Thread by @NBCNews

‘Are you listening?’ The struggle to reach students you can’t see

For first-year teachers in Louisville, Ky., the challenges of remote learning go far beyond the screen.

Reporting by @BraceyHarris, published with @hechingerreport.

nbcnews.to/3eq5ZMh
(1/6) #NBCNewsThreads

@BraceyHarris @hechingerreport Generations of educators can remember the nerves that accompanied their first year in the classroom, but this school year, for newcomers who are launching their teaching careers from cramped apartments, the challenges are even more acute. (2/6)

@BraceyHarris @hechingerreport Part of the learning curve that teachers face in their first year is building relationships. But building trust with children in Louisville’s underserved communities, harmed by the vestiges of discrimination, poverty and trauma, takes work. (3/6)

@BraceyHarris @hechingerreport Most of Louis Redd’s students kept their cameras off during class. He spent hours with nothing but a PowerPoint and a grid of circles with students’ initials on the screen in front of him, trying to distinguish between students’ voices.

“I was talking to dots,” he said. (4/6)

@BraceyHarris @hechingerreport Students faced pandemic-related disruptions to family routines, as well as the uproar over the police killing of Breonna Taylor that sparked months of protests.

“I don’t know how I can tell my students they are safe and loved and wanted in society,” Amia Bridgeford said. (5/6)

@BraceyHarris @hechingerreport The middle school students Bridgeford teaches are particularly vulnerable – 70% of the school’s students are considered economically disadvantaged and are part of demographic groups that researchers worry will bear the fallout of disrupted learning during the pandemic. (6/6)