OFFICIAL E-NEWSLETTER OF
MAY 2020 | VOL. 3, ISSUE 8
PROACTIVE FOCUS
What We Learned During Extra Yard for Teachers Pandemic Response Educator Roundtables
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s part of the CFP Foundation Pandemic Response plan, the Foundation convened and hosted three roundtables in March and April of 2020 that were attended by national education leaders and current educators from across the country. The goal was to capture the adaptations of education systems and resiliency of educators given the sudden shift to distance learning. We’re learning about the needs of both students and teachers, what lies head and what is possible.
What Students Need + Food and social services
(social/emotional support is vital now and when the school year starts back up)
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EXPERIENCED MINDS: National education leaders and teachers gathered together digitally to discuss what has been learned and best practices during this challenging time.
+ Access to devices/internet/
learning resources (laptops, hotspots). So many households don’t have enough of these resources.
+ Continued relationships
with teachers (especially for students that don’t have home support)
+ Continued opportunities of
connectivity with classmates and peers to feel “normal”
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What Teachers Need + Social Support – there are
increased demands from home and new demands at work.
+ Emotional Support – there are strong feelings of “chaos” and “burnout” with current state.
+ Guidance on grading/
attendance/re-opening – there are areas where there is a lack of cohesive leadership and teachers are left piecemealing day-to-day.
+ Professional Development related to distance learning that is accessible in various times and platforms/easily
digestible with new demands outside of “school day”— differentiated for teachers.
Looking Ahead + Teachers are
appreciated more than ever/seen as professionals in their field.
+ Parents are obviously involved in the learning and have increased connectivity with teachers (not just for behavior issues etc.).
+ There is an awareness of skills
teachers need to reach all types of students and challenges related to that in classrooms that are large in size.
TEACHER APPRECIATION WEEK WRAP: Parents and families appreciate teachers more than ever during the challenge of COVID-19. Teacher Appreciation Week took place from May 4-8 and there were so many positive messages. Thank you, teachers, for all you do!
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NEW ORLEANS EXCELLENCE IN TEACHING AWARD
T + Some students have shown
great resilience and innovation during this time and realize the application of courses (3D printing masks, healthcare workers etc.).
he New Orleans Excellence in Teaching Award (NOETA) was created in 2015 to help honor more outstanding teachers throughout New Orleans public schools. School leaders, teachers, coaches and other academic or cultural leaders at any New Orleans area public school or network were eligible to nominate exceptional teaches for this citywide award. The NOETA semi-finalists represent the top 15 educators based on the following criteria: Student Achievement, Strong Student Relationships, Constant Learning, and Impact on Community. The Semi-finalists were recently announced. Finalists and winners will be announced in the fall.
+ Virtual learning can be
integrated more into the school setting.
+ We need kids to be learning to learn, not to take a test.
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+ The pandemic is highlighting
major inequities in education — how can we flip the system to have equity for every student?
+ How will we change testing? Short term is more analysis; do we continue this?
+ How does this change student
teaching experiences and how do we address challenges for new teachers?
+ Teachers and school leaders
need more consistent support with social/emotional needs and mental health than ever before.
This summary was developed based upon three sessions held between March 16 – April 30, 2020 and were hosted by College Football Playoff Foundation staff.
1 Robert Bassler Ambramson Sci Academy 2 Jennifer Boyce Opportunities Academy 3 Talisha Bryan Eleanor McMain Secondary School 4 Terri Clabeaux Bricolage Academy 5 Jennifer Comeaux Benjamin Franklin Elementary 6 Henry Dreyfus Benjamin Franklin High School
7 Arielle Jack Arise Academy
12 Eric Schroeder Morris Jeff Community School
8 Joseph Krafczynski Martin Behrman 13 Charter School Academy of Creative Arts and Sciences
Tara Thomas-Antoine Martin Behrman Charter School Academy of Creative Arts and Sciences
9 Taaqua Lacy-Williams Dwight D. Eisenhower 14 Blake Thompson Elementary Livingston Collegiate Academy 10 Catherin Morales Esperanza 15 Marla Williams Charter School Martin Behrman Charter School Academy 11 Alexandra Mossing of Creative Arts and Hynes Charter Sciences School
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GOING THE DISTANCE
Teaching in the Age of Coronavirus
BY STEVE DRUMMOND, Executive Producer, NPR News
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or John Zirkle it’s all about the rhythm. The rhythm that comes in that moment when his students are singing together, their voices in perfect sync. But when there’s a half-second delay on Zoom or Google Hangouts, his students sound like, well, students. “The latency of even a half-second,” he says, “makes it impossible to line up a beat.”
