A chat about AI and the new learning landscape

Photo by Levart_Photographer on Unsplash

You’ve probably seen funny, intriguing, or scary news items popping up over the past few weeks about Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the form of ChatGPT, Claude, LLaMA, and other interfaces. You might have heard podcasters explaining or bemoaning the revolutionary new world that’s about to replace our old one. At this point, for me, it’s all still pretty confusing in terms of how it will affect my day-to-day life, but I’m curious and very cautiously optimistic.

One thing that’s pretty certain: Our kids’ lives will be dramatically shaped by AI—and in ways we can’t possibly predict.

In education, two big names—Khan Academy and Duolingo—announced last week that they are on board the ChatGPT train, having been granted early access to develop and test ideas. We’ve already seen both learning platforms suggest some of the benefits they anticipate for learners and educators, but let me preface this short summary by saying I have no idea what the real-world educational outcomes will be because we are so early in the exploration stage. Having said that, here’s a rundown of what’s happening at Khan Academy and Duolingo, along with some links that will take you on a deeper dive, if you’re interested. 

ChatGPT-4, which stands for Generative Pre-trained Transformer 4, is a sophisticated AI model that can understand the context of questions and create written responses that are much more “human-like” than past versions. Khan Academy, a nonprofit dedicated to free, high-quality education for all, has been around since 2008 and is well known in the alt ed community for its library of outstanding YouTube video lessons on math and a vast array of other subjects. Duolingo is a for-profit language learning company that has been on the scene for 12 years. Duolingo teaches more than 100 languages to people all over the world in gamefied lessons, primarily through phone apps. 

There is a free version of Duolingo, but the new AI-assisted features will be offered only within a $30-per-month paid premium version. These features will offer learners more detailed explanations of how a language works in a feature called Explain My Answer. But most fascinating and useful will be the option for learners to role-play and interact with the AI tool like a personal tutor. After a conversation, users will get specific feedback they can use to improve their responses in their next Duolingo conversation or in real life.

Even more powerful possibilities seem to lie in the approach Khan Academy is taking to this new AI tech. Khan is calling its AI-powered platform Khanmigo. It is still in the development stage and open primarily to educators and school districts that are already working with Khan Academy on other projects, but it’s likely that more and more features will be rolled out to ordinary users in the near future.

Because each learner is different, the value of Khanmigo is that it will immediately adapt its tutoring in any subject to meet the individual’s needs, just like a one-on-one tutoring session with a human teacher. So, if a student is struggling with a particular type of math operation, Khanmigo will ask questions that direct the student toward a deeper understanding, rather than providing quick answers. And if a student needs to understand a controversial current news story, the Khanmigo tutor could gather information in order to debate multiple sides of the issue with the student in real time.

Khan Academy also wants its AI tool to become a valuable assistant for educators as well as students, removing some of the time-consuming work of lesson planning and grading so that educators can spend more time engaging with each student.

Sensibly, the folks at Khan are carefully communicating with users and adapting their projects to make sure they are safe and that kids are truly getting an enhanced learning experience rather than simply getting all the answers to their questions from Khanmigo. The short demonstration founder Sal Khan did on YouTube reminded me of a Socratic back-and-forth between students and teachers.

Next week, I’ll take a look at the world that’s opening up for students with disabilities as a result of AI learning tools. If you have hopes, fears, or experiences to share regarding AI and learning, please comment!

Here are a few links to learn more:

• John Fensterwald, “AI in School: Virtually Chatting with George Washington and Your Personal GPT-4 Tutor,” EdSource, March 20, 2023.

• Khan Academy, “GPT-4 In-Depth Demo,” March 14, 2023 (YouTube video).

• Aisha Malik, “Duolingo Launches New Subscription Tier with Access to AI Tutor Powered by GPT-4,” TechCrunch, March 14, 2023.

• John Spencer, “We Can’t Predict How AI Will Change Learning,” February 4, 2023 (podcast).

• Tyler Cowen, “AI Is About to Transform Childhood. Are We Ready?” Bloomberg, March 16, 2023 (opinion); and “How to Learn and Teach Economics with Large Language Models, Including GPT,”  SSRN, March 17, 2023 (academic paper, with Alexander T. Tabarrok).

