https://soundcloud.com/tatiana-brown-433886997/educators-back-to-school-radio-story?si=0491b833cacd4b53a764ff8e599737dd
Host Intro: Over the course of the past year and a half, many aspects of our lives have had a major shift due to the ongoing pandemic. This includes the way New York City which has the nation’s largest public education system has accommodated both its employees and students. The NYC Pause resulted in in-person schooling being shut down and done remotely, but students and educators are back in the classroom. Tatiana Brown spoke with two educators about what it’s been like teaching students too young to get vaccinated, and what comes next now that that day seems to be approaching.
ABMI: A couple of teachers singing to the group of young kids [fading out]
Track: I was able to talk to Jessica Doiley and Yanelly Lopez, who are both early childhood educators at Round the Clock Nursery in New York. Both women had worked during the Pause, which resulted in their place of work to shut down in-person schooling and have it be done remotely. Now their daycare has them back in their classrooms with their kids ready to tackle the new year.
Act (Jessica): How I feel about working with parents again in the fall with in-person classes is I feel… I feel kind of safe because now in order for parents to come into the building they have to have their temperatures taken plus they have to have on a mask. And then before they enter the building they have to sanitize their hands.
Track: When it came to getting both teachers and students back into the classrooms for this school year, procedures like the ones taken by Round the Clock Nursery are being implemented in both daycares and public schools all over the city. With the DOE even having a page dedicated to steps being taken to ensure the safety of both the really young and older kids alike. However, this does not take away the lingering hesitance of Doiley who is relying on the trust in parents of her students to follow these procedures.
Act (Jessica): I’m still kind of skeptical about having them come into the classrooms because you know I work with infants so it’s kind of sketchy you know but for the most part I feel like my job has done what they can to like mitigate or minimize the amount of germs to come into the building in general.
Track: Along with the discussion of hesitance in these procedures, there has been an ongoing conversation about the vaccination of younger kids. Recently the FDA has approved the Pfizer vaccine for children between the ages of 5 and 11. Despite the fast-approaching day where all ages can have some protection against the virus, the children both Doiley and Lopez are working with are too young to receive the vaccine. Lopez has her own procedures in place to keep her room safe to ensure parents of the safety of their kids are being kept in mind.
Act (Yanelly): Keeping play areas limited to two children or less. Keeping groups of children to three or less and hourly handwashing and wiping down the children’s faces with wipes and disinfecting the tables with alcohol wipes.
Track: Last year around 600,000 students participated in remote learning using one of the many resources such as Zoom or Google Meets which allowed them to have a classroom atmosphere while being at home. Though the pros and cons of having such a medium be used vary from teacher to teacher.
Act (Jessica): I do kind of feel like the transition to online hindered my teaching because like I said I teach infants so what infant is going to sit and listen to a story.
Track: Jessica laminates that the lack of resources at hand made it more difficult when it came to working online.
Act (Jessica): I didn’t really have all of the materials that I would like to have in order to have the lesson, you know. That was one problem for me.
Track: However, she has better feelings towards the new school year and being back in the classroom.
Act (Jessica): I don’t know there is nothing like teaching in-person. I can honestly can say that I missed my babies. I missed teaching them in-person.
Track: Though we often hear the perspectives of students who use different forms of social media to express their opinions on how remote and in-person learning has impacted them, getting the chance to hear from educators who were with children that are very young has been a bit rarer. From conversations with Jessica and Yanelly, there are obvious fears with health concerns but still, there is hope when it comes to resuming the career they love to do. For Bauch College, I’m Tatiana Brown.
