Tenth Period | Quaranteaching History Today: BRI Teachers Discuss Adapting to this Civic Moment

0:05 hello and welcome to another episode of the Bill of Rights Institute’s 10th period my name is Kirk Aegon’s and I’m the senior manager for education of the Bill of Rights Institute my name is Rachel Davison Humphries and I am the director of outreach and in this very special episode of 10th period PR i–‘s teacher webinar we have a collection of educators from around the country so welcome to all of you hi everyone why don’t we go around and introduce ourselves so why don’t you tell us your name where you teach kind of a little bit about your population and then what’s something that you’ve already learned in the past month so Elliott let’s start with you everybody I’m Elliott Waxman I am a AP us an AP comparative government teacher at

0:51 Oakland High School in Fairfax County Virginia it’s a suburban school system out right outside of Washington DC schools about 2,600 kids um I’ve learned that this is a challenging environment to be to be working with kids mostly because of unequal access unequal technology but also opportunities to do things that I can’t do it face-to-face hi my name is Greg Yarnell I’m a teacher at the academy of st. Elizabeth in Morris County New Jersey we’re about 30 miles from New York City it’s a small private Catholic girl school and what we’ve been we’ve been doing this pretty

1:36 pretty regularly for a little bit with technology so these first four weeks really weren’t too shocking on the on the technology part but seeing a lot of the kind of emotional side be a bit of a roller coaster as we’ve continued to go a little further okay I guess it’s my turn I’m Jessica covert I live and teach lots of different social studies courses and Ozark high school and Ozark Arkansas we are a very small our town our towns about the size of Elliot’s school like the same number live in my town as attend his school and we are in the Ozark Mountains that is the Ozark

2:23 hillbilly shout out to them on the wall behind me and what I have learned in the last month is that teachers are awesome and that the mantra of modify and adjust is the mantra for 2020 don’t plan anything more than 24 hours in advance that’s what I’ve learned hi my name is Molly Schneider I teach a dual enrollment government and politics class and AP US history at Notre Dame Cathedral Latin School outside of Cleveland about 45 minutes in a more rural part one of the things that I’ve

3:09 learned well first off we’ve been doing what we call blended learning days for almost the last five years which are every three or semester about three days we have the kids online doing lessons while we’re at school doing professional development so we have had good experience with this online learning but what I think now being weeks into it what you really miss is that that feedback that that personal interaction of whether or not the kids are getting it and whether your students are comprehending and that I think is one of the things that I’ve really noticed the last few weeks hi everyone I’m Ryan Kelly I teach eighth grade American history a clicker Valley Middle School in Sewickley Pennsylvania that’s about ten miles northwest of Pittsburgh I guess what

3:54 I’ve learned in the last few week and kind of listening to my colleagues is similar to Jessica I’ve kind of learned that students more than adults are very good at being flexible and we kind of need to follow the students lead and allow flexibility in our lives and as difficult as it can be just really try to maximize the most of the opportunities that we have in this digital age great so I’m really excited to have all of you join us today and and I really appreciate just the diverse backgrounds and I think we’re gonna be able to dive into that a little bit but I guess you know the challenge I think is apparent to everyone who’s going into this but I’m just curious yeah what what’s what’s everyone’s biggest success been so far and I know that there’s I know it’s

4:41 probably been really tough and I know that there’s a lot of challenges but I’m sure that there’s whether it’s something new that you’ve learned or an interaction that you’ve had with your student I’m just curious to get to see what what whatever one uses a success over these last few weeks okay Jessica’s gonna because of our lack of internet access to many of our homes including mine we’ve been doing a lot of journaling and they can send those to me by text message because although we may not have internet we do and those that have internet email it to me but if not they just text it to me which has been helpful and in those journals I have seen great success stories of students saying things like I totally get World War two rationing now I get it and they

5:28 were like miss Culver you talked about like sugar bein rationed I just saw toilet paper rationing and so it is this though they are really connecting to the people of history and I see in their journal entries they’ll say things like my grandma or my grandpa talked about like the Great Depression and I was like oh grandma but I get it now and so they’re making those connections to history that I think they would have otherwise never had so wow I wish this did not happen they’re really connecting to the past I think that one of the