• Ray Schroeder, “AI Is Impacting Education, But the Best Is Yet to Come,” Inside Higher Ed, March 15, 2023 (opinion).

Shelley Sperry | Sperry Editorial

Hiding scary things from kids

Deborah Hale, founder and director of the Inside Outside School, kindly granted Alt Ed Austin permission to republish this timely and soul-searching piece. It originally appeared on her school blog earlier this month, soon after large protests against police brutality and racism began in Minneapolis, Austin, and many other communities throughout the world.

 
Recent events following the murder of George Floyd have offered me, a white woman born in the 1950s, an opportunity for self-reflection. I am not doing a good enough job of growing anti-racist children. I’ve always taken the approach with environmental education that we don’t focus on what is wrong like glaciers melting; instead we help children fall in love with nature, so that one day they will harness that love in a way that actively protects the environment. Playing in a creek, gardening, and feeding chickens are our methodology of raising an environmental activist.  We address race issues mostly through literature. We teach respect for everyone. The students study the Civil Rights movement, Jim Crow laws, slavery, the Underground Railroad, segregation, and prejudice. 
​ 
In her book Not My Idea: A Book about Whiteness, Anastasia Higginbotham shows a mother saying, “Oh no, not again.” Her daughter hears her and says, “Mom. What ‘not again?’” The mother doesn’t want to tell her child about the George Floyd, Breanna Taylor, Mark Ramos news break of the day. She wants to “hide scary things” from her kid. Boy, do I get that! I really want children to enjoy their sacred childhood, running, playing, laughing. The dangers they face at school are poison ivy, sharp rocks under their bare feet, snakes, and puss moth caterpillars. Their parents might worry about that a bit, but they don’t have to worry that their child will be murdered by police. I can protect them from the horrible, frightening details in today’s news, but because there is not a lot of diversity, I cannot help them fall in love with people of color through direct experience. Our school isn’t free, there is no free breakfast or lunch, we are not on a bus route. We lack socio-economic diversity. As a private school, we serve privileged children. That’s not what I want, but that is what I created.

Our family has recently had our own run-in with racist police brutality. Like many white grandparents, we have grandchildren, daughters-in-law, nieces, and nephews who are people of color. Our grandson was peacefully protesting in Austin and was shot at close range by a police officer’s rubber bullet.

Our grandson, now 20, is a photographer. The bullet hit his right arm. He required emergency surgery to save his arm. He has a huge scar which runs down the center of his Texas tattoo. He was holding a camera, not a gun. 

He is a peaceful man. He eats a vegan diet so that he may do no harm. I adore my grandchildren. They matter to me deeply and personally. Our grandson recently shared with us how difficult it has been for him, growing up black. I heard his pain, the things he has faced that our other grandchildren will never have to face because they are white. I do want them to know what happened to their cousin. I know it is a scary thing, but knowing about this is important. We cannot let them grow up thinking that the color of your skin doesn’t matter. It makes all the difference if your skin color isn’t white. I knelt in the grass on a recent Sunday at Huston-Tillotson College listening to the heartbreaking words of Brenda Ramos, whose son, Mark, had been killed by police in Austin 6 weeks earlier. Mark was unarmed and had his hands up in the air.  There has been no justice, no arrest. My heart is hurting for her and for all mothers and grandmothers whose children are people of color.

One of the reasons we don’t teach our students at IOS about deforestation and climate change is that these big problems can paralyze children into a fear that they can only shut down around. I feel this paralyzing fear about our world right now. Are we facing civil war? Are people trying to stir up such an unimaginable evil in the year 2020? I cannot remain frozen in fear. I have to use my voice to speak out against racism. It was not my idea, and if you are reading this, it was not yours either. We do not support it, but are we fighting it?

My grandfather introduced racism into our home when I was in kindergarten or first grade. He said the N word at the dinner table in reference to his co-workers at the post office. My mother bravely ripped her father in law a new one in front of his granddaughters. It made an indelible impression on me. I thank God that my mother shaped my belief system, not my grandfather. When we saw the race riots on the television, she did not send me out of the room. I saw. I see. I cannot look the other way.

