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Brian: Brian Lehrer on WNYC and now to our latest game of advice roulette, remote learning edition. We'll start with Ceresa, am I saying your name right, in Asbury Park. Hi, Ceresa, you are on WNYC.

Ceresa Hi, how are you? Yes, that's me [chuckles].

Brian: All good.

Ceresa I had a question regarding-

Brian: No, hang on. Before you go to your question because we have to start somewhere and you don't want to ask me, you want to ask the next listener.

Ceresa: True.

Brian: We have to start somewhere. I'll ask you a question. What do you do when a lesson is in progress, but your kid gets up and starts walking around? They couldn't do that in school. What do you do when they do it at home?

Ceresa: Redirect their attention. I haven't really had to experience that. I think that my daughter pretty much stays put. I think it's just being distracted by the environment around her. If my daughter was being distracted and getting up, I would probably look at the environment that she's sitting in and trying to learn and what's distracting her, what's prompting her to get up. If it's a bathroom break, it's a bathroom break [chuckles].

Brian: I hear you. Thank you for answering that question. Now we're going to put you on with line eight, Vivian, in Brooklyn. Serena in Asbury Park. Juliana, if you could help me with this in the control room so that we have line one and line eight up at the same time. Ceresa in Asbury Park now gets to ask Vivian in Brooklyn a question. Vivian, you are on WNYC. Hi there?

Vivian Hi. Thank you.

Brian: Let's see. Actually, how do we do this? I got lost. Ceresa, ask Vivian your question.

Ceresa: [chuckles] All right, Vivian, hi, how are you?

Vivian Hi, good.

Ceresa: I'm good. My daughter is 11. She does a hybrid school. The one thing that both her and I have not had a good handle on is the ability to organize the work within google classroom or any other platform that can actually communicate with the parents as to which assignments there are when they're due, what assignment is next. I'm just confused as to what my daughter is accountable for.

Vivian That's a great question. My daughter is also 11. I have trouble with the Google platform too in keeping track of assignments. I've gone old school and pulled out a paper calendar and just had her explain what to do and when and be very clear and then write it on that paper calendar. Then also doubled down on it with a whiteboard calendar on the back of her bedroom door where I write the same thing that I do every single day so that we make sure that everything's getting done. It's a little bit more work, but that's what has to happen.

Brian: All right.

Ceresa Hey, that sounds really great.

Brian: Cool, Ceresa, hopefully, that's helpful. All right, Vivian, you get to ask the next question and we're going to put up Anastasia in West Orange online too. Anastasia, you're on WNYC with Vivian from Brooklyn. Anastasia, hi there?

Anastasia: Thank you much for taking my call. I'm a big fan and I just finished teaching so I get to listen to the end of your show. I just told your screener that--

Brian: Wait, hang on. First, you have to answer a question. Vivian, who just answered one for Ceresa in Asbury Park. Vivian in Brooklyn is going to ask you an advice-roulette question now. Vivian, you're still there?

Vivian Yes, I am.

Brian: Go for it.

Vivian Thank you. Anastasia. My question is, my daughter is a child of color. I am a parent of color. My question is about when discussions in the classroom are about race and racism and I feel that my daughter's viewpoint or my daughter's experience is not being supported or talked about in a way that I think supports her. What advice do you have for a parent to support their child outside of the classroom or even while the classroom is going on?

Anastasia: How old is your daughter? What grade is she in?

Vivian 11, she's in 5th.

Anastasia: I think at that grade level, you can certainly reach out to the teacher. Typically, elementary school teachers do like to hear from parents. They'd like input and say, "I don't feel that my child or my family's race or issues about race are being respectfully addressed or properly addressed. I want my daughter to feel comfortable and maybe Can you talk to my daughter and perhaps maybe have a guidance counselor come in and talk to the class about how to approach because sometimes I think people might still be a little squeamish. I would first reach out to the teacher and see how to better serve your daughter in the classroom.

Brian: Hopefully, that's helpful.

Vivian Thank you so much. I appreciate that.

Brian: Thank you so much. Now, Anastasia in West Orange, you get to ask a question of Julie in the Bronx. Julie, meet Anastasia. Anastasia, Julie.

Anastasia: Hi, Julie?

Julie: Hi.

Brian: Anastasia, go for it.

Anastasia: My question is, I'm an adjunct professor at a small, private college in Northern New Jersey. I teach a foreign language. We were informed by our department chair that we cannot require our college students to turn on their cameras. I have a hybrid classroom where half of my class is learning remotely and the other half is in class with me. This is brand new for me because I wasn't even teaching last semester. I took a semester off.

It came up this morning when I'm calling on the remote students to participate and in a foreign language class, you have to have reciprocity. There has to be participation, otherwise, you're just talking to yourself. I said, "Are you sleeping?" Because it's an early morning class, my remote students go back to sleep. I told them, I can't require you to turn on your cameras, but I would respectfully request that you do so. This way I can associate a name with a face and we can have full class participation. I didn't really get much back from them so, I don't know how to approach this.