6:13 things Bri has been calling this is this is like a civic moment that that student that is giving students access and I’d love for that to us to touch on that later is how do you see and how are you using this civic moment and the Civic kind of awareness in your in your classrooms and in your pedagogy I’d love to touch on that as we as we move forward in the conversation so thanks Jessica that’s a that’s great okay before we move on can you touch a little bit on the access issue for you in in your community so we definitely have people who can get internet access but in my town a fair number cannot I cannot at my home get internet and that means literally it’s not that you can’t

6:59 afford it it’s that there is no service service provider we are off the grid in a lot of homes so I do things like most kids do have cell phones so I’ve done something I thought I’d never do and pretty much just give my cell phone number out to everybody and so they just can if they don’t have internet they just do it on paper and text it to me and I grade that way and so we do a lot of journal entries or right now we’re writing thank-you letters to our essential workers and things that can be done without internet but are still relevant what are other people’s

7:45 successes what have you been seeing so far well I think kind of touching on some stuff to other people said I think they have a different appreciation of what’s going on down there not so happy about being in their home for five weeks at a time but you know I teach freshmen along with my AP classes and we’ve been working on some ideas of kind of revisiting what we had said early in the beginning of the curriculum about primary sources and secondary sources and and really realizing that you know they have an opportunity to kind of be a primary source for themselves that in you know in 20 years when their kids are

8:32 gonna be like well what was it like to live through this quarantine we don’t do this multiple times between now and then they’ll have something I’ll have somebody to go back to it I’ve asked really to kind of create whatever kind of media that they they have available to have some sort of record of their experience and that you know it may seem mundane to them now but it’s gonna be a piece of it’s gonna be a piece of curiosity for their children to realize that their their parents lived through something that hopefully will not be a very reoccurring event I would say success is engagement in the classroom setting you know that’s always something

9:18 we strive for and it was something going into remote learning I was a little bit concerned about but really the students have really wowed me with their levels of engagement and their ability to make connections between the past and what’s going on in the present I’m currently in my eighth grade American history course we are in the antebellum era prior to the American Civil War and we’re talking around some questions and it’s always interesting I think for us as modern-day historians to like develop contextualization skills to kind of think about how our study of the past is influenced by a present and Jessica you kind of touched on that point there but even today when I was reviewing student responses the question so many of them were filled with these past the present connections so I think they are seeing the value that comes from history or

10:06 civic education even more in light of everything that’s going on so I’d like to pick up a little bit of what everybody’s saying first so I teach all seniors and so it’s been a it’s been a real challenge in the sense that you know this it’s it’s heartbreaking right this is their end of their you know high school career and so and I teach a lot of very highly motivated talented seniors so it’s it’s an interesting dynamic and you know working with them the the thing that I guess I have away with to a certain extent is and we talk about this a lot in our school and you know it’s more than the content it’s about relationships and so in this in

10:52 this sort of challenging environment that we all are living through and in I’m been able to make some connections with kids that I ordinarily wouldn’t have made you know over the course of it even young and particularly you know in the spring of their senior year when there’s they’re on their way to being checked out it’s been nice to be able to sort of connect up with to follow up and we can go in later Rachel but current events the Civic mowing piece so as an AP government teacher both us and comparative I mean this is this is you know it’s it’s it’s tremendous amounts of opportunities I’m doing a lot of them just review sessions now just using code 19 as the basis for all the things I

11:41 agree with Eliot said about teaching civics and having what we’re going through be the thing that pulls everything they are trying to teach them together and also that that connection with students we at our school we offer a virtual office hours where they can kind of login to the system that we use and they can ask questions and conference with you if you need it and there’s just a few kids that I always just show up and they’re just there to talk they want to just kind of go through just like they would stop in your room at study hall or at at the end of the day or something and it’s good having those conversations because it keeps you connected so one of the the parts that you really enjoy about teaching that that relationship that rapport that you develop with the students and one other thing that I

12:26 think I found kind of successful is that it’s almost impossible to always have a synchronistic classroom online constantly some students there’s multiple kids and the family both parents are at home working they’re not all able to be online all at the same time and a quiet place paying attention to class so finding a different type of discussion assignments that allow them to kind of talk to to do a video vlog entry where they can comment back using the same source and software allows them to have that discussion feel without everybody being there all at once because that’s almost impossible no matter what environment you’re teaching in absolutely well let’s Kirk if you don’t