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And so when schools in Big Sky, Montana, shut down on March 16, Zirkle, who was Honored’s May 2017 Honoree, had to shift gears — and fast. As a music educator whose specialty is ensemble singing, he knew when school moved online that he couldn’t just replicate the normal classroom experience. “Rather than try to sing together
over Zoom, we instead decided to do a virtual project.” Zirkle teaches at Lone Peak High School in Big Sky, and he’s the director of the Warren Miller Performing Arts Center. He’d been in touch for some time with an allgirls student choir in the Czech Republic, and the group was planning to visit Montana this year. The visit was now cancelled, but
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that didn’t mean they couldn’t sing together. Zirkle had each student — those in Montana, and in Eastern Europe — record their own tracks, and video of themselves performing. Over several days, “we edited this piece together with translation and a short background.” The whole thing took about two weeks, and the result is amazing: a professional-looking and -sounding video, complete with time-lapse footage of nearby Lone Peak. It’s an original work; an entirely different performance than the one Zirkle had envisioned earlier in the year. A work that was conceived, performed, edited, and produced completely online. For his students, it was a learning experience they would never have known if everything hadn’t changed so fast. Welcome to Teaching in the Age of Coronavirus. In the blink of an eye, school as it’s always been done came to a halt, and in the span of about two weeks, teachers and principals and administrators had to re-invent it from scratch. Millions of educators who’ve never had training in how to teach online suddenly find themselves doing it every day. Lesson plans, software, grading policies, meal programs, Individualized Education Programs, attendance, assessment — the whole works — all of it had to be retooled and re-imagined. Not for some distant future, but right now. All of this in the midst of coping with the stress and anxiety of living in a global pandemic. Nevertheless, like John Zirkle, great teachers everywhere are
TECHNOLOGY PIVOT
Bringing Classroom Technology to Teachers and Students At Home
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he CFP Foundation has a Veative Home Study is an strong partnership with exciting new addition to the Veative to help bring Veative education line. Their technology to students. Virtual content library with built-in reality headsets have been assessments and data analytics included as part are now available of some of the on both the media center EduPro VR makeovers taking Device and on place at schools any computer throughout the with internet country. access, using a “Veative virtual keyboard and reality modules mouse. This easyhave become to-use solution a staple in my allows teachers classroom,” said They absolutely love and school Chris Hatten, leaders to track it and I absolutely students’ progress STEM/Makerspace teacher at Kipp love tracking their toward mastery City Central and ensures progress. It’s a school in New that teachers win win” Orleans. “The can provide CHRIS HATTEN first question differentiated, that students ask unique learning when they arrive to class is ‘Are opportunities for all students we using VR goggles today?’ whether they are at a school or At the end of the day students at home. will ask me out the window Veative’s robust content of the bus “are we getting library is expertly aligned to on VR goggles tomorrow!!!?” National and State Standards and They absolutely love it and I contains over 550 interactive absolutely love tracking their modules for grade-three through progress. It’s a win win.” higher education. Topics include During the challenge of STEM, Educational Tours, SAT COVID-19, Veative WebXR and ACT Preparation, and Career provides a new offer in response Technical Pathways for Health to pandemic. Now without Science and Agriculture. access to equipment, Veative is Free Veative Home Study webable to offer a web version that based content can be accessed these schools are using. by visiting covid.veative.com.
