The Approach To Reopening Schools: Decoding The Terminology

With the dialogue swirling around what school is going to look like this Fall, I am realizing that there is a plethora of terminology being used by educators, politicians, and pundits alike that may be confusing. Some terms are being interchanged with one another which, I imagine, is leading to even more bewilderment with regards to the safety and security of your children. 

I’m here to help.

Here’s a baseline set of definitions and descriptors to assist in decoding the jargon you’re hearing day-in and day-out:

• Blended Learning: According to Clifford Maxwell for Blended Learning Universe, “blended learning is any formal education program in which a student learns at least in part through online learning, with some element of student control over time, place, path, and/or pace.” Historically, this term has been used to define a combination of students learning through direct instruction from their teacher(s) while also receiving instruction from adaptive software that creates a learning path based upon their unique, individualized learning needs. 

Blended Learning should not be confused with the ideology of blending at-home and at-school instruction together like what took place in the Spring. Instead, parents should be referencing this terminology when their children log into Khan Academy, Imagine Learning, or Freckle for example; take a benchmark assessment to determine their strengths and areas of improvement in a variety of subjects; or  complete a suite of tasks that are leveled and designed to meet student(s) exactly where they are on their own unique academic journey. 

• Distance Learning: Distance learning refers to a student learning at-home, at a distance from their school’s campus. Students are given online instruction and tasks from their teachers and they are to complete these at home, submitting them in video, digital, or written (via snapshot) form for editing and grading.

• Hybrid Model: This term refers to students participating in both in-classroom learning and distance learning. Many schools and school districts are working to implement this system in the Fall with students in smaller cohorts rotating between attending classes on-campus and at-home. Some of these models include having students at home join in with their classmates at school by watching all lessons via Zoom or other web-conferencing platforms.  Other ideas include having teacher’s aides assist with checking in on students at home while the lead teacher focuses on instructing the students within their physical classroom. 

This model relies heavily on Blended Learning technology to be done impactfully, so it is crucial for schools and districts to ensure that their students are outfitted with the proper technology to be able to learn from home. Chromebooks, iPads, hotspots, liaising with local internet providers on families’ behalf, these are the responsibilities of academic communities to make both distance and hybrid learning feasible.

You already know about masks, about hand sanitizer, about social distancing. You know that class sizes will likely be smaller and lunchtime will be indoors. Hallways will be one-way thoroughfares and there will be a bathroom schedule to prevent overcrowding.

So, what comes next? Last week I illustrated what I am doing, as an administrator, to get ready. Success in the Fall depends on preparation, so here are some ways to ready yourself, your kids, and your home for what’s to come:

1. Invest in the practical. School supply lists will likely be very different this year, pared down from their usual robustness, so if you can, email your child’s teacher now. Find out directly from them what, if any, supplies they are going to need this Fall. Will their teacher be doing much pencil-to-paper work, or will the majority be on a screen? Are there classroom supplies that you can help contribute to given the sanitation requirements of  a hybrid model? Extra paper towels, Clorox wipes, bottles of hand sanitizer, or pre-sharpened pencils to add to the classroom cache? A hybrid model is only impactful if everyone invests in its success, together.

Additionally, as I am recommending to my school families, prepare a cache of masks for your kiddos. One on their face as they leave the house. One in their backpack, another in their lunchbox. A Ziploc bag, labelled with their name, and filled with a minimum of five extras that their teacher can keep for them in the classroom if the other options become soiled or unusable. If they are able to wear free dress to school, make daily outfits easy to put on and even easier to wash at night.

Invest in several water bottles that can be quickly sanitized and used on a daily basis with your child as communal drinking fountains are going to be a big time no-no at school. Practice opening difficult snack packaging with them at home this summer as the limiting of person-to-person contact at school will definitely preclude who can help your child open and close their snack packs during recess and lunch. Consider parceling out snacks, sandwiches, and other treats into easier to open pouches and zippered baggies to make mealtime as easy as possible on everyone.

2. Get their study space ready. You’re going to keep hearing me say this. 

In the Spring, when the shelter-in-place was thrust upon us, it was understandable to clear off a corner of the kitchen table and set-up shop for your child’s schooling. But now, that just can’t remain the case.

At best, students will be able to attend class, in-person, part of the time in the Fall. But, that means that they will still be working from home, too. Take time this summer to get their at-home study space ready. Have it located near an outlet so that they can consistently keep all devices charged for use throughout the day. Have it armed with a mash-up of binder and scratch paper, pens and pencils, highlighters, and index cards. Post-it notes are great for marking pages in textbooks and novels as they read and respond. Have a list of log-ins at their desk, on the refrigerator, in your phone—you’ll need these handy. How’s your wi-fi? Do you need to upgrade your speed, your modem, get a hotspot? We don’t need to get caught off-guard this time around.

