Families face the demands of online and hybrid learning

Editor’s Note: The following is part of a series of articles detailing how families are facing the challenges associated with distance and hybrid learning models as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Anne Hoeffer and Grandsons

Spring semester was so stressful at Ann Hoeffer’s house she wondered whether she and her six grandchildren, whom she’s helping raise in rural Lake County, would survive distance learning at all.

Her two grandsons, who have moderate autism, were so bereft at not seeing their teachers and therapists in person they’d have violent outbursts — directed at others as well as themselves. Hoeffer and her daughter were worried the boys — Gabriel, 4 and Jesse, 5 — would regress and never catch up.

But over the summer life took an unexpected turn. The boys qualified for home visits from behavioral therapists through Medi-Cal and a local autism agency, and now each receive several hours of therapy a day. Wearing masks, the therapists help the boys with focus, aggression and homework, and have brought a much-needed sense of calm to the household.

Gabriel’s aggression has subsided, and he’s become “very loving, very affectionate,” Hoeffer said. Jesse is much less likely to harm himself than he was in the spring.

“We are so grateful, you have no idea,” Hoeffer said. “These ladies have fallen in love with these boys and see so much potential in them. It’s made a world of difference.”

In a summer of miracles, the biggest one was when Jesse turned to his grandmother in the kitchen one day and said, “What are you doing?” It was the first time he spoke words that could be understood.

The family is also grateful to have dodged wildfires so far this year. Lake County, in the arid mountains north of Napa, has been scorched by fires nearly every year the past decade or so. But this year, despite fires raging to the east and south, the Hoeffer family has only had to endure smoke. No evacuations, no destruction.

As school gets underway, Hoeffer is optimistic that the family’s distance learning routine will be relatively smooth. Of the six children, only the youngest, Esme, will be attending in person — a preschool with a class of 12.

“The only one we’re really worried about is Caylee (age 9). She’s falling behind in reading and math,” Hoeffer said. “Otherwise we’re just incredibly grateful.”

Meet the Dunn-Nasr Family

Rashida Dunn-Nasr says her children’s first few weeks of distance learning with Sacramento City Unified this school year have been bumpy at best.

The school district and the Sacramento City Teachers Association, its teachers’ union, have yet to come to an agreement on a distance learning plan for the school year.

Dunn-Nasr says the result is an inconsistent schedule of live instruction among her three children enrolled at Martin Luther King Jr. School: Noah and William, her fifth- and sixth-grade children, are receiving one hour of live instruction via Zoom while her fourth-grader, Audrey, is getting three hours of live instruction each day.

Her ideal schedule would be two hours of instruction per child a day, with a little additional time for students to do independent work and then 30 minutes of reading.

Jayden, a ninth grader at Kennedy High School, has had some Zoom instruction during each class period. The classes are focusing on review for now because poor air quality caused by wildfires canceled textbook distribution.

During the first weeks of the semester, teachers had to eject two intruders from two of his Zoom classes:  one who showed pornographic images and another who shared music with inappropriate lyrics.

District spokeswoman Tara Gallegos confirmed that there had been cases of Sacramento City Unified classes being Zoom bombed, as the practice is known, since distance learning started on Sept. 3. The school sent letters to teachers and parents earlier this month outlining the safety measures that are in place to prevent this from happening.

Dunn-Nasr arrives home every morning from her job as an overnight caretaker to make breakfast for her four children so they can begin their lessons. This semester, with Zoom classes starting as early as 8 a.m., she is scrambling to get everyone online in time.

Audrey sometimes has trouble making that first class.  “I wasn’t here in the morning for like 10 minutes and I miss something, and then I couldn’t do my reading assignment and it’s hard for me because I didn’t know what they were talking about,” she said about missing part of a class.

The transition to distance learning is a work in progress, Dunn-Nasr said.

“Basically, we’re working on getting into a solid routine,” she said. “I feel as if, as adults, it’s our responsibility to supervise and ensure that they are accessing their classwork, and they also kind of need to work on personal accountability.”

The children have mixed feelings about distance learning. Noah and his brother, Jayden, like distance learning because they don’t have to wait for the entire class to complete their work before they can move on to something else.

But Noah also misses walking to school with his friends every morning.

Audrey would like to get back to the classroom. She is shy about asking questions on Zoom and would prefer to ask them in person. This year she and her best friend were finally assigned to the same class. Audrey is still waiting to sit beside her.

Despite the hurdles and heartbreak of distance learning, Dunn-Nasr wouldn’t like to see her children back on campus during the pandemic.

“Not right now,” she said. “It’s too scary. Even for the districts who, for whatever reason, aren’t having (positive coronavirus) cases. I feel like it’s only a matter of time.”