6 DECEMBER 31, 2020 RIDGEWOOD TIMES WWW.QNS.COM
P.S. 71 parents, teachers defend blended learning curriculum
BY ANGÉLICA ACEVEDO
AACEVEDO@SCHNEPSMEDIA.COM
@QNS
Some parents and teachers are
defending the blended learning
curriculum at P.S. 71 Forest Elementary
School aft er a group of parents
claimed the school used Zoom too
much during in-person instruction.
On Dec. 7, a dozen parents began
protesting outside of the Ridgewood
elementary school, saying their kids
who are enrolled in blended learning,
which allows for students to be in
school buildings for two to three days
out of the week, are on Zoom “all day,”
even during in-person class. But some
parents and teachers don’t agree with
the characterization.
Nicholletta Montecalvo, a fourthgrade
ICT teacher at P.S. 71, told QNS
that while the transition to remote
learning wasn’t what the school community
expected nor wanted, they
have managed to work with the cards
that were dealt to them as a result of
the COVID-19 pandemic.
“When this program came out to
represent our school, it wasn’t just
the principal or the administration,”
said Montecalvo. “Ms. Soto, who is
the school principal, truly believes in
shared decision-making. “We always
keep the students and our families in
the forefront.”
Montecalvo said Principal Indiana
Soto had a core group of about
25 teachers who helped design the
school’s blended and remote learning
program to not only benefi t students
and parents, but to also work with
teachers, including those with underlying
medical conditions who must
work from home.
Montecalvo said claiming blended
learning students spend all day on
Zoom during in-person instruction is
a “misrepresentation.”
P.S. 71, which has 634 students (half
of them in blended learning), created
a plan to allow for teachers to give
live instruction both when students
are in the school building and while
they’re learning remotely, despite
the Department of Education’s (DOE)
original recommendations of having
one teacher in each separate model.
“The development was in mind to ensure
that the students and the teachers
still felt like they were part of a class,”
Montecalvo said. “We unanimously
decided we did not want live streaming,
we wanted to be present with our
kids as we provided instruction.”
There are currently about 10 teachers
who are teaching from home out of
about 90 teachers who are in the classroom
with their students, according
to Concetta Lacerenza-Perrotto, ESSA
Coordinator at P.S. 71.
Montecalvo, one of the teachers
working from home, explained her
students in blended learning will
spend about two hours between live
instruction and breakout rooms on
Zoom throughout their in-person
school day. The rest of the time they’re
working with paraprofessional instructors
in the classroom.
Lacerenza-Perrotto explained that
the time spent on Zoom and live instruction
changes depending on the
students’ grade, in line with the DOE’s
guidelines.
She added that with the uncertainty
of school or classroom closures due to
the pandemic, they wanted to create a
program that allowed for fl exibility.
“We wanted to make sure that no
matter what learning preference that
child had, whether they’re remote
or blended, had 110 percent the same
instruction throughout,” said Lacerenza
Perrotto. “So it was a seamless
and easy transition — a child would
just have to take their laptop and just
as they’re familiar and independent
with working on Google classrooms,
Zoom and all those multiple platforms
in the building, that in the event that
we had to close, our students were
independent as well.”
And public schools did close for a
two-week period in November, aft er
the city reached 3 percent infection
rate, a threshold that was agreed upon
months prior between Mayor Bill de
Blasio and the United Federation of
Teachers (UFT).
“As soon as the kids opened up the
next day, they had the same features,
the same consistency, and we didn’t
change curriculum; we just taught the
next lesson,” said Montecalvo. “Then,
we came back to school, the kids went
into their classrooms on Zoom and,
again, there was that continuity of
the instructional core, where we just
picked up right where we left off those
two weeks the entire city shut down.
Our kids didn’t even feel that anything
changed, because it was just the same
routine and structures we have established
since Sept. 21.”
Elementary schools then reopened
on Dec. 7, which was when some parents
began protesting outside of P.S. 71.
Other parents, though, were confused
about the protests.
