(This is a guest post by Padraig Shea, an educator and baseball coach in the South Bronx. He has taught in Arkansas, South Korea, and Houston. His writing has appeared in the Boston Globe, Valley Advocate, and Fulbright Korea Infusion.) New York City’s coronavirus quarantine has reached biblical proportions; schools and many businesses closed more… Continue reading Remote Learning Shines Spotlight On Why Schools MUST Change
Distance learning is an opportunity. Many teachers are frustrated that all the work they’ve done, which was preparing to teach students in a classroom, is now irrelevant. I suggest they mourn the loss and move on. If they try to continue to hold on to their old methods, the ghost of the classroom will haunt… Continue reading 3 Things Teachers Need to Let go of For Distance Learning to Work
Let me recap the New York City schools week of April 18 to April 24, 2020 for you. First, on Saturday, April 18, the Parent Portal, which malfunctioned so spectacularly in so many ways last year, continued to glitch in we-obviously-haven’t-fixed-it-yet ways. General Education Kindergarten offers of admission, at that point scheduled to be released… Continue reading Your General Ed and G&T Kindergarten 2020 Admissions Questions – Answered!
(This is a guest post by Joseph S. Lento, a licensed Teacher of Orchestral Music and School District Administration. In 2014, President Obama named him a National Teacher of Arts and Humanities. Joseph also has commendations from Presidents George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush. In 1999, he was named NYC Public Schools Bronx County… Continue reading COVID -19: A Dark Knight for Educational Equity?
(This is a guest post by Luke Skurman, CEO of Niche. Luke holds bachelors and masters degrees from Carnegie Mellon University and is a member of its Board of Trustees, where he is the Vice Chairman of the Research Innovation and Entrepreneurship committee, and a member of both the Education Affairs and the Property &… Continue reading College for All: Levelling the Playing Field for Low-income Applicants
Will They? On Saturday, April 11, 2020, New York City mayor Bill De Blasio announced that, due to Coronavirus, all school buildings will remain closed for the duration of the academic year, which is scheduled to end on June 26. Remote learning, however, will continue. A few hours later, NY governor Andrew Cuomo countered with… Continue reading Will NYC Students Have To Repeat a Grade? Can They? Should They?
New York City notified 8th graders of their public high school placement for September 2020 on March 19th, and 5th graders of their middle school placement on April 6. Most charter schools held their lotteries on April 1 for all available grade levels. Still to come is General Education Kindergarten placement in “late April,” according… Continue reading How To Choose a School — When Schools Are Closed: Tips for Families On What To Ask (And How To Evaluate the Answers)
When I give my “Getting Into NYC High School” workshops to parents and community groups around the city, I warn families that “getting Into NYC high school makes getting into NYC Kindergarten feel like puppies and kittens in a warm basket.” (I don’t even invoke getting into NYC middle school, which manages to combine the… Continue reading This Change Could Make Getting Into High School Easier For NYC Kids!
While online school is wonderful overall, there are still some issues with it. I’m not talking about technical or logistical concerns. Those are all fairly straightforward to fix. I’m talking about those issues which will take more time, flexibility, and cooperation on both the students’ and teachers’ parts if we wish to make the transition… Continue reading What Still Needs Work: An NYC Student’s Take On the Problems With Online Learning
As the COVID-19 pandemic closes schools for New York City’s 1.1 million students, remote instruction — teachers providing instruction through platforms like Zoom and Google Meet and YouTube — is the new normal. At least for the students who have access to laptops and the internet. Yet many students are not so lucky, largely because… Continue reading It’s a Matter of Equity: Petition Demands Free Internet for ALL Low Income NYC Families