3. Don’t tell your kids you want them out. This is a tough one for me to narrate as I want you to know that I totally understand the frustration, the impatience, the exhaustion that has come with homeschooling. Zoom fatigue has nothing on the weariness of parents and guardians everywhere who have had to navigate their own jobs while also playing teacher from 9 to 5. And, on behalf of educators everywhere, I want to thank you for your partnership and let you know just how much we appreciate you!

Back when I was teaching Seventh Grade, I clearly remember one (of many!) conversations. This mom, in particular, was at her wits’ end with her prepubescent daughter who was going through a rather brutal hormonal surge. She came in one morning, threw down her handbag, and said to me:

“You have to keep [student’s name] here until June. I just can’t deal with her anymore!”

Certainly understandable.

I have been on the receiving end of many of these same conversations since schools closed back in March, though hormones and teenage attitudes aren’t the driving force—instead, the shelter-in-place is. But here’s the thing—your kids hear you say this. They are on the receiving end of your frustration, and unfortunately, this situation is as out of their hands as it is yours. 

If you need some space, tell them. If you are feeling overwhelmed, let them know that as they, too, are probably feeling the same way. If something they are doing is bothering you or hampering your own work-from-home dealings, come up with a solution, together, to mitigate the disruption. But, don’t joke with them, your friends, or their teachers about how you want them gone. I’ve seen the heartbreak these comments can have on your kiddos—even though I know that is not your intention.

We don’t know what the Fall has in store—but, unlike in March when we were all unexpectedly clocked from behind by COVID and school closures, this time we can claim some sense of control and get ready to tackle the new year, in whatever form it takes, head on.

Creating an Environment Conducive to Learning

“Mrs. Essalat, you worry too much.”

Oh, how many times have I heard this?! Being an educator for over 14 years and a worrywart since I left the womb, my throw-caution-to-the-wind Seventh Grade students used to love to tease me. Some of my most memorable points of panic:

• “Don’t lean back in your chair—you’ll crack your head open.”

• “Don’t run in the classroom—you’ll either trip yourself or someone else.”

• “Pens are for paper, not for people—don’t let that ink absorb into your skin.”

• “Don’t throw a pencil across the room—you’ll poke someone’s eye out.”

• “Playing basketball with a Jolly Rancher in your mouth—you’ve got to be kidding me!”

And, of course, my all-time favorite:

“No running with scissors!”

But, I mean, how can you blame me for being concerned?

A student sliced their finger wide open one day trying to cut a pencil with a pair of craft scissors. Another, while walking backwards on a school trip to Yosemite, broke their ankle and had to head home early. Countless kiddos would collide into each other at recess, use Sharpies to tattoo their hands and kneecaps, go bounding out to the play yard after cramming three Starbursts into their mouths at once. And don’t get me started on the number of erasers that would go flying across the room.

Kids will be kids. Believe me, I get it. Pushing the boundaries of safe play and goading me into having a heart attack are all part of the developmental process of exploration.  But, as we are staring down the barrel into a school year unlike any that we have encountered in our lifetimes, those with a propensity for apprehension—like me—are running at an all-time high.

It’s not so much my fear of getting sick, though believe me, I think that is something that weighs heavily on the minds of educators everywhere. No—it’s far more than that.

• It’s the worry about whether my students will get sick.

• It’s the fear that they will, in turn, spread the virus to their family members, especially grandparents or older relatives.

• It’s the concern over logistics—one way hallways, fewer desks, cohorts of students on alternating days, recess and lunch indoors with no shared supplies.

• It’s my trepidation over the cost of opening under such strict (but necessary!) guidelines—1:1 technology and textbooks; revamped cleaning supplies, staffing, and protocols; hand-washing stations; thermometers and an isolation area for students who are sick.

Compound that with the anvil that is sitting on my chest over the thought of Kindergarteners not being able to learn how to share by collectively pouring through a basket of plastic dinosaurs; Middle School students navigating what would normally be a collaborative art project, now done solo. Classroom birthday parties—stifled; field trips—offline; morning assembly and first day of school festivities—poof! How will my students know when I am beaming with pride over a concept they have finally mastered, or laughing out loud at a joke they tell, when my emotions and facial expressions are veiled behind a face shield and goggles and mask? What do I do when they are sad and so desperately need a hug? No handshakes, no high fives. 

At first I thought a wave and a wink would suffice—I’m not so sure anymore.

All of these hallmarks of the rich vitality that exists beyond the textbooks and homework assignments of an academic community are put on the back burner until who knows when, and I worry that, when we are able to finally regain normalcy, we will have forgotten what those traditions even look like. 