13:12 mind let’s move English you that that the Civic moment and and how what’s happening is helping or hindering your classroom pedagogy your classroom content so so there’s a lot I mean federalism and exceptionalism and you know civil rights are in the news in ways that they are not always and I’m wondering how you’re seeing that play out in your classrooms if you have any specific examples about how you’ve used those moments Kirk did you want to add anything to this question no I think that’s great hey I’ll go I think I do definitely as Rachel said students who

13:58 didn’t students who tended to think the president says something and it’s a law and we do it that incorrect and now they’re all saying oh I get it it’s Congress and governors and mayors so I think Rachel really touched on what I’m seeing play out is that that we can teach and teach and teach the president doesn’t just stand at the podium and make a law right and there’s been some really interesting examples of things happening in Arkansas specifically right we are one of the five states I think that never had a shelter-in-place order we do have all the rules where when you go to Walmart all the workers are in

14:43 masks you have only a certain amount of people in the store at a time we have all that salons shut down no gyms but we have never been on a shelter-in-place order so we have definitely gotten a lot more attention in usual courser but there are certain cities where they’re sheltered place orders right so Little Rock had is in Little Rock under constraint or something along those lines I have a friend who one of my dear friends lives in a lives outside a Little Rock and so I’m a little more attuned to what’s going on it and I think what we’re and I think my students are learning how big the country’s because I do have the maps all over but for us you know we we don’t

15:31 have any deaths in our county from kovat we don’t we aren’t seeing hospitals overrun and so it’s been a challenge to teach how critical this situation is when they’re not seeing in person did it good but Greg that’s a very different experience for you yeah it was just before before we came on I was just looking up and there in Morris County where I am there forty five hundred cases positive cases just in the county so I know that’s more than a lot of states themselves probably have and we’re gonna probably hit a hundred thousand positive positives in New Jersey probably tomorrow at this rate

16:17 and while it’s hardly it’s hard for them to kind of grasp sitting and doing all the stuff and you know so many people continuing to be testing positive and things like that I think it’s definitely a little bit more right there for them now because you can’t you can’t avoid it and we’re certainly New York and New Jersey under very very strict guidelines coming out of the governors of those states but we’ve definitely been able to use lots of this in the government class we used one of the Bill of Rights Institutes I’m blanking out what the name of the exercise was but it was about it was about whether the governor’s or the the president should

17:06 be able to declare schools closed we and we kind of use that as a starter to go into some of the different many different things we’ve seen over the last weeks about federalism things like that if I could add on to a Greg saying so you know and sort of circle back a little bit to my earlier comment I mean I last week I was interacting with a student who was in quarantine who you know was awaiting test results and so you know again when you talk about relationships and the severity of this and how do you handle these situations it did you know is Center and you’re dealing with it you know again to the points about sort of current events to you know today in this week’s lesson is gonna is dealing with religious liberty versus public health

17:52 and you know this question about whether you know the federal government or even state governments can stop you know this is worst worship from happening and the engine between you know the First Amendment in public health again that’s that’s a that’s a big theme in the you know from the College Board for the AAP government question this this tension between you know you know look safety verses in freedom and liberty so they ask you again it’s a very concrete kind of thing to draw on and lots of you know sort of ways to do this whether its primary sources whether it’s just you know all the data that we’re talking about those things okay um well I think

18:42 this states like I know Ohio makes it really easy for the kids to kind of tune in and find information online with the daily press briefings that they hold in and it really kind of brings a new light to federalism I know in the past federalism has always been one of those units that it’s harder to engage the students on and now it’s it’s probably one of the most engaging things that they can take a look at because they see it in real time they they email and ask questions about the president just said this is this actually allowed is this okay I thought this was what the government governor was supposed to do and stuff so it is it’s great to be able to see them kind of being engaged and and really understanding how this system works and and you see that engagement with other issues before we left the physical building we were in the middle

