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Children went back to the classroom in San Diego Unified School District as part of Phase 1 to help special-needs students. The girl is returning to Lafayette Elementary School in Clairemont. Photo by Chris Stone
San Diego classrooms are no longer empty. Tuesday morning, children were inspecting school gardens, doing work in the halls and enjoying lessons on a classroom’s giant smart board.
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Special-needs students returned to limited on-campus instruction in the San Diego Unified School District’s elementary schools in the first phase of returning all students to in-person learning.
“What we are seeing is a lot of struggle with the social and emotional aspects,” said Principal Anne McCarty at Lafayette Elementary School in Clairemont. “Parents are having to be the teachers and work and do everything, so we are trying to help out as much
(TNS) — Alex Yan and Arvin Ding, seniors at Irvine’s Portola High School in California, have held free weekly in-person tutoring sessions for elementary and middle school students since they started their organization Math at the Library in 2017.
When COVID-19 hit, their team of high schoolers quickly transitioned to online tutoring and later banded together with two other student volunteer organizations — Girls Empowering Girls, founded by Annette Yuan, a junior at Irvine High School, which offers one-on-one English conversation practice with language learners, and Code Champion, a coding class Ding started with his sophomore sister Cindy Ding — to form the nonprofit StudySmart Youth Services.
While the teens previously served their local community, now they tutor students from Seattle to Toronto.
The Irvine youths are part of a growing number of advantaged high school and college students across the country who have stepped up during campus shutdowns and
Higher education was at a crossroads even before the COVID-19 crisis. In recent years, the cost of college attendance has risen and student debt levels have exploded. Discussions about debt forgiveness and reconfiguring higher education finance have moved out of wonky policy circles and into public discourse. Meanwhile, the costs of college have risen dramatically in recent years, perhaps exacerbated by decreases in state funding, and leading many institutions of higher education (“IHEs”) to provide online and lower-cost solutions to supplement or replace the “traditional” four-year, residential college—a trend that will be accelerated by the COVID-19 crisis. Simultaneously, college demographics have shifted, with an increasing population of “nontraditional” students, including those who are older, lack financial support from parents or other family members, and are more likely to have dependents. Disparities in higher education have had disproportionate, negative, and long-lasting effects on Black and Latino communities. And COVID-19 continues has
FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) — Clovis Unified will soon hear back from the state on its waiver application that could allow for some in-person instruction.
A questionnaire was sent to parents on Friday, offering two options. The first is a hybrid model, where a student would spend part of their class time in person and the other half at home.
The second is the online model, which students would continue distance learning from home full time.
Each of the 34 elementary schools will have specific return plans that fit their campus needs.
For those who choose to return, students will go through screenings before coming onto campus and have their temperature checked.
RELATED: Clovis Unified wants more input from parents on in-person learning model
During Monday’s parent forum, at least two health officials with children in the district said they would send their children back to school.
By Cliff Peale, director of executive communications
Norm Krumpe in the home studio he shares with Jane Keiser (image courtesy Krumpe).
Across all of Miami University’s campuses, faculty are changing the way they teach.
In the nursing labs at Miami Regionals, Tina Andrews-Parks used help from the E-campus unit on the Hamilton and Middletown campuses to familiarize herself with SpeedGrader, where she can tabulate and analyze the responses to each question in seconds for her online class. “I won’t go backwards to paper testing,” she said.
In information systems and analytics, Bob Leonard uses software that enables students to analyze larger data sets in his online courses. “It’s going to be great bringing newly developed tools back to the classroom, because students will have that (online) scaffolding in addition to their professor as a resource,” he said.
In political science, Monica Schneider has recruited speakers to address her Campaigns and
First-graders in Stacy Yanda’s class at Madison Elementary School in Cedar Rapids are learning how to be students again.
As kindergartners last year, they missed out on about three months of education because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and started their year as first-graders late because of the Aug. 10 derecho storm.
Yanda, who had these students last year as kindergartners, too, said she can tell which students received some at-home schooling over the summer and which did not.
“You can tell there’s a little bit of falling behind, but just in the first few weeks those who have fallen back have managed to catch up,” she said.
Instead of beginning the year with everything they missed in kindergarten, Yanda is starting at a first-grade level and filling in the blanks as they go.
For example, last year as kindergartners they missed their lesson in subtraction. This year as first-graders, they
Maria Newhouse moved to Long Grove so her daughter could attend Stevenson High School in Lincolnshire because of its reputation for academic excellence.
But attending classes in a pandemic through Zoom video conferencing isn’t the ideal learning environment Newhouse, and other parents, had envisioned.
“Remote learning is not an education,” Newhouse said. “Zoom (is) for conference calls. You don’t educate children via Zoom.”
Newhouse was among a group of Stevenson High School parents and students who rallied Monday outside the school demanding the district resume in-person classes. They sought to put pressure on the school board, which meets Monday, Oct. 19.
Stevenson High School District 125, which has about 4,300 students and more than 700 faculty members, was among the first suburban districts to switch to only remote learning at the beginning of the fall semester.
At the time, Superintendent Eric Twadell said it was more palatable than the alternative
SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — It’s been more than a month since public school districts in the Bay Area opted to return to online classes and educators and parents are starting to recognize the negative consequences of virtual learning.
“I am of the point of view that the public health interest of these children is served by getting these schools open,” stated CDC Director, Robert Redfield.
“There is no substitute for being in school like with your students,” added Mark Sanchez, a teacher who serves on the school board in San Francisco.
BUILDING A BETTER BAY AREA: Back to school
While everyone acknowledges that in-person learning is best for students, many feel the virus and its potential for spreading have left us helpless, with no other option but to continue with remote learning.
“It’s going ok, but I miss my friends for real life,” said 4-year-old Marion, sitting on her mother’s
MERCED, Calif. (KFSN) — Merced City School District staff members were eager to welcome back a small group of students on Monday.
A Franklin Elementary School special education teacher even made unique desks for her students, each designed to be their personal truck.
“The desks are built like trucks, so everything they need is in their truck,” explained Miss Bonita. “They have their keys, which are all their passwords for anything they’re logging onto.”
She’s hoping the rules of the road will help students adjust to the new classroom health safety rules.
“We keep our hands in the car, we have to stay in our seat when we’re in our car, our masks can come off in the car, pretty much all the normal rules we use in the car,” explained Bonita.
Roughly 150 special education students returned to the classroom for in-person learning on campuses in the Merced City
Interventions may include meeting with the student and parent, letting the student fidget, asking the student for help, offering incentives, and helping find an outside therapist if needed.
Getty Images: Peter Dazeley
The change from learning in person to learning remotely has had an impact on all students, but that impact may be greater for students with disabilities.
Educators to consider taking the following steps if they notice a student struggling with remote instruction.
1. Meet with the student and parent. Ask the student what his biggest challenge is and where he’s getting stuck, says Christina Reese, a licensed clinical professional counselor who trains school therapists who work with students with mental health disorders in Maryland and Pennsylvania. Then together with the parents, try to problem-solve it.
2. Let the student fidget. Once you have identified the challenge, determine what supports the student might need to have around his device
