KUDOS:
- A huge thanks to Brad Ferstenou, Kurt Rummler, and Alyssa Riggs! You really stepped up with needed adjustments to make sure Katherine Botsford was able to rest and heal after her surgery last weekend. Brad was able to be in the Library with all 7th graders and 8th grade ELA transitioned to Brad and Katherine's classrooms so that Katherine's sections were taken care of all week! Nice job everybody!
- We really appreciate the great conversations and openness the Karcher staff brought to our Equity activity on Thursday. We had the chance to join a few conversations, and the thing that stuck out to us the most was how willing you were to be vulnerable in your conversations. Several times, we heard "I never thought of it that way", or "that really makes me think". We are moving in the right direction and we appreciate your willingness to engage in conversation around equity for ALL students.
- As you all know, we have been working with Emmons (furniture company assisting with furniture selections within our budget) and we will be setting up meetings first with the elective type spaces (or non academic classroom spaces) in the very near future - most likely in the month of October. Therefore, elective staff, Suzanne Dunbar, and our secretaries all toured the building (in groups of 2-3) to specifically spend some time in the spaces pertaining to their area of the building. Thank you for all the questions you had and feedback regarding the building as well! It takes a team and we appreciate the help!
- More to come! Academic teachers - Emmons will be bringing in items for you to see in a classroom within the new 6-8 building along with other options as well! Your time with them will be in November, once the items come in for you to see, move around, etc. within the actual 6-8 building itself! Come mid-November one wing will have the carpet on the floor so this will help bring it all together!
- Science teachers - we will want to get you into the building, potentially this week, I will reach out to set up times with you as you will be meeting with Emmons in October as well!
- Thank you to Eric Sulik, Kailee Smith, and Dina Weis for your willingness to run a technology session for your colleagues this past Thursday! So many good things came out of the two hours that were relevant and useful right now for staff! Thanks again for "Acting Like A Goose!"
Article: This article is a good reminder... we are not alone during this pandemic...
Allen Johnson:
Teaching in person (sort of) in the age of COVID
I have taught college journalism and English classes at one place or another for nearly 30 years. But in the age of COVID, some days I feel like a rookie. Take a Monday morning, two weeks ago, when my news reporting class at N.C. A&T started without me. Oh, I was there physically … but my virtual dog-and-pony show was not. I teach in a computer lab with automatic lights, a command console, a motorized screen and a built-in projector. A smart classroom, they call it. And sometimes it's smarter than me. This was one of those days. I couldn’t get my PowerPoint slides to appear on the screen during a Zoom presentation. It was a little like discovering your fly is open while giving a speech or realizing that you wore part of your salad between your two front teeth — after an important business lunch.But such are the vagaries of life in these very strange and uneasy times, I guess.
I am doing something I‘ve never done before in my life: teaching a “hybrid” class. This means half of my students attend in person, the other half remotely. Because the classroom isn’t big enough to hold all 20 students, socially distanced, the two groups alternate being there in person with being there virtually. Now, after all this time, I’ve become more than confident in my teaching abilities. But this Brave New World can be very humbling. Like that day my PowerPoint presentation had left and gone away when I needed it the most.
So I asked my in-person students (the T Team) if they had any clue what I was doing wrong (they typically know about this stuff than I do). There was only silence. Bueller? Bueller?
Eventually, I did find the department’s IT guru, who assured me that I had done nothing wrong. “It just does this sometimes,” he said. On with the show. To the students’ credit, they're patient and understanding. This is uncharted territory for us all.
You see, I'm an old-school teacher who still likes using the whiteboard and wandering around the classroom during lectures and discussions. Now I can’t do either. I have to plant myself in one spot, from the start of class to the finish. A&T plans to install motion cameras, but for now I must stand rigidly in front of a computer monitor so students can see me. (Sort of. I wear a mask, as do the students, so they’ve never experienced the splendor of my entire face.)
Also, everyone who attends class physically must wear a mask, which sometimes muffle voices. So I have to ask students to repeat themselves, occasionally more than once.
