Teacher: Don't forget obstacles of pandemic year | Ways to adapt a STEM class to keep girls interested | Districts craft multi-pronged math recovery plan
Teachers, parents and students have faced incredible challenges during the coronavirus pandemic, writes Dina Strasser, a veteran educator. In this blog post, Strasser encourages peers to remember the obstacles and heartache of the pandemic year as restrictions are eased and students return to school because the struggles continue and could be even harder now than earlier in the crisis.
Girls did much better and were more likely to continue in STEM courses when the science curriculum moved from the classroom to outdoors, according to a study in the International Journal of Science Education. Another study found that boys perform better on multiple-choice questions, while girls do better on open-ended questions, highlighting a need to adapt teaching methods to a broader way of learning.
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The pandemic has taken its toll on all learning, especially in math, according to experts interviewed in this article. Tucson-based school districts are hopeful that a three-pronged approach of summer school, targeted tutoring and remediation instruction will help students get back on track with math learning.
The School Resource Officer program in Virginia's Alexandria City Public Schools will end with a City Council vote to reallocate the almost $800,000 in funding toward initiatives to promote students' mental health. Police Chief Michael Brown said the four of the five officers who worked in the district's one high school and three middle schools will be reassigned at the end of the school year, while the fifth officer has retired.
Teachers exhausted by the pandemic and the usual stresses of teaching need to decompress, says Nicole Kolesnik, an elementary-school counselor in Pennsylvania. A storage room has been converted into a "Zen Zone," a space with soft lighting and calm images on a TV screen where teachers can take time to relax, meditate, practice yoga and sit in massage chairs.
Juliana Urtubey, the 2021 National Teacher of the Year, uses the school garden to let her students who have special needs roam and make connections on their own, such as counting leaves on a plant or caring for certain plants. Urtubey says that, in the garden, "students' intuition is their guide, and collaboration is second nature."
