How do you get laptops to 1 million public-School students? – ryan

Photo: Sarah Reingewirtz/Medianews Group/Pasadena Star-News Via Getty Images

UNIL RECENTLY, You COULD FIND PUBLIC-ELEMITARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPAL BRADLEY Goodman on any gitukday Morning in the sun-beginning recess yard at the east village community school in Manhattan, greeting achievement families and students, and overseing a raccus, screaming, screaming, screaming, screaming, screaming, screaming, screaming Generally Joyous Throng of Kids Kicking Soccer Balls, Swinging from Monkey Bars, and Chasing Each Other in Circles. Like the rest of the City’s public-School Teachers and Administrators, Goodman Didn’t Know and Said-Bye to His Students on March 13 That It Wold Be the Last SEE for the Foreseeable Future. By the end of that weekend, the city’s schools be tufinitely shuttered due to the coronavirus. Nor did he realie that some of his fellow colleagues, including, he Believes, Himself, Had Already Been Infected. Sink then, goodman, when not bedridden, has been navigating the abrupt transition to a still vaguuely “Remote-Learning platform” and wondering how exactly you re-create the intensely social experience is elementary school with the position.

During the Last Week of School, there was a lot of tension. We were all hearing about People who were starting to have symptoms of the coronavirus, eather people in our school or in the homes of People at our schoool or in our community, but testing was not readily available, so we dedn’t know for sura. Parents were starting to pull their kids. Teachers were nerous. THEN, ONE TEACHER Went Home Sick AFTER SPEING THE WHOE DAY WITH HIS STUDENTS. He tried to get a test but wasn’t able to get one unly the end of the weeks, and by the th, of the court, he had been around a lot of People. It took more than a week for our school to get the information that we have had been around someone who has Had tests.

When we have left school that friday, we were all expert to go back to work the following, and a lot of folks were feeling uncomfortable about that. On Sunday, I watched the Mayor’s Press Conference Announcing The Clove. On Monday, I Started Feeling a Sore Throat and a Burning in My Chest and THEN A DRY COUGH. I CALLED A good friend who is an er doctor, who listened to my symptoms and said, “don’t worry about out to get tested. You have it.

The Next Few Days Were a Fover Dream. There are a couple scary moments where my wiffe and i weren’t sura what to do. I was having a hard time breathing. We had a couple of Emergency FaceTime Conversations with Our Friend, The Doctor. He was kaep me on the phone for several minutes and the saying i didn’t need to go to the hospital yet. I stayed isolated from my wife and out two daughters during the working part of it, but it didn’t help becase as i started touring the corner, they got it too. Our Neighbors Left Food and Flowers at Our Door. JUST HAVING SOME Daffodils to look at while you’re lying there sick goes a long way.

The Big Challenge Citywide Right off the bat, once the schools closed, was Making Surat Every Child Had an Actual Device to Access the New Remote-Learning. We have 1.1 million children in our public-school system and a staggering number of saying in temporary housing or homaless shelters, and we have a lot of kids who are not able to the internet. The first thing the City did was purchase naspreds of thusands of iPads and start distribution say to the Kids. But that process is still not complete.

We were Very Lucky. We got a survey out to kids very QUICKLY SO THEY COULD US KNOW WHAT TECHNOLOGY SITUATION WAS. Already this was was I was not Feeling well, SO IPRISED VICE-PRINCIPAL, LIZ WANTTAJA, WHO Rounded up 50 ChromeBooks from Our Classrooms and Sat in the School Lobby and Sill to Parents Who Didn’t Have Devices. By the end of the day, we have sticked a couple dosen kids who has had gotten, and thatn Liz and our School Secretary and a Teacher Made Home Deliveries to students, and by the end of the first Week Being Closed, Nearly 100 Percent of Our Kids Had Technology.

