Now that we've had the first "official" day... You're Carranza for a week. How would you realistically improve the system?
Assume modest amounts of additional teachers are available, but not the tens of thousands that would be necessary for every hybrid cohort to have its own teacher, because I don't think there ARE that many excess teachers in the tri-state area.
Me:
Buddy each hybrid cohort with a college-age "intern", preferably an education major from an NYC college or an NYC resident student whose college is remote. Pay them minimum wage (plus college credit?) to shadow the cohort in the classroom for half the day, and then spend the other half the day in a rec center, library, park, wherever, playing games and supervising them doing assignments from the teacher. Cohorts switch off at lunch time so each has half a day with their certified teacher, plus half a day with guidance doing remote work. All day with the same pod of kids.
Failing that, presuming money is too tight--just scrap the stupid daily pacing rule. If my 3rd grader is scheduled to start fractions, and his first in-person day for the week is Wednesday, then that's the day his cohort should start on fractions. Don't make him spend two days trying to learn them independently so he's already frustrated before his teacher actually gets to explain it to him.
Less Zoom, more videos, books and workseets for pick up or delivered to home. No P.E., Art or other specials on in-person days.
And just use Khan to fill in. It works.
I think we need to break down what we are trying to accomplish in each setting. Basically, we should not be trying to teach a regular day when in person, when on live zoom, etc. On in person days we should be trying to focus on those tasks which are best suited for in person, such as teamwork and relationship building, discussions. On remote days, kids should be doing independent work. Zoom should be for small groups, for shorter periods, and should be used to support independent work.
ITA with this, which is why the pacing rule is so dumb. By mandating all cohorts do the same thing every day, they're throwing away the ability to actually use in-person days for the things that can't be done independently/remotely.
combine remote kids from different schools in Same Online classes that follow the same curriculum. combine Hybrid students in similar classes in their neighborhood schools. basically teach Universal citywide curriculum in neighborhood schools to eliminate commute both for students and for the teachers.
The issue with that it is assumes we will be hybrid for a full year. Also, there are reasons that people chose to be at certain schools, despite the commute. My DC, for example, attends a special dual language program. Looking at public schools, I see that a lot of the difficulty they face is precisely the desire to make everything uniform. However, the challenges that each school faces is unique. It's this push for "one size" which is hampering each school's ability to respond to the needs of their students.