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rising to the challenge. And so, as the crisis stretches from weeks into months, we reached out to some of Honored’s past Honorees for their advice, their inspiration, and for the lessons they’ve learned so far. There are clunky downloads, funky Internet connections, mixedup schedules, and the inevitable minutes lost while everyone logs on. Everything takes longer than it did before, and it’s much harder to know what’s working and what isn’t. Most importantly, these teachers are missing the personal, one-onone interactions with students that are a central part of their lives and teaching practice. Still, in the midst of it all they are finding — or making, rather — those moments of joy that teachers live for. And they’re working to preserve and even strengthen those crucial bonds with their students. “Over the past month, I think I’ve met every one of my students’ pets,
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John Zirkle’s virtual classroom features several of his beloved musical instruments. and they’ve spent some quality time with mine,” says Cathy Atwell, the July 2018 Honoree, who teaches at Marlborough School, a private, allgirls school in Los Angeles. Like many teachers, Atwell is building the pandemic into her teaching. She and her colleague
Mabel Wong have designed a final project for their 9th grade history class — an oral history on the coronavirus experience. Each student will interview two people and use that “as primary sources for an analysis of one major theme/ topic related to the pandemic.”
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In their instructions to the students, the two teachers explain why the assignment matters: “This project isn’t meant to increase anxiety about the pandemic. Rather it is meant to encourage you to face it, to look at your role in what is clearly a major global turning point, to reflect upon what you are seeing, hearing, and feeling, and to do all that by applying the critical thinking and writing skills that you have been working on this past year. As you might have realized by now, the pandemic isn’t simply a disease; it is a political, economic, social, environmental, technological, media event.” While Atwell is teaching the pandemic through the lens of history, for April 2019 Honoree May Ng it’s a chance to expose her students to real-world lessons in science. For her statistics students at Mark Keppel High School in Alhambra,
California, Ng has given them links to COVID-19 tracking databases, ”so they can monitor local outbreaks.” The students will “track and identify growth trends and whether we are locally ‘flattening the curve.’” Like so many teachers, Ng has found that with all the new platforms and technology, “it does get overwhelming.” But she adds that it’s also exciting to be thinking once again so carefully about how she teaches. “Distance Learning has really forced me to look and explore alternative ways to deliver instruction and engage my students.” February 2019 Honoree Matt Buchanan has done some selfexamination, too, and realized that he’s got to change his style: “Teaching a class online makes me hyper-aware that if I ‘drone on’ at all I’ll be losing students.” Buchanan is the English department chair at La Lumiere
school in La Porte, Indiana. He says that in the few short weeks he’s been at it, he’s developed several strategies for keeping his students engaged as they work through Romeo and Juliet and The Great Gatsby. He’s dabbled in podcasting and moved his weekly newsletter online. His students are writing poetry in the online “comments” section. Basically, he’s willing to try “anything you can do to recreate the magic that happens when students and teachers share ideas.” Although he’s adapting to teaching online, “The classroom has been my home for over 20 years,” says Buchanan. “Teaching from my home office isn’t the same — nor will it ever be.” As the shutdown has lengthened and the time students are spending away from their routines and friends and teachers grows, many schools are emphasizing the importance of
Congratulations to our first GO TEACH Project Graduates including: MADISON CARR Women's Lacrosse, Notre Dame
NOOR KAZMI UNO
DR. RYAN DEROUSSELLE Xavier University of Louisiana
ANNE LOOTENS UNO
CLAIRE DESELM Swimming and Diving, Notre Dame
JENNA NOONE UNO CYNTHIA HURTADO UNO
And all of our new GO TEACH students who are continuing their path to education from New Orleans University, Texas Christian University, University of Kentucky, University of Miami, University of South Florida, University of Texas, University of Oregon and Xavier University of Louisiana.
Texas senior, Claire Adams, awarded CFP Foundation Postgraduate Teacher Certification Scholarship to further pursue teaching certificate.
