Speaker 1: Welcome to woke AF with me Danielle Moody. Over the
Speaker 1: last few weeks, I've been looking back at a year
Speaker 1: living amidst the coronavirus pandemic as we hit the anniversary
Speaker 1: milestone this week on woke af Daily on Patreon, which
Speaker 1: you can join right now for just five dollars a
Speaker 1: month at patreon dot com slash woke AF. I spoke
Speaker 1: with three educators from across the country about how they,
Speaker 1: along with their students, families, and faculties, have been dealing
Speaker 1: with adapting to a pandemic that upended life as we
Speaker 1: knew it. Today, I am sharing part of that forty
Speaker 1: five minute conversation to give you insight on how educators
Speaker 1: have had to spring into action to address issues and
Speaker 1: inequities that existed long before the COVID nineteen outbreak. You'll
Speaker 1: hear from Brian Meeker, a high school biology teacher in Chicago, Illinois,
Speaker 1: who started his schools GSA and anti racist group. You'll
Speaker 1: hear from Teresa Finski Venucci, dean of students for an
Speaker 1: elementary school in Columbia Heights, Minnesota, and Leona Fowler, a
Speaker 1: special education instructional support teacher in Queens, New York. Take
Speaker 1: a listen to how these schools have been coping with
Speaker 1: this unprecedented disruption to what we previously considered our normal,
Speaker 1: everyday life. You know, one of the things that I
Speaker 1: have always thought, particularly about the teaching profession, is just
Speaker 1: how underresourced teachers are consistently across the board. It doesn't
Speaker 1: matter if you teach in a suburb or you teach
Speaker 1: in a city or a rural area. Education across the
Speaker 1: board is really under serviced and under resource. And I'm wondering,
Speaker 1: and I'll start with you, Brian, what are the ways
Speaker 1: in which you have seen through teaching virtually in this pandemic,
Speaker 1: things that like should have been in place, like that
Speaker 1: schools should have had access to. One of the conversations
Speaker 1: that I've had with a one of the people running
Speaker 1: from mayor in New York City here is, you know
Speaker 1: a majority of low income students didn't have access to internet,
Speaker 1: don't have laptops, don't have computers in their home. These
Speaker 1: are things that we knew, we knew before the pandemic, right,
Speaker 1: but didn't do anything about. So I'm wondering, what are
Speaker 1: some of the things that have come up for you
Speaker 1: that you are learning about the needs of students, the
Speaker 1: needs that the school should have, the infrastructure I should
Speaker 1: say that school should have in order to be able
Speaker 1: to teach in this new innovative space. There's just countless
Speaker 1: inequities that we've seen. The example you brought up. We
Speaker 1: knew that going completely virtual for this long would mean
Speaker 1: giving every student a laptop, which we did, but like
Speaker 1: you mentioned, not all of our students have internet or
Speaker 1: reliable internet, or reliable a reliable space to focus and
Speaker 1: do their work. I have a student who just just
Speaker 1: emailed me this morning, and I know for a fact
Speaker 1: that when she's at home, she is taking care of
Speaker 1: her younger brother, who is also doing remote learning. So
Speaker 1: she's on my biology class. She's there, but if I
Speaker 1: call in her, she's not there. And when I assigned
Speaker 1: the work, she doesn't do the work. And so we've
Speaker 1: had conversations over email, and she said, you're on in
Speaker 1: the background, but I have to help my little brother.
Speaker 1: So you know, my parents are working two jobs trying
Speaker 1: to make this work right now, Like my parents lost
Speaker 1: the job because of COVID, so they picked up this.
Speaker 1: So I'm in charge of both of us, and I'm sorry,
Speaker 1: I'm missing your class. So it's this kind of it's
Speaker 1: this terrible no win situation because I obviously want her
Speaker 1: to learn, but obviously I have to understand that she
Speaker 1: and her family and lots of other families are kind
Speaker 1: of in these situations too. The zip code where my
Speaker 1: school is has a COVID positivity rate somewhere nineteen twenty percent.
