We Continued With Science
In early 2020, the large suburban school in New Jersey in which Ms. Xavier served as a K–5 science specialist closed its doors due to COVID. School leaders, like many others across the country, initially underestimated the severity of the situation. Therefore, Ms. Xavier and her colleagues were tasked with finding ways to teach online for two weeks with the belief that they would then return to the classroom.
We were told two weeks we’re going to stay home, just to keep everybody safe for two weeks. And so we were charged with creating opportunities for kids to do science at home with just basically reading and writing. . . . We sent everybody off with some really cool informational texts to read and some thinking questions, maybe looked at some data. And that was going to be their science for two weeks.
However, this online instructional arrangement persisted beyond two weeks as the state governor kept slowly extending the timeline for a return to school. With no end in sight, Ms. Xavier and her colleagues decided to shift their efforts to providing a more engaging, hands-on virtual science experience for their students.
We made a decision early on after [the extended school closure] that we wanted to try to mirror the best we could the hands-on approach that we’d take in school. But we knew we weren’t going to be able to get any materials to anybody, so that meant how do we help teachers? And we were not synchronous at the time. We were not allowed to teach via live video. There were some issues with things happening in homes and then being broadcast. And plus we were originally on Zoom, but it didn’t have the right filters that we needed for privacy and whatever. So we ended up trying to do hands-on, but not live teaching. So sending home assignments and/or teachers could make videos that kids could then watch but not live. So that’s what we did for four more weeks.
As COVID continued to spread, the school decided that instruction would remain online for the duration of the school year. Therefore, Ms. Xavier changed direction once again, putting in long hours to fully rewrite the FOSS4 science curriculum materials that her school had adopted.
My hat changed completely from a teaching role at that point to, “How do I help K–5 teachers have students still do science at home?” So that was really my focus for that spring. I sat myself down at my kitchen table, and I rewrote FOSS, and I basically rewrote the entire curriculum to try to have students be able to do it at home with materials that they could have at home. . . . I was a week ahead, that’s all I could do was go a week ahead. And I would sit for hours and recreate plans that parents could follow.
Ms. Xavier explained that her priority was to amend the existing curriculum in ways that were amenable to online teaching without disrupting students’ conceptual development. As a result of her efforts, teachers in her school had the support they needed to continue teaching science under challenging conditions.
I am very proud to say that we continued with science, because I know a lot of districts did not in elementary schools. And I worked my tail off to take the teacher’s manual and follow the sequence of learning. Because I know how carefully FOSS scaffolds conceptual development, so we didn’t want to skip any of that. . . . And we were really successful having kids still experience science. Did they learn deeply the way they do in class? No, and we certainly didn’t assess the same way. It was really just hoping that the kids had some experience so that when they met those concepts again in the following years it would not be brand new to them. Our goal was really, “We know how conceptual development works. Let’s at least have the kids touch these ideas and think about them, even if we can’t have them deeply engage with them the way we normally do.”
The following school year (2020–21) started online before students were eventually given a choice to return in person or remain online. This hybrid arrangement meant that Ms. Xavier and her colleagues were responsible for providing science instruction to both groups of students simultaneously, a task they found to be very difficult.
We are in a real Title I community. I would say maybe 60 percent of our students are Title I, free lunch available. We have a lot of multi-generational families, so a lot of parents kept their kids home because our governor had given them the right, legally, to stay virtual for the year. And our district decided, for whatever reason, there would not be a virtual teacher. The teachers and classes remained the same. And so teachers were teaching live to kids who wanted to come in, and then kids whose families wanted them home, they were online. . . . So it was very difficult for teachers to teach to two populations at the same time.
Further, even though a subset of students returned to classrooms in person, this did not mean that teaching and learning went back to normal. Ms. Xavier noted that the many safety policies and procedures intended to keep everyone safe significantly hampered teachers’ abilities to facilitate collaborative, hands-on science lessons.
Science, for us anyway, is such a collaborative experience. But we had to completely change how we taught it. And so, “Yay, we got the curriculum back,” but now we have to teach it a whole different way because they can’t share materials. They can’t really even sit near each other.
Despite the less-than-ideal circumstances, teachers persisted in teaching science during the hybrid year and were extremely relieved when the 2021–22 school year brought a return to some measure of normalcy. All students were back in person and, while there were still school-wide COVID prevention measures in place, teachers were once again able to use best teaching practices.
I think I would say we’ve gotten pretty close to normal. Our physical makeup is not normal in that there’s still a desire to have the barriers. We have been given permission from central administration to have students work collaboratively in science, so depending on the teachers’ comfort level, kids are working back in groups. That’s been huge. We did make a great investment in air purifiers and lots of wipes. And also, the teachers have really gotten used to having kids help wipe materials down. So I feel comfortable saying the way we teach science is very close to being back to normal, the pragmatic parts of it.
Reflecting on her efforts and the efforts of her colleagues during the pandemic, Ms. Xavier wishes the general public knew just how important teachers were during this time, providing students with knowledge, stability, and reassurance when the world seemed to be falling apart.
I think people need to actually understand how committed teachers were to trying to support students in the scariest time our world really has faced for any student alive today. I mean, the only thing I can liken it to as a teacher was September 11th. I was teaching on September 11th. . . and we saw the fighter jets literally going up and down the corridor. We could see the smoke from when the Twin Towers tumbled. That was the hardest time to teach, but it was for a finite period. It was two weeks we were off, and then we were back trying to assure kids that they were safe and all of those things. I get chills still thinking about that . . . . But this has been three years of trying to keep students feeling that they’re safe while they’re learning. . . . And I really would love for people to know how much we worked to keep things as normal as possible. Because the one thing we do know as educators, and most parents know, is structure and stability go a long way for student learning and student mental health. And so even though we had to change a lot of things we did, we also tried to make sure kids had the same routine. We were the constant. Teachers were the constant for students.
4 Full Option Science System (FOSS) is a hands-on, student-focused science curriculum for elementary and middle grades students. (https://fossnextgeneration.com)