Our next module in our Wit and Wisdom curriculum at the Inside Outside School is “Civil Rights.” We will open with this integrated theme in our pandemic world classroom, whatever that looks like. I will help shape the belief systems of my students. I will continue to teach them the Three Respect Agreements of our school: Respect Yourself, Respect Others, Respect the Environment. I will continue to teach them about a growth mindset and about the Dimensions of Human Greatness. But, when we talk about interaction, I want them to actually have interactions with people of color. I don’t want it to all be book learning. 

My semester reports are all written, and now I am trying to plan for a world where students can’t be closer than 6 feet from each other, where I may be teaching with a mask over my mouth and nose in triple-digit Texas heat. But just as importantly, I also am imagining how to plan a world where the student population at our school reflects the diversity of our wider community. I can stand against racism by not being satisfied with my white privilege. I can ask for the means to serve more intentionally in creating a more just and loving world. I can reach into the greater field of life where this school originated and find the next upgrade. Through our shared intention, let us see that manifesting. 

Please join me. Namaste.

Deborah Hale

Alternative education post-pandemic: Where are we going from here?

We have an opportunity to create a new and better normal if we consider the needs of all learners
in re-entry. . . . As natural and human-made systems collide in unprecedented ways, young people
are growing up in a world where novelty, complexity, and mutuality are the norm. How we respond
in adaptive, thoughtful, inclusive, and creative ways will be the most important lessons we teach.

—Eric Tucker and Tom Vander Ark
“How to Reopen Schools: A 10-Point Plan Putting Equity at the Center”
GettingSmart.com, April 29, 2020

We’ve come to the fourth article in our series on the adaptations and transformations that are happening in schools here in Austin as a result of the sudden necessity of distance learning during the COVID-19 crisis. We started with a broad view of education in emergencies, then looked at how our own ATX family of alternative schools is handling social-emotional learning and injecting creativity and play into their evolving learning plans. Now we are going to look at a topic that’s on our minds a lot these days: What does the future hold? 

Without question, the way we educate our kids (and they educate themselves!) in the United States and across the globe will feel the impact of this moment going forward. Education reformer Tom Vander Ark sees cause for optimism “post pandemic.” He describes schools that embrace more personalized learning and flexibility based on competency. As we might expect, he anticipates more home-based and hybrid learning, with as many as half a million students just not returning to their regular schools. “Hundreds of parents will turn their homeschool into a microschool,” says Vander Ark. He also sees a boom in project-based learning:

. . . with state testing cancelled and a lot more flexible time, many learners are engaging in interest-based learning and impromptu projects. School closures have been a reminder that learning can happen anywhere. When kids return to school, some schools will respond with more project-based learning connected to local problems and opportunities.

Earth Native Wilderness School students turn their backyards and kitchens into botany classrooms.

And in very good news for our alternative learning communities, Vander Ark also sees the end of more than 30 years of preoccupation with testing as the main basis for measuring learners’ and schools’ progress.

Douglas Harris, an academic who studied the dramatic changes in New Orleans’s schools after Hurricane Katrina, says there are general lessons about how educators and students adapt to crises that we can learn from the New Orleans experience. One likely outcome of the pandemic is that there will be a few tools of distance learning that both students and teachers decide they like, and those tools will stick around. But it’s unlikely, Harris thinks, that there will be a dramatic move toward either homeschooling or fully virtual learning because there are too many disadvantages for the majority of families. Unlike Vander Ark, Brown also doesn’t think competency-based learning will expand dramatically in the long run. But there will be some surprising long-term indirect results of the pandemic, including putting more teachers and parents in the role of coaches, with students taking greater control of their own learning.

In our own survey of 35 Austin-area alternative schools, we found that all the educators are thinking about and planning for the future right now, with many focused on expanding just the sort of student-directed learning both Brown and Vander Ark are talking about.

Educators in the community feel it is their responsibility to support parents as far as possible in their new roles. In some cases that has meant continuing schooling online so that kids have a familiar routine and parents are able to focus on other tasks, says Eustace Isidore of 4Points Academy. And in other cases, it means guiding parents in setting up homeschooling, as is the case at Bridges Academy Austin.

One of the most consistent issues in our survey comments was dedication to student-directed learning. Cathy Lewis of Long-View Micro School explained:

Long-View has a cultural norm of “driving your own learning.” We take this very seriously as we are cultivating intellectually curious and driven learners. This norm was taken to a new level when we had to pivot to learning at home . . . We have seen some kids step up to new levels: We have one learner helping us develop content and several others choosing to support younger kids by meeting with them virtually or giving them feedback on work they’ve turned in.

