President of Palm Springs Teacher’s Association discusses first day of classes

"We've got this."

That's the message from teachers before online classes begin on Wednesday for the Palm Springs Unified School District.

News Channel 3's Peter Daut spoke with Karen Johnson, the president of the Palm Springs Teachers Association.

Johnson said teachers are ready for the first day of school.

"They are, they are definitely ready. In fact, today is work in your classroom day,.Classroom assigned space, classroom workspace, the classroom looks a lot differently this year for some people than it did last year, but today is the day teachers are setting up their workspace their classroom, the spot they are going to teach from, getting their lesson plans ready, putting together, finding who other students are, sending out emails and information to kiddos about how to get into their classroom, some teachers are reaching out to parents already. I know a lot of communication has gone home and they're ready, they're putting the final touches on it today," Johnson said.

Johnson confirmed that about 35% of the staff at PSUSD would be working remotely from their homes.

"We have some folks working on campus, some from home, and some have said they are going to take it day by day and see what they are comfortable with," Johnson said.

Johnson spoke about some of the biggest challenges PSUSD teachers are gearing up for online learning.

"Not being able to give your kiddos a hug or a fist bump or see them in person is the biggest challenge that we're facing. That communication and that relationship building is a lot harder to do through a screen than it is in person," Johnson said.

Peter then asked Johnson about accountability, specifically how teachers plan to make sure that every student is doing what they are supposed to be doing.

"We put together, between the district and the committee of teachers and administrators of the district office, worked together to put together an accountability plan that includes check-in during synchronous learning, and an extra portion for students who maybe weren't able to make the synchronous time, if they did still finish the classwork that was assigned, that will be counted," Johnson said. "If students didn't do either, how is it that we communicated with the family or the student to find out why they didn't have any kind of connection there. Was it a technology issue, was it they were ill, was it, they forgot, overslept. But then we also have a group that will also be tracking that every day and contacting parents and students and making sure people are logging on and logging in and attending class."

Peter asked Johnson whether teachers think they are properly prepared for the return to school.

"Yes and no. In any given school year, by about March or April, you are already planning for next year. Well in March of this year, we shut down, schools closed so we were scrambling so much to prepare for what we are doing in March and April and May, that planning for this year was harder to do and with so much of this year up in the air all summer long, as teachers were trying to plan, still there were plenty of wrenches thrown in the machine as we went along. As we changed from, 'Maybe we were going to start in hybrid or maybe we were going to go back to a modified traditional.' No, we were gonna go to distanced learning, and all those changes happening makes planning more difficult, we've had professional developments that have been offered for the last two weeks now on how to use Zoom, how to use flipgrid, how to use the different programs, so plenty of professional development has happened, but in any given year as you walk in to that first day or the first minutes of school, you're like, 'I think I'm ready I think I'm ready, we're in the same spot.' We think we're ready, we hope we're ready, and we'll see what hiccups happen on that first day."

Johnson finished with the main message she wanted parents and teachers to hear about tomorrow.

"We got this. We got this. Parents, you got this. Make sure your kiddos make it online, sign-in to your Google Classroom, your classroom Zoom meeting, you got this. All your kiddos know how to use technology. They use them on a daily basis. Teachers, they got this. They know what they are doing, they know how to teach, they know effective practices, it's just a different format for delivery," Johnson said.