Troup Teacher All Set For Remote School

Troup middle school teacher Rashana Graham is feeling calm again.

After a turbulent and uncertain summer, remote school is set to start Thursday. And she’s ready.

New Haven Public Schools teachers like Graham spent most of the past few months trying to plan to teach in-person, online or through a hybrid of the two.

Only in the last few weeks did the district confirm that it would pursue the online-only option for the first quarter of school as the Covid-19 pandemic continues.

“Slowly but surely everything is falling into place. After all the freaking out, it’s not as bad as I thought,” Graham told the Independent in a recent interview in the runup to the first day of school.

“Everybody Was In An Uproar”

The New Haven Board of Education deviated from state guidance in early August and voted to reopen schools virtually for 10 weeks. The decision followed protests from parents, teachers and paraprofessionals who argued the district did not have enough personal protective equipment, Covid-19 testing and other resources to keep students and staff safe.

Teachers, in particular, are worried. While roughly half of families would like to send their children into school at least a few days a week, 88 percent of teachers do not feel safe returning to school under current local plans, according to a survey of the New Haven teacher’s union.

At the time the board members made their decision, they thought the state would make the final call about whether New Haven schools could be remote. However, when the board met with the state in mid-August, the state handed that power back to New Haven.

By the time the NHPS Board of Education met again and decided not all members were ready yet to open school buildings, it was two days before teachers were supposed to report to work.

“Everybody was in an uproar because teachers are control freaks. We like to be in control of what’s happening,” Graham said.

Graham could feel her stress rising. Would there be enough time to put together engaging remote classes for her students?

Then teachers started professional development through DC-based Learning Innovation Catalyst. The trainers told teachers that they did not need to sit through workshops on Google Classroom if they already knew how to work those tools.

Graham is already among the more technologically savvy teachers at Augusta Lewis Troup School. She skipped the trainings she already understood, and spent the time planning her curriculum.

Now, she is ahead enough with her classes to help with school-wide efforts. This week, she worked with four other teachers to prepare kits for Troup students. The kits included papers on how to log onto their classes and materials for science experiments.

Soda Bottle Experiments And Mandatory Attendance

Graham, who will teach fifth and sixth graders science and social studies this academic year, will be sending out beans and soil to her own students. It’s part of an experiment based on the water cycle where students try to grow a bean stalk within a soda bottle.

The experiment was a success last year, and Graham is planning it again with renewed confidence that she can make remote classes feel like real school.

Graham and other teachers face an uphill battle to engage their students. This spring, only around 30 percent of students attended virtual school every day, and many never logged on.

Researchers have already seen student progress slow down as schools nationwide scrambled to transition online in the spring, with the most dramatic effects in low-income zip codes. This is despite low-income parents spending hours and hours helping their children, according to a survey by the Census Bureau.

Graham spoke to the Independent in June about her struggles to get her students to participate online at pre-pandemic levels. Now, she knows school-wide protocols for how to try to reach these students and is trying not to worry beyond that.

“I have to just think about things I can control. I know I can control what happens in my classroom. I have no clue who’s going to log on,” Graham said.

New Haven Public Schools has focused on closing gaps in computer and internet access between their students. Now schools need to get those options out to all their students and make sure they can solve families’ technical difficulties as they arise.

Troup teachers have started to contact families before school starts. When school starts, teachers will report student attendance to a school committee. Committee members will focus on different grades and call families to figure out what obstacles they are facing, according to Troup Principal Eugene Foreman.

Graham said that while still stressed about attendance, she thinks the school’s emphasis on mandatory attendance is important. The district relaxed grading rules in the spring on the basis that not all students had computers. Some had family members passing away from Covid-19 or losing their jobs during the recession. Hunger and reliance on food pantries increased.

“Looking back on it, everything was so unpredictable. It made no sense to try to press the issue of school when tier one needs were uncertain,” Graham said.

Teaching As A Parent

Graham lives in Bridgeport with her husband and three children. Like during the spring, all five will work and study from home this September.

This was a choice Graham made, since Bridgeport schools will have the option of in-person classes starting Sept. 8.

“I went crazy setting up desks and work stations. It’s hard to find desks and office chairs right now!” Graham said.

She is hoping that all three kids will be more focused this fall than they were in the spring. She recounted sitting with her preschooler throughout all of his assignments, while trying to be there for students at her own job.

She will be available for her 80 Troup fifth and sixth graders during their entire science and social studies period. She is only teaching live for 20 minutes, per the school recommendations, but she plans to stay online to answer questions as they do independent work or watch videos she has created.

She does not plan to assign her students extra homework beyond the projects they could complete in class.

“That’s why this schedule is different. We’re not sending work home and parents have to figure it out. I’m going to be right there online,” Graham said.

She hopes that her own kids’ teachers will do something similar. Answering one question for a child is different than sitting with them to keep them on track the whole time, she explained.

She has other ideas based on her experiences as a parent. She is worried about her children wilting without social interaction with their peers, so she is incorporating small group discussions into her virtual classes. She even has an idea to hold structured lunches where her students play kid-friendly ​“Never Have I Ever” and ​“Would You Rather” games.

Graham said that she does plan to go back to school when New Haven decides to hold in-person classes.

“As long as everything is in place [for teacher and student safety], I would go back. I’m always torn about it. I don’t want to get sick. That’s the scary part,” Graham said.

She rejected the idea that teachers are essential employees like those who have been working in hospitals, grocery stores and bus systems throughout the pandemic.

“They’re jobs that cannot be done at home, unfortunately. Mine can. I can be successful at it,” she said. ​“I know it’s hard.”