Laura Sandefer of Acton Academy added that she believes parents have been “happily surprised” about what independent learners their kids are and that they do have the skills to drive their own school projects, even at young ages.

Clearly, the success of schooling right now depends on flexibility on all sides, and schools are trying to accommodate families’ needs. Acton Academy West Austin (the Westlake campus) shortened its spring break to help keep kids on track, and at Ascent, another Acton Academy, each family is getting one-on-one support tailored to their needs. Abrome and other Agile Learning Centers are working in collaboration to add new, optional offerings for learners.

A strong, kind, smart, and powerful Acton West Austin student opens up her home toolbox to hone some maker skills.

Beyond learners and families is the larger community, and the schools we surveyed are reaching out to connect there, too. La Tribu preschool is now opening to enroll students in a Spanish-language virtual learning program that mixes live classes and other activities. Jenny Alperin of Guidepost Montessori at Brushy Creek shared that they have created an online platform that is free to the general public so any family can join in interactive learning and find other resources. Long-View is also opening its micro school to kids beyond the regularly enrolled students who might like to take just a few classes.

So, what will the future hold for Austin’s alternative schools?

Some schools, including International School of Texas, AHB Community School, La Tribu Preschool, and Kirby Hall School report that they have seen an increase in connectedness during the crisis, with students and families feeling grateful for their communities in a way they hadn’t anticipated.

We see in all the schools’ responses a lot of hope for the future and the next phase of alternative education in Austin. There’s the hope, expressed by David Darcy of School on the Rise and Anne Remme at Speech-Language-Play, that small alternative schools, especially micro schools, will be among the first to reopen because the small class sizes mean less risk and easier social distancing.

David Darcy begins morning lessons live via laptop from a School on the Rise classroom.

Angela Griffiths of Acton Academy Northwest Austin says she hopes that parents everywhere will see more clearly all the realities their kids are facing. “It’s my sincere hope that they look at what their kids are being put through and say to themselves . . . ‘There’s got to be a better way.” And maybe that better way includes alternative education models.

Looking toward the future, journalist Anya Kamenetz reports that education researcher Maria Litvinova says the safest and best future is what most of our alt schools are doing already: keeping class sizes as small as possible. In Denmark’s International School, right now they’re sticking to 10 students per class. Other researchers suggest that staggering calendars for different groups of students, changing attendance policies, and improving both digital learning access and social and emotional support for all students are prerequisites in post-pandemic schools everywhere. Not only academic support, but also mental health support for students, says James Lane, Virginia’s state superintendent of public instruction, will be the top priority when kids return to brick-and-mortar schools.

In the meantime, educators, parents, community activists, and students are all thinking about the future and hoping that new and better ways of learning and connecting will emerge from this unusual time. As author Rebecca Solnit has observed in A Paradise Built in Hell: The Extraordinary Communities that Arise in Disaster, sometimes the worst of times can provide flashes that give us “a glimpse of who else we ourselves may be and what else our society could become.”

Shelley Sperry  |  Sperry Editorial

Creativity and play in distance learning: Alternative schools help Austin kids thrive during COVID-19

Bet your bottom dollar we work best under pressure.
(Yo teachers, I wanna like THANK YOU!)
Get your yoga pants set.
Gotta earn that paycheck!
On your mark, get set, let me go, let me Zoom!

—Emily Glankler and Akina Adderley
Zoom! A "Shoop" Parody for Teachers, Griffin School

 
We’re back again with more survey results from 35 Austin-area alternative schools. The first article looked at the broad topic of education in emergencies, and the second tackled social emotional education in this period of social distancing. This week we’re diving into the importance of creativity and play in many forms.

The educators who contributed to our survey suggest that making space for creativity in the curriculum—and unstructured play with other students—is an essential component in their child-centered learning strategies. As a recent article by illustrator Louis Netter noted, we are all necessarily turning inward at this moment, “to the vast inner space of our thoughts and imagination,” and we feel more keenly than ever how important the arts and creativity are to our well-being.

