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Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC. Give you a little behind-the-scenes possibly breaking news. Mayor de Blasio is late to his daily news conference, and there's anticipation that he's gathering information that's being handed to him and that he might say something that nobody wants to hear about the New York City public schools. We don't know that that's what it's going to be, but I can tell you that the education reporters are gathering, waiting to see. You know he said on the show on Friday that parents should be ready at any time to go all remote if the coronavirus positivity rate reaches 3% as a weekly average.

That might be happening this morning, or it might not, we're waiting for the mayor to come out. We’ll bring you what he says as soon as he says it. Meanwhile, how’s remote learning going? On a given school day, up to 800,000 students are expected to sign in for remote learning from home. That's just in New York City, while a maximum of 102,000 students show up in person. A lot more doing remote learning and, of course, even the ones who are going in person are on this hybrid model that includes remote. Some teachers are scrambling to create lesson plans and struggling to adapt to new unwieldy digital spaces no matter what their students are doing.

Joining me now is Alex Zimmerman, reporter at Chalkbeat New York, which covers education. His latest article is "Most New York City students are learning online, but the city's virtual teaching strategy remains elusive." Hi, Alex. Thanks for doing this. Welcome back to WNYC.

Alex Zimmerman: Thanks so much for having me on, Brian.

Brian: Why the word elusive?

Alex: Yes, in New York City teaching and learning is very much a school-by-school reality. Schools have just a ton of freedom to decide how they teach students, what curriculum they use, that can even vary from teacher to teacher. What you're seeing is enormous variation at the school level, especially as we switch to remote learning, a medium that most teachers have not had a lot of training.

The reason we saw it characterized it as elusive is, you basically have 1600 different schools trying to make this transition and to reinvent the remote learning wheel. Not a ton coming from the Department of Education itself to explain what quality teaching and learning should look like in a remote setting.

Brian: Listeners, since apparently the city has yet to put forward a detailed strategy to help schools improve remote learning, what in your experience, parents who are listening, teachers who are listening, students who are listening works for remote learning? Unless we have the breaking news, we'll have time for some of your success stories on the phones. What is something that is working about remote learning? 646-435-7280. If you're a teacher, what are some tips or tricks, or just strategies that you've developed that are making this really challenging time less challenging, or at least productive?

If you're a parent or a student, shout out your favorite class that happens remotely. Why is it great? How is the teacher making it great? We want to hear from you about your remote learning success stories. There's so much complaining that is appropriate about lack of quality remote learning.

Tell everybody, what is quality remote learning? How do you know it when you see it? What can others who might be listening, who are maybe even working in the field, what can they learn from your experience? 646-435-7280, 646-435-7280. Alex, I guess there's some good news at least on the score that remote learning is improving overall according to recent surveys of public perception. Correct?

Alex: Yes, that's right. You’re seeing overall most parents saying that remote learning is stronger this fall than it was in the spring. Though, I think it's important to note that in the spring there was almost no preparation at all. So, to say that it's improved isn't such a high bar to clear. I think it's also worth noting that parents of color are less likely to say that remote learning has improved. I think it's also just worth noting this broader equity angle, which is that parents of color are four times as likely in this polling data to say that they don't plan to return to school in person this school year. The quality of remote learning really matters from an equity perspective too.

Brian: Let’s take a phone call. Here's Janelle in Queens. Janelle, you're on WNYC. Hi there.

Janelle: Hi, good morning. I'm calling just to comment on what your guest was saying about how there is so many disparity with how remote learning looks [inaudible 00:05:34] to share some of the successes that I've had with my students. I have children in first, second, and third grade, all at the same elementary school. Each of the teachers does the remote learning extremely differently, which can be very challenging for me as a parent trying to accommodate each of the teacher’s different work styles.

What I have found that worked is when the teacher provides almost a syllabus and really maps out what's expected of the student for the day and for the week, what supplies they will need, what workbooks we should have out, and at which time, it has really helped to keep me as a parent with four kids home organized.

Brian: That's interesting. What could others learn from your experience, either about the inconsistency from class to class, or anything you want to say?

Janelle: I am a guidance counselor by trade. I have my master's in guidance counseling. I would say that since it's really incumbent on the parents to really support remote learning that the teachers and the administration has to make it accessible for the parent, so I would definitely suggest that schools create systems that are uniform from class to class and really find out what works for the parents and implement that for the entire school.

Brian: Janelle, thank you so much. Please, call us again. Matt in the Bronx, you're on WNYC. Hi, Matt.

Matt: Hi, Brian. Thanks for taking my call. This is the first time I've been able to get through to you. I’m a long time listener.

Brian: Glad you're on. You’re a teacher?

Matt: Yes, I'm a teacher. I'm also a union chapter leader in one of the schools in the Bronx. I teach high school. Since day one, we've gotten almost no instruction on how this should work from Department Central, and we've been putting this together. We've been experimenting. We took crash courses in Google Classroom. We use different online platforms. We use engagement platforms like Nearpod, different educational platforms to engage the kids. We’ve been working through experimentation and trial and error on getting our kids to be engaged in our lessons on a daily basis. I can tell you that most of our kids are online, and that is by choice.

Our school is open, but we have very few kids coming into the building on a daily basis. Our numbers are under 10, is of average ever since the uptick. It’s the teachers who are doing everything every day just to try and get the kids online and get the kids motivated. We are seeing successes, but it has been a trial and error. It has been a day-by-day, classroom-by-classroom basis. It seems like every time the department does release guidance, their guidance is not exactly practical and not exactly things that are friendly to students, to parents that make the engagement process in education easier.