19:27 of a project on civil rights and housing discrimination in my government class and they were supposed to connect it to how that issue then going relates and has a rippling effect into other areas of society and they were clearly able to connect some of the issues that are in some communities that have faced forms of discrimination and issues involving civil with the way community is responding and being impacted by the coronavirus so it was really interesting to see that connection with them as well I would say to like their curiosity like you are saying I have a little bit of younger learners so when they get to me that’s really kind of their first full time learning American government in civics in detail and they always have a ton of

20:14 questions about things and prior to us leaving I had questions like you know can the federal government prevent the election from happening in the fall and things like this so students minds are already going towards these topics and even though I haven’t deliberately in my lessons made a connection back to this yet that’s kind of what I’m doing in my colleague and I as we build up to the Civil War I kind of alluded to this in my prior response but a question I asked today in our Antebellum unit we were just talking about bullying Kansas and I said how does being intellectually isolated make you an ineffective citizen and so many students connected it to the current kovin 19 response particularly at the

21:01 federal and at our state level here in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania so is this like they are seeing it they’re connecting to it they’re learning about it and they’re making connections back to what we’re doing in the classroom which is so great to see that was actually so for those of you that don’t know thank you all those are amazing things that you’re connecting the Bill of Rights Institute has a has a biweekly student facing web series called bright and early it publishes every Tuesday and Thursday for tomorrow’s episode the our theme is civil rights and free end and freedom basically but how how do we have how do we preserve civil rights in a time of crisis and one of the things we talked about Ryan is there is the responsibility as a citizen of any age

21:48 to be well-informed and how difficult that is right now but how necessary and what does it mean to be well-informed so Kirk what other questions do we have for the crew yeah no I think that’s great I think that that tension that you all are talking about is a really great one to highlight because it is it’s something that I think a lot of the country is wrestling with it it’s a it’s something that we’ve been exploring to it the Bill of Rights Institute and a few of you mentioned too something I think is interesting that that gets beyond some of the headlines and just to the reality of being an educator which is fostering community in your in your classrooms right and it’s trying to maintain that connection with your students and I was just wondering if you all could share some of the maybe the approaches that you’ve taken to try to continue to foster that community in those connections or what ways you’ve

22:33 been trying to continue to engage with your students even though you’re isolated all right well this week many of my students are the essential workers they work at the grocery store in town they work at the nursing home they work at the few restaurants that are still open for drive in those young seventeen and eighteen year olds they’re the cashier is that the grocery store still open and so this week we are writing letters I’ve up here school printing them out writing letters to our essential workers and they’re all getting using that to talk to the community to interact with the community while still being separated from them so

23:20 I think that’s a good way to just send a thank you to someone and that’s also great for civic engagement that’s it what’s everybody else doing to help with the community aspect Eliot you mentioned that some of your ncraig you also mentioned that some of your students are having you know it’s it’s a it’s an emotional time to be a young person in society it’s an emotional time to be any person in society but especially young people who sometimes don’t so I taught both middle and high school I spent most of my time with eighth and ninth graders so right and that really the moments when they’re really it’s their emotional life is very big but the 12th graders

24:08 too so I think I taught a lot of Tai taught in 12th I kind of bifurcated a 10th and 11th graders and I never really gelled like and ninth graders and twelfth graders those are my like to like anchor points but so so there’s a lot going on I would love to hear what your what your relational pedagogical advice is as you’re you’re working through this again the Civic moment helping your students and all the myriad of ways that you’re helping them well so what I mean to work I’m in a slightly different spot that I think in all of you in the sense that while I’ve been an online teacher for almost probably fifteen years my and I teach an online course for my County are

24:55 the whole county has had some real fits and starts and actually I’m getting up and running for the 189,000 students and so we haven’t had a lot of you know synchronous last time with kids yet and we’re still working through all that but what we’ve done in the interim is we’ve had sort of opportunity sort of check-ins you know open office hours those kinds of things where we’re talking to kids answering their questions helping them in a myriad of ways you know I have a student who has been very interested she’s weighing her you know between two college choices and back and forth and you know that kind of thing and I spent probably 45 minutes to an hour talking or the other day just

