It’s 8:53 a.m. in Jake Bogus’ eighth grade social studies class.
He’s squirted hands with sanitizer from a large, clear spray bottle as 16 students walk through the door on Monday morning. They've taken their seats, faces covered with cloth masks. Chromebooks come out and class begins.
Well, almost.
“Let me get my zoomies in here,†Bogus says from the front of the class, airpods in his ears, a laptop on a podium at the front of the room.
Zoomies are the nine students in the class who have opted to learn remotely, which means they’re at home, pulling out their Chromebooks and looking for the green “join†button that appears on the screen when Bogus taps their picture on his screen.
The students join a few at a time and Bogus asks them to show their faces on the screen so he can take attendance, one of many new routines in a new, hotly debated, everybody’s-still-learning school year.
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Lincoln Public Schools — like many of the Omaha metro-area schools — created a plan for students to come back to school this fall, but gave them the option of learning remotely. Half the high school students are required to learn remotely each day, splitting their time on Zoom and in class, a staggered schedule put in place as COVID-19 cases began to rise in Lincoln.
The number of remote learners — not counting high school students — is fluid, but so far a little more than 20%, or 8,867 students, were learning remotely at the start of the first full week of school. By the end of the week, 89 more students had chosen to learn remotely. By Friday, the end of the second full week of school, the number of remote learners had dropped by 214.
There’s several reasons: Students can shift from remote learning to in-person after a minimum of 10 days, they can opt for remote learning at any time, and students who test positive for COVID-19 or are determined to be high-risk close contacts do remote learning while they self-quarantine for 14 days.
LPS isn’t releasing how many students are in self-quarantine at any given time, but there have been two athletic teams that have had large numbers of team members self-quarantine because of a positive case: 48 on the Southwest freshman football team and 35 from the Lincoln East varsity and JV volleyball teams.
By Friday, LPS had identified 19 positive cases in schools and 48 staff members were self-quarantining Wednesday.
LPS officials say they’re encouraged that there have been no in-school outbreaks or community spread, that it means the contact tracing and safety protocols they’ve put in place — requiring staff and students to wear masks, frequent sanitizing, asking families to self-check for symptoms and distancing when possible — are working.
The district’s plan has come under fire from parents and staff who don’t think it’s safe, and who say requiring teachers to teach both remotely and in-person is too much, that it short-changes students and asks too much of teachers, who are under great stress. Many opponents pushed for an all-remote start.
Bogus, who has spoken at two school board meetings and is among those who believe LPS should be fully remote now, said the technology has worked well for him, though he worries other teachers who are less comfortable with technology are "drowning."
Students have adapted well to wearing masks, he’s handling the hand-sanitizing and the juggling act of remote and in-person learning and he’s thrilled to be back with his students.
But he worries about having so many people in one building — where he said social distancing, especially in crowded hallways where teenagers hug and hive-five, is nonexistent — and the juggling act is exhausting and hard to do effectively.
“I’m not able to give my full focus to both sets of students at the same time and I feel some guilt about that,†he said. “I’m not able to give them the best of my teaching self.â€
On the first day of the second full week of class with both remote and in-person students, U.S. History was on the agenda. Less than a minute after the first bell, seven of what would ultimately be eight zoomies are in. One got in, was kicked off and brought back, while Bogus went on with the lesson.
How, he asks his students, must the Europeans have felt coming to a new world? They look at a drawing of Jamestown, another of a Native community. They compare, Bogus asking questions, walking around the room, urging students on, as the discussion picks up.
Students respond to the questions using their Chromebooks, their answers displayed on a screen at the front of the room. At home, the zoomies see the same screen, type in their own responses and can see what their classmates are writing.
Each school has figured out how best to implement the district's plans, and the Schoo social studies department opted to go completely digital this year, Bogus said. That eliminates the need to send materials home to remote students two weeks ahead of time as required by the district, allowing for the sort of last-minute lesson plans that often happen.
