El Paso students in classrooms will be learning on devices similar to virtual learning
EL PASO, Texas (KFOX14) — Many El Paso parents are in the decision making process on if they will send their kid back to the classroom.
With in-person instruction as an option starting on October 19 in the Ysleta Independent School District, teachers will be responsible for teaching those in and outside of the classroom.
"I think they’ve had some time to get comfortable with online instruction and now we have to merge that with the number of students in a classroom," Catherine Kennedy, the associate superintendent of middle schools for the Ysleta ISD, said. "The teachers are still going to deliver instruction to students face-to-face and remotely simultaneously."
Kennedy explained how teachers will balance this.
"There may be times where the teacher will be working with the remote kids while the students will be doing some asynchronous learning on their devices in the classroom," Kennedy said. "They will still have their laptop and depending what the lesson is about they may see the teacher on their device but they will see the teacher in the classroom as well."
This set-up is raising concerns for some parents.
"I would rather him do the same thing at home and be in a controlled setting where he’s not being exposed to anybody else," Iris Escalona, the mother of a five year old in the YISD, said. "I’ve seen his current teacher now and it’s a constant redirection and it’s a whole group of five-year-olds and although she does a great job online, I don’t know how stressful it would be for her to keep the class going and make sure everybody is logged on or answer any questions that they have and navigating through different apps but also be teaching the kids at home."
KFOX14 asked Kennedy if it's possible to dedicate a group of teachers specifically for online classes, adding another group for virtual learners.
"That would be the ideal situation and right now it’s hard to determine whether we can or cannot do that. We have to wait on the data. We do have schools that have large enough staff that that could be a possibility where we designate a teacher that will do only remote and a teacher that will do face-to-face but right now that’s hard to determine because we don’t know the numbers and we don’t know how many kids will be coming back and how many will be staying remote," Kennedy said.
As school returns, both students and teachers will be required to wear face masks while in the classroom and each student will be socially distanced, six feet apart from one another.
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