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  • Why you shouldn’t let the controversy around AP African American Studies deter you from teaching it

    Why you shouldn’t let the controversy around AP African American Studies deter you from teaching it


    Credit: Allison Shelley for American Education

    I was hesitant when first approached to help develop a course for AP African American Studies. Not because of the content, but rather the broader societal debates and media attention surrounding the curriculum. The noise around it felt overwhelming.

    However, as I began to review the materials, I realized how groundbreaking this course could be for students. It became clear that it was a worthwhile challenge.

    Now, nearly six months into teaching this course online to high school students around the state, I’m further convinced of its value. My students applauded the use of music to bridge the past and present and immersed themselves in research to complete their final projects. One student said the final project “felt culturally enriching,” while another said it gave them “a profound understanding of history as a whole.” The course also challenges us as educators and sparks vital conversations among students.

    It’s understandable that the debate around AP African American Studies has made teachers reluctant to offer to teach the course. But California is at the forefront of introducing more inclusive coursework into its high schools, including the 2021 mandate that all students complete an ethnic studies course as a part of graduation requirements, a requirement that AP African American Studies would satisfy. This curriculum is essential, but it also raises the question: How do we prepare teachers — especially those who aren’t history specialists — to deliver it effectively?

    Teaching any new course comes with its own learning curve, but this one presents unique demands. Unlike established courses where lesson plans are well-worn, this one is brand new.

    The interdisciplinary nature of the curriculum invites teachers across subject areas to lean into their own expertise while exploring new subject areas. It also allows for a diversity of perspectives, enriching the learning experience for both teachers and students. As an English teacher, I found the course’s focus on argumentation, critical reading and writing skills familiar, even as I navigated less familiar topics like African empires and diaspora.

    When I developed the course with UC Scout, a University of California program hosted at UC Santa Cruz that provides free online A-G and AP curriculum to California public school teachers, we had the advantage of a methodical course development process that included collaboration with subject-matter experts, instructional designers and visual media experts. Together, we crafted video lessons and learning materials that brought this interdisciplinary course to life. But many brick-and-mortar teachers are navigating this course in real time without the support I had.

    Fortunately, the College Board has provided a robust set of materials, and there’s also a vibrant community of educators online sharing resources and strategies as well as offering additional support for one another on social media and on the AP Community forum. These spaces are invaluable for exchanging ideas and troubleshooting.

    Still, this course demands more than typical preparation. Its sensitive and complex material — including slavery, segregation, war and migration, among others — requires a level of intentionality that goes beyond the basics. For example, we knew some images included in the course, especially from the Reconstruction era, should be handled with greater sensitivity. We included content warnings, alternatives (transcriptions) and image blurring to ensure our students felt as much comfort as possible while learning history that can be uncomfortable and upsetting. For considerations like this, and others that may arise while teaching this course, teachers need not only resources, but also ongoing professional development and support from their schools to succeed.

    For teachers diving into this course — or those considering it for next year — here are a few lessons I’ve learned:

    • Leverage existing resources: There are free resources, like the course offered by UC Scout, that can assist program development and provide a strong foundation that can save teachers time as they build out lesson plans.
    • Collaborate and connect: Engaging with other teachers, whether through formal AP communities such as AP Summer Institutes or Pre-AP Community or informal networks, like the AP African American Studies Facebook group, is critical. Becoming an AP reader is also a great opportunity to engage with other teachers of the course. These conversations often yield insights that can make teaching this course more effective.
    • Seek administrative support: School leaders play a key role in supporting teachers by providing training, allocating resources and fostering a culture that embraces new courses like this one.

    Much like my first semester students found, the course content can be life-changing in its potential to recast and dispel cultural and racial misconceptions. It strengthens their sense of identity. What an amazing privilege to lead students in this endeavor.

    Teaching AP African American Studies has reminded me of an essential truth about education: It requires continuous reflection and growth. While this is my first time teaching this course, I already see areas to strengthen for next year. That’s the nature of teaching — constant evolution to better meet the needs of our students.

    •••

    Karsten Barnes is a high school English teacher at UC Scout. He teaches AP African American Studies, a course he helped develop, online to California students whose schools don’t currently offer the class.

    The opinions expressed in this commentary represent those of the author. EdSource welcomes commentaries representing diverse points of view. If you would like to submit a commentary, please review our guidelines and contact us.





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  • Teaching Nursing Students to Think Clinically with Realistic Instructional Tools

    Teaching Nursing Students to Think Clinically with Realistic Instructional Tools


    Jan 30
    2024

    Teaching Nursing Students to Think Clinically with Realistic Instructional Tools

    Tim Bristol

    By Tim Bristol, director of strategic planning, NurseThink, Wolters Kluwer Health.

    The ever-worsening nursing shortage is taking the United States by storm, with nearly 800,000 nurses planning to leave their roles or retire by 2027. Unfortunately, nursing education is not immune to this crisis.

