Lori Walsh: Teachers, parents and students alike have questions and concerns going into the new school year. What are children talking about with the new school year just days in the offing? We're going to spend time talking about this all week on In The Moment.
Today, we welcome Katie Roth. She teaches in the Sturgis School District and she'll have a class of second graders coming this year. Katie, welcome. Thanks for being here.
Katie Roth: Hi, thanks for having me.
Lori Walsh: Maybe I should call you Miss Roth in case your students are listening because they're not going to know who I'm talking to otherwise.
Katie Roth: No, that's fine, whatever you want to call me.
Lori Walsh: All right. Miss Roth. Second graders coming in, when do you get started? When do you see your students in the classroom for the first time?
Katie Roth: September 8th. So our start date has been pushed back two weeks due to the rally to kind of see how that all plays out.
Lori Walsh: All right. Tell me a little bit about some of the changes. What's different this year from last year? And then let's talk about what's the same.
Katie Roth: So some of the changes are we're going to try to space students out as much as possible. So like in my classroom, kind of the guideline is three feet apart for the younger kiddos. And so in my classroom, I have little trapezoid tables that I normally use to seat kids in groups of like six, but at these tables, you can have no more than two if they're going to be three feet apart. So our buildings and grounds have been working to build plexiglass barriers for me. So that's one thing that'll be different.
In the hallway, we're going to be walking three feet apart. So my little line of seven and eight year olds is going to be about 70 feet long. And then some other changes are we have to split up our cafeteria. So now we're going to use our cafeteria and our gym for lunch. So our PE will have to be outside when it's nice, and then when the weather is not nice enough to be outside, they'll have to do it in our classroom.
And other changes kind of depend on what phase our school board decides to start in. We had a school board meeting last night deciding which phase we need to start in and they weren't able to come to an agreement on that quite yet. So they're going to have another meeting I believe on August 31st to decide which phase we're going to start in and then we'll know for sure some more changes.
Lori Walsh: What are some of the things that are staying the same? For kids and parents who are excited about going back to school, not everything is different. Some things never changed. Talk about that for a minute, if you would.
Katie Roth: So some things that are staying the same is, like for me, my goal in teaching is the same. My goal is that all the kids are going to leave my classroom every day knowing that I love them, that I care about them. And I can confidently say that's the same for all teachers at Sturgis Elementary. That will never change. Our main goal of teaching will never change.
Other things that aren't changing, they will still have their specialist classes. So they'll still get to go to music, computers, PE, all of that will stay the same. They still get to have lunch with their friends. They still get to go to recess. So all of those will stay the same.
Lori Walsh: Do you get the high fives and the hugs from the teacher that most kids look forward to or is that changed?
Katie Roth: That is going to be the hardest part for me. I am a hugger. I think some of these kids, the biggest thing that they need after six months away from school is a hug. So I haven't decided yet if I'm going to hug or do a fist bump. I think I'm going to have a hard time not hugging. I just think it's my nature to give them a squeeze, so I guess I'm unsure about that.
Lori Walsh: I have nieces and nephews and that's one of the things, their little eyes light up and they come running at you and you sit there and you pause for a moment and think what are the consequences of letting them hug you? What are the consequences of telling them they can't? And it's not an easy thing for people who are teachers especially, but also aunts and uncles and grandparents, all kinds of adults who care about kids.
Katie Roth: Absolutely.
Lori Walsh: What are you hearing from parents about some of their apprehensions and some of their excitement and some of their concerns? What sort of questions? Tell me just in general what you're hearing from parents.
Katie Roth: Well, I think that a lot of parents are excited to get their kids back to school for the social aspect, they want to see their friends and it's just good for children to interact with other adults. So I think that parents are excited for that.
The biggest divide with parents right now is some parents say, "Well, if you don't require masks, I'm going to choose to keep my children home." On the flip side, other parents might say, "If you do require masks, I'm going to choose to keep my child at home." So those are kind of the main things that I've heard from parents and other parents wondering, "Well, are there repercussions if students don't wear a mask when they're required?" Just kind of that sort of thing.