I don’t think that there are many people who are misaligned around the fact that we want to see kids back in school. That is a sentiment that seems to be universal. Students and teachers working together in the same space, sharing, in real time, questions, answers, and anecdotes. We teachers know that we are the most impactful when we are right there, by our students’ sides, helping them navigate through a Math concept, decode the vocabulary in a novel, discuss the evolution of characters or plots in reading. We want to watch how our youngest students learn to grip a pencil and begin forming their letters. 

We want to be there.

We need to be there.

But, the worrier in me has to ask at what risk are we willing to get what we want? Where, in the narrative of reopening schools and reducing funding for those that remain at a distance, is the dialogue around the health and wellbeing of the teachers and staff who run these academic institutions? Educators are essential workers.  

The stance on reopening schools has to take into account how to protect teachers. How to effectively disseminate the PPE, funding, and training necessary to keep teachers and students healthy and virus-free. The Kaiser Family Foundation has said that “nearly 1.5 million teachers are at a greater risk  of serious illness if infected with the Coronavirus.” That’s one in four teachers. 

Big. Time. Worry.

The CDC doesn’t have the answers. The Department of Education doesn’t have the answers. I don’t have the answers. But, what I do know, is that we must, must, must take into account the health and wellbeing of our teachers and educational staff as we talk about the safety of students. Our teaching staff has to feel equipped to handle the COVID crisis within their classrooms. They must feel protected by the gear that we provide to them to ensure that the virus has to fight hard to make its way into their bodies. They need to know that they are essential and that we will care for them, like we care for our students—giving our all to ensure that they remain the vital lifeline to our future they always have been.

So, what’s a worrier like me, and maybe like you, to do? Well, for starters, we need to model for our kids the bravery it takes to overcome fear. They will look to us to set the example, the tone, the courage to forge into the actual unknown. We have to put one foot in front of the other and carry on.

As an educator and administrator, if I am given the green light to open under a hybrid model this Fall: 

• I need to buckle down and get to work implementing the safest learning environment I can for my students and teachers while they are on campus. And, when they are at home, I need to make sure that I am bridging the digital divide—checking in on them with frequency while they work from a distance, making sure that their access to reliable wi-fi and technology is sufficient. 

• I need to educate my students, their families, and my fellow colleagues on how to best protect themselves and one another from getting sick and potentially spreading illness to those in our community. I need to seize this teachable moment as a lesson in benevolence and compassion and empathy, all the while giving everyone practical tools and strategies for staying safe.

• I need to partner with the parents and guardians of my students, maintaining honest and transparent communication to ensure that, if their child is sick, they will honor the process in place for addressing that-- no matter the inconvenience that comes from having to leave work early or stay at home altogether to allow their student to heal.

• I need to work with leaders of surrounding academic communities—to share any insight that I have been given and gain from their perspectives, too. We need to collaborate when it comes to finding and stocking PPE supplies on our respective campuses and create a workable schedule that takes into account the best way for our students to learn and our parents/guardians to work.

• I need to get creative—how can school continue to be the rich, immersive experience that it always has been? Can I run morning announcements via YouTube and have Art class via Zoom? If this extends into Halloween, can we do a virtual parade or costume contest online? How can I get the vibrance of our annual Scholastic Book Fair to translate from behind a screen? I have to make these traditions come to life even if they look far different than usual.

That’s what I need to do. 

But, there’s more. Together, you and I, need to keep reassuring our kids that we are protecting them and working to create an environment as conducive to learning as possible. Because we cannot let COVID, or any other hurdle, get in the way of their academic growth and development. Not to be hyperbolic, but their very future depends on this moment, right now.

Erma Bombeck once said, “Worry is like a rocking chair: it gives you something to do but never gets you anywhere.”

There’s plenty to do to get ready for whatever the Fall has in store, and it is going to take a village to get our kids, our schools, and our routines up and running. So, let’s stop rocking and start moving.

Four Ways to Help Your Kids Cope With Change and Uncertainty

As you are sheltering-in-place, it is likely that you are seeing your child at both their very best and worst. Pancake making dance parties spiral into catastrophic meltdowns. Discussions between siblings devolve into the kinds of battles that Marvel movies are made of. You find yourself teaching the best math lesson that has ever been taught when suddenly, and for no known reason, your child is screaming at you to stop ruining their life.

Sound familiar?

Believe me—as teachers, we see and feel this daily. Maybe the meltdown comes because of a change in routine. Maybe it’s because a student (or, three!) has had enough writing for the day. Perhaps it’s because they would just rather be anywhere else than where they are.

And, in today’s COVID climate, it could simply be that they miss the way life used to be.

A sentiment I think we can all relate to.

But, as hard as this new world circumstance is on you and me, it’s even harder on your child. You and I have weathered plenty of storms in our lives—job changes, breakups, illnesses, the loss of friendships—the list goes on. And, while sheltering-in-place and isolating ourselves from our usual social interactions is entirely unchartered territory for all of us, as adults we have access to a memory bank full of coping strategies to draw upon, while your child does not. Perhaps they have lived through divorce or grieved the loss of a grandparent, either of which is clearly jarring and not to be discounted, but the absolute disconnection they are now experiencing is entirely new.

