Health

President of Boston Teachers Union speaks on expectations as remote schooling begins Monday

BOSTON — Jessica Tang has been bombarded with questions this weekend from teachers and principals as they prepare to start a school year like no other Monday. Tang is the president of the Boston Teachers Union.

She said usually there’s a sense of excitement on the night before the first day, but this year is different during a pandemic.

“There’s just a lot of anxiety and stress, and everyone wants to do their best, so everyone’s working really hard,” Tang said. “Certainly, I think they’re looking for patience from parents and families and students because inevitably in a situation like this, there are going to be hiccups.”

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Boston Public Schools will begin the school year fully remote Monday with a plan to transition to hybrid learning in October. While students are only just starting the school year now, Boston teachers have spent the last few weeks preparing.

“They’ve been engaged in over 50 hours of professional development preparing not just their in-person classrooms, but also their virtual classrooms and figuring out the technology, the tools, reaching out to the students and trying to make sure all our students have technology,” Tang said. “Which at this point we’re seeing a lot of students still need that technology.”

Related: Parent of special needs children frustrated at lack of BPS communication as remote learning looms

Tang said the biggest challenge for teachers working virtually will be engagement.

“How do we best create a schedule that meets the needs of students, whether it be young students who really shouldn’t have that much screen time, and how do you both provide the education remotely, while not expecting students to sit in front of a screen for six and a half hours a day,” Tang posed.

It’ll take some creativity, she said, for teachers to do the best they can with the resources they have, but she knows it won’t be easy for both educators and families.

“We’ve had to put together a school year like no other in a few months, and normally we’re planning over a year in advance for the next school year,” Tang said. “So, it really was a herculean effort to just be ready for the start of school.”

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