‘We do the best we can’
ACOVID-19 education reality: Teaching to two groups of students at once
As many as five times in a school day, all eyes in Dung Stafford’s first grade class at Nichols School in Stratford are on her.
Only six pairs out of 22, on a recent Thursday morning, are staring up from socially-spaced desks in Room 1 in the sprawling red brick school house on Nichols Avenue.
The rest are tuning in on a laptop screen that is sometimes trained on Stafford, sometimes on a whiteboard lesson and occasionally switched around so kids at home can see their in-class counterparts.
There is still a morning meeting. But students no longer sit in a circle on a colorful “ABC” rug Stafford described as beautiful.
There is still a corner bookshelf stuffed with slim readers. But only Stafford can retrieve one.
Classroom jobs have been pared down considerably. One can still hold the title of line leader, but no one can pass around materials to the rest of the class.
When reading time comes, students can’t partner up with the student behind them to practice the new reading skill they have learned during a group lesson. Instead they are called on individually to present to the full class or work on Lexia, a computer program, to track literacy progress.
“We do the best we can and we try hard to cover everything,” Stafford says during a break.
A challenge — but worth it
For educators like Stafford, fall 2020 is an exercise in readjusting their craft.
“It has definitely been challenging,” said Stafford, who has taught a total of 12 years. “I have to change some of the ways I do things for sure.”
Some 60 percent of public school classrooms across the state this fall are like Stafford’s — with some 309,000 students either rotating through school on various days of the week or at home altogether because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Nichols Elementary has 456 students, of which three-quarters come to school twice a week through a cohorted system. Another 109 are full distance learners.
Stafford has worked hard to keep the new reality straight while incorpo
rating more technology into her routine than ever before, maintaining high expectations and building a good rapport with her students.
“You still want to have fun,” she said.
Stafford worries about the virus, she admitted, but also loves being back in front of kids.
“Even with the stress of COVID, I look forward to coming in each day because I get to see my students,” Stafford said.
That compares with a spring when school abruptly went online with no notice or preparation.
A new reality
Breakfast is still being eaten by in-school students at their desks when Stafford turns on her laptop at 9 a.m. sharp and begins greeting the faces that pop up There you are, Luke. I see you,” Stafford says, checking off a box visible on the overhead projector. “I see Michael and Jenna. ... I don’t see Malio. Harrison, you’re here. Awesome, my friends.”
Everyone, at home and in the classroom, is asked to stand and start twisting, as they collectively call out greetings to every classmate.
Then they take out small whiteboards to tally the answer to the morning question: How many people prefer ice cream to cookies.
Each vote is recorded with a line on the tote
board.
“Who heard Ava?” Stafford asks, as Ava worked to unmute from home.
Eventually, ice cream got 15 votes to cookies’ nine.
“Thumbs up if you think ice cream has more,” Stafford asks.
Next is an exercise designed to get the emerging readers to count out syllables in words — in this case, their names.
“Nice job,” she said, as students finished clapping twice for “Maxwell.”
Next it’s time to practice another reading exercise involving a work sheet everyone can do on their own.
Almost unnoticed, someone comes by the open classroom door, sprays the knob and wipes it down. (Assistant Principal Lori DiBasi said additional cleaning staff were hired by the district to keep cleaning ongoing throughout the day.)
At close to 10 a.m., it is time for Stafford to say goodbye to the at-home kids, for now. She tells them she will see them again at 11 a.m., after snack and art.
Instead of going in single file to Matt Morelli’s art room, he comes to them.
“I can’t find my markers,” one student informs Morelli.
“You won’t need them,” Morelli responds before proceeding to read the book “Not a Box,” as inspiration for a line-andshape-drawing lesson that involves turning squares
into whatever their pencils can create.
Soon there are race cars, houses, presents. Sofia Ortiz announces the presents were inspired by her brother’s 12th birthday that day.
“I do miss my classroom, but it’s nice to see them in their normal environment,” Morelli says.
The artwork will be stored in boxes, stacked in the back of the room, that also hold crayons, scissors and glue sticks individual to each student.
Morelli tells the class that after Friday they won’t see him for a while. The art time block will be switched to music, library or physical education.
Keeping count
Out of 22 students, six of Stafford’s students are fully remote. One, with special needs, attends four days a week in person. The rest are divided into cohorts, attending Monday and Tuesday or Thursday and Friday.
Everyone learns from home on Wednesday.
Stafford teaches everyone that day, but said she tries to reserve one-on-one time on Wednesday for the full distance learners.
“To see who’s struggling,” she said. And to build a rapport.
If Stafford had a say, there would be separate teachers for students who remain home. The amount of coordination and paperwork it takes to juggle two sets of students is
tremendous, she said.
“For me, the kids at home are still my students,” she said. “I want to give them 100 percent. It’s hard. I am exhausted by the end of the day.”
Stafford, whose first name is pronounced “Yoom,” was born in Vietnam. She is in the middle of eight children whose family immigrated to Colorado in 1978 when she was 8 years old. College took her to the East Coast.
She grew up wanting to be a teacher, taking time out only when her kids were small, she said.
A daughter, now a high school sophomore, attends class in-person at Stratford High. Her eighth grader, a son, attends Wooster School and is a distance learner. It was his choice, Stafford said.
Quality over quantity
Stafford said she .“and her fellow first-grade teachers at Nichols collaborated on a routine for the fall.
Twenty-one school days into the 2020-21 school year, Stafford’s first-graders know to wear face masks over noses and not to talk during snack time when the masks come off. They know to reach for hand sanitizer, greet someone with elbows and how to leave a Google Classroom meeting.
All of that took time to master.
Taking attendance of at-home students each time they log back on takes time.
Stafford keeps to a strictly timed schedule so as not to keep at-home kids waiting when it’s time for them to rejoin the group.
Occasionally the technology fails.
“Today was good,” Stafford said. “There have been times when the connection is lost.”
She has told students and their parents that if they don’t see her, it’s for a technical reason.
At those times, she has had to learn to let it go and focus on the students in front of her.
“That is the reason why we are here,” Stafford said.
By the 11 a.m. reading lesson, when at-home kids logged back in, Stafford was down one at-home student from the morning count.
“OK my friends, I am going to get started,” Stafford told both sets of students. “Thumbs up if you know what to do at home.”
The class proceeded to learn how to pick up picture clues from a book projected on the screen, an exercise in deciphering tricky words — like splashing — that they may encounter on a page.
Stafford called on students at home, and in person, before it was time for them to practice on their own.
The in-class students were allowed to find comfortable spots to read. The only spot off limits was a bean bag chair. Stafford reminded her students that a classmate had already used it that day and it had yet to be resanitized.
During her Thursday prep period, Stafford planned out the following week, organizing materials that will go home with students on Friday, be picked up by parents or uploaded for them to print out at home. All of her parents, she has learned, have access to printers.
Lessons, Stafford said, have been modified but goals remain constant.
“It’s quality over quantity,” Stafford said. “I won’t lower standards. We change the way kids will meet the expectations. Kids are capable.”
For their part, students in the class that day said they would vote for inclass school over learning from home should it become a morning question.
“Sometimes you can’t find the right button,” Dalia Pech said of mastering Goggle Classroom on the computer.