25:40 sort of one-on-one I mean it’s not it’s not that technology been on the telephone or could have been face-to-face but but we were doing it you know through this kind of a set up and then you know she came back to me last night and said can I talk to you again so that we’re set up for tomorrow to talk about whatever she learned a lot more about for two choices and she wants my advice so it’s it’s not again it’s a relational kind of thing it’s a it’s just being there for kids to help them work through this we’ve also as a faculty it’s made a sort of a video you know it was each of the each of us together make sure that we sent in they somebody at the school weaved it together to make sort of welcome back video saying how much we missed kids and

26:27 and then just a nice and there’s a two way way the leadership classes in our school turn one together and showed us you the teacher everyone for the teachers how much they miss teachers so it’s a it’s just trying to build that relationship and build and keep that community going the infrastructure for the online stuff was there like Molly we had instituted a couple years ago online the at least the option of having online classes after a certain amount of snow days they they were basically said you’re going to get these Google classroom assignments not not kind of one-on-one actual classes but posting of assignments so there was a little bit of debate in the in a short period of time where we had to decide to discuss how

27:14 this was all going to get set up as everything was getting shut down in March and a little bit debate about video conferencing and how much we were gonna do and if cameras on or cameras off and things like that and we end up we end up going that we have we have the kids go have at most for video conferences a day for 45 minutes it’s they usually would meet with six classes they meet with four instead and I think the video conferencing has really been helpful in holding people together um I think it’s certainly not the same as being face-to-face but being able to see one another is is I think it’s been helpful to them I think that we have we kept our regular Spring Break

28:00 in the midst of this and I think that not having the structure of kind of going through the school day I think was a little disconcerting for some of them on the other hand there are some kids who are like I’m in school all the time I have my classes and then I never get up from my desk to go right into my homework so it feels like I’m feels like I’m doing even more stuff than I was before on the other hand I also think it’s been helpful with having different options to like I don’t know I have classes where I definitely have quiet kids that wouldn’t really participate unless called on in the regular classroom when we’re video conferencing there they’re not like jumping out to speak there but they’re

28:45 more than willing to post an answer and the running chat as things are going along so I think it gives some of the some of those kids an opportunity to that maybe they wouldn’t really have had in real life Greg I’m sorry Molly you talked about structure and I think that’s one of the biggest things like if we look at the role that we play in students and families lives it is that stability and I think that was like a really big part that I wanted to just continue on as a part of my relationship when we started so just like you know hey things aren’t gonna be that different yeah we’re gonna take in a new medium but we haven’t like done the the snow days type thing you guys described but we are we’re very fortunate to have

29:31 a lot of technology capabilities like this year we transition to iPads so a lot of the things that we’re doing like with our LMS online my students were like really accustomed to it’s just my delivery is different so like yes we can use zoom for meetings I’ve used loom which is the feature that’s kind of nice to like I can present my screen and then they can see my face and like the little bottom corner so they can see like my facial reactions I might say a joke or two in the middle of it just to try to be like this same me who they typically see in front of the classroom but I think that that’s like the most important thing I’ve tried to do throughout this whole time it’s just continue with what we’re doing and try to provide that stability in their lives we are asynchronous so my students can

30:17 do our lessons kind of whenever they want we operate we typically have an eighth period day we’ve split that so we have a days and B days now I’m so they have four on one day for the next so like this week they’ll they’ll have my lessons three times but that flexibilities been really helpful and designing instructional videos kind of a round this flexibility has kind of like pushed us as teachers but it’s pushed us in a really I think a positive direction so the students can and the families can learn on their time yeah really just kind of marrying what Ryan said here but just trying to get my classroom that I had the physical building online as much as possible to try to have the students

31:03 see my sense of humor that they experience everyday and so forth and I like just to post every morning a video of me just explaining the directions so that they can see my they can hear my voice see my face go through what we’re doing that day because sometimes those online places can feel just so cold and quiet and like just not any type of excitement that they normally experience in a school day so if you could put some of that online I think the students appreciate it they especially with those students that need that oral Direction given to them they have it there it is very interesting to seeing what students thrive on the online setting that you weren’t surprised by and then Mikheil bad because there’s some students that this is a very difficult transition and I just keep thinking like I never would

