"What we are learning Wednesday," Part VI: Choice and Space

Teachers and staff at Match Charter Public School have been unstoppable in their move to remote learning during the current global pandemic. With a two-day turnaround, they converted their courses to be done remotely, centering our students’ needs. Similarly, during the recent visible episodes of police brutality and oppression, and violence against Black people in our country, staff have prioritized the well-being and needs of our students and families. Countless staff have created space for processing and have committed to or recommitted to doing the anti-racist work needed to truly give our students, especially our Black students, what they need and deserve. Thank you for the creativity, dedication, openness to change, and care you have demonstrated during this time.

I want to celebrate and highlight many of the great practices of Match educators to respond to the dual crises of COVID-19 and systemic racism. At the same time, I want to call on myself as a white woman to be more vocal, more thoughtful, more loving, more uncomfortable, more forceful, and more consistent in ensuring our teaching practices are anti-racist. I must be a better leader in responding to both the individual racism and structural racism in our community and school. I must make it clear that I see anti-racist education as deeply connected to the equity work that is at the heart of schooling, both remotely and in person. I see in our staff’s current creativity and community orientation a call for me to commit to centering our students needs and better supporting anti-bias and anti-racist teaching and learning. 

Here are two particular current teaching practices that stand out to me as helping us respond to this moment in which we must collectively lead:

Offering voice and choice - I have seen tremendous strides both this year and during this remote period in offering students assignments and class structures that provide more opportunity for voice and choice. Time to talk, space to hone and express opinions, the chance to choose format or topics, as well as more control over content and assignments is a perfect fit for remote learning as it invites students into learning more meaningfully. I also see it as anti-racist because it centers the voices of our students and gives up space, power, and control to students. Here are some recent examples that inspire me:

• Assigning work connected to real life, including this geometry example or this science one, that make content relevant.

• Teachers offering options to submit answers orally, via voice memo, typed, in conversations, or handwritten formats.

• Students having more topic or content control within assignments, like this G6 final assignment, so they can direct their focus for study.

• Teachers creating choice boards, like this G9 Composition one that gives students more autonomy over their work.

• Teachers assigning tasks with multiple formats to pick from, like this mental health assignment with different types of work options.

• Teachers inviting students to submit error analysis via TikTok (sample of G6 student work) to bring work to contexts where students already feel mastery.

Creating space to process - Both during the pandemic and the recent protests responding to violence against Black people around the country, I have seen numerous educators give space and time to the voices, feelings, thoughts, and needs of our students and their colleagues. Here are some recent examples that give me hope:

• Teachers and leaders cancelling other meetings and work to be in conversation with their teams and students to process, mourn, take action against, support, and respond to the racist violence and coronavirus experiences, to hear students out on their thoughts and feelings, to take direction from our kids about how much they want to pause or carry on with school work.

• Teams mobilizing to meet students’ need to take action and hear affirmations, including MCD’s art project, G1’s student and family conversations, G5’s Black Lives Matter virtual rally and processing space, MHS community day of action, and G8’s affirming Instagram messages, G6’s processing conversations.

• Campuses creating space for staff to process together and in race-based affinity groups to ensure that we are ready to show up for students and each other, have the moments of comfort or discomfort that will help us move forward.

• Siri sharing the work of our former student, David Santana, as he writes about racism and its ongoing impacts to amplify the voices of the students we serve.

I know for every example here there are ten times as many, small and large, that I missed. Thank you for these actions now and every day. I hope we can build on these successes with choice in assignments to invite students in and give them a chance to hone and amplify their own voices. I hope we continue to create intentional processing spaces about the pandemic, racism, and other events that impact students’ lives. I look forward to hearing from you about other anti-bias and anti-racists teaching and learning practices you believe we need to promote, share, or celebrate moving forward because I know it can't be the status quo.

Emily Stainer, Chief Academic Officer

"What we are learning Wednesday," Part V: Shifting Pacing

Moving to a remote format was a big adjustment for everyone in our community at Match Charter Public School. One of the key supports our school provides is a structured, safe learning environment with a predictable schedule and supportive adults. It can be easy to underestimate the tremendous value that the physical building and our structured culture with caring adults provide to students.

