5.20.20 COVID-19 Briefing Live Stream Transcript

The County of Santa Clara
May 20, 2020
Live Stream - Live with the County of Santa Clara
10am PT

Good morning my name is Lynn Madden. I'm a public communication specialist for the County of Santa Clara and joining me today are Mary Ann Dewan superintendent of County Schools and Allison Street intervention specialist for the San Jose Unified School District.

We're taking off our mask today so that you and our American sign language interpreters can better understand the conversation but we'll be putting those right back on after this session. And we wanted you to know that we and the Emergency Operations Center at the county wear these face coverings all day long and we practice social distancing. And we appreciate the community also wearing facial coverings when they're out doing essential business to protect the public. So thank you for that.

We wanted to start out today by giving you a quick update on our COVID-19 situation. Currently as of last night there were two thousand four hundred and ninety two total cases of COVID. And there were 138 deaths one new death and our deepest sympathies go out to the families who have lost loved ones to this virus.

As a parent I am excited about today's topic which is distance learning. I have an eighth grader at home and a high school junior and not being able to see their friends and being separated from their teachers.  We have made huge strides in the technology to make this happen but there's just no substitute for actually being at school getting help from teachers getting support from peers. So and you know our household it's very kind of chaotic at some times. You know making room and and having quiet spaces for our zoom meetings for our work meetings getting assignments and deadlines met. So to talk about this in more again this is Mary Ann Dewan  County superintendent of schools and Allison Stroot who's an intervention specialist with the San Jose Unified School District and Alison last year was named Teacher of the Year by her district, so congratulations on that and thank you for being here.

Thank you for having us we wanted to start out by talking about possible summer school. A lot of parents may be concerned about the slide that their students may be. And to or may be experiencing having been out of school for so long and may need the summer to catch up on learning or to make up for units. So given the current order of shelter in place what might summer school look like Mary Ann. like I think that the current order certainly places some restrictions on our ability to offer what you might consider  traditional summer learning opportunities. So I would envision that during this summer there'll be some opportunities for continued distance learning for summer enrichment or tutoring and other activities that may be in a blended learning or online orvirtual setting.

There's also just to keep in mind that learning doesn't stop when summer starts and so there's lots of non-traditional ways that families can continue learning through this summer. With letter writing to family members, doing some reading, and book reports. Creating opportunities within the home and within the community for students to continue to learn explore be creative and to extend their learning.

You know families lead busy lives and there's many distractions at home while students are learning distance learning. I know at our house classes are starting later so kids are waking up later. Schedules are kind of out of whack. Alison do you have suggestions for parents about how to keep kids connected and engaged and motivated.

Sure, you know during a normal school week students have a lot of structure students are used to a schedule and they're used to an environment where teachers are carefully removing distractions and now that we are at home we have you know. Not this. We don't have the schedule anymore there's a whole new set of distractions so I think it's really useful to come up with a schedule for your students or with your students that provides them the structure that they need, with brakes. You know look at what might be distracting your child and trying to set up an environment that removes those distractions as much as possible. I know for my own two children who are in seventh and fifth the computer itself is a huge distraction. So, you know we set up academic times and break times and some of the break times are screen free break times but we have to explain to them. You know why this is a non screen time and then we also give them breaks with screen time because that's how they stay connected to their friends. So that is really helpful for keeping the kids on task keeping them motivated. Also you know finding some alternative things for them to do besides the video games and the screens like art, reading, board games are really helpful in my family. And setting again setting up some some structured times for them to have those breaks. You know right now the the computer is really the way they stay connected to their friends. So doing homework with friends or doing Girl Scout meetings or any kind of little clubs is also a helpful way for them to stay connected to their peers during this time. And I know that future friends of mine have told me there's a steep learning curve and just learning the technology not only to teach students but to keep parents in the loop to plan for next year what that's going to look like.

Alison I know that you have a 5th and 7th grader at home that your husband is a 5th grade teacher at Saratoga School District and that you are teaching some of our most vulnerable students in the Almaden Elementary School so you shared with us can you show us some challenges that you have as a parent and also as a teacher. What you would like our community to know about the work you're doing to support distance learning.

Sure and as a teacher we well first of all we really we miss our students and we are really really concerned about them number one. Also, you know to an extent we're grieving our jobs you know we are used to this in-person face-to-face instruction and you know getting feedback from our students as we're teaching a lesson right. And making instructional decisions during that lesson based on what they're showing us. And with that removed it makes our job so challenging. So, I know there is a lot going on that teachers are doing that people don't see there's this huge invisible load with whole new ways of learning to reach our students. Whole new ways of organizing our information and organizing our communication. Following up on communication it takes a large chunk of the day that you know in the past we didn't spend time doing as much. But now we are really rallying and I I'm impressed with how quickly teachers were able to switch to the digital platforms and go way out of their comfort zone. We are continually learning every single day. We're just piling on the learning, learning how to access the curriculum. Much less how to teach it to the students. How to find ways to make the learning interesting for students. Because they need to be more self-motivated now. And how do you make sure they're doing well emotionally. Because we're very concerned about our students emotional well-being.