31:50 have taken 6 to 8 online classes at once and so now all these kids are thrown in there and so I think just being flexible with them as much as possible they appreciate it their families appreciate it one of the core values kind of transitions something else but one of the core values at our school is community and and that’s really one of the things that so many of our students and their families really appreciate about the school so trying to replicate that as much as possible on social media ohayo a lot of the schools in the area tried to do a on xx for the class of 2020 at 8:20 on to put this lights out on the stadium in front porch so just trying to for the class that 2020 trying to just promote that community as much as possible because that’s really what a lot of our high school students really

32:36 enjoy going to school about Molly is I want to be a part of your digital classroom just adorable adorable little dolls in the background and they’re in my classroom so I thought I have to have them here so Where’s Waldo is so right about just that positivity goes so far just you saying I seriously miss you guys just being positive because it’s so much negativity it’s so much that’s a downer that just

33:22 like seen Molly or any of you talk about your students makes me feel better and I think the students get that too whether it’s a text message or an email or a zoom that positivity just makes it better as Ryan mentioned that stability right that not they’re their entire life is not chaotic yeah there is a place where they can go where they know what’s going to be expected and who’s gonna be there and how to get how to get the resources they need and there’s a one of my favorite quotes from teaching and so I was in the classroom about nine years was you know Penn and Teller the magicians teller was a Latin teacher for many many years and he once wrote an

34:08 article on the teaching which I highly recommend he was in the Atlantic or something along those lines or national book review and he said that then as a teacher you are the I’m going to butcher the quote but you are the this the like embodiment of the subject in the mind of the student right so whatever it is whatever subject area you’re teaching for that period you become that subject in the minds of the student and I think especially right now where there there there are a lot of dolt who are not feeling super positive in their perspective of a kind of global perspective or national perspective and

34:54 I think it’s our responsibility to go back and look at the history and say there are analogous correlative periods there are periods where we can look to for insight and for inspiration like there’s a corpus of knowledge that we can draw on so we don’t feel as though there’s no path and that’s what so many teachers are doing go ahead Elliot yeah I’m sorry to just to just to give you to bolster what you’re saying is that I I stopped after probably about two weeks ago three weeks ago using the term these are unprecedented times because if they’re not it’s not true and it’s gotten become sort of a throwaway comment the way people sort of talk about it because of exactly what you’re saying because of the history because of

35:40 the way we’ve you know gotten you know I been talking to kids about yeah these are challenging times we’ve always might always figured out a way to get through them and we’ll figure out a way to get through them this time so just even language matters and you know to sort of push back against just some of the things that people are hearing from all you know in all always shapes and forms you’re exactly right and I think my most used quote since since March has been has nobody read a history book like about twenty times a day I say give this person to history books ya know I think I think that’s I think that’s great cuz I mean nothing is ever exactly the same right but there’s all

36:26 kinds of things that are similar and I think to I mean I’m feeling very inspired just by hearing you all talk about your classes and so I want to thank you again for all coming on but but I think it’s a you know I think this is also an opportunity to show just how positive a thing learning is and how optimistic a thing you know participating in education and in teaching is because it’s really about trying to find those things that are that are good that we can all point towards right and things that we’re all working towards together and building together and in taking it outside of I think what it can sometimes be which is something we kind of take for granted right learning is what we go do because that’s what we’re supposed to do and really it’s something I think bigger than that I think hearing you all speak that’s that’s one thing that’s coming to mind is just how really remarkable your students are and how remarkable you all

37:11 are for for engaging in these things I guess it makes me think of one one last question here because I know we’re we’re kind of getting getting towards the end of our time but I’m just curious how this is gonna affect your teaching move it forward cuz you know although this isn’t unprecedented in the scope of all of history it’s certainly unprecedented I’m sure for for your careers or if at least not unprecedented that certainly a rare kind of a thing and so I’m just curious um you know what what what you’re gonna take away from this whole experience well um I’m over at one of our last equity meetings our principals said to us basically let go of what you planned let go of what you thought you were going to do and what you’ve always done here in fourth quarter and I think it’s almost given us a chance to really kind