What's more, I have to remember to repeat their questions and comments from the in-person students so the remote learners can hear them, which I don’t always do. Ironically, there’s no such problem with the Zoom participants; their comments boom from the ethernet like the Voice of God (when he was a sophomore). That classroom’s got a killer sound system.
It takes me longer to learn students' names because on the two days a month when I see them in person their faces are half-covered. After each class, I am required to clean the desks, chairs and keyboards. The university provides gloves, disinfectant wipes and masks for each instructor.
A sign at the entry of Crosby Hall, where I teach, says in Aggie blue and gold: “No entry without a mask.” Other new realities: No in-person office hours. No looking over a student's shoulder as he or she is writing a news lead. No in-person role-playing. All things considered, however, this has gone better than I expected. The students are engaged and resilient. As much as COVID-19 has mangled their college experiences, they're dealing with it. Everyone wears a mask, though occasionally I have to remind them to cover their noses as well as their mouths.
Suddenly, parking is a breeze. And I’ve gotten used to juggling the slightly different needs of my in-person and virtual audiences. I've been pushed to learn and adapt. They tell me that this semester has been less frustrating than in the spring, when A&T shifted on the fly from in-person to online classes as the pandemic escalated. I agree. When the semester began, I looked forward to seeing the students in person again — yet, given that I'm a baby boomer, I also worried about the risks, to me, to students and to my family. Thankfully, A&T has one of the lowest COVID-19 infection rates in the UNC System, at 0.49% (UNCG’s is lower at 0.45%). It hasn't had to pivot to strictly online classes after big outbreaks, as others have, including N.C. State and my alma mater, UNC-Chapel Hill. So, so far, so good. We're keeping calm and carrying on. Up close (though not closer than 6 feet). And from a distance.
Information/Reminders
- Please continue to keep your distance from each other during prep, lunch, meetings, etc.
- Please make sure you are taking the time this week to schedule your parent/guardian/teacher conferences for October 21st.
- We know there is concern out there that you will have no planning time on the 21st due to conferences. This is not the intended case or how to look at things.
- Our thinking more so was... since students are not at school on Wednesdays why not allow for more flexibility for families as to when they can schedule a conference with you versus only be able to meet between 4:00-8:00. Everyone will be at school like you usually would from 7:00-3:00 and then return from 4:00-8:00 (like we always have done in the past).
- However, instead of all conferences falling in that 4-8 window they can be sprinkled throughout the day to provide more flexibility for our families. I would say you should be engaged in conferences with parents/guardians/students for 4-5 hours of the day (4 was usually but with things being virtual, virtual tends to simply take a little longer).
- As teams, divide and conquer as well if needed - that is the beauty of middle school teams! Elective staff - make sure you too are engaged in the 4-5 hours of conferences by attending team conferences as well.
- We hope this clears things up!!!
This Week
- Monday, October 12 - District Essential Skills Committee
- This will be our first meeting of the year for this committee. Our focus this year will be on grading practices as we work to move to a standards-based gradebook within the system.
- We will be meeting in the Karcher auditorium (to socially distance) from 3:45-5:30.
- This committee will also have a sub-committee that has branched off for 5K-5 grade to ensure the science and social studies Essential Skills are also completed for the 2021-2022 school year. Therefore, a portion of this committee will be meeting on a different Monday night (monthly as well) to divide and conquer! (just an FYI)
- Wednesday, October 14 - Special Education Teachers will continue further training with CESA 2 when it comes to accommodations, specially designed instruction, and coaching through one of our middle school IEPs and tweaks we can make.
- This training will be from 9:00 - 11:00 and then again from 1:20 - 2:20.
- The high school sped team will be participating as well for the morning session and then they too have a coaching session in the afternoon looking at a BASD high school IEP from 2:20-3:20.
- Wednesday, October 14 - Building Level Time
- Please meet (socially distanced of course) at 10:30 within your House Teams to finalize P/T conferences together.
- Then... please share with the elective staff and then elective staff you may want to do a zoom together to determine which elective teachers are going to what conferences.
- Wednesday, October 14 - Our National Equity Project Team will continue learning from 3:30-5:30.
- Friday, October 16 - End of Term 1!!!!!! Can you believe that!!!
- Grades should be posted by Monday, October 19th by 3:30.
