SCHOOL IS IN SESSION
Many CPS teachers and students excited to head back to class — virtually — as school year kicks off amid technology concerns and worries over effectiveness of online learning
Technology worries and remote-learning anxiety aside, many Chicago Public Schools students and teachers were excited to get the new school year started Tuesday.
There were still questions to be answered, such as how many children are without quality internet, and important topics to address in the coronavirus pandemic and the summer of racial justice protests.
Nonetheless, Nina Hike, a chemistry teacher at Westinghouse College Prep, said she was energized for the start of the year despite her nerves about the internet connection potentially cutting out during a class.
Holding up a laboratory flask, Hike said she’s looking forward to the unique dynamic of teaching students in their homes “and being able to connect the chemistry in their homes that they see on a regular basis and also to talk to their families about chemistry.”
“In the classroom it’s easy to kind of gauge the student energy,” Hike said during a virtual meeting hosted by the Chicago Teachers Union. “But I feel like my energy is going to come through the computer screen. I even bought little beakers and flasks and stuff so that I can do demos and things of that nature to engage students.”
Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s office and CPS officials have said access to computers is not expected to be the problem it was earlier this year, after 128,000 devices were distributed in the spring with another 17,000 handed out ahead of this school year.
Officials also announced the “Chicago Connected” program in June, pledging to put free, highspeed internet into the homes of 100,000 CPS students who lacked reliable broadband access. A little over two months later, the families of 24,000 kids have signed up for the program, while the rest could still be without quality internet to start the school year.
CPS is also once again expanding its free meal program — which since schools closed in the spring has passed out 22 million meals — with 450 sites available every weekday for families to pick up food.
“We are not leaving anybody behind this year,” the mayor said at a Tuesday news conference at King elementary in Englewood. “We want to make sure that every single student in CPS has the same opportunity to have a fulfilling and nurturing learning experience as they would if they were physically in the classroom.”
Schools chief Janice Jackson, who joined Lightfoot at the school, said she’s confident this can be a successful year “despite some of the challenges that we face in remote learning.”
“I had a lot of questions when I woke up this morning about what this school year was going to look like, how do you get the excitement of the first day, how do you package that in a remote environment,” Jackson said
“It’s hard walking through a school and not hearing kids’ voices in the hallway. But when we look on the screens ... we see that our teachers have still captured that moment. There’s a lot of excitement, and I have no doubt that this is going to be a fantastic year.”
Hike, the chemistry teacher, said teachers also have to address racism in their classes — “that was the other pandemic that came to the foreground during the COVID crisis,” she said, with a Black Lives Matter flag hanging in the background of her room. “Hopefully we can all navigate that together as teachers and also in the communities. That’s something else that we definitely have to be thinking about today.”
Lauren Kullman, a drama teacher at Nightingale Elementary in Gage Park, said one of her chief concerns is checking how students are doing during the pandemic after not seeing many kids for six months. Gage Park is among the hardest-hit communities in the state by COVID-19 and in May suffered the loss of a 12-year-old boy, the youngest coronavirus death in the state at the time.
“I really don’t know how my families are,” Kullman said. “I don’t know if people lost people. I don’t know where they are with food insecurity and just all kinds of emotional health. And that’s going to be my driving force for as long as I need it to be.”
Kullman, with the type of energy only a teacher could have before 8 a.m., said she was raring to get logged on.
“I have got like four monitors all around me, I feel like I’m producing the Emmys or something,” she said. “I’m a drama teacher. I bring energy that is kind of above and beyond and sort of embarrassing for my students. But our whole goal is to be brave and be bold.
“My energy is going to be through the roof when I see the kids. If they turn on their camera I’m going to cry because I’ve missed them,” Kullman said. “We’re going to go for it. We’re going to do it.”
Students who have computer or internet problems won’t be penalized if they have trouble connecting to a virtual class at the start of the school year, Chicago’s schools chief said Tuesday.
Chicago Public Schools CEO Janice Jackson, speaking at a news conference with Mayor Lori Lightfoot on the first day of school, said the district would be lenient as technology woes are sorted out.
“Absolutely not,” Jackson answered when asked if students would be counted absent because of connectivity or technical issues.
“We’re working directly with our families. ... People are working extremely hard to get our kids connected. And we’re going to make every effort to ensure that they’re not only counted in attendance but that they have access to their teachers so that they can learn.”
The first day didn’t come without headaches for parents and teachers, with many posting on social media about their internet cutting out, or their kids accidentally leaving a video meeting and not being able to get back in. Some others said their first-day experience went smoother than expected. Families who are having technical problems can call CPS’ support hotline, open 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday, at (773) 417-1060.
Jackson and Lightfoot were also asked about the extensive amount of screen time required by the district’s remote-learning plan, which has drawn the ire of some parents and teachers.
“When those teachers are engaging their students, and we saw that over and over again today, they’re going to be engaged,” the mayor said. “If the teachers have a lesson plan, a mission and a path to go, the students are going to be connected, and they’re going to learn.”
Jackson said CPS’ remote school plan allows for time away from the screen so students can work independently.
“We know the guidance is grade-level appropriate,” she said. “Obviously we’re going to learn a lot in this environment, but we feel strongly that the guidance that we put out is in alignment with the best practices and the research on screen time.”
Many parents, teachers and even a school board member have said hourslong live online learning each day isn’t ideal for younger kids because research shows they need an adult with them for their online experience to be productive. It also puts a burden on working-class families when parents are asked to shoulder the huge responsibility of continuously checking on their kids when they have their own jobs to worry about.