New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
Teachers, families adjust to hybrid schooling
HAMDEN — A couple of weeks after most other school districts started classes, Hamden students Tuesday returned to their classrooms in person and virtually.
The district has implemented a hybrid learning model in which children attend school in person some days, and learn remotely on others — unless parents opted to enroll fully remote.
Parent Jennifer Pope said her two children were looking forward to this day.
“My kids were very excited, so that made it easier to be ready,” Pope said.
She dropped one daughter off for her first day of fifth grade at Spring Glen Elementary School while her older daughter attended her first day at Hamden Middle School remotely.
Pope said the schools held orientations via Zoom so families and students could know what to expect.
Children at the elementary levels are grouped into small cohorts approximately half the size of a regular class, attending school the same days and at the same times.
Students in middle and high school,
meanwhile, are alternating the days they’re in school each week.
Pope said both methods — remote learning and in-person learning — aren’t ideal situations under pandemic conditions, but her children need time interacting
with peers and teachers in person.
“It seems like the district has tried to put a lot of effort into it,” she said of the administration’s return-toschool plan.
In all, Pope said, the first day went well for both her children, with there being only a couple of classes that her middle school child couldn’t access.
Lauren Garrett has three children attending school this year: one in elementary, one in middle school and one in high school. She said their family thought a lot about the options and decided to enroll fully remote because she can work at home and supervise them and they don’t need additional learning supports.
Across the district, about
30 percent of students have opted for full remote learning, an option the district created for parents who didn’t want to or couldn’t safely send their kids back to in-person schooling.
Garrett said they got scared when her middleschooler had a fever during summer and they thought it could be COVID-19.
“Kids are going to have viruses pretty regularly and I didn’t want to go through it,” she said. “I didn’t want to put additional kids in the classroom if they didn’t have to be because there are many parents who need to have their kids in school.”
Students whose caretakers work full time or children with special education needs truly may need to be in the classroom as much as possible, and Garret said her kids didn’t.
Even her youngest child, Bobby, a third-grader, seemed engaged by the teacher and lessons for the five hours he was on Zoom, Garrett said.
“She (the teacher) did an awesome job communicating with everyone,” Garrett said. “I felt like he (Bobby) was excited to see other classmates and excited to see his teacher.”
In late July, a number of teachers opposed a physical return to school, worried it would be unsafe for teachers and students, or that the learning environment would be poor. The Board of Education in late August voted to delay the start of school to give the administration time to accommodate for a number of teachers who asked not to come back to teaching in person this school year.
Tracie McClure, a seventh-grade Hamden Middle School teacher, was concerned then about being solely responsible for keeping her students safe with sanitizing and social distancing.
“When I saw the classroom setup they really went above and beyond what I expected,” McClure said of the administration’s efforts to reopen. She had sanitizer on her desk and didn’t have to worry about configuring the classroom herself to space out the students because that also was done.
McClure is teaching students physically in the classroom and the cohorts at home through Zoom.
“Day one, it was a little bit choppy,” she said. “I had students who had trouble getting on in the classroom and in person. I felt a little bit uncomfortable, but we’ve never ever had to do this.”
For the most part, McClure said parents were understanding about the challenges.
“It’s a learning curve and not something that’s going to be perfect right away,” she said. “It’s something we have to work through. It takes communication and patience.”
She said she’s still worried about everyone staying healthy while in school and while she didn’t have any incidents Tuesday, she hopes everyone in the building continues to socially distance and wear their masks.
“I think most parents feel appreciative of all the work our teachers are doing,” Pope said. “I hope they feel the same excitement as their kids and I hope their administrators really listen to them.”