Basically, almost overnight we Completely reimagined and repackaged our who curriculum to be accessible remotely. We had no time to prepare for this. At a webinar for principal, Our schools chancellor tort us we are budilding the plans we fly the plane. And this is happy while teachers are at home and taching care of their children, and taching care of themes or maybe a family member who might be sick. Mary Parents i’ve Heard from Have Been Extremely Appreciative. I’m also Hearing from parents who are like, Oh my God, this is too. Mary of say are Perceiving this as homeschooling, but it is not. When Families Decide to Homeschool, Its Almost a Philosophical Choice and You Logistically Prepare for IT. This is Pandemic Schooling. No one planned for this.

Right Now, Everyday We Ask Teachers to Make an AGENDA AVAILABLE BY 9:30 AM, SO students log on, they see what ben been to say for the day, plus any invitations to a whole-class meeting. It ‘imperfect, and it doesn’t match up in any way to the Quality of Experience Our Kids Wauld Be IF they just continuing to go to have always have. We are Pushing Teachers to Create As Maryy Authentic, Real, Live Interactions As Postible. Our Teachers are scheduling online group and individual meetups, or they do a read-alouds guids are assured to log in to google hangouts at a certin to list and discuss a book. Kids Get to See Their Teacher’s Face and Hear Their Teacher’s Voice and See All of their Classmates in Real Time, and Everyone Is Together A Shared Experience Around a Particular Text. This is the Kind of Thing That Most Closely Resembles Teaching and Learning in a Classroom. But, in Many Cases, IT’S STILL ONE-DIMENSION-The Teacher Assign Kids Work to Do Independently, and They Submit Its Done.

At Our First Staff Meeting AFTER the Cluster, Over Google Hangouts, the Teachers Were All Is All Ised To Met Academic Expectations, But My Message to Keep in Mind that Kids Also US Right Now Is A Feeling of Connection and Community. That’s the Challenge for Teachers Now – Not Just to Assign Academic Work for Kids to Do From Home, but How We would have CREATE OPPORTUNITIES TO COMMUNICATION WITH EACH Other and JUST European Union platoon? This is a huge part of every School, especially elementary school.

My Daughter’s Fourth Grade Teacher, Every Day This Week He’s Had a Live Experience Online for HIS students. By now, the kids have been cooped up for a couple week, and they just desperate to have a conversation and conflict with their. This social and emotional part of the Classroom, of Being part of something Greater thans, that is the hardest thing to replicate. It”s taken a couple of days for the Kids to Learn the New Rules, like how to mute your whe not your turn to speak. But he’s had Incredible Attendance. Every single day, every kid in the class logs on.

Normally, Every other Monday Morning Our Entire Community Gathers Together in the Auditorium for A Schoolwide Morning Meeting. Parents Are Welcome, The Teachers are there, we have a how band made of parents and teachers and School staff. I play the Guitar. We Sing Songs About Community and Peace and Friendship, songs by Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie and Bob Dylan. With all their different schedules and curriculums, there are anen’t that many things that students from prekindergarten to fifth grade will together at exactly the same moment. This is something we will that units us. Not being able to do that feels very significant.

I Wonder what the long-term implications of this moment will be. I’ve already Heard from LOADS OF OUR KIDS, AND MANY ARE SCATTERED IN DIFFERENT PLACES – SOME OTHER Town, City, Any Different Country. Kids ACROSS The Country Are Having their School Life Interrupt, Whatever Age They Happen to Be.

As for my kids, they haven’t set foot out of this apartment in almost two weeks, yet they seem happy. We are spending a trendous amout of time together as a family, Playing Board Games, Making Music Together, Getting Into Little Projects, Cooking. But Still, IT’S SURREAL AND STREDE. Before all this happened, every day I was in the schoolyard at 8 am, Greeting Our Students and Parents, and Again at Dismissal good-bye to students and palents, and in between i was all over the budilding, interacting with all of the kids and staff all day. I talked to norreds of People every single day. Now, i’m on an endless stream of videooconferences with the same view out my Window.