Lori Walsh: Talk a little bit about just this idea of teaching students a new skill. Because much has been made about whether or not kids can learn how to wear a mask or they can learn to walk at a further distance. As a parent who has not worked full time in a classroom, although I have worked in a school, it seems like there are all kinds of new things that you teach a classroom, from how to use the library, to how to line up for a drink of water.
Katie Roth: For sure.
Lori Walsh: How do you kind of process that idea of we're going to have to teach them some new skills, but we also understand their developmental abilities?
Katie Roth: I, and I don't know if I'm in the majority or minority here, I am fully confident that I can teach my kids how to properly wear a mask. And if I model it, they respect me and they will learn it. Some kids come to school not knowing how to hold a pencil. That's what teachers are for. We show them these things and we model these things.
So I honestly think that I would have no problem showing kids how to properly wear a mask. It's not going to happen in the first week, it's not going to happen in the first two weeks, but when they know this is what we do to protect each other, I think that they'll be on board. They're so good about that. I think a lot of people are underestimating what the kids can do as far as masks.
Lori Walsh: Yeah. We're going to bring a parent into the conversation now, Lorne Lawrence. He's also a teacher in the Rapid City School District, but he's the father of two children who attend school in the Sturgis School District. And Laurent, welcome. Thanks for being here.
Lorne Lawrence: Well thanks for having me.
Lori Walsh: So we're talking about back to school in Sturgis, and I'm wondering some of the things that your kids are excited about about going into the classroom, and then some of their concerns. What are you hearing at home?
Lorne Lawrence: Well, the biggest thing right now is they're both going into different schools. My daughter's going from fourth to fifth grade, and fifth grade is now a part of the middle school, and my son's going from eighth to ninth grade, so he's going to the high school. So they're both pretty excited about just the change of buildings, and I think they want to get back and see their friends. I mean, in that sense, that they're really excited for the school year, just to what they think you'll get back into something more normal.
But I think that they haven't really thought about all the restrictions, the face masks and stuff, and we've been doing our best to prepare them for that. If they go out in public with us, they're wearing their face masks. We're just reminding them of the safety protocol. So we've been trying to model that, teach that to them before the school year starts, and hopefully it translates into the school year. And just my son, my son's not the biggest fan of school, so he has his reservations, but he would have had those reservations anytime, I think.
Lori Walsh: It adds another layer to what school represents.
Lorne Lawrence: It does. It does add.
Lori Walsh: Yeah. If you're not all into it and excited, it adds another layer, and then this. I want to talk to both of you about the summer slide, and in this case, potentially the pandemic slide. And I'll start with you Miss Roth, how are planning to... Every kid is going to come back every summer at a different level. Are you anticipating some kind of catching up from what maybe they missed in first grade when they went home and started learning remotely?
Katie Roth: Yeah, absolutely. So before our school year even ended this last year, our principal had us communicate with the grade level below us on what skills and what standards were taught from a distance. So say the first graders coming into second grade next year, we're going to need to work with time and money because that was what was taught from a distance last year. So we have 15 minutes of our day allotted to teaching skills that might've been missed due to distance learning. So that's kind of how we [crosstalk 00:09:49]
Lori Walsh: Yeah. Time and money, me too.
Katie Roth: For sure. Lifelong skill. Yes. And then, I do believe, I haven't heard anything on this for a few weeks now, but I know at one point we were planning on doing some afterschool tutoring for some of the kiddos that need some extra intervention. And we have titled teachers as well that pull kids and work on some gaps that they have. So I think at our school, we are fully prepared to make up for the last time that we had.
Lori Walsh: Lorne, how about with your kids or even your students in the Rapid City School District? How are you preparing your kids to go back in when they might have lost certain parts of the school year last year? Where do you begin?