37:56 of clear the clear our plans and what we really thought we were going to do and be a little bit more creative think of like okay this is really interesting how can I do this again in the future how can I bring this now into my classroom when I get the chance so I just think that that opportunity to let go and not be tied to what we think we are supposed to always do it’s been kind of liberating in a way and I agree it’s been int I always loved teaching but I I don’t know if I realized how much I loved it until this happened and I think a lot of you are on that same page but I think how it’s gonna change me is just loving my job even more and appreciating

38:43 some really awesome teachers I’m seeing out there more than I ever have whenever that first day back yes I hope it’s hope it’s August 2020 whenever that first day back is I will that will be my most exciting day of my life I’m I’m so ready for that first thing Rachel you said it earlier that the teacher becomes a subject and I always like have this like saying in my head like make them mundane memorable so like I it’s a call to action I think even more to like make sure every single lesson and every single time we’re in the classroom to make it as best as that lesson possibly could be for the students because we look we look at this now and well yes

39:29 we’re making the best of the situation but I think yeah when we get back into the classroom setting it’s gonna be really a further call to action I just another motivation for us nice teachers I think it’s been a hopefully sort of expand my world in terms of what is possible what is you know it opens up all kinds of opportunities and you know a what this with this period is well has done and will do is will allow collaboration like we’re talking about I mean look at all these wonderful teachers here how cool would it would be if we could connect up students and and here’s the platform we can you know we’ve done it this way now we can do it and it gets people to

40:16 experiment more I also think that you know it’s depending on how it all plays itself out we’re going to be creating a groups of students will be hopefully civically engaged and prepared and you know and be willing to challenge the status quo because what they think is important and so you know you know as a government teacher as a social studies teacher sort of pushing them to be you know informed engage citizens and look at all these different opportunities to do this and and ways to reach out and we used to make a difference all those companies I think well I hope that some of the changes that people that I’ve had to make that people have had to make it in in their classrooms will will

41:03 translate into some longer term changes and hopefully some different processes for the students you know what we were just saying about having to let go of some of the curriculum and not getting to do every piece you sure you can do a whole other webinar on the College Board’s changes is to the AP if you’re looking for ways to let your students think a little bit more about how the structure is changing we do have live webinars for AP gov and AP us that will start in the next couple of weeks so keep an eye out but yes there could be a whole other webinar unjust helping me through what the College Board has done

41:48 to them I hope is that they take away that you know being in the classrooms learning you know your learning skills and your learning how to think in your learning learning how the tools to do things and then maybe you don’t have to you maybe it’s okay not to hit every piece of events that’s ever happened in the world and and that you know you have the comments to figure it out you’ve got the tools to do it you don’t need to have going over every piece of everything to do well right well thank you all again for joining us this has been been really terrific and and thank you for all you’re doing in your communities and with your students I know we’re at the Bill of Rights Institute greatly appreciative and personally I very very much appreciate all the work that you’re doing and I hope you all stay healthy

42:35 and well during these not unprecedented but certainly rare rare occurring times and Rachel any final thoughts yeah so we are the Bill of Rights Institute is what we call ourselves a teacher service organization we are here for you we don’t exist without the work of the amazing teachers around the country doing the amazing things that they do in their classrooms every day with their students we are currently running a contest called Bri thank a teacher and if you are so inclined to anyone listening or anyone on this call we are looking for stories of teachers doing amazing things so if any of your colleagues have done something outstanding that you want to highlight please share that with us just tag us

43:21 and hashtag Bri thank a teacher and we’ll send them a Amazon gift card if they’re the winner because we know that’s all anybody needs right now if you go to our website you can find that there or if you just tagged us in those you can search our social media the reason we’re doing this campaign is that we we fully recognize the amazing work that has gone into transitioning yourselves your students your family lives and still being there for your students and that is the hardest job my dads paramedic in in in Houston Texas and he says that you guys have a harder job right now so thank you for my dad in Texas but I think that that is a

44:09 testament to you as much as the emergency workers and the and the essential workers are there doing what they need to interns the teachers of America are doing what they need to to keep their students and their communities together so thank you for everything you do thank you for spending your time with us today and if anyone has any questions please reach out to us on our social media we’ll put you in touch and all these folks would be happy to respond to anything that’s directly to them well I think that’s it so thank you all again for joining us and we’ll see you again in a few weeks okay bye thank you everybody

44:55 you