We’ve probably all seen some of the outpouring of creativity and humor from students and teachers on YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook—with music, creative writing, theater, and art taking center stage. Locally, Griffin School’s Emily Glankler and Akina Adderley jumped into the fray, offering students a funny, timely comment on Zoom school life in a musical parody of Salt-N-Pepa’s “Shoop.” 

For isolated theater kids, unable to mount their productions in person, Skybridge Academy’s Brian Oglesby is donning a new costume each day to turn the ordinary into something a little more special, explaining that there’s a lot of joy in this innovation-by-necessity:

It’s like we’ve landed on this desert island. It sucks on this desert island. When we discover that by rubbing a couple of sticks together, you can make fire, there is triumph and a certain joy. Sure, it would be better not to be stranded, . . . but in the meantime, look at this cool thing we did.

Oglesby adds that his students are developing flexibility and even more creative thinking in a school that prides itself on always pushing boundaries. “Other schools are having to cancel their productions, and my heart breaks for them. We’re trying to figure out how to perform through video conferencing. It’s going to be its own weird thing, fit to the form.”

Play and child-led discovery—from giant bunnies to a virtual Earth Day

Lulu Bautista of Corazón Neighborhood Preschool offered us some valuable insight into her deeply held beliefs about the value of play, creativity, and discovery. Lulu calls what she does “Respite Care,” and it helps relieve children’s anxieties. It’s clear that lessening anxiety is one of the most important aspects of creative engagement in all the schools we surveyed.

How do schools do it? At Corazón, they use both tactile and virtual learning:

We've taken a trip to the moon . . . the children "hand" me items through the screen to pack in our group bag, and then we all buckle in our seatbelts and blast off, calling out the things that we see along the way and floating around our screens in slow motion! We've used our magic wands to turn each other into everything from sleeping robots to gigantic bunnies.

Tactile, “real world” play that moves kids away from screens for part of the day is a priority at many schools. For Bloom Preschool kids, dancing together and reading together are as necessary to the curriculum now as ever, even though it’s done at a distance.  At Acton Academy, educators are creating care packages of project supplies and other items that help with inspiration. Skybridge is putting together weekly “grab bags” of science and art supplies. And Ashley Reinhardt says WonderWell’s teachers have designed experiences around easy-to-get household items as well as curated learning kits they provide. For example, they give little ones who need some fine-motor-skill development an ear of corn covered with coffee grounds and a toothbrush!

WonderWell distance learning supply kits ready for “contactless” pickup by preschool families

The contents of an art supply kit made available for Skybridge teens to pick up at specified times

Anne Remme of Speech-Language-Play is creating an entire set of short videos for Facebook that allow kids to be involved in a virtual playgroup with reading, “table time” art activities, cooking, outside play, and even pet care.

Back at Corazón Neighborhood Preschool, children are encouraged to choose their favorite items at home and make up games with them spontaneously, which can lead to a lot of new learning opportunities on the fly. “One child created a pretend marshmallow store and roasted marshmallows to sell to us. But she only had enough for a few of us!” says Lulu. “We walked through our problem solving skills, and together the children came up with an idea so that others could partake. We did this all from behind screens, all through the magical world of pretending that children live and thrive in.”

At International School of Texas, older kids had the chance to do similar experiments in adapting their ideas to the world of screens. They held an art contest in a virtual art gallery and they also created a whole-school Earth Day project online.

Art with Ms. Bo: The International School of Texas art teacher shows kids how to make and use stamps from recycled objects found around their homes.

With so much time spent in virtual classrooms and chat rooms, it’s inevitable that students of all ages will get creative with colorful and crazy virtual backgrounds and morphing faces. Pam Nicholas of Huntington-Surrey says they are using an app that turns people on Zoom into hilarious creatures. They use it sparingly, but it works to bring the community together through laughter. Chris Ready, assistant head of school at Austin’s Academy of Thought and Industry, said:

Our student government is coming up with weird contests to keep the student body engaged. We are going to launch a ‘guess that student's workspace contest.’ David, our student body president, has sent out a survey asking everyone to vote on what should be done with his facial hair . . . 

Kids at Huntington-Surrey are revising their school yearbook to include the new world of distance learning they’re exploring together.