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helping students cope with their fears and anxieties. Long before COVID-19, the emotional well-being of her students was a priority for Tomiko Ball, the April 2017 Honoree. Each day, with her first-graders at Brightwood Education Campus in Washington, D.C., she shared with them after recess a “mindful minute.” It’s a little pause in the day for the students to calm down and take a breather while they watch a soothing video — often a nature scene. With all the upheaval in their lives, she’s preserving that daily routine in her online teaching. “During our Zoom class time,” she says, “I have a ‘pause’ section, where I pull up a relaxing video that shows the waves and the water.” It’s an important reminder, she says, to the children “that there are some things that are still under their control — that we can take ourselves somewhere virtually, just to give ourselves some calm,” Ball explains. “They’ve gotten used to it, and it’s calming for me, too.”
other technical courses for years at Arrowhead Union High School in Hartland, Wisconsin. There was no way that his students, in their homes, can replicate the work they do in the school’s massive woods lab, with its planers, band saws, lathes, and computerized cutting machines. So Schlitt came up with an idea he’s calling “reverse woodworking.” Tomiko Ball teaches reading skills to her firstInstead of starting grade students from her sunny home workspace. from scratch to design and build a piece of furniture, he’s created an assignment important it is to stay in touch and where students choose one that keep the lines of communication already exists, and work backward open. from there. They’ll choose an item “Give students grace. You have in their home, describe its form and no idea what their home lives are like function, measure its dimensions, and what they are going through,” sketch it using a variety of drawing he says. “I am trying to give as much techniques, and then develop a plan feedback as I can and I’m asking for how they would build it, and the how they’re doing.” materials they’d need. Those same kinds of concerns are It’s a great keeping Adelina Vargas, the August lesson, and he’s 2018 Honoree, awake at night. Give students grace. You have doing what he can “I worry about them constantly,” to keep students Vargas says of her students at no idea what their home lives engaged. Do they Thomas J. Rusk Middle School in are like and what they are like it? “That’s the Dallas. difficulty of teaching In her dual role as teacher and dealing with.” online; you don’t instructional coach, the uncertainty JEREMY SCHLITT have the chance to of not knowing how her students For Jeremy Schlitt, the January really see students’ reactions like you are doing, and the daily task of 2020 Honoree, very little of what would in a face-to-face classroom.” phoning parents, in some cases to he did in class before the shutdown His students are completing the let them know their kids are at risk translates into an online setting, and work, he says, “but I know they of failing, “takes a heavy toll on my he’s been forced to make radical would much rather be in the lab heart and mind.” Vargas is a parent changes. working with their hands.” herself, and knows how difficult and “Teaching woodworking online When it’s all said and done, Schlitt complicated this is for families. “I is obviously difficult,” says Schlitt, knows how much stress and anxiety know I must be very understanding who’s taught cabinetmaking and and fear they’re feeling, and how and patient. It can be overwhelming
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with all the information being sent at the same time.” For Tanya Barrios, the July 2019 Honoree, the challenges facing parents are also a huge concern. She teaches special education at Prosper High School in Prosper, Texas, and these days, she is the district’s transition teacher for students who are 18 and older. These are students who have completed grades 9-12, but still have learning needs and require someone to look after them for their health and safety. Though they’re not in school now, her students are working on their goals, including communication, making choices, following a schedule, completing a task and other activities. At home, they can help with the dishes or household chores, or choose what they’d like to eat, and they can get outside for walks. But “they don’t really understand why they are stuck in the house all day.” And this has forced their parents, Barrios says, to “confront the issue of what will happen to their child when they finally ‘age out’ of the program.” In Santa Maria, California, many of the families who haven’t lost their jobs are working in the fields. It’s an agricultural region, and some of the students sent home when Pioneer Valley High School shut down have gone to work, too. Others “are day care for their siblings,” says Kevin Ilac, the November 2018 Honoree. For Ilac, a big struggle so far has just been keeping track of them, and staying in touch. “Everyone’s always talking
NOMINATE A TEACHER AND THEY COULD WIN $5,000 In partnership with Extra Yard For Teachers, Eckrich is giving away $5,000 to a teacher who is going above and beyond! To nominate someone, simply tag them @eckrichmeats on Instagram and share a short story about how they’re going the extra yard! #YouDoYouRedefined #ExtraYardForTeachers
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about equity, but this pandemic has really brought this issue to the forefront to educators to explain exactly what that means,” he says. How are you reaching your students? I asked him. “We’re trying everything,” he says, “any kind of contact.” Zoom classes. Phone calls. Anything. But one of the main tools that teachers like Ilac — who coaches tennis and wrestling — use to engage with students is gone: The extracurricular activities that for so many kids are a lifeline to school. “When it came down that sports were cancelled for the rest of the year,” Ilac says, “it was like seeing their souls get crushed — they didn’t know what to do with themselves.” And so he’s trying to keep those connections alive, wherever he can. “Even if it’s engaging with one or two kids” on any given day, he says. It’s all about “trying to find those little moments of happiness to build on.”
