8 minute read
HOME WORK
How MNPS teachers, parents and students are handling a virtual back-to-school
BY HANNAH HERNER AND AMANDA HAGGARD
About a month before the first day of school, Metro Nashville Public Schools made an announce ment it had never had to make before in history: The district would start off the school year online.
In June, options were presented for in-person classes, given a minimal spread of COVID-19 in Nashville, but as numbers picked up and as Nashville remains in Phase 2 of reopening, schools will be totally remote. This plan is to continue until at least through the Labor Day holiday with no set in-person start date announced yet.
MNPS urged that it would be different than in the spring, when school abruptly stopped meeting in person on March 12 and moved to a more relaxed online curriculum. This fall, students attend a full day of school via their laptops (many of them school-issued with accompanying hotspots) with some live classes and some independently-led learning. Assignments will be graded, tests will be given, and attendance is required. It’s a system that many know will be tough for low-income people, for workers that do not work in their home and rely on school to be able to go to work and for teachers who are learning to make the most of a situation that’s not ideal.
Parents, teachers and students all seem to realize that while virtual school is necessary to help slow the spread of COVID-19 that it’s a unique challenge — one most of them hope will be temporary.
THE STUDENTS
Camya Thompson, a fifth grader at East End Prep, catches up with her friends via Instagram. Her friends say they really like virtual school. She thinks this is because they get to stay at home in their beds. That’s the part she especially doesn’t like.
“We’re just sitting at home being lazy! We’re not doing nothing [in person] at school. And I want to meet my teachers in person,” Camya says of having to do schoolwork from home.
Camira Thompson, a sixth grader who is a bit more shy than her sister, says she likes doing her work from home, though it can be hard to pay attention. Her favorite class this year is math. That’s the only class where they get to work in small groups. She misses being able to have side conversations with friends.
“On the computer you can see their faces, but you can’t really chat with them,” she says.
The sisters already had the laptops and hotspots they needed from the spring, though the internet connection lags a lot. When their grandmother Darlene comes home from working the third shift in the morning, they’re already up and getting ready for school. She sits back and lets them take charge — they know a lot more about technology than she does.
THE TEACHERS
At Warner Arts Magnet Elementary, which has one of the highest levels of economically disadvantaged students in the district, they’re working with parents to get them used to using the new technology. It’s one of the larger hurdles to getting students ready to learn online — particularly for students who are English Language Learners. “Their parents don’t have the English to understand how to even get on the computer, let alone, get on Zoom or teams and then get onto Schoology, which is the program
where all their work is,” says Victoria Howard, who teaches several ELL students in various grades throughout the school. “So last Wednesday, I went to homes, with my mask of course, and kind of walked families through it one-on-one.”
Like Howard, many of the other teachers at the magnet school in East Nashville are working with families to get them accustomed to the programs their kids need to use to go to school every day. Teachers are also working through the glitches and kinks that often happen with deploying such a change. While students aren’t physically in class, teachers are likely putting in more hours than they were before to ensure that things are going as smoothly as possible for families.
“We are putting in as much, if not more, work and energy and effort to make sure that we are on top of it,” says Warner fourth grade teacher Dr. Nikki Hughes. “We are prepared and we are teaching like our hair’s on fire.”
The school district is also navigating getting meals to students to make sure no kids are going hungry while taking virtual classes. All Warner students receive free lunch
from the school and their parents can still access those meals — buses deliver meals to bus stops near lunchtime and meals are available for pickup at schools.
Being forced to do school virtually, though, has had somewhat of a positive unintended consequence. Educators at Warner — from fourth grade teacher Angela Moore, who’s taught for 30 years, to younger teachers like first grade teacher Kavon Seay and kindergarten teacher Julia Milano — say they’re getting to have more direct contact with parents than ever before.
“Oftentimes it happens with schools that serve high economically disadvantaged populations that people think that we have no parent engagement, which is not true,” says Warner Principal Dr. Ricki Gibbs. “It’s almost a thought process that you have low parent engagement because families are economically disadvantaged and they’re working and things of that nature. And there’s some truth to that normally. But I will say in this virtual setting, I’ve seen more parent engagement than I’ve seen in years.”
Teachers say it’s been an interesting experience — they’re learning about their students in new ways and parents are getting to see teachers in action.
“That part, it’s really great,” says Nicole Glaze, who teaches third grade at Warner Elementary. “It’s also allowing us as educators to create different activities as they’re learning virtually to construct meaning and make it relevant to them in their daily lives. They’re in their home. They’re able to go find resources at their home to use for learning — I just think that’s really real. And I’m enjoying teaching and building the relationship in that way.”
THE PARENTS
Technology has been a big hurdle for Contributor vendor Camalita Brown. Even with the school-issued hotspot and laptop, they didn’t have any success logging on to her son Charlie’s kindergarten class for the first entire week of school. After not hearing back from technical support, she took the bus to his school in-person and finally got things in working order by dealing directly with the school.
As an only child, Charlie loves to go to school and be around other kids.
“He really misses his friends,” Brown says.
Since school let out early in March, Camalita hasn’t been able to work selling papers for The Contributor. Not having that income has caused a financial strain on the family, but they’ve made it work, Brown says. She doesn’t have any childcare support for Charlie, so she takes him everywhere she goes.
TEACHING WHILE PARENTING
When Katrina Horton’s daughter Adrianna, who’s in eighth grade at Isaac Litton Middle Prep, starts homeroom, teachers ask a series of questions to check in and see what kind of headspace the kids are in. A lot of them, including Adrianna, say they feel stressed.
“My daughter put her response and she was like ‘I don’t like it. It’s very frustrating, stressful,’” Horton says. “I looked through the discussion board and everybody that had posted on that, all the kids are saying is ‘I don’t like it. I’m ready to come to school in person.’”
Horton is encouraged by the attention to mental health.
“They’re keeping them really engaged to try and figure out what their mental state is,” she says.
The Horton household has three work stations, mom in the living room and daughter in the kitchen and two-year-old younger brother K’saun at the miniature desk. They all work simultaneously, especially now that K’saun’s daycare had an outbreak and Horton has opted to keep him home while she works from home. Horton works as a paraprofessional at Metro Nashville Public Schools, providing individual support for kids with disabilities. Like she does with her students, she’s taking a hands-on approach to making sure Adrianna stays on task.
“My child has a hard time focusing even in the classroom sometimes. Now with virtual, just within the first two days, I’m seeing that I’m going to have to stay on her myself to make sure she’s paying attention in class.”
Adriana has ADHD and is on an Individualized Education Plan because of it. In a classroom setting, she would get pulled out of class for individual help. Horton is most worried about her getting the kind of social support she needs. She’s encouraged by the fact that her online classes are smaller than usual, and those classmates have IEPs too. She just would have liked to see Metro get more of a head start, and offer parents test runs to adapt to virtual schooling.
“I’m not faulting them,” Horton says. “I just feel like they could have been better prepared. I want to hold them accountable just like I’m going to be held accountable for my daughter. I’m holding the school board more accountable than the teachers themselves, because they can only do what the school board ordered.”
School got off to a rough start for the Horton family. On the first day, Metro’s system crashed and Adriana’s computer glitched. The only class she made it to was the last class of the day, physical education. It got smoother as days went by. Throughout the time leading up to and after school started back, Horton has been active on facebook. She’s found support from other moms there. One called to talk her through setting up a hotspot. Other parents who have children with ADHD and the like chimed in on her posts.
With virtual school continuing for the foreseeable future, parents, teachers and students will need to lean on each others’ strengths.
“We all gotta support each other,” Horton says.