What’s also happening, says Kori McLain of Lake Travis STEM Academy, is that educators and students are becoming closer as a result of sharing and getting a peek at each other’s spaces, including all the “learning forts” kids are building. And students always come up with new ways to add some pizzazz to ordinary meetups. “We celebrated a teacher’s B-day by surprising her with virtual B-day backgrounds, and we all wore funny hats and sang ‘Happy Birthday,’” says McLain.

We’ll let Lulu Bautista have the last word on this topic. She says:

Our version of creativity comes from the same place it has always dwelled, the children. . . . [it] centers on finding ways to ground ourselves in the familiar and hold onto something consistent to help children retain a sense of joy and relief from uncertainty when we gather together, even if that means virtually.

Shelley Sperry  |  Sperry Editorial

Educating our kids and ourselves in times of emergency

Photo by Glen Carrie on Unsplash

Learning is a social phenomenon, and human interaction is a catalyst. Especially in emergency situations, learning is a social and emotional experience, so human relationships have to be a priority.

—Nishi Andra, technology for education consultant,
ICARE co-founder, and currently working with UNICEF

It’s hard not to gasp when you read the stunning statistic that nine out of every ten children in the world who are normally enrolled in school are not in class at this moment because of the coronavirus pandemic. An event of this magnitude remains difficult for most Americans to comprehend, but there are precedents on a smaller scale that can help us understand COVID-19’s impact on education. Disasters—from hurricanes and fires to wars and terrorism—affect large numbers of students in specific locations every year. Think of Syrian refugees or the victims of ebola in Liberia or earthquakes in Puerto Rico and Haiti. 

Prompted by a recent talk with Nishi Andra, a friend and collaborator with Alt Ed Austin who is currently working on an education project for Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, I decided to look into the topic of educating students in crisis situations more deeply. In this article, I’ll examine some of the big takeaways and how they might help inform educators, parents, and students in the United States today. In the next three posts on this blog, we’ll zoom in to look at exactly how Austin’s own community of alternative schools is adapting and helping kids learn and thrive, despite the challenges. 

In a story for NPR, education reporter Anya Kamenetz introduced me to a field of research that’s about 20 years old, called education in emergencies (EIE). According to EIE studies, the learning time kids lose during a semester of extreme disruption like we’re all experiencing now can take up to two years to make up. As many of us can see in Austin and across the country, the struggle is especially hard for lower income and more vulnerable kids. As demonstrated not only in international crisis zones, but also closer to home in places like post-Katrina New Orleans, education disruption can have lasting effects on kids’ mental health and educational achievements.

First, let’s recognize just how unprecedented in scale our current situation is. Rebecca Winthrop, of the Center for Universal Education, says that in 2013, five million children were out of school as a result of the Ebola virus. In 2010, millions more in Pakistan saw their schools closed as a result of severe flooding. And in 1918, the global flu pandemic to which COVID-19 is often compared closed schools in 40 U.S. cities. Each of those crises affected only a small fraction of the 1.5 billion kids who are out of school in 180+ countries right now.

Still, EIE researchers believe we can use lessons from past emergency events to cope in the present. Here are the most pertinent lessons I think we can draw upon:

• Health Education: Parents and educators need to integrate education about the coronavirus and how to stay as safe and healthy as possible into daily learning time for kids from preschool on up to high school and college. Safety lessons about handwashing and social distancing and factual information about the science of virus spread can be turned into fun songs and games, but these messages are just as critical now (and for future waves of the virus) as are math and social studies.
  
  Health education is something that’s easy to forget with our own kids running around in home lockdown. We’re sealed up inside our homes or in our own backyards, so reminding kids to wash themselves or disinfect surfaces seems less urgent. Winthrop notes that many schools teaching remotely actually skip health information altogether in a rush to get other subjects in. But the fact that students are learning at home actually makes it more likely that health messages will turn into dinner-table conversation and stick with them for life—keeping them and the community healthier in the future.
  
  Austin early childhood educator Marie Catrett uses a cute story with a felt board and a comic from NPR to help kids understand the basics of the virus and how important good health practices, like handwashing, are. She shared her thoughts on communicating with kids about COVID-19 in a recent guest post on this blog. Some schools in the Austin area provide regular opportunities for students to ask questions. For example, the school nurse at the International School of Texas hosts “wellness chats” each Tuesday and Thursday.