Absent our building, our routines, and our time together as a community, Match, like many other schools, has radically altered plans for the end of this year. We paused some units to allow us to launch remote learning. In other classes we cut final units or adjusted which books we would cover this year versus next year. Many courses also changed the pace of lessons to allow for a flexible and reduced schedule for staff and students.

Overall we will teach significantly fewer topics and do fewer tasks than in previous years. This was not an easy decision as we believe all our content is essential, but we know it was the right thing to do for this moment in time and for student achievement. This change has asked us to prioritize content in a very concrete way as we decide on essential assignments and change our pacing. We thank our amazing team for how quickly they worked together to make this possible.

Most schools and teachers prefer to plan far in advance; "I'm a planner" is something I hear every day from staff. We often hesitate to cut units, content, or assignments because of a fear of losing coverage or dropping rigor. This situation has asked us to take a hard look at those worries and adjust plans quickly on the fly.

Time will tell the true impact of these changes on learning, for both students and teachers. We honestly don’t know yet which of our changes and cuts were effective. In the end though, it is likely that we will learn some of the content we once considered essential is truly optional. Other things we will learn are essential and will need to be scaffolded or taught when needed in later courses and grades.

I personally hope some of the cuts we have made are here to stay as fewer units and topics at more depth would give both students and teachers more space to debate, to write and revise, to consider, to think deeply, and to feel less pressure to rush through meaty topics. I hope one important lesson we learn is that fewer things done at more depth over more time allows students' intellectual curiosity to bloom and improves the quality of their work. And maybe we will consider skipping some topics in the future.

Emily Stainer, Chief Academic Officer

"What we are learning Wednesday," Part IV: Going Asynchronous

While there have been many aspects of this remote learning plan that have been hard, our decision at Match Charter Public School to go asynchronous has been a highlight. We chose not to host a day full of live class times for remote learning. Instead, we are assigning work that can be done at a student’s own pace (check out this K2 read aloud and this G5 sample) with support.

We are supporting that work with recorded teacher videos, support documents, accommodations (see this great G6 family letter), office hours, hangouts, subject-specific supports (see this G8 support or this CompSci one), and check-in calls and texts. This allows students to work around limited space or technology at home, child care or home responsibilities, and adjust their day to their home needs. It provides the same flexibility for our staff, many of whom also are caring for their children or have added family responsibilities. We also have learned to think of assignments across a week instead of day by day (see this G11 example or this for K1 or this accommodated G5 example).

Here is our staff using video to teach and communicate asynchronously:

While imperfect and a work in progress, the feedback to date from students and families is overwhelmingly positive on this flexible approach. Students who are working as increasingly important contributors in their households have praised the chance to complete schoolwork flexibly. We even have some students shining more under this model than they previously have in their classrooms. Similarly, families unable to support student work during the week or day, can use resources during off-hours to help their students and stay informed. There are certainly some downsides, but all in all this approach has created many wins.

Decoupling learning, even remote learning, from a day and time schedule has felt like a major shift in the way we work and as such, has required us to think outside the box. It is not our usual way of working and makes us different from other schools right now. While that can feel weird, I know the added flexibility is much appreciated by many students and staff.

Given the positive feedback from the teenagers who like to sleep late, the middle schoolers who prefer to do their math before their science, teachers who like seeing kids in smaller groups, students who crave autonomy, or even the busy mom navigating work and child care, it is imperative we strongly consider if there are aspects of this flexibility that might make sense long-term. Do we record more instruction for students to access independently? Would weekly tasks work better? Are there more chances for flexibility for students or staff around time? A traditional brick and mortar school like ours will never go fully asynchronous, and there are drawbacks to this approach, but it is worth exploring what is working about this approach to replicate during school.

Emily Stainer, Chief Academic Officer

"What we are learning" Series Guest Post

The pandemic and its impact on caretakers

As the old adage goes, it takes a village to raise a child.  I am the mother to three tiny humans, and never have I felt the weight of this sentiment as much as I am during this pandemic.  I am fortunate to live near my family and friends, and have come to rely on them heavily as my children have grown over the years.  Being a full-time working mother allows me to set a beautiful example for my children AND is really, really hard.  During this quarantine life, I haven't been able to lean on my neighbor to watch the kids while I run to the store; or on my parents to swing by and bring Saturday morning snacks and laughter; or on time outside of my home to decompress with my friends.  It has been taxing, to say the least, to try and balance being a teacher to my students and my children, to care for my team and my family, to manage my work and my kids' work.  In some ways, I feel like I'm failing at all of it.  

