Fresno Education Lab: An all-good-news edition
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Good morning!
We’ve had more than a few silver linings surface in recent weeks as just about everything else felt like it was falling apart.
Educators are helping their students in thousands of ways daily. The Fresno Teacher’s Association helped feed children recently, passing out 500 free meals to students and their families.
David Hunter, who teaches transitional kindergarten at Ericson Elementary Fresno, started a creative website for his students, most of whom are 5 and younger. Check out the web page here.
One of our favorites remains Fresno Superintendent Bob Nelson reading to kids on YouTube. If you haven’t checked it out, you really should. Here’s a link.
But another top contender for the Best Thing Ever has to be local teachers organizing social-distancing parades. School staffers pile into their cars and drive through their students’ neighborhoods, safely waiving at them through windows.
“Teachers have just really, really, really been missing our students,” West Park teacher Alyssa Martinez said. “We wanted to make sure we brought some regular cheer out to them as well.”
Please check out the full story here from the Ed Lab’s Isabel Sophia Dieppa.
More good news
As California braces for an expected surge in COVID-19 illnesses, health officials in the central San Joaquin Valley have been scrambling for respirators and coronavirus tests.
But they’ve also trying to solve another serious problem - we need more doctors and nurses. And we need them right now.
Turning to nursing students poised to graduate, the state last week cleared the way for student nurses to join the fight against the pandemic - while earning the final hours of course credit need to graduate.
The Ed Lab’s Ashleigh Panoo has been on this story from the beginning. She examined why the state hadn’t allowed thousands of students to join the frontlines who were just days or even hours away from graduating.
She reported on the first steps taken by Gov. Gavin Newsom, steps many students felt didn’t go far enough.
She spoke to students who felt “used” by the initial plans that allowed them to help but didn’t clear up whether they would receive credit toward graduation.
Then, late Friday, the nursing board removed the final set of obstacles, granting students the ability to earn course credit while working.
Helping parents help kids
Last week, the Ed Lab’s Isabel Sophia Dieppa and Monica Velez hosted a live chat online with Tracy Edmunds, a former school teacher turned professional curriculum consultant.
Tracy fielded questions aimed at helping parents who might be new to homeschooling as more than six million California kids remain away from their classrooms for the foreseeable future. Tracy created a list of free educational resources for all age ranges. Kids can experience virtual field trips with National Geographic and even work on STEM projects with MIT.
The bottom line, while parents may not be able to replace professional educators, there are many ways to help children learn and a ton of free resources available. Isabel Sophia Dieppa this week compiled a helpful list of some fun resources.
Check out the full interview with Tracy here.
Ask the Ed lab
Do you have an education question you’d like us to answer? Let us know! Contact the Ed Lab edlab@fresnobee.com.
The Education Lab is a local journalism initiative that highlights education issues critical to the advancement of the San Joaquin Valley. It is funded by donors. Learn about The Bee’s Education Lab on here.
This story was originally published April 8, 2020 at 7:36 AM.