It also eliminated the need for in-class students to share pencils, markers or other materials, and allowed all students — in-person and remote — to comment and participate in more of the same way. In many classes across the district, students get bags with their own pencils, markers and whiteboards so they don’t need to share.
Across town, at Belmont Elementary School, Hailey Greene, a first-year teacher, has 16 in-class students and seven remote learners who she sees through her iPad — a device she said works much better than her laptop.
On Monday, she wore a clear mask so students could see her mouth shape words during phonics lessons, and she kept the iPad balanced on her lap, in view of her remote students, her in-person students taking up residence on the floor in front of her.
She and her students sound out word combinations: Wind. Shield. Windshield! Cup. Cake. Cupcake! What is cornbread without corn? What is workout without work?
“Friends on Zoom, I’m looking and listening for you to do this with me,†she said. “Thank you friends on Zoom, I hear you!â€
Despite some technology issues the first day, it’s been going very well, she said. The toughest part is the multi-tasking, but parents have been helpful and the kids have been doing well.
“My first grade kiddos on remote learning are doing an amazing job,†she said, answering questions and participating.
Samantha Baker, another Belmont teacher, said it's good to be back with students, but things are changing so quickly she’s had to become willing to fail in front of her students as she figures things out.Â
“Overall, it gets better every day,†she said. “We’re getting used to the routine in school.â€
At home, parents say technology problems from the start of school have improved, and for at least a couple of parents, one of the biggest concerns now is the downtime their students experience.
“I think it’s a good start. However, there is a lot of downtime and my daughter is muted during class. She just gets to watch," said Kendra Laushman, whose fourth grader does her remote work at her grandparents' while Laushman is at work.
During some assignments, such as guided reading, her screen goes dark and she’s expected to read on her own, and it’s hard for her not to be part of the group, and twice last week there was a delay in getting her into her classes.
“She is my kid who loves school. It’s concerning to me, because I don’t want her to change that,†Laushman said, and she doesn't blame the teachers.
“I know they’re trying. I really know they’re trying,†she said. “In my opinion, school should have started later and they should have figured out a better plan than trying to figure it out along the way.â€
LPS Associate Superintendent of Instruction Matt Larson said one of the reasons the plan was designed for remote learners to be incorporated into regular classrooms was to give parents flexibility of switching back and forth from remote to in-person.
With “dedicated†remote-learning classes, he said, students would have had to commit for at least a semester and the district wouldn’t have been able to offer those students as wide a variety of courses, he said. It would also be difficult for students who have to self-quarantine to move easily from a remote class back into their regular classroom.
In an effort to lighten the load on teachers slightly, tenured teachers will not have to go through the appraisal process this year (those with less than three years will), district officials suspended a standardized test requirement for elementary school students, a second standardized test for third and fourth graders and the pre-ACT test in high schools.
They’ve loosened some of the paperwork requirements in the professional learning community meetings so teachers can focus on the issues at hand and have compiled tips and advice from teachers, and solutions for common technology problems.
Larson said officials realize the difficult task they’ve asked of teachers, and know it will take time. There's always an adjustment period when the district does something new — and this is a huge task, he said. Even with planning and training, there’s no replacement for learning by doing.
“We don’t want to downplay how significant that work is for them as they implement that approach. We’re incredibly appreciative, and understand they are learning how to balance in-person and remote learning,†Larson said. “Teachers are doing some extremely creative things to make that a success.â€
In Bogus’ class, students don’t have to turn their cameras on because he’s sensitive to the fact that they’re in their own homes, and being on Zoom all day is a lot to ask, he said.
He can hear his remote students through his airpods, so he moves around the room as he lectures, encouraging discussion, keeping kids at their desks on task and involved.
But he thinks being fully remote would be safer and more effective, an appeal he made last week to the school board.
“Teachers would be able to give their full attention to one set of students instead of juggling four computer programs, a projector, a mirrored screen, an Apple TV, a slide clicker, a document camera, an iPad, a Bluetooth headset, student attendance, hand sanitizer, bleach, wipes and teaching a lesson.â€