Speaker 1: It was the worst. It's the worst in Chicago for
Speaker 1: a long period of time. It's a neighborhood that needs
Speaker 1: more investment in general, more infrastructure in general, more access
Speaker 1: to vaccines, more access to medical care in general. It's
Speaker 1: just been something we've kind of had to reconcile with.
Speaker 1: This has helped us realize that we need to be
Speaker 1: better about communicating with parents. It's difficult for us because
Speaker 1: if they are working two or three jobs, or if
Speaker 1: it does require a translator, or if it does require
Speaker 1: you know, other kind of pieces, it's a lot more
Speaker 1: difficult for us. But especially with this remote teaching. You know,
Speaker 1: if I can name some students and I have been
Speaker 1: seen a student in two weeks on my online class,
Speaker 1: I need to be able to reach out to someone.
Speaker 1: Get that going, get that communication going, get the kid
Speaker 1: a Wi Fi hot spot, tell them to go to
Speaker 1: a library figure out something. Yeah, a lot, a lot
Speaker 1: of pieces there, Teresa. What are the ways in which
Speaker 1: your school has been able, you know, to some of
Speaker 1: the points that Brian is making about providing laptops, providing
Speaker 1: hot spots. What is the makeup the economic makeup of
Speaker 1: where you are situated, and how have you been able
Speaker 1: to deal with some of the inequities that have bubbled
Speaker 1: up to the surface. Yeah, the school district that I
Speaker 1: work in is has a very high rate of free
Speaker 1: reduced lunch, so our poverty level is quite high. And
Speaker 1: we ran into the same problems that Brian was talking
Speaker 1: about when we went virtual, like when the school shut
Speaker 1: down last spring, especially at the elementary levels, we didn't
Speaker 1: have computers and technology for every student. The secondaries did
Speaker 1: because they already had that implemented, but that internet connection
Speaker 1: was definitely tricky. This fall, we did have a device
Speaker 1: for each student. We were running a little bit low,
Speaker 1: like the pre k and kindergarten students were using really
Speaker 1: old devices that had already been retired by the secondary level,
Speaker 1: so they weren't the most reliable. And then everything of
Speaker 1: course was on back order. As you can imagine, every
Speaker 1: school district in this country is ordering more technology. So
Speaker 1: we were able to get every student some kind of device,
Speaker 1: so that was great, and we were able to provide
Speaker 1: hot spots. Also, there was a list and there was
Speaker 1: a delay in getting them and then there's you know,
Speaker 1: some tricky things that have to happen there as ours
Speaker 1: logistics and getting them picked up and all of that.
Speaker 1: In our school, the social worker and I, especially at
Speaker 1: the beginning of this year, once we got classes going,
Speaker 1: we were completely virtual at the beginning of the year,
Speaker 1: and the social worker and I went into a ton
Speaker 1: of home visits, which we had Our school district had
Speaker 1: implemented home visits a few years ago as like a
Speaker 1: relationship builder and as a way to connect home and family,
Speaker 1: but it had it wasn't it hadn't been sustainable. So
Speaker 1: it's really and I was a big part of that
Speaker 1: program when it came to our district, so it's really
Speaker 1: exciting for me to be able to do that again.
Speaker 1: And we went into so many homes, knocked on doors.