reading to me over the telephone because our district doesn’t allow us to use platforms like Zoom. My parents are phenomenal and are stepping up to become teachers. I have over 120 photos of the students learning at home so far.” Some teachers are finding comfort and support — remotely, of course — from their district and their Vargas’ sons in their home study space. “It has colleagues. “My team been difficult to manage work and homeschooling has a great attitude,” — we try every day. More than anything, I miss the says Adelina Vargas, interaction with my students!” “and it is nice to have a group of educators to talk about these issues.” with a senior student, we had a Qiuhong Zhang, the March 2018 very happy and relaxed chat.” And Honoree, is reaching out as well. in mid-April, eight of her students She’s been joining webinars with competed in Wisconsin’s annual colleagues across the country. Chinese Language Speech Contest, Along the way she has picked which was moved online. “We up great ideas for tools and achieved one first place, three techniques she can second places … and two third use to make online places!” My parents are phenomenal learning more For Tomiko Ball, that kind of joyful and are stepping up to become meaningful. moment comes when the students Zhang teaches share their artwork: “There’s nothing teachers.” Mandarin Chinese sweeter than getting on a Zoom, and ISABEL RENTERIA at Notre Dame a student has drawn a picture of me, The seniors, he says, know they Academy in Green Bay, Wisconsin. or the whole school, and holds it up need to focus in order to graduate. Zhang says those first days of to the screen. Those things are so But the younger students? “I’m distance learning were the hardest. touching.” trying to invigorate my freshmen “I was nervous that I couldn’t hold Rachel Mandrelle, the June 2019 and sophomores: ‘Don’t check out, the students’ attention.” Some Honoree, has in some ways turned man. You still are trying to build into weren’t showing up, or didn’t the corner, too. She teaches third something.’” complete their assignments. grade at Williams Elementary School Isabel Renteria, the September But pretty soon, they got in the in Jonesville, Michigan. And when I 2019 Honoree, feels grateful for the groove, and so did their teacher. reached out to her, it was one of the support of her parent community On the day I heard from her, she good days. in Visalia, California, in the state’s told me, “a half hour ago, when I “I had a virtual meeting this central valley. “My students are finished an IB oral exam/assessment morning with my class,” she told
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PAYING IT FORWARD: Fellow Louisiana State Teachers of the Year (TOY) Spencer Kiper (2019), Chris Dier (2020) and Joni Smith (2017) decided to forward their appreciation to teacher and music educator Kelly Stomps (2016 La. TOY) a $2,000 gift card from DonorsChoose.org to use towards a classroom project of her choosing. She says she has immediate needs to upgrade some of her musical instruments.
me. “Not everyone was able to attend at that time, but it was wonderful to see their faces.” She told the class what a good job they had done on the online math question she had posed to them, and how proud she was of them. Then they told jokes “and laughed and made those connections that we had been missing.” The meeting ended, though, with a question-and-answer session that brought Mandrelle to tears. One of the girls asked her, “Are we really not going to be in class anymore?”
Mandrelle struggled to respond, and finally answered: “Yes, when you go back to school, you will be a 4th grader.” That student “was the last one to leave the meeting. She didn’t want the time to end. I was crying with her by that point and tried to give her a virtual hug.” That, she says, is the hardest part of all of this. “I know she needed a hug, but I was unable to provide that to her. I knew what my student needed, but I COULDN’T help her.” I asked her what lessons she’s
drawing from these experiences; what advice she’d have for other teachers going through these same difficult moments. Mandrelle says the most important task is to look after your students’ mental and physical health, to ask how they’re doing, and to stay in touch and be there for them. “They will never get another year with you. Laugh with them. Remind them that you love them. That is what they will always remember.” Story courtesy of Honored.org
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