As a teacher, I always anticipated the difficulty that came with routine changes. I knew that when I swapped class schedules, changed my hair color, or altered the date of a class party, there would inevitably be backlash from a handful of kiddos. I still have former students who call me by my maiden name because the married moniker just doesn’t feel right to them.

I tend to find change jarring and can absolutely relate to resistance.  

But, as the captain of my classroom, I knew that how I reacted and responded to change—whether I saw it coming or not—would mold and shape how my students perceived it.

If I let them see me sweat, meltdown, throw a fit or lose my cool, then I was modeling to them that they should do the same. 

Now, let me be clear:

Is it okay to cry? Yes.

Is it acceptable to be unhappy and frustrated when we are thrown a curveball? Definitely.

Is anger an appropriate feeling when things don’t go as we intended them to? Surely.

Are we going to have moments when we are anxious, impatient, and flat out annoyed? Absolutely!  We are human after all!  

Our kids benefit from seeing vulnerability as a necessary part of healthy communication and resolution.

But we also need to be acutely aware that we are our kids’ point of reference. They mirror what we do, what we say, and how we say it.

How you are handling this quarantine is shaping how your kids will navigate this and any future life obstacles.

Here are a few ways that I approach change and crisis with my students:

Talk about it.

I’ve never shied away from using “I” language to talk to students about feelings. “I am feeling angry”; “I am feeling disappointed.” I always follow those statements with specific reasons for my feelings. Maybe it’s frustration over a poor choice that they made. Maybe I am irritated because a lesson that I was really excited about landed like a lead balloon. Even now in the COVID crisis, I am honest—“I am really struggling with the fact that we’re not in school together. I miss everyone and our daily routines.”  

When talking with your kids, use “I” language so that they learn how to attach emotion-specific words to their feelings. Coach them in qualifying those mindsets so that you can understand where they are coming from and respond specifically.

Learn more about communicating feelings here.

Take a time out.

So often we want to be the loudest voice in the room—have the last word. But, when it comes to frustrations hitting a boiling point, less is more. There have been many scenarios when I would need to address a student’s reaction or response to a particular situation, but instead of us both approaching it fired up and angry, I would give us time to level out. 

Some scenarios need to be tackled in the moment (blatant disrespect or physical aggression, for example), but if you are both coming to a head over a grammar assignment or their lack of initiative on a math worksheet, take a break. Give them time to get up and move around, and give yourself time to breathe. Likely you are both more tense than usual due to confinement and overwhelm. So throw on a three song playlist, and agree to come back together to discuss feelings when it has ended. Believe me, those 10-minutes can and should make all the difference.

Find your new “take a break” soundtrack here.

When in doubt, write it out.

Sheltering-in-place is giving us all a valuable gift of time. Sure, it may feel like it’s never ending, but it is a great opportunity to have your kids put pen to paper and write! Command of the written word has slowly diminished with the onslaught of abbreviations and emojis. Have your child keep a daily journal of their quarantine experiences. Have them write about what they’ve been doing, how they are feeling about it, things that they want to remember when this is all behind us. 

Teachers often use journals as a way to read and respond to kiddos who are less apt to vocalize their feelings. Perhaps you should try this strategy if your child is having a hard time communicating their thoughts to you in conversation—write notes back and forth to one another. It is a great way to bridge the uncomfortable.

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Make the “new” an adventure.

If you project excitement, your kids will follow—even if it takes some coaxing. If I sprang a pop quiz on my students, I would soothe the anxiety of those who didn’t like surprises by making it a “lolli”pop quiz, and give a Tootsie Roll to everyone as they completed the task. Find some way to make each day feel new and exciting—take turns having each person at home make lunch for the other members of the household, for example. Hide prizes within chores. Use Jolly Ranchers, stickers, or smelly spots from lip gloss as rewards for getting academic tasks done throughout the homeschool day. The more excited you are about this whole debacle, the more your kids will be willing to acquiesce to change and even disappointment long term.

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I won’t generalize, but I can pretty confidently say that nearly everyone is sharing the same feelings of loneliness, disappointment, and overwhelm. There are moments when it feels charming—staying in PJs all day, taking Zoom meetings from bed. But those moments are generally shattered by the reality that life as we knew it is vastly different. 

You‘ll never get this time with your kids back. You won’t get the chance to be present for those “aha” moments between 8AM and 3PM that we teachers live for. Soon enough you’ll go back to being the parent, and we’ll resume our work as teachers in the classroom.

So, instead of fighting it, use this time together as a means of instilling long-lasting coping strategies in your child. And, keep reminding them, and yourself, that this is only temporary.