Brian: I hear you as a union chapter leader saying it's the parents who are having to do- it's the teachers who are having to do all the innovation, one person at a time, and you're not getting guidance from the Department of Education. Give us one tip or trick from yourself or one of your colleagues that they have found to work with remote education that maybe they never thought of before this year.

Matt: There's a lot of programs out there that work. Nearpod is a great engagement platform, but nothing beats the relationships that we have with it, that we have with the parents, the outreach, the phone calls, that we have in those personal relationships that we build to get our kids on, to get our kids involved, and to get them to pass the classes to complete the work and to get that education moving. It's just about recreating online what we have in the classroom, and that's person to person motivating the kids.

Brian: Matt, thank you so much. Let's take another phone call. Here's a teacher Erica in Union County. Erica, Hello.

Erica: Hi, how are you?

Brian: Good. What do you got?

Erica: I teach fifth grade. What I found really successful was just having all of the weeks' classes and assignments in a Google Classroom, not only in the Google Classroom, but also on slides, so that I can also share with the parents this way, they are aware. I'm fully transparent on my expectations of what the students have to do for that week, and it's been extremely successful.

Brian: Thank you very much. Here's a parent who's having a successful experience with their kids' remote learning, Julie in Brooklyn. Julie, you're on WNYC. Hi there.

Julie: Good morning. Hi, Brian. I have a first and a fifth grader at the Parkside School PS 130 in Brooklyn, and it's just really been a positive experience for us. What I'm most amazed with is the teachers and their ability to have developed really powerful and effective relationships with both of my girls virtually. That was probably one of my biggest concerns about it, but they've done that.

As far as what my tips would be for other parents, it's really for us, the success has been getting reps, which is not always reasonable, but sticking to a routine, getting to bed on time and getting up early and getting fresh air and getting sunshine, but really, really impressed with PS 130 and the teachers. I'm really happy that you're having this topic today, taking a break from some of the other news, and some positivity is really a welcome hour from me. Thank you.

Brian: Nice, Julie. Thank you very much. She talked about her kids in elementary school. Alex, does your reporting indicate that it's easier to do it with younger kids or harder?

Alex: I think generally it's more challenging with younger kids just because obviously parents need to supervise a lot more carefully to make sure that students are logging on at the correct times, that they're managing the technology.

A lot of really early education revolves around teaching students to read, which is a challenge even when students are in school buildings and when parents are having to coach students through reading lessons, that can be really hard, especially because parents haven't been trained to teach reading. I think in general it can be more of a challenge with younger students.

I think one other thing I'd just add that a couple of callers have now mentioned is this importance of building relationships. I was talking to a middle school teacher the other day, who was saying that it's really hard to get students motivated remotely without having relationships with them. Some teachers haven't seen their students' faces a single time since the school year started, if students aren't turning their cameras on during Zoom. I think you are seeing a lot of remote learning. It's, to some degree, living and dying by whether teachers are really able to forge relationships with students.

Brian: Stephanie in Westchester, you're on WNYC. Hi, Stephanie.

Stephanie: Are you asking for Stephanie?

Brian: Yes, you Stephanie.

Stephanie: Hello?

Brian: Hi. Can you hear me? I am talking to you. Stephanie?

Stephanie: Yes, okay. I wasn't sure if you said Stephanie. I'm a New York city public school teacher. We all know that remote teaching isn't really ideal, but in my class I have 35 all remote fifth graders. We've been really able to build a highly engaged classroom because we offer our students incentives, because when they're held responsible for completing assignments in the Google Classroom, some will and some won't, so if you offer, especially students at the elementary level, parties at times where they can log on with you and listen to music and play games instead of learning a lesson, and then they want to be more engaged with their friends on a non-education level.

That's really been something we found successful to get the kids more engaged and to complete assignments virtually.

Brian: What does that do to the actual curriculum? Because it sounds like you're taking--

Stephanie: Oh, nothing. It's just in addition to.

Brian: Oh, in addition to.

Stephanie: Right. Let's, for example, say we just took a unit assessment. If the kids have completed it, they get to join us next Tuesday for a lunch party, which means they could come on at a time. We don't usually come on, and all the kids that are invited get to come on and play music and talk to each other, because they don't get time to see each other or talk to each other outside anymore because we're on the computer.

Brian: Thank you so much, Stephanie, and for your work. Alex, as we wrap up, and the mayor still hasn't started his news conference, we don't know, maybe it's going to be something big, or maybe just he's late because somebody's car broke down, who knows, but you write on your article for Chalkbeat virtual instruction and efforts to improve, that are rarely discussed at the mayor's daily press conferences, except to argue that online learning is inferior to in-person education. Is there a sense that if they do go to all remote, that any of that will change? We have 30 seconds.

Alex: Yes. That's a really good question. I think the jury is definitely out on that . To the department's credit, they have put together hundreds of different trainings that have to do with navigating Google Classroom or Microsoft Teams or even subject specific material in an online context. There are some training opportunities available that tens of thousands of teachers have participated in. I do think it's an open question whether there's going to be more, whether they're going to offer a clear sense and framework of what quality online teaching and learning should look like. There's a little bit more consistency across the board.

Brian: Alex Zimmerman, reporter at Chalkbeat New York, whose latest article is "Most New York city students are learning online, but the city's virtual teaching strategy remains elusive." Thank you for not being elusive to us.

Alex: Thanks, Brian.

Brian: Brian Lehrer on WNYC.

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