaths. What counsellor wants to have a sit down with a class of 25 first graders to explain that their teacher’s death was not their fault?
Love your nom du Diane’s blog, i.e. RageAgainst…
I think about the best case scenario -in school as well as the country and globally when it comes to COVID.
And, the worst case.
That last line hits home,
School counselors and nurses are really up against the wall.
And, New York State administrators have 10 more days to submit a plan to do, well, the impossible.
To take just one example (and there are many hundreds of the issues that keep popping up): desks need to be cleaned in between classes but students should not be in the rooms when the cleaning supplies are being used. But the students should also not be congregating out in the hallways…
And, there’s a matter of minutes in between classes in most U.S. high schools.
Umm…this scenario logically does not make sense.
Must be the Edu-Meddlers again….
John,
Why not train students above the age of 10 to clean their own desks, chairs and tables at the end of each class?
That idea was suggested yesterday but then someone noted that the New York State regs sent out last week stipulate students can’t be exposed to the cleaning agent in that way.
I didn’t fact check that idea…it was just one of the hundreds of questions that keep popping off like flash bulbs in our eyes..
Thanks for the help!
John, I know that is the rule in New Jersey. Students are not to be in the room when cleaning products are used.
It’s a crazy situation. I went in to school (to get materials I needed) after it closed in March. I had to tell the secretary what rooms I would go into so that they could be sprayed and cleaned when I left. And this was when school was closed so there were only a handful of people in there. How will schools be able to clean like this with students and faculty everywhere?
This line is copied directly from the New York State Regs:
“Students should not be present when disinfectants are in use and should not participate in cleaning
and/or disinfection activities.”
John, re students/ cleaning products,
My husband & I had to have checkups w/ a new GP last week [the reasons TMI for this post, revolving around absurdity of ins co implementing policy change in midst of pandemic %#grr!].
Office was nearly empty & max safety measures in place– but– had to rush into hall w/a coughing fit due to scent worn by blood-lab tech… Can’t imagine being exposed to strong cleaners between every class!!
This is what a school near me is considering and I quote from the news story:
“The children might be receiving some of their lessons still virtually, but while they’re at school,” ___ Elementary Principal ___said. “It could be quite literally a teacher across the hall presenting a math lesson to the students virtually on the other side of the hall.”
Mamie, I admire your approach to teaching and thank you for all your comments. And I support having a good remote learning program instead of re-opening schools.
But I wanted to respond to this, from a parent’s perspective:
“It could be quite literally a teacher across the hall presenting a math lesson to the students virtually on the other side of the hall”
I think that this describes something that could easily be done remotely — a teacher presenting a lesson to students virtually but both are at home.
I wish that the teachers’ union would commit to every teacher doing this for half of the time. That seems very reasonable. Or even 1/3 of the time. What if teachers committed to offering a live remote lesson that lasted only 20 minutes (1/2 the time of the class) every other day, which means they would spend only 1/4 of the time in live (via remote) teaching as they did pre-pandemic? But from a parent’s perspective, it can be hard to hear that we should not expect anything but hope for the best because in an all remote program, there can’t be even a minimal amount of live teaching required from a teacher.
We probably will have to teach much of the day online. I’m not sure yet. I wouldn’t mind teaching a few hours a day online.
NYCpsp, I could be wrong, but it sounds like the school near Mamie might be using remote– but live– instruction within the school bldg in order to reach, for example, 30 students simultaneously who are in two socially-distanced 15-student classrooms. (The 2nd classroom would presumably be monitored by an aide – perhaps a person who prior to covid would have been in the classroom w/ the math teacher). Perhaps all 30 students are in a zoom-type classroom they’re participating in from their desks. Or it could be a lower-tech thing like a televised news conference: those in the “real-life” class ask/ answer Q’s; teacher repeats their input into mike for benefit of the other 15 who are just monitoring. Maybe teacher alternates live/ remote groups on alternate days.
Regardless: The reason they would be doing this is because those 30 students have to be at school – no parent at home. Logically, this or other teachers (depending on total # taking the class, total at-home vs in-school) would have to run another set of classes for those who have the option of at-home learning.
BUT. I’m not sure why you’re looking for the teachers’ union to “commit to” x# mins live-remote teaching. Clearly, live-remote instruction beats canned-digital-learning hands down. And it seems reasonable to ask for 20mins live time, plus, say, online or paper-packet independent-work supplement. But whether or not that paradigm is feasible technically or staff-wise depends entirely on school admin/ staffing/ budget, no?
In this as in other posts, you seem to be assuming that digital vs ppr-packet vs live-remote options are dependent on teacher whims, or their ability to translate IRL curriculum to remote, or their personal tech ability, or their access to necy eqpt. Gotta assume this is based on your experience mid-March thro June. IF that condition continues in Sept, I would blame it on NYC pubsch admin [not teachers’ unions]. They’ve had ample time to get their remote-learning act together.
BUT… if they didn’t… (& realistically, could they have?)…
Chalk maybe 1/3 up to wrong assumptions about covid spread [nobody’s fault]. [Projections assumed things would blow over in a couple of months; at worst school start would be delayed.]. The other 2/3 blame is up for grabs. Personally I’d put most of it on wildly mixed messages from Trump/ DeVos combined w/Dem-Rep legislative gridlock– followed closely by [but attached at the hip to] lack of fed funding reqd to underwrite a cohesive remote-learning program. For NYC or any schdist.
bethree5,
“But whether or not that paradigm is feasible technically or staff-wise depends entirely on school admin/ staffing/ budget, no?”
What parents seem to be hearing is that in an all remote situation (teachers and students all home), it depends entirely on what each individual teacher decides to do. Are you saying that the administration can require each “remote” class (and I’m talking middle/high school) to be live on a regular schedule just by deciding that and it wouldn’t need separate approval by the union before any school can require a teacher who is teaching remotely from home to have to include even a minimum amount of real time interaction?
“I’m not sure why you’re looking for the teachers’ union to “commit to” x# mins live-remote teaching. Clearly, live-remote instruction beats canned-digital-learning hands down.”
Yes, that’s why I’m looking for the teachers union to commit to x minutes live-remote teaching — because the message I am getting is that it doesn’t matter whether parents and administrators and half the teachers want that, because if the other half doesn’t, then the other half does not have to do it. Do you have a different understanding?
As you probably know from my posts, I am very supportive of the teachers union and sympathetic to the issues faced by teachers when schools are remote. My kid had a pretty good remote learning experience in the spring and I understood that under the circumstances, it was not fair to teachers to expect any of them who decided not to have any real time interaction at all with their students to be required to have any real time interaction once schools went remote. I have great respect for the teachers who were working under circumstances that no one could even have imagined a few weeks earlier.
I’m not trying to “blame” anyone, but just pointing out the reality from a parent’s perspective.