Speaker 1: You know, some families are really excited to see us
Speaker 1: and some are not, like they're nervous, you know, especially
Speaker 1: like this administrator popping and knocking on your door unannounced, right,
Speaker 1: They're like, am I in trouble? Things like that, and
Speaker 1: want to be like, how can we support? And sometimes,
Speaker 1: you know, especially when if they've had history with the
Speaker 1: county and attendance or whatnot, like me showing up, especially
Speaker 1: as a white woman, is not all ways good news, right,
Speaker 1: even that it's coming from a place of support. So
Speaker 1: being able to kind of navigate that and figure that
Speaker 1: out was really great for me. And then it was
Speaker 1: also building that relationship so then they can call like, hey,
Speaker 1: you know, I need this. So I was able to
Speaker 1: build those relationships with the families that I don't think
Speaker 1: I would have been able to make had we just
Speaker 1: been in like regular school quote unquote, yeah, yeah, so
Speaker 1: we've definitely done that. We also have every quarter we
Speaker 1: have a supply pickup with new supplies that our district
Speaker 1: has been able you know, with the money that we
Speaker 1: were able to purchase materials with. It's a lot of
Speaker 1: work for teachers to plan that far in advance, to
Speaker 1: think what do our students need you know, a month
Speaker 1: from now for a quarter and then any and then
Speaker 1: we had you know, a scheduled pickup time and then
Speaker 1: any families that weren't able to pick it up. My
Speaker 1: principal social worker and I went around and delivered bags,
Speaker 1: which again was like, which was a lot of work,
Speaker 1: but it was also like really nice to get in
Speaker 1: the community more and again knock on those doors, and
Speaker 1: families that aren't able to pick them up are generally
Speaker 1: really happy that you know that you're making things, are
Speaker 1: making the effort to drop them off. I mean, you know,
Speaker 1: I have often said, and I'm sure you all can
Speaker 1: attest to the fact that schools are community hubs, right,
Speaker 1: and they are the source of nutrition, education, safety, you know,
Speaker 1: so much for the community. And I think that now
Speaker 1: one of the I would say, one of the good
Speaker 1: hopefully one of the good side effects of having to
Speaker 1: have been virtual for so long is the fact that
Speaker 1: people recognize how much they should appreciate you all and
Speaker 1: how much work you do on a regular basis, because
Speaker 1: now they've been home with their own children eight, you know,
Speaker 1: nine twenty four hours a day and are just like, oh,
Speaker 1: so this is actually like a real thing, not just
Speaker 1: a place that I go to drop my kids off.
Speaker 1: And I hope you know that all goes well. So
Speaker 1: I think that that can be a positive side effect,
Speaker 1: and I like the way that you're saying that you
Speaker 1: have been engaging more in community that has been one
Speaker 1: of you know, sounds to be a good side effect
Speaker 1: as well. Leona. You know, I have been wondering for
Speaker 1: the past year. I've been thinking so much about special
Speaker 1: education students and wondering how because you know, there are
Speaker 1: a variety of special needs that students have, right, but
Speaker 1: I remember being in the classroom with my kids and
Speaker 1: I was thinking that I've been thinking about them, and
Speaker 1: I'm like, there's no way that they would have been
Speaker 1: able to do virtual learning right, Like learning one on
Speaker 1: one in the classroom or doing pullouts was hard enough,
Speaker 1: And so how has it been as a special education
Speaker 1: teacher this time? Tough? Just thinking about inequities. It really
Speaker 1: exposed a lot in regards to infrastructure and things that
Speaker 1: just should have been in place. I think, even for
Speaker 1: the students of special needs, this whole aspect of virtual
Speaker 1: learning or technology just should have never been new for
Speaker 1: New York City. It seemed like many of the special educators,
Speaker 1: especially speaking specifically to us, this was like a brand
Speaker 1: new world. Although in the classroom we have to use devices,
Speaker 1: we have to use communication adaptive devices, smart board that
Speaker 1: they can touch screens and all that we had to
Speaker 1: use that the gap was shown in Transferred to home
Speaker 1: where that was that disconnects. I'm glad to hear Theresa.
Speaker 1: You guys really made this family effort. I would say,
Speaker 1: like the hardest part has been with parents having them
Speaker 1: now learn I have to learn, be forced to learn
Speaker 1: to teach their kid too, or to work their child
Speaker 1: too in the capacity or at least in some capacity
Speaker 1: as we do. So my inequity piece outside of that
Speaker 1: whole digital divide, which is a conversation of by itself
Speaker 1: across the US, specifically here in New York, would be
Speaker 1: an other one was parent trainings. Parents really need it
Speaker 1: training on how to work an iPad. They may have
Speaker 1: just known it for the recreational matter to touch an
Speaker 1: app and go into an app, but watching YouTube, maybe
Speaker 1: check an email I message, but in the capacity of
Speaker 1: work of a Google classroom, it was like, oh my god,
Speaker 1: you would have never thought anyone ever saw iPad before.