I know teachers are also at home dealing with the stresses of sheltering in place. A lot of teachers are single parents a lot of teachers spouses are essential workers. And their home with small children. I know teachers that have literally been changing a diaper while teaching their students in the synchronous way online. Teachers who've lost their second income stream due to the shelter in place and are dealing with the stresses of that. You know teachers have spent their own money to buy supplies since we can't go back to our schools to get them. Not because their principals asked them to, but because they feel compelled to do that. To make a learning experience for their students. So there's just a lot going on I think that the general public doesn't see that teachers are going through right now. But you know at the end of the day our students are number one and it's important to keep lines of communication open. So, always you know don't be afraid to reach out to your children's teachers. And you know going back to the Summer Slide if you are concerned about that. just like a non shelter-in-place year. We are always concerned about Summer Slide. And so we usually end the year with suggestions and resources for you for the summer. So reach out to your students teachers about what you might do over the summer to just continue the learning. And as a parent yeah I can identify it with everything you said. You know the rug was pulled out from under us so to speak in terms of schedules. So it's a delicate balance and I think what's been helpful is just checking in with my students more with my own two children more. Because they are independent learners right now mom and dad are working pretty much full-time. And it's just been it's been a big challenge yeah. I think it's really interesting to remind ourselves that. It is a very  stressful time and we all have to be very forgiving of each other and reduce the amount of stress that we might be putting on ourselves and the expectations that we might have in place.

I think there are some additional resources that families can reach out to get additional support in addition to the great suggestions that you had. And including reaching out to your teacher. Our County Office of Education has a warm line. So you might be familiar with the concept of hotline where you have a you know a hot issue and you want to make a call for help. A warm line is very similar we have a warm line that's available at four zero eight four five three six six five one. This warm line is available in multiple languages for parents and it gets you connected to someone who can help you parent-to-parent about schedules. Maybe challenging situations that you're experiencing in the home with your child. And just to get some positive supports and resources and access to information. We're also hosting Family Resource chats so family parents can get together as a group and have a facilitated conversation to support their distance learning work at home. And we know that this digital transformation has been really challenging and that there are some inequities that exist as a result of access to devices hot spots or infrastructure in different places throughout the county. So we're really excited about the potential partnership with the county to look at ways to get additional devices for some of our families throughout Santa Clara County who may not currently have access to the Internet to support distance learning. But also to support telehealth and other components of the way we're living during shelter-in-place. And lastly for those of you who might be interested in supporting ongoing distance learning and social-emotional learning supports for families we have COVID-19 education partnership with the Silicon Valley Community Foundation. And it's a great way for individuals to help out so that we can reach more districts more children and more families during this really challenging response time. So there are online resources at our website and more details will be provided at the end of the segment.

Just one real quick question before we wrap up Mary Ann. Maybe you could talk to us about graduation. It's that time of year and we have an 8th grader who is you know leaving a school that we've been with for 11 years so it's a it's we feel like this unnecessary milestone celebrating and commemorating of that moment not only for him but for us as a family. Can you talk about how either raduations can be safely held or how alternatives for celebrating our students?

Yes, thank you so much for that question. It is such an important time and rite of passage for so many children and families. And you know we certainly want to take moments to celebrate the safest way to celebrate. As virtually we are aware to that the county has permitted a car parade. That would be something where individuals stay in their cars so there's no congregating and no ability to get out in the in person. But certainly an opportunity for people to celebrate and to take a moment to recognize the graduates. We also think there are some great ways to do things, like putting out posters and signs in the yard creating messages that can be shared digitally as well as demonstrating some of the positivity and the successes that our young people have had through means of posters. And sometimes that's online but it does not always have to be online. It can be things that are done in the community.

Well thank you both for being here for sharing your insights with us on distance learning. And we just wanted to express our deepest gratitude to you both. And for all of the teachers out there and administrators who are making our educational system as safe and as efficient as it can be given the circumstances. We know that's a monumental task especially planning for next year which will be completely new to everybody. So, thank you so much for being here yeah and to our community. Thank you for everything you're doing to keep yourself safe sheltering in place. We know this is a very hard time for everybody being separated from our family from our friends from our co-workers. So we do appreciate everything you are doing to shelter in place where facial coverings and in of the multitude of other efforts that you're making to keep yourselves and others safe. So, thank you and take care.