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Alajah Tucker: "It feels like I'm just wasting time at school."
Despite bus driver shortages and dozens of absent teachers, New Haven students like Amil Soweol and Tylanna McCrea managed to get class time on Wednesday — at least part of the day.
Hillhouse High School Seniors Amil, Tylanna, and Jamiaya said several of their teachers were absent Wednesday.
The students said they had no teachers for four to five of their six classes Wednesday. As a result they stayed in their classrooms under supervision of an administrator while they hung out with their friends and on their phones.
They also left school earlier than usual. The city’s high schools let out an hour early so the district could juggle transportation schedules in the face of a shortage of drivers due to the spread of the Omicron variant of Covid-19.
District-wide, 585 staffers were absent. That meant other teachers or substitutes or even administrators racing to fill in. It also meant some class time spent checking phones in the cafeteria. Meanwhile, only around 13,000 of the approximately 20,000 students enrolled system-wide were present in school Wednesday, according to schools Superintendent Iline Tracey.
The problems Wednesday were increased versions of what schools like Hillhouse have faced throughout the academic year with the pandemic causing ongoing absences.
The goal is to keep kids in school during a pandemic, including during surges. The challenge is to keep them learning.
Hillhouse’s administration and students are both struggling to manage this school year, in different ways. Administration is lacking support, while students are lacking lessons.
Hillhouse Principal Glen Worthy said he, like other building leaders, did his best with the hand he was dealt: A full 21 out of his 87 teachers were out this week. Administrators covered classes along with substitutes.
Especially with subjects like math and English, substitutes can never truly provide the “quality instruction” that trained teachers who have relationships with students can deliver, he said.
“Right now all hands are on deck,” Worthy said. “We lost a whole week.”
He questioned whether it might have made more sense to wait out the peak of the surge and trim the February and April vacations to make up the days. “I understand the importance of having schools open. I’m not sure educationally our kids are benefitting.”
New Haven Public Schools have a day off to reassess Thursday, because of Three Kings Day. It’s possible that snow could also cancel or delay school on Friday. (Otherwise, click here for dismissal times Friday.)
Most school districts in the state are seeking to maintain in-person learning amid the Omicron surge, reflecting a consensus that the harm to students caused by school shutdowns earlier the pandemic outweighs the health threats posed by coronavirus. (Click here for a story that summarizes the argument for keeping schools open.)
Within that context, the challenge has been to make in-person learning work amid staffing pressures, a challenge Hillhouse students remarked on in conversations after dismissal Wednesday.
Early dismissal at Hillhouse Wednesday afternoon.
Junior Alajah Tucker had six classes scheduled Wednesday. Two of them had substitute teachers who didn’t teach, but just supervised the class, she said.
Alajah has worried about going to school every day since the start of the school year — mainly because students don’t wear their masks properly.
“I don’t think that its being taken seriously enough,” she said..
Alajah said school has lost its meaning for her and friends because of the frequent pauses to classes lessons due to teacher and substitute shortages.
Throughout the year some of her classes have been combined with other classes, often of different subjects, to make it easier for one staff member to supervise the classes short of educators.
“It feels like I’m just wasting time at school,” she said. “I don’t really feel like I’m learning anything any more.”
Tucker said she felt safest during remote learning.
“I think I can get Covid easily being here,” she said, due to her peers not taking the virus seriously while in school.
“They don’t want us to do remote again, but they won’t do anything about us being here either,” Tucker said.
A senior named Jamiaya said she recently recovered from Covid, in September. She said she worries about getting infected while at school.
“I feel like we should go back into a shutdown until everything starts to get better,” she said
Sophomores Danielle and Angeliss.
Before heading home Wednesday, sophomores Danielle, 15, and Angeliss, 15, said that although they enjoy hanging out with friends all day at school, they are dissatisfied with “missing out on what we need to know in the real world.”
“It’s annoying for the simple fact that it’s messing with my education,” Danielle said.
They agreed that they feel safe while at school, because staff does a thorough job of reminding students to wear their masks over their noses and with providing hand sanitizer and disinfectant wipes daily. They still feel the effects of the teacher shortage.
On Wednesday they each had three substitutes. They said they are in the school’s cafeteria or auditorium at least once a week hanging out due to the lack of teaching staff.
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Sidney: We spent class on our phones and looking at walls.
Sophomore Sidney, 15, moved to New Haven from Haiti in October. Tuesday was her first day in school at Hillhouse.
Sidney agreed that the school takes Covid safety precautions seriously, with dozens of signs reminding students to wear their masks.
Of her six classes, Sidney said four of them have been led by substitutes far.
“With subs we don’t really do much in the classroom,” she said. “They’re just supervising, not teaching.”
She said during her periods with substitutes, most of the students are on their phones or roaming the hallways.
“If we’re not doing anything while the subs are in the class and we’re not learning, then what is the point?” Sidney said.
https://babylonbee.com/news/10-reasons-remote-learning-is-so-much-better-for-children:
1) It prepares them for life as adult drones staring at screens for hours: Experts agree, the one thing children need more of is screen time.
2) It will definitely not lead to a mental health crisis and surging suicides like it did last time: Additionally, it is sure to stop the spread of COVID-19, THIS TIME.
3) Face-to-face interaction sometimes leads to free thinking: We are well aware of the dangers caused by free thinking, aren’t we comrade?
4) Slight reduction in wedgies: Incessant bullying will be limited to older brothers.
5) It's easier for the teacher to hide a Bloody Mary in her can of Diet Coke: And the little brats will stop asking why she smells like booze.
6) Representatives from the teachers union stopped by with some very convincing points: A few points included lead pipes and shattered patellas.
7) It didn't work last time, and why change what didn't work?: This is the official motto of the U.S. Department of Education.
8) The perfect transition to homeschooling: Plus, it will usher in traditional family structure as women are forced to abandon the workforce.
9) Eases kids into eventually being plugged into the matrix: It’s inevitable, but at least the steak will taste nice and you’ll know Kung Fu.
10) Fewer Chicago kids will get shot on their way to school: Actually, this one makes sense.