Angeline Andreu, a parent of a fully
remote fourth-grade student, said
she was skeptical about the whole
program before the school year began,
but is happy to see her son, who is fully
remote, is responding well.
“I don’t know where they would have
gotten the whole fact that they’re just
sitting in front of Zoom all day, because
it’s not what my son is doing, and he’s a
remote student,” Andreu said.
Andreu said parents and students
at P.S. 71 “should be proud” of the program
the school created, as all schools
were left to fi gure out what curriculum
will work for their school population.
“We’re all having to change, we’re
all having to do something new,” said
Andreu. “So, is it going to be great?
Usually change is not great, right? It
takes a while, but we have to push our
kids, we can’t just be like, ‘Well, this is
how it’s always been and this is how it
should be.’ No. The world changes.”
One of the complaints from parents
who protested the school’s in-person
instruction was that some classrooms
don’t have teachers present, just a staff
member.
But Montecalvo emphasized that
their paraprofessionals aren’t “substitutes”
nor “babysitters.”
Christine Zaky, a paraprofessional
classroom manager who’s worked in
pre-K and second grade for the past
fi ve years, said she’s glad to do the
work that teachers do in a classroom
setting.
“All we do all day long is hands on
work, making sure that kids are
writing, making sure that kids are up
fi nishing their math problems in the
math book and writing down their own
math problems in their notebooks,”
said Zaky, adding that some kids will
write on their notebook then submit
images of their work online. “Kids are
experts, they’re using computers like
I can’t even tell you.”
Steven Roesler, a fi ft h grade ICT
teacher, said Zoom helps students in
blended learning and fully remote
learning work together so it still feels
similar to a classroom setting.
Grace Wilson, a fifth-grader in
Roesler’s class, said she really enjoys
going to school in-person and being on
Zoom at times.
“I really, really like going to school
because when I’m in school, I get to see
some of my friends that go to school.
And if you take away Zoom, I can’t see
my friends at home,” Wilson said. “In
Mr. Roesler’s class, he puts some kids
that are in school and some kids that
are at home, together in breakout
rooms and we talk about our work, and
we collaborate with the kids at home.
If we don’t collaborate with the kids at
home, they’re going to be confused …
And there’s kids who work better with
people who have more of an advantage,
like speaking up more and more confi -
dent in answering questions.”
She added that if some kids have
diff erent teachers for in-person and
remote learning, they might feel
uncomfortable. Dave Wilson, Grace’s
father, said splitting up remote and
blended students halfway in the school
year “wouldn’t be right.”
Daniela Carollo, a kindergarten
teacher at P.S. 71, is usually in the
classroom with her blended-learning
students, and found that even 5-yearolds
can log in to Zoom and other
platforms like Google Classroom by
themselves.
“I think all the kindergarten teachers
do a very good mix of, ‘OK, we’re
going to do something on Jamboard
now, which is fun and engaging, but
we’re also going to read a story and
we’re going to practice writing our
letters or sounding out the letter to
fi gure out what the word is and write
our numbers,’” said Carollo. “We don’t
want them to go into fi rst grade, and
not know how to be able to write because
they’re on Zoom.”
Mirna Alvarez, a parent of a pre-K
student and a second grade student at
P.S. 71, said she considers the school as
one of the best not only in the city, but
the country.
“Parents also have to remember that
we’re in the middle of a pandemic,”
Alvarez said in Spanish. “I know this
change is hard for parents, but we
have to be thankful that at least our
kids haven’t stopped learning. If we
want our kids to write on paper, we
can do it at home. If we want them to
read a book, we can do it at home. My
daughters are reading books, not just
on their iPads. It’s on us, too.”
Principal Soto met with the parents
who were protesting immediately and
several times individually aft er their
protests. The school also held a town
hall later that week with District 24
Superintendent Madelene Chan.
Parents of students at P.S. 71 Forest Elementary in Ridgewood protest
over what they say is a lack of instruction. Photo by Gabriele Holtermann
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