Brian: Julie, you got anything for Anastasia?

Julie: Oh boy. I'm an occupational therapist at a school in the Bronx. I work with young children. I have the same problem where kids are great with technology and they know how to turn their screen off when their parent leaves the room. I think what I discovered is that it didn't work for everybody, but with some kids and I'm not addressing 20, 50, however many people at a time. I'm addressing one or two children at a time.

With some kids, I did find that I had to figure out a different way to use the medium. That if I engage them using chat or even just the audio at first, then they might get more comfortable as time went on, and they would show up a little bit more. They would eventually turn the video on. For some kids, it always was like, they would turn it on for 10 minutes and then they would turn it off, but they didn't leave. I guess I would try to explore the other functions of the technology to see if you can engage them like in the sidebar chat, and at least to know that there's a pulse there on the other end.

Anastasia: I get a notification if someone has left and then they come back. Maybe they're taking a bathroom break. One fellow that I had on camera the first day of class, he's reclined on his bed, second day of class, he's reclined on his couch. If I'm teaching from home, you don't want to see me lying down. You know what I mean?

Julie: Right, I think I've found that we have to be and this is the conversation I'm having with colleagues in my building is that we're reminding ourselves that we need to be explicit with our students and the families on the other end about our expectations for what we are going to see on the screen and the behavior either because this is all new for everybody.

Just like I remember when I was studying in college, and I had my first cell phone when I was studying abroad, and I took a phone call in the middle of a museum, I didn't know that you didn't do that. I never had that before. Now we're learning that it's weird if you show up to your class with your teacher and you don't have pants on.

Brian: Little things like that. [crosstalk]

Julie: Teachers who work with kids who are five had to tell these kids, "We can't work together if you're not dressed." That was a real thing.

Brian: Anastasia, I hope--

Julie: We should give everyone the benefit of the doubt. out start from step one.

Brian: I hope that was helpful, Anastasia. That's a great exchange.

Anastasia: It was.

Brian: Thank you very much. As we are playing listeners if you're just joining us. Remote learning advice roulette, for parents and teachers, you can call up and ask. Whichever next listener happens to pop up on the phones next, a piece of advice, obviously, not experts, except when they are, as we may have just heard. Then you'll answer a question from somebody else as well. 646-435-7280 and Julie in the Bronx, you're going to get to ask the question now that you answered Anastasia's of Mark in Queens. Hi, Mark in Queens, meet Julie in the Bronx.

Mark: Hi.

Julie: Hi, Mark.

Mark: Nice to meet you. [crosstalk]

Brian: Julie, Go for it.

Julie: I guess my question is, Mark, are you a parent of a child who's doing remote?

Mark: Yes, I am. I'm doing hybrid learning.

Julie: My question because we all on this other end really want it to be a better experience right as we all learn. My question is really like, what have you noticed about your child's experience interacting over the screen? What have you seen that has worked and what has not worked? What advice do you have for the teachers and the professionals on the other side?

Mark: I think it's a great question. I think one of the things I've noticed is that a lot of the kids tend to be shy. I don't think that's something that's spoken about a lot. My kids, in particular, they hide a little bit, they have their faces off the screen. I think it's so important that teachers call on kids that sometimes in a classroom environment, a teacher might just wait for kids to raise their hands, but when you're looking at this little three-inch box on a laptop, you have to realize that the kids are there, but you have to scare them up a little bit, get them on, talk to them, call on them. Really sometimes the shy ones just go unnoticed.

I think teachers that have tended to be more proactive in that sense and calling on kids will really increase the energy in the classroom because my kids in particular will just fade out after an hour. They just slump over. I think that's helpful.

Brian: We only have about 45 seconds left in the segment. Mark, you want to ask Julie your question, and she'll stay on?

Mark: Yes, I don't know if Julie will know the answer to this, but my school still does not have remote learning devices. You think after five, six months of this that starting in September, this would have been the number one issue was having enough devices for kids because that's obviously fundamental to remote learning. Does anybody know or do you know how to get a device in New York City because there's just a form to fill out and then they just serve you the school?

Brian: Julie, in our last 15 seconds as a school occupational therapist, can you help him?

Julie: Oh, gosh, I can only tell you we're having the same problem with families up here. It depends on the device that you have because some come from the city and some particularly from the school but definitely start with letting your school know.

Brian: Mark, I have some good news for you because our education reporter, Jessica Ghoul is listening in. She thinks she has some advice to offer you. You're going to do that off the air. Hang on, and we're going to connect you with Jessica Ghoul, or at least her information. Julie, thank you so much for both a good question and giving advice to two people. That was fun. I think that was even useful for people, advice roulette, remote learning edition.

The Brian Lehrer Show is produced by Lisa Allison, Mary Croke, Zoe Azulay, Amina Srna, and Carl Boisrond with help for our daily politics podcast from Zack God or Cohen. That's Juliana Fonda and Leona M. Kravitz at the audio controls in person at the WNYC Studios. Thanks for listening everybody. I'm Brian Lehrer.

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