Speaker 1: It was just like, no, it's the same like your phone.
Speaker 1: It's the same. It was a lot. I mean, that's
Speaker 1: been the stress. Even to this. They were a year
Speaker 1: now later into this virtual space, and parents are still struggling,
Speaker 1: and that's been hard because it's like I can't go
Speaker 1: into home, like I can't tell you how to help
Speaker 1: Leona stop crying right now, Like this is what I
Speaker 1: would have done, Please, mom, go get this, go get that.
Speaker 1: This is what we use. And parents are just kind
Speaker 1: of like, I don't know, and that is why a
Speaker 1: lot do send them back in even though they're fearful
Speaker 1: of Corona there. I'm not sure if it's the right
Speaker 1: thing to do, but as don't know what to do
Speaker 1: at home, and I think if we did an even
Speaker 1: greater effort, because my school really is trying to really
Speaker 1: make greater effort to continue to strengthen and fostered to
Speaker 1: parents and student and family connection. But before COVID, it
Speaker 1: just should have been a lot of in home stuff
Speaker 1: that was happening, not when it's just a crisis, especially
Speaker 1: like kids, they go into crisis, and that's where in
Speaker 1: home attempts happened, because things really can happen really bad
Speaker 1: depending on the type of disability or behavior challenge. I
Speaker 1: would say the tough piece is a lot of parents
Speaker 1: just don't know what to do. They don't know how
Speaker 1: to work or device to the point where they're pushing
Speaker 1: it aside and just saying like, we just can't do it.
Speaker 1: And because as special needs students, it sometimes just goes
Speaker 1: with all right, well, we're just glad you tried, mom,
Speaker 1: We're just glad you tried. And then that's like the
Speaker 1: end of it, you know, And then the accountability is
Speaker 1: just kind of like uneven because then you have those
Speaker 1: parents that really are into it. They're in every meeting,
Speaker 1: they're like trying to do these ips with you. Whatever
Speaker 1: button you tell them the press, They're like, I see it.
Speaker 1: Can you hear me? Now, okay, I tried it. I
Speaker 1: did a reset. You have those parents too, so then
Speaker 1: it's like you don't want one parent to be able
Speaker 1: to get away with I don't know what to do,
Speaker 1: so I don't even know where the iPad is, miss Fowler,
Speaker 1: you know, or you know, and then that's it. So
Speaker 1: that's been a real struggle, and it really showed an
Speaker 1: inequity to access for parents materials and things that see
Speaker 1: that their child is learning at home, I mean in
Speaker 1: the school when they're with us. It really should be
Speaker 1: a transparency of like oh yes, when Leona brought that home.
Speaker 1: She did show me in her Google classroom, so that
Speaker 1: when she's now in the language should just be so even.
Speaker 1: And it's going to take work because we have English
Speaker 1: language learners, we have parents from other countries, like it's
Speaker 1: New York City is a huge, one of the largest
Speaker 1: school districts, right, so it's never easy to try to
Speaker 1: get every parent to attend a training. But if that
Speaker 1: was just like a huge rollout or more of a
Speaker 1: megaphone of a thing we need parents to get on
Speaker 1: board with, that would be something I rally for. And
Speaker 1: I too do policy work, have a degree in policy,
Speaker 1: so I'm really trying to push, even on a community
Speaker 1: level that parents really take advantage of when they see
Speaker 1: these blasts for training on Google, for training on Zoom,
Speaker 1: we're training on adaptive communication devices. Tackle it, try it,
Speaker 1: try it out. My roundtable with Leona, Teresa and Brian
Speaker 1: was an incredibly deep, insightful discussion and one that I
Speaker 1: do hope you will check out in full. At patreon
Speaker 1: dot com slash wokaf We're coming up on our one
Speaker 1: year anniversary of being on Patreon, and I have hundreds
Speaker 1: more conversations with friends and experts that you can access
Speaker 1: starting at just five dollars a month, and there's more
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Speaker 1: next week or when I see you in the comments
Speaker 1: on Patreon. Power to the people and to all the people. Power,
Speaker 1: get woke and stay woke as fuck.