01940 Winter 2020

08 | 01940
Vermont said he is also facing
challenges on the pitch.
"Sports-wise, the socializing part of
high-school life is very limited," he said.
"There are no pasta parties, no movie
nights and the girls are in different
cohorts and don't see each other every
day so the opportunities for team
bonding are limited. Nobody wants to
watch Zoom movies."
Damiani and his wife, Jill, an
emergency room nurse at Massachusetts
General Hospital, are the parents of three
children in the Lynnfield public schools
— two at the high school and one at the
middle school.
He feels fortunate that his children
are old enough to work independently.
"I'm lucky my wife works at night and
we've been living that way forever so our
kids are used to functioning more or less
on their own," he said. "I feel badly for
younger kids who need supervision. And
the special education students who really
struggle with the at-home piece. It's so
hard for them to connect."
Damiani has about 12 students in
his class.
"We see kids on back-to-back days
and then not again for five," he said.
"You can't build relationships that way,
especially when we can't get the kids to
work together in small groups anymore.
They can only work together in Zoom
groups."
Like Vermont, Damiani prefers to
teach from the classroom.
"My kids work well at home so I can
be in school, so I have all my resources
and other team members at my fingertips,
but that's just me. I understand other
teachers may feel differently due to their
own personal circumstances."
At the high school, there are a few
new wrinkles.
"We are using a new code for
attendance purposes for study halls,
senior privilege, and dismissals," said
Bates, "We also have all study halls in
the cafeteria, unless it's lunch when they
go to the auditorium. Honestly, there are
challenges. The biggest one being lunch
as before we had a mix of all grades
at each lunch period which was great
because the seniors set the standard for
the freshman and now they can't do
that. The first day of school, they were all
saying, 'what? What is this, why can't we
sit together.'"
Bates said it didn't take kids long to adapt.
"Even now, they just love eating
outside, even if it's raining," Bates said.
"They love the freedom, especially the
kids up from the middle school, which is
more lockdown like."
Vogel said there is a lot of trial and
error.
"We now know from the teachers in
the trenches that it's really difficult to
engage with kids when teachers have
to split their attention between two
groups, and it's been that much harder
with the youngest students, but our
teachers have come up with some great
ideas which we will be exploring. The
important thing is not to rush, we need
to take our time."
A parent of a first-year middle
school student, who wished to remain
anonymous, said she has no complaints.
"The teachers are doing the best
they can," she said. "The spring was a
nightmare, but this fall, I feel my child
is busy, but she is absolutely not learning
what my other kids were learning when
they were in the 5th grade. In past years,
I never really needed to have teacher
conferences, but now, I need it more than
ever before because, like so many parents,
we really have no idea what's going on."
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