A teacher who is the band director at an urban district in CT, emailed me and I got his permission to quote him about remote learning. He writes: "Obviously, teaching band is tough during the pandemic. But the overwhelming number of students who are enrolled in our Virtual ... 1/

... Academy is making it even harder. Most kids at home are connecting to my synchronous lessons, but the vast majority don't have access to an instrument at home. And I could talk at length about those kids who never turn on their cameras, so it's hard to say ... 2/

... if they're really following along or not.

But I think it's more valuable to focus on the fear that families are facing in this time. Most of my students are Latinx and Black. Several parents I have talked to know people who got sick in the spring, and some even lost ... 3/

... people they knew to COVID. We started the year with around 300 kids coming into the building every day for in person instruction. We are now down to about half that, after just one staff member testing positive and a few kids being exposed.

People are scared. /4

... I'm really worried about what's going to happen to my kiddos at school. They're already so far behind and this pandemic is making things even worse. Plus, I'm really struggling to find ways to motivate them to do the work and stay engaged. This is my 13th year .../5

... of urban teaching and I'm having to reinvent everything I do. Too many Americans are clueless about what urban students are facing, all the time, but especially now." /END