May-June Advisor 2021 web

IMPROVING

6 CEA ADVISOR MAY – JUNE 2021

CEA CAMPAIGNS TO END DUAL TEACHING efforts that successfully prioritized teacher vaccinations, established school-based clinics, and restored paid quarantine leave for educators this school year, this campaign calls for coordinated member outreach to legislators, through postcards, phone calls, and emails. Representative Tom Delnicki,” says Eppler, “including personal comments about how continued dual teaching would not support the goal of student learning. As a math teacher, I saw the need to be in become progressive, stimulating, and student-centered,” she says. “But with the advent of dual teaching, lessons have gone back to being teacher-centered, relying once again on lecture-based instruction. Dual teaching requires educators to plan lessons that are 100 percent

As more of the state’s population is vaccinated against coronavirus, plans for the next school year have left many wondering what role virtual learning will play. “One thing is certain,” says CEA President Jeff Leake. “Dual teaching is unsustainable.” Fraught with disruptions and inequities, dual teaching is the delivery of instruction simultaneously to remote and in-person students by a single teacher. By all accounts, educators who have had to manage this type of setting say it shortchanges students on both sides of the screen. Technical challenges, the impossible task of managing learners simultaneously in various settings, inconsistent parental support and supervision, and myriad other factors combine to make dual teaching untenable. As Connecticut lawmakers look at ways they might shape education policy in a post-pandemic environment, CEA has launched an all-member campaign calling for an end to dual teaching. Similar to earlier

person for learning, practicing, and evaluating students. Remote learners were sometimes unable to log in or remain focused from remote locations, and it has been harder for them to demonstrate learning through their work.” In addition to the main areas of concern that CEA had raised about continuing dual teaching, one teacher wrote to her legislators in West Hartford and pointed out numerous other pitfalls, including high absenteeism, inflated grades, and lack of variety in teaching. “In the last 20 years, teaching has Dual teaching is • Not engaging: Remote learners have low attendance and participation rates and require a disproportionate level of attention to stay on task and engaged, all at the expense of other students. • Disruptive: Learning time is diminished for both in-person and remote students, as classroom instruction stops multiple times to handle technical issues. • Inequitable : Students face a lack of technology, supports, and supplies. Teaching is fractured as educators try to focus on both in-person and remote learners. Ultimately, neither group of learners receives the support they need or deserve.

“CEA sent thousands of postcards for members to sign and mail to their legislators,” Leake explains. “They need to hear from teachers in their districts so that they understand why dual teaching is problematic. Teachers’ voices and their personal stories are powerful in encouraging lawmakers to advocate for the conditions teachers and students need.” South Windsor Education Association President John Hackett, a high school social studies teacher, participated in the dual teaching postcard campaign, adding personalized messages to his legislators. SWEA Vice President Matt Eppler did too. “I submitted postcards to both Senator Saud Anwar and

electronic, resulting in lessons that lack variety. For example, some lessons that had to be omitted this year included virtual reality and simulations. We’re sending teachers and students backwards.” Remote learners, she has observed, often fail to sign in to class, or they simply put on their avatar and go back to sleep. “Parents are notified, but they may work outside the home and be limited in how much control they have over their children’s activities throughout the day. Dual teaching removes the adult oversight that a school environment provides, leaving students to fend for themselves.” On test days, she has also found that a majority of students opt to stay home, where they can access other computers and cell phones that teachers cannot monitor and that result in inflated grades that are not reflective of students’ knowledge. Violations of student confidentiality have also occurred during remote and dual teaching, she notes, explaining that parents and others observe classes in the background and comment to one another. “Comments made by students within the classroom setting are no longer private, as outside people are now in the classroom. Although this is inappropriate behavior, it is occurring, and there is no practical way for the teacher to prevent it.”

TO TEACH REMOTE LEARNERS SUCCESSFULLY, THEY MUST BE YOUR ONLY FOCUS

By now, every educator can tell the story of how the pandemic has upended teaching and learning. Economic gaps and inequities laid bare. The whiplash of school closures and reopenings fueled by outbreaks and quarantines. The constant toggling between remote and in- person students, a model that has left educators, students, and parents alike depleted. While remote teaching has had its challenges, dual teaching—the practice of teaching virtually and in- person at the same time—has proven unsustainable. As districts prepare for what education could look like next school year, Cromwell offers a model that could work if virtual learning continues to play a role. 2013 Connecticut Teacher of the Year Blaise Messinger explains. “My administration made the decision to offer a remote-only class for Cromwell Middle School students who opted out of in-person learning for the year,” says the 22-year veteran, who has spent the current school year teaching remote-only sixth-graders. “They felt that the transition to middle school was such a huge change and challenge for incoming sixth-graders that it would be better for the remote learners to

have their own separate class rather than try to deal with several different teachers for the first time.” Messinger, who is K-6 certified and had been teaching sixth-grade math and social studies, was assigned to teach all four core academic subjects virtually. “It’s similar to the way self- contained elementary classrooms work,” he explains. “All my students are learning from home and have been since the start of the school year. I’m also working from home, only with the full-time remote students. They stream into their other classes with the teachers in the building, but they have me for language arts, math, social studies, and science.” He adds, “There is no question that this setup is much better for me and for my students than a dual teaching model. Those students have struggled much more than my students. I’m able to tailor all the lessons for online students only, and I can create experiences that are effective for distance learners without having to split my attention and simultaneously plan how I will accommodate learners in the classroom. It’s also optimal for remote learners, because they have my full attention. I’ve been able to

Veteran teacher Blaise Messinger, shown here before the COVID pandemic, has spent the past school year teaching only virtually. Unlike dual teaching, where educators’ attention is constantly divided, this model has allowed him to focus exclusively on remote learners.

create a real classroom community and give each student individual consideration. Feedback from students and parents has been overwhelmingly positive.” Indeed, when he was named Connecticut Teacher of the Year seven years ago, students who had participated in his nomination noted how Messinger stressed the value of connecting with them and their classmates and making learning fun.

“All children are aching to learn,” he said. “I believe that the key to unlocking the joy and wonder inherent in all students comes down to the relationship between me and those students and the environment created in the classroom to nurture that bond.” While he could not have imagined a virtual classroom at that time, his teaching philosophy is every bit as relevant in a pandemic environment—if not more so.