    The American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) reports that 8.8% of faculty positions are vacant at U.S. nursing schools and additional positions would need to be created to meet student demand. Without enough faculty, this has a serious impact on the capacity and effectiveness of nursing education programs as nursing schools are already being forced to turn away qualified applicants. Fortunately, while faculty shortages won’t be solved overnight, advancements in instructional technology can help fill the gap.

    One key challenge facing nursing education is that the curriculum is not set up to teach students in a way that mirrors real-world practice. While new nurses today will often face greater challenges – and often higher caseloads – than ever before, nursing students are not being adequately trained to face this reality. In many ways, today’s nursing classrooms look no different than the classrooms students may have encountered in 1993. But a lecture hall looks very different than the chaotic hospital setting new nurses will actually experience. To help ensure students build skills and engage in clinical judgement, even if faculty numbers are limited, incorporating electronic health records and virtual simulation into their daily education can make a major difference.

    Electronic health records are not optional

    While electronic health record (EHR) systems are a highly discussed technology across the healthcare landscape, they have been shown to reduce errors and lower medical costs. Needless to say, EHRs are here to stay across healthcare and something that care teams need to use, every day. However, they can only positively impact healthcare as a whole if nurses are trained to use them effectively and efficiently before they encounter them in clinical practice.

    It’s important for faculty to understand how easy it is to implement EHRs into the daily classroom experience. Students could simply login to a basic, blank EHR and enter data based on a case study or challenge given by their instructor. For example, students could be tasked with entering a blood pressure reading that would indicate that they should hold (not give) a patient medication to lower their blood pressure. When faculty allow students to experience this type of activity, they are learning in the same way in which they will be using EHRs in practice. This is something that could easily be incorporated into nursing classrooms, even in a lecture hall of 100+ students.

    The virtual world makes simulation accessible

    Virtual simulations are increasingly demonstrating value for nursing education, helping students feel engaged and better retain what they’ve learned. By incorporating simulation on a weekly or daily basis into the curriculum, this lets learners dive deep into patient scenarios, allowing them to truly learn about nursing in a way not easily replicated with most other learning strategies. Up until recently, one major challenge was that many simulation tools are inaccessible to aspiring nurses, due to the cost and complexities involved.

    The virtual simulation (vSim) world is now comprised of technology that is easily understood and usable by faculty in all environments. Computer requirements for vSim tools that resemble realistic patient scenarios are such that nursing students can easily use these programs on even the most basic of computers. While the technologies available and their complexities differ, these vSim programs are very realistic and allow students to practice high-level decision making in scenarios they wouldn’t likely encounter as part of their clinicals.

    Within the virtual world, the realism of simulation is now accessible to all students. The next step is to make sure nursing faculty realize how critical these tools are. While an instructor might struggle to fit vSim into class time, the reality is that students can often learn more in 30 minutes of simulation than they could in a 2-hour lecture.

    Bringing the nursing classroom into the future

    The future of the nursing profession and healthcare really is in the hands of all nursing programs. Overall, what’s paramount here is that nursing students learn in the same way in which they will use that information at the bedside. This requires getting them comfortable with entering information into EHRs and practicing with realistic patient simulations on a weekly if not daily basis. Thanks to technological advancements in recent years, these tools are increasingly accessible, and we must prioritize training educators on how these tools can be easily adopted in their classrooms to ensure the next generation of nurses are practice ready.



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  • How Covid changed teaching in California: fewer pencils, more technology

    How Covid changed teaching in California: fewer pencils, more technology


    The Covid-19 pandemic has significantly changed how students and teachers spend their time in the classroom. Now, instead of writing with paper and pencil, students use computers for most assignments.

    Teachers lecture less and spend more time on individualized instruction, social-emotional learning and relationship building.

    The last five years have not been easy. Students returned to campuses in the spring of 2021, after spending more than a year learning alone from home on computers. They had knowledge gaps, and many felt isolated and unsure, often resulting in chronic absenteeism and bad behavior. 

    Thousands of California teachers, discouraged by disciplinary problems, quit the profession.

    But others doubled down on individualized instruction and social-emotional support, spending a good portion of class time reacquainting their students with how to behave in the classroom and encouraging them to socialize with their peers.

    Now, five years after Covid closed schools, student scores on the state’s standardized Smarter Balanced tests have improved slightly, although achievement is still not back to pre-Covid levels. 

    California teachers interviewed by EdSource are optimistic, reporting that interventions are working and that student discipline is improving.

    “They don’t miss their houses,”  said Erika Cedeno, who teaches Spanish at Golden Valley High School in Santa Clarita. “They don’t miss anything related to Covid. They want to be at school, and they are enjoying sports. They are playing tennis and swimming. It’s very different. I think we are probably getting to the point that we were before Covid.”

