Maya McFadden photos
Julie Penn and her son Kaiden Cooper meet with teacher Gina Impronto.
Barnard School’s “Family Meet And Greet” on Tuesday.
Students, families, and staff of Barnard Magnet Elementary School went back to school Tuesday — not for in-person classes, but rather as part of a two-day, outdoor “Family Meet and Greet” to kick off the remote school year.
Kim Rogers, Library Media Specialist helped to organize the event with the school’s leadership committee.
On Monday and Tuesday morning and early afternoon, parents and young students showed up to appointments for an orientation of sorts before the first day of school on Thursday. The first 10 weeks of the New Haven Public Schools fall semester will be all online, per the local Board of Education’s votes this summer.
Teachers led families in tutorials on how to log into their remote learning devices and Google Classroom. Teachers also handed out personalized school supplies to students.
Each teacher’s station was more than 20 feet apart from the next.
Board of Alders President and West River Alder Tyisha Walker-Myers helped table at voter and census registration stations at Tuesday’s event.
The organizers had guardians take a survey before the event to gather information about any kind of additional help families may need around, for example, food, internet, or personal protective equipment.
As distance learning coordinator, Rogers said the information gathered from the survey will help the team of organizers provide families with city contacts to get extra help.
“We need to think about the whole family because our students’ education can be affected in so many ways,” Rogers said. “This is what a world class school does, we take care of our families.”
Each outdoor teacher conference with families Tuesday was allocated 30 minutes. Teachers, parents and students went through students’ schedules, learned about the technology device provided, and discussed classroom etiquette for remote learning.
With the goal of maintaining a sense of community among the staff and families admist the pandemic, Rogers said it is important for students to meet their teachers in-person to get excited about the school year.
Teachers: “See You On Thursday On The Screen”
Barnard science teacher Gina Impronto (above right) said she plans to introduce a brand new, STEM-focused Pre‑K through sixth grade program this school year. Impronto’s goal is to introduce science skills that students can later apply to any academic interest they choose to pursue.
She said she is still expanding the STEM curriculum to work for the 10 weeks of distance learning. Students will attend the STEM course once a week with Impronto. Her plan is to use the projects distributed at the meet and greet as a conversation starter for the first day of classes. Other material bags will be distributed throughout the time of remote learning so that the course continues to have a hands on component, even when taught online.
Impronto said she is also working on partnering with the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History, and that she plans to use the school’s garden and greenhouse for class projects.
“See you on Thursday on screen,” said seventh and eighth grade social studies teacher Richard Caldwell after helping eighth-grader Jyce Relaford and her mother Eshe Hamilton learn to use a Chromebook.
Caldwell (above) helped each of his students log into their new devices. Then he had them log in without his help.
“This time around we’re structured and the idea of remote learning isn’t just being thrown at us. We’ve prepared and can now help the students and their families to get prepared too,” he said.
For the first 10 weeks of remote learning, each attendance will be taken in homeroom at 9 a.m. and students are required to visit each of their virtual classrooms. Virtual class will be about 10 minutes shorter than in-person classes previously were.
Caldwell is still working on making some of his in-person class assignments into engaging digital ones, such as having his class create their own atlases. He also plans to continue starting his classes with a group discussion on current events in the news.
Caldwell has been using Google Classroom for electronic class projects for the past four years.
Kindergarten teacher Kaitlyn Giusti (above) plans to slow down her curriculum to one letter and number at a time during remote learning, and to focus on the classroom community and more of the students’ home lives.
Principal Robert McCain said as of noon on Tuesday, 90 percent of parents showed up for their appointments with the students’ teachers.
Starting Thursday, McCain said the school will begin hot breakfast and lunch distribution to students’ families. The school’s library was nearly emptied for students to take home books for the school year, said McCain.
Barnard plans to continue to offer in-person, outdoor gatherings for students and their families to occasionally get school supplies and create relationships with school staff, said McCain.
Students: “Ready To Roll With The Punches Of Seventh Grade”
During her meeting with Caldwell, Relaford and her mother (above) questioned why she was scheduled to take pre-algebra again this year after taking it last school year. Relaford was told by a math teacher that because of the pandemic’s effect on in-person learning, the school had no way of gauging the student’s academic level. Hamilton said she hopes her daughter’s understanding of pre-algebra will show through when classes begin, so she can be given the option to move on to algebra.
Seventh grader Stephanie, 12, picked out a blue glittery bag on Tuesday with her grandparents. Although Stephanie had trouble adjusting to remote learning in the spring, she said she is looking forward to her seventh grade year.
Around July, Stephanie began having frequent panic attacks at the thought of starting the school year remotely. “I was scared of not having my friends with me for real. I was just thinking like, ‘What if no one wants to partner with me for projects because I’m quieter online?’” she said.
For the past month, Stephanie has been getting help at home to work through her anxiety and is “ready to roll with the punches of seventh grade.”
Students’ school days will begin at 9 a.m. with morning meetings, homeroom, and classes. Then students will be given a lunch and recess break. From 1:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m., the day will resume with small learning groups for students to get extra help, work on homework, etc.
Parents: “I Wish They Started Every School Year Off Like This”
Social studies teacher Richard Caldwell talks students through the coming semester.
While Hamilton was hoping the school would take on the proposed hybrid learning choice, Tuesday’s event brought back a sense of a normal school year during unusual times.
“It seems a lot more like school this time around. Students aren’t just being given work, but are finally being given a classroom, too,” Hamilton said.
Julise Penn, mother of four year old Kaiden Cooper (pictured at top of article left), received an iPad on Tuesday for her son’s distance learning, and met his teacher Mrs. Reyes.
Penn also collected art supplies for Kaiden, who is starting Pre‑K. The pair visited Impronto for a hands-on project to complete at home. Of Impronto’s three choices of constellation art, crafting a rocket ship, and engineer building, Kaiden decided on the engineer building project which will involve him drawing and creating 3D structures out of popsicle sticks.
Penn was planning to keep Kaiden home for schooling this year before the 10-week remote learning decision was made. With this year being Kaiden’s first experience with schools, Penn said, “He barely likes his mask on and can’t even sit still for that long, so I think this is best.”
Stay-at-home mother Brittany Smith was planning to keep her three-year-old Eleanor home for Pre‑K this school year for the safety of her four month old at home.
Smith picked up a tablet for Eleanor and a purple book bag filled with school supplies along with Eleanor’s pick of the constellation art project from Impronto. “This was great, I definitely feel prepared to help make her first school experience a positive one,” Smith said.
Daneque Carr, mother of three children ages five, 10, and 13, picked up three devices Tuesday for the family. Carr’s seventh and fifth graders exchanged out their Chromebooks from last year for updated ones.
Carr plans to take days off from work during the start of the year to establish a morning routine of schooling for her first grader. “It’s going to be hard because he can’t even sit still for a TV show, so I’m a little worried about his focus,” she said.
During the middle of the summer, Carr began homeschooling her first grader to get him familiar with learning from home.
“I wasn’t going to send them back so I’m happy with this,” said Carr. “I was afraid that because the remote learning decision was made so last minute, the school year would start off like it was in March. But this was so organized, I wish they started every school year off like this.”
It's wonderful that the school is making an effort to engage students and to support them and their families with supplies and remote learning support and address their needs for more social interaction. It will be important through out the school year to provide tech support and virtual classroom experiences with live instruction and social interaction. I hope the school and teachers follow up with each student to make sure they're engaged and have access to learning remotely and the support them through this time.