• The Power of Routine and Ritual: Another lesson from research on education in emergencies is that routines—especially morning routines—matter. Jamie Weiss-Yagoda, of the International Rescue Committee, says that any routine educational activities parents put in place each day can “give young people a sense of stability amid rapid change.” A routine, no matter how simple, can counteract feelings of dislocation and chaos that children feel during an emergency disruption. Knowing what to expect each morning can soothe anxiety for kids—and parents, too!
  
  In some refugee camps in Greece, UNICEF is providing daily podcast lessons with students’ regular teachers, maintaining the social distancing requirements, but giving kids a sense of continuity and contact as well as a regular routine to look forward to.
  
  Early childhood educator Beth O’Brien suggests that especially for young children, short daily points of connection with teachers is important. That can come via email, texts, videos, picking up packets at drop-off points, or letters in the mail. “Our goal,” says O’Brien, “is not to replicate a typical school-day schedule or intended curriculum online or at home. The goal is to help students continue to feel connected (to the teacher, to each other, to the school), known, and nurtured even though a significant part of their routine has been disrupted.” AHB Community School in Austin reports that classes are still holding versions of “community circles” and sharing time through Google Hangouts. Both students and parents can attend teachers’ virtual office hours to get help or just a little companionship.
  
  In a recent report, educators Armand Doucet, Deborah Netolicky, Koen Timmers, and Francis Tuscano found that older kids may be experiencing a period of mourning because they’ve lost events and traditions they look forward to all year—a special field trip, prom, a science fair, and of course, graduation. In Austin, Griffin School will be holding graduation at the Blue Starlite Drive-In, allowing seniors to decorate their cars and drive by to receive diplomas—with the full ceremony playing over car speakers! That’s some serious innovative thinking.

• Social-Emotional Learning and the Healing Classroom: The International Rescue Committee emphasizes the importance of creating a “healing classroom” that provides for the social and emotional needs of kids in emergencies. In keeping with the approach of many alternative schools, our schools-at-home should be supportive, comfortable environments where kids feel safe enough to follow their natural inclination to learn. Often, that means de-emphasizing academic expectations and emphasizing anything that promotes mental and emotional health.
  
  As Doucet and his colleagues put it, school can be a place where kids “are empowered to lead their authentic lives.” Distance from friends and beloved teachers creates anxiety and stress that needs to be acknowledged. Like most of the schools we’ve heard from at Alt Ed Austin, Roving Learners is committed to providing an outlet for anxiety. They bring kids together in restorative circles twice a day and work one-on-one with students to relieve the stresses inherent in this new situation.
  
  We’ll talk more about Austin’s alternative school community and its approaches to social-emotional learning in the next article in this series.

• Instead of “Getting Back to Normal,” Getting Better: Educators and policymakers across the world are viewing the current moment as an opportunity to make schools better when kids return and to be better prepared for the next crisis. Some of the ways folks are rethinking the future of education to serve all students’ needs include things that we can work on right now with our kids at home:

• Finding better avenues for peer-to-peer connections for both kids and educators. Most students today are experts at staying in contact via social media of all kinds, but transitioning the tools they use regularly for fun into tools that can deepen and enhance learning is a challenge for educators. One piece of advice from education expert Erika E. Smith that applies to both educators and parents is to allow students to build connections on their own. They may want to use online forums or just exchange contact information without involving adults, and that will often allow for more comfortable sharing of ideas and information. Educators and parents have the same need to share ideas and help each other. Nishi Andra shared a touching story with me about teachers in other countries creating video lessons in the Rohingya language to help and support teachers in refugee camps. 

• Bending and breaking old rules that clearly don’t work or don’t serve kids’ needs. Some schools are saying it’s okay for academic lessons and specific content expectations to lapse right now and planning to develop summer school courses for catching up later. Many states, including Texas, are canceling standardized tests, and colleges are waiving admissions requirements for SAT and ACT scores—and using the moment to reconsider whether they will be needed in the future.

• Building stronger, deeper relationships between families and schools. In a national survey last year, only half of parents reported communicating with their child’s teacher outside of formal parent-teacher conferences and less than 75 percent were helping kids with homework. Those statistics may change as a result of the changes happening in almost every family right now.

