spectrum
the blakespectrum.org
“Your Voice in Print”
Wednesday | December 2 | 2020
The Blake School
Issue III
RTLP Katie Libert ‘23
Surina Arora ‘21
Andrew Chang ‘21
2.0
JT Sugalski ‘24
Allyson Jay ’23
Amaka Nwokocha ’21
Bailey Abraham ‘21
Shreya Mohan ‘22
Shagun Sinha ’23
Ameila Reyes ‘21
Committee created RTLP 2.0 based on previous surveys, focusing on balancing workload, Zoom fatigue, frequent class meetings Matt Carlson ‘21
Kalissa Fruetel ‘21
Emma Hausman ‘23
Morgan Ramsey ‘21
Rowan Heithoff ‘23
2019-2020 school year and finalized RTLP 2.0 this fall, just weeks before the shift to remote learning. In May and June, Ruggiero says, “what we did was gather all of the feedback that we got from the surveys that we sent out to parents, students and faculty and analyzed that and looked for patterns and priorities based on that information.” These surveys informed the committee’s objectives and potential schedules. Mateo says, “It was good discussions, but a lot of changing and adjusting to make sure that we were getting to our goals.” These goals included maintaining a sense of community, creating a manageable workload that didn’t require too many hours in front of the computer, and creating more regular class meetings. Mateo says, “Another priority was to maintain the spirit and the quality of the Blake program.” In regards to the 30 minute classes during RTLP last
spring, Ruggiero adds, “I think students felt like the amount of time was fine. Parents, on the other hand, felt really strongly that it wasn’t enough time… to have students be educated in the way that we expect Blake students to be educated, and we agree.” Ultimately, time posed the greatest challenge. Ruggiero describes the dilemma, “How do we have classes meet three times a week? How do we have the classes be long enough so that... it is actually meaningful but at the same time is short enough that people aren’t getting burnt out? And then how do we do all of that within the confines of a short period of time in the day so that people don’t have to be online until four or five in the evening?” The most substantial change made to RTLP 2.0 in the fall was having each block meet three times per week, whereas the version of RTLP 2.0 planned during the summer only had two meetings.
T
he revised Remote Teaching and Learning Plan (RTLP 2.0), which started on Monday, Nov. 30, has been developing since May and is designed to allow more frequent class meetings within a shorter school day than the HTLP plan used before Thanksgiving break. While many perspectives went into RTLP 2.0, it was designed by a core committee made up of Upper School Director Joe Ruggiero, Assistant Director Paul Menge, Librarian Kali Olson, Social Studies Chair Beth Calderone, Spanish teacher Eva Mateo, Latin teacher Alita Shenk, Library & Media Chair Lizz Buchanan, Chinese teacher Lina Jin, math teacher Jessica Williams, and English teacher Anna Reid. Teachers of a wide variety of disciplines were purposefully included so they could represent the needs of different departments. The committee began working on HTLP and a revised RTLP after the
Jill Rabinovitz talks about her life, hobbies, tips on reaching out to the counselors about mental health. Page 6
Emma Martinez Sutton | Co-Editor-in-Chief
Why it’s important to prioritize your mental health, even if it means taking a mental health day once in awhile. Page 11
Ellie Goddard ‘21 Laila Elbakkal ‘21 Jackson Haug ‘22 Photos taken by: Betsey Fries, Oscar Walsh, Solveig Bingham, Emma Martinez Sutton, Emily Rotenburg
Williams says, “We created a third class meeting, just recognizing how important the consistent class meetings are for student experience and even just for curriculum planning purposes... We balanced things out a little more so it followed a more predictable schedule, because I think that was a big stressor for students and faculty alike with HTLP.” An important aspect of the committee was that it included teachers from a wide range of disciplines who were able to represent the needs of different types of classes. In the case of math classes, Williams says, “I wanted to make sure each block followed a similar pattern... so we weren’t having to create different lesson plans for block 3 than for block 7.” For language teachers, the addition of another class meeting each week was a top priority. Mateo says, “I was a huge defender of that ... In my case as a language teacher, the
more we meet the students the better because they’re in contact with the language more often.” The committee also considered radically different schedules during the planning process. In one rejected plan, every class would meet daily for 35 minutes. Another had each block meeting only twice a week for 70 and 40 minutes respectively; Ruggiero shares that this schedule was nearly chosen, but the concern over fatigue in a 70 minute block and appeal of more frequent class meetings won out. Although RTLP 2.0 was finalized before the Upper School closure on Friday, Nov. 6 and immediate pivot to remote learning, HTLP was used until Thanksgiving break because there was not enough time to transition schedules. Ruggiero explains, “Because of how precipitous the decision was to go remote— we literally made the decision in the afternoon and the next day everyone was
Newly formed Blake Figure Skating team changed their group competition to an individual competition due to COVID-19. Page 16
gone—there was no time for faculty to make that transition and curriculum that teachers designed was specifically geared towards that schedule.” Knowing that HTLP was not designed for fully remote usage and meeting synchronously everyday, Ruggiero says teachers were encouraged to give students independent work time during class to step away from Zoom or reduce asynchronous work proportionally. RTLP 2.0 required input from students, faculty and parents alike as well as many stages of planning and debates. Mateo says, “We understand it’s impossible to please all the students, and the same thing with the teachers; we have a lot of different ideas about how things should be. But, we feel this was the [plan] that was going to support students in their work, in their health, and in their time to do their work and just be with their families.”