Lorne Lawrence: Well, we've been addressing that a little bit at a time. We looked at some of the things that they were doing at the end of the year. We're just kind of re-familiarizing them with that in hopes that it sticks. I guess we'll see what the school decides what skills that they need to work on again and we can work with them at that point. I don't want to overwhelm them with, "Well, here's everything you did last year. We need to go over all this to make sure you didn't forget it." I mean, we don't want to overwhelm them that way. So whatever the school lets us know that they think they need to strengthen, we will do it. I don't know, I think our kids would mostly be willing to do that.
As the teacher, last year, it didn't go very well. I mean, that fourth quarter of the school year was really just kind of lost. As an algebra II teacher, most of my students probably weren't going to take another math class anyway. So I didn't leave them fully prepared, but at the same time, they don't need more skills for the next class. I mean, that was kind of a lucky thing on my part. I'm teaching a basic skills class for students entering high school this year, something new in the district in Rapid City, and I'm really looking forward to doing that.
So, I mean, hopefully that class is built, right, I mean, for what we're doing here. I mean, I'm hoping that I can look at what skills we have deficits in and work with that stuff, in addition to just getting them ready to step into an algebra I class when they're ready.
Lori Walsh: Yeah. And we need to let you go and get back to the work ahead, but Laurent, I did want to give you just a minute to briefly say, you know, you've already contracted, you tested positive for COVID-19. You've had this disease and recovered. How does that change the perspective that you have living your life as a father and as a teacher? What do you know that maybe some of the rest of us haven't experienced yet?
Lorne Lawrence: Well, that was quite an experience. I'm diabetic, and it was in June. I had just come back from a fishing trip with a bunch of friends. I mean, we didn't go crazy, but I mean, there were a bunch of us there. And we maintained distance. We didn't go overboard. It's a fishing trip too, you're on a boat with some people. But I don't think I actually contracted it from that because in the week after we returned, I went camping with my family. We were in a tent together and none of them contracted it. It was a couple of days after that actually that I wasn't feeling good. I thought I was having some diabetes problems. And when it wasn't my sugar, I grabbed a thermometer and checked it, and I had an elevated fever. The next day I had a fever.
And so Monday I went in and got tested, and surprisingly got the results back really quickly. But yeah, I was diagnosed in mid-June with COVID-19 and I isolated myself. I kept myself away from everybody else. My wife and the kids were in their own place. They stayed away too and I didn't spread it to them. I don't think I spread it to anybody. We still don't know where I contracted it. I don't think it was from that trip because I just don't think it happened there, too many other factors involved.
I had a fever, headache, a little respiratory issue, but really, it was minor. I mean, I've had the flu before and I think it was just a regular flu that's been worse than what I encountered here. And then now I wanted to. I've got it. I've had it. But now, the more I read about things and antibodies fading, I don't know if you I'm going to remain immune to it. I could still catch it again. At the same time, I don't want to be someone who's going to spread it on either. I don't want to be able to get it and spread it to people. That's the last thing I want to do, especially the teacher.
So if everybody had a minor version of it like I did, it wouldn't be that bad, but I mean, I was worried about, as a diabetic and borderline high blood pressure, that I'd have respiratory issues, and I didn't, but it was such a-
Lori Walsh: Yeah. We're all learning with this as we go along. Even through personal experience, there's things that we don't know. Well, we're very glad that you're okay.
Lorne Lawrence: Thank you.
Lori Walsh: And hopefully that you continue to be in your family still stays well, and your colleagues and your students. Laurent Lawrence is at teacher at Rapid City School District. He's also the father of two children who are going back to school in the Sturgis School District. Laurent, thank you so much for being here with us. We appreciate your time.
Lorne Lawrence: Thank you very much.
Lori Walsh: We've also been talking with Katie Roth who teaches in the Sturgis School District. She'll have a class of second graders, some of whom are waiting for a hug from Miss Roth. Thanks, Katie for being here, we appreciate you as well. Be safe.
Katie Roth: Thank you for having me.