• Making sure that free, high-quality technology and Internet connectivity is available to everyone, or if that’s not possible, investing in alternatives. Technology is a pivotal aspect of almost every discussion of the learning that’s taking place at home right now. At the same time, we know that many students don’t have access to the hardware they need or reliable Internet connections. Providing those essentials is a challenge for public policy in the coming years. At the moment, though, a lot of communities are finding that some older, tried-and-true technologies, including public radio and TV, can bring content to almost every student. 

In an op-ed about the impact of the Korean conflict of the 1950s on education in South Korea, Woody Paik emphasized crises as opportunities for growth and improvement, and schools as tools for recovery. The world can become a classroom and a laboratory for kids, parents, schools, and communities to experiment and explore new paths for learning. In the next three articles in this series, we’ll see how more than 30 of Austin’s alternative schools are doing just that.

To Learn More:

Armand Doucet, et al., “Thinking About Pedagogy in an Unfolding Pandemic,” March 19, 2020

Anya Kamenetz, “What Do Students Need to Recover When School Closes for Months?" NPR Morning Edition, April 1, 2020 

Woody Paik, “What the U.S. Can Learn About Education during Crisis from South Korea’s Wartime Example,” Hechinger Report, April 9, 2020

Reishan Richards and Stephen J. Valentine, “How to Keep School Rhythm and Routines for Young Children at Home,” EdSurge, March 17, 2020

Valerie Strauss, “If Online Learning Isn’t Working for Your Kids, Try Public Television,” Washington Post, April 14, 2020

Jamie Weiss-Yagoda, “Education Tips for Parents During the Coronavirus Crisis,” RESCUE April 3, 2020

Rebecca Winthrop, “COVID-19 and School Closures: What can countries learn from past emergencies?” Brookings Institution, March 31, 2020

Rebecca Winthrop, “COVID-19 is a Health Crisis. So Why is Health Education Missing from Schoolwork?” EdSurge April 3, 2020

Websites:

PBS Learning Resources

Learning Keeps Going 

Videos:

“How Learning Changes When School Happens at Home and Online,” PBS News Hour, March 31, 2020.

“‘You’re Not Alone’: How Teenagers Are Dealing with Social Distancing,” PBS News Hour, April 15, 2020.

“Teaching Special Education Online During COVID-19,” eLuma Online Therapy, March 19, 2020.

“Sesame and the IRC join forces to help Syrian refugee children,” CBS 60 Minutes, November 17, 2019.

by Shelley Sperry | Sperry Editorial

Announcing the Alt Ed Job Board

Almost as soon as this website went live, back in 2011, I started receiving messages from educators looking for jobs in the kinds of schools and educational programs that were featured here. Many of these inquiries came from teachers or administrators working in traditional school systems who were nearing the burnout stage and looking for a workplace where they could re-engage their creative talents, reignite their love of the learning process, and feel better supported both professionally and personally. Others were people who had attended or worked in alternative education in other regions and were interested in moving to Austin specifically to be part of a larger ecosystem of like-minded educators.

I tried my best to connect these job seekers with members of Alt Ed Austin’s network of schools and other educational programs that might have openings, but this tended to be a hit-or-miss proposition. It was time consuming, too.

Soon I also began to get requests from schools to post job openings somehow on the website. But I didn’t really have a good place or mechanism for doing so, and I wasn’t sure it fit into Alt Ed Austin’s primary mission of serving families looking for educational options. Still, I kept informally passing along information about job openings to prospective job candidates, and vice versa.

Then I received a desperate plea from a parent whose child’s beloved teacher was moving across the country for family reasons. She wrote, “We love the school. We love the teacher who is leaving. Our child and his classmates have been thriving here. But our school director and community are having a heck of a hard time finding someone who could even come close to filling her shoes. Can you help?” This parent’s message convinced me that helping fill open positions in alternative education falls squarely within Alt Ed Austin’s mission. Of course families want to know that open spots will be filled in a timely manner by great educators who are the best fits for their learning communities.

Thus was born the Alt Ed Job Board. I’m proud and excited to say that it’s been in its pilot stage for a couple of months now and is officially here to stay. Please pass the word (and link!) to anyone you know who is looking for fulfilling work in education or who has a position to fill in a learner-centered school, enrichment program, summer camp, or other education-focused organization. And to those in the midst of a search: I hope you find the perfect match.

Teri