    More personalized learning

    Teachers report placing a greater emphasis on small-group instruction and personalized learning to accommodate students who returned from school closures with diverse learning needs, according to “Rewiring the classroom: How the Covid-19 pandemic transformed K-12 education,” released in August by the Brookings Institution. 

    The spring 2023 survey of 1,000 K-12 teachers and administrators across the country revealed that students now spend less time in lectures and more time working on educational software tailored to their needs. The increased use of technology by students, teachers and parents is the biggest change in the classroom since Covid-19 closures, said Brian Jacob, who co-authored the Brookings report. 

    After months of working on educational software during pandemic school closures, teachers are now more likely to incorporate it into their classrooms, according to the report. In early 2023, 70% of all students and 80% of all middle and high school students in the United States had a personal computing device.

    “I use technology more freely in the classroom now, and it’s an expected part of the day,” Todd Shadbourne, a sixth grade teacher at Foulks Ranch Elementary School in Elk Grove, told EdSource. 

    “We used to do a research project and everybody had to go to the library and get a book, and hope they could get a book,” Shadbourne said. “And we couldn’t study biographies when my neighboring class was doing biographies because there’s only so many books. … Now you have other resources because you have a computer in front of you.”

    Too much technology isn’t good

    There are some drawbacks to the increased use of technology in schools, however. Research shows that reading comprehension is better when students read printed texts instead of online materials, Jacob said. Students also struggle with writing and spelling because all their school work is done on computers equipped with programs that correct spelling and grammar, he said.

    “School officials and researchers really need to look at that carefully and determine how much time students are spending on devices, and how is that going?” Jacob said.

    Some California teachers try to limit their students’ screen time and require them to spend more time reading text, writing with pencil and paper and collaborating with their classmates.

    San Diego special education teacher Carly Bresee says the use of technology by students outside the classroom has also increased, prompting her to use less technology in class than before the pandemic.

    “I know that general ed teachers are kind of facing that question,” Bresee said. “How much computer use is healthy and positive for the students? They are having difficulty with that balance, knowing what the best formula is for learning.”

    Back to classroom carts at some schools

    School officials at James Lick Middle School have decided to go back to classroom computer carts because the school, in financially strapped San Francisco Unified, could no longer afford to maintain and replace student computers that are broken, lost or outdated.

    “Kids have broken them on purpose,” said Keith Carames, who teaches theater arts and English at the school. “Kids have lost them. Kids have dropped them.”

    That move away from technology is a big disappointment to Carames, who became a convert after spending three months learning how to use Zoom, Google Classroom and other online education programs. 

    “I saw the light,” Carames said. “I can edit stuff online with them (the students). I can post videos. I have resources that are accessible. If they are absent, they can get work. There are letters that you can send to the family and newsletters and interactive things. It changed my practice as an educator. ”

    Carames calls the transition back to paper and pen “a nightmare.”

    “There are some kids who don’t even know how to spell their own first name,” he said.

    Changing views on school attendance

    The biggest change for Elk Grove’s Shadbourne since Covid is the perception among some students and parents that attending school is optional. Students go on vacation during the school year or decide to work from home on a given day because they think they can get assignments on Google Classroom and email them to the teacher.

    “And the social benefits of school, and the problem-solving that we do as a group, and the common culture we hope to create, it’s hard to do that when people are gone,” Shadbourne said. 

    The impact of absences is amplified in special education, where a student might make progress one day, miss a day of school, and lose that progress, Bresee said.

    Students need social-emotional support

    Since schools reopened in 2020, California teachers have been spending more time greeting their students at the door, sending them notes and planning activities that encourage communication and help build relationships. Making these connections helps students develop social-emotional skills and encourages them to come to school.

    “In special education, we saw a huge increase in maladaptive behaviors, and that was really difficult both for the students, the support staff and for teachers,” said Bresee, a TK-1 special education teacher at Perkins K-8 School. “… It was hard to maintain a regular routine because it felt like we were more frequently in crisis mode.”

    Students, especially younger ones, had to learn how to play and communicate effectively with others. That meant more time was set aside for adult-facilitated playtime than before the pandemic, Bresee said.

    “It became, in my eyes, an even more important part of the day, right up there with our literacy and math lessons,” Breese said.

    The effort seems to be paying off. This year, student behavior has improved, and the class routine is back on track, according to Bresee.

    Social-emotional support and building connections between students and their teachers and classmates are equally important for older students.

    Cedeno greets her Spanish students at the door every day and then spends roughly seven minutes at the beginning of each class asking questions to draw students into conversations meant to help them connect with her and their classmates.

    “Cuál es tu color favorito (What is your favorite color)?” she asks one day. “Cuál es tu dulce favorito (What is your favorite candy)?” she asks on another day.

    Cedeno also invites students to have lunch in her classroom if they need a safe space to relax and a microwave to heat their food.

    “We are trying to rebuild this step by step,” Cedeno said. “We are not there yet. But I think we are going to get there if we put in a lot of effort, a lot of compassion and empathy, because these kids, they need this.”





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