But the silver lining - as there always is a silver lining - is the lessons learned.  The lessons so many of you have shared with your teammates, with our families, with our students.  Things like slowing down to appreciate what really matters.  Noticing how important it is to care for ourselves because you can't pour from an empty cup.  Prioritizing social-emotional well-being for our students before diving into content to ensure the stage is set for learning.  And what's even more important is the opportunities to connect and bond over these lessons with our families.  I can't tell you how many IEP meetings I've been in lately where parents have shared an exasperated "we're hanging there" when asked how things are going, and I've been able to say "I'm a mom too -- I get it" and hear a sign of relief and release.  Our community is cemented as the Match Network, and that is what brought all of us together in the beginning, but there are other ways that we are connected as well, one powerful one being motherhood.  

Being without my village has been tough, as I'm sure it has been for so many of our teachers, families, single parents, and other caretakers.  What gives me hope is these brief moments of connection, of other mothers telling me "you're doing great" and "it'll be okay."  Of my team reminding me that I'm a true superhero, somehow surviving when I feel like I'm drowning.  I am endlessly thankful for the community that Match has become to me, and I'm sure our families would share that sentiment.  

While I may not have my usual village by my side right now, I feel hopeful and grateful that for our families, for right now, we may be all the village that they need.

Samantha Bracy, Special Education Director at Match Community Day

"What we are learning Wednesday," Part III: Using Student and Family Feedback

Like many of our charter public school peers, our school deeply values and relies heavily on feedback from our school community. At Match Charter Public School in Boston, we typically survey students as we see the deep link between student experiences, staff professional development, and student achievement. We also frequently gather feedback from families via outreach phone calls, meetings, and surveys. This information and input is invaluable during the best of times, but as we’ve been navigating schooling during the COVID-19 crisis, it has become even more clear that student and family input has to be at the center of all that we do, now and moving forward. Without the work that our teachers and administrators have done to engage with our students and families during this public health emergency, we would not have been able to continue to deliver inclusive and high-quality learning for all our kids. Our families and students have been, and continue to be, true partners in making all that we do possible.  

At Match, we’ve found ourselves constantly adapting what we do and how we do it more than ever. In the last few weeks, we’ve adjusted our work volume based on student input; we’ve hosted Google Hangouts with families to hear concerns and feedback; we’ve been making extra calls to parents to discuss their child’s work; and, we’ve been in constant email and text communication with our families. At our elementary school, we’ve built a new website for families to access student work. At our middle school, we have used surveys to mail home reading books. At our high school, our team has been providing a weekly update with space for feedback from parents and our principals have also been sharing parent quotes in their weekly emails to help drive and shape our work. Match students have been figuring out what they need and advocating for themselves and their peers. Members of our operations teams have been working tirelessly to ensure every student has the technology and the books they need, as well as regularly checking in with families to figure out additional ways that the school can support. Our Mental Health team members have been working with families individually and checking in on their well being. Our Special Education teams have been holding virtual IEP (Individualized Education Plan) meetings. Our Match staff have been making every effort to honor the voices of our families and students and listen and respond to their concerns and ideas.

While students and their families have always been at the heart of our work, being remote has reminded us that they can and should give input and advice on our plans all the time, and at the very least underscored that it can and needs to happen more frequently than the 3 to 5 times a year we’ve typically done so. During this crisis we’ve asked our students and families more questions, and they’ve helped us make better plans.

When we return to school, my hope is that we don’t go back to “business as usual,” but that instead we improve our practice based on what we’ve learned during these unprecedented times. Our partnership with students and families can be much deeper than we ever thought possible, and once we are back in a physical building together, I hope that we incorporate ways to stay digitally connected on an ongoing basis. COVID-19 has most definitely been a masterclass in family and student partnerships, and that is a lesson that our Match school community will carry forward for years to come. 

The image below is a compilation of Match staff members engaging in virtual student and family outreach.

Emily Stainer, Chief Academic Officer