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Hosted by Jack Pavia & Romney Daniel, Community Ties dives into conversations with people who have vision, drive, and passion, and choose to invest it in Norwalk. Presented by Nancy on Norwalk, the podcast looks to highlight the stories of people, businesses, and organizations in Norwalk.
Welcome to Community Ties, a Nancy on Norwalk podcast.
I'm your host, Jack Pavia.
I'm a student at American University and passionate advocate for thriving towns and
cities.
I love nothing more than talking to people who care about their community and seek to
lift it up.
Using the platform of this show, I'm going to facilitate conversations with people who
have vision, drive, and passion and choose to invest in Norwalk.
By conducting the dialogue, I hope to search for truth and meaning in our city and the
people who drive it.
Today's media landscape provides us with near universal access to immense amounts of information.
But too often, the stories were made aware of highlight conflict rather than bringing
people together through enlightenment.
Unfortunately, this creates an unhealthy environment for community, which only can thrive when
people of different ideological and cultural backgrounds are able to band together to create
positive change.
As we confront, not only in our country, but within our very own community, issues of
affordability, inequality, and democracy, it's more important than ever that we have these
conversations with our neighbors.
It's under these conditions that make me incredibly excited to launch Community Ties.
With that being said, let's begin.
The COVID-19 pandemic changed everything.
It started on our TV screens as something out of China, across the Pacific Ocean, something
that we wouldn't be dealing with directly.
Early on, the World Health Organization declared the outbreak an international public health
emergency.
As we learned about stories like that of Lee Wynne-Liang, a doctor who tried to warn the public about
COVID-19 was disciplined by Chinese authorities and eventually succumbed to the virus himself
– reality began to set in.
The viruses flare up in China became a flare up in Italy, then the flare up in Italy became
a flare up in New York City, where scores of Norwalkers commute to every day.
Suddenly, the pandemic was global and in our backyard.
Are you thinking that hundreds of thousands of Americans could die from this?
You know, I say that and it sometimes gets taken out of context, but we have to be realistic
and honest.
Yes.
Everything shut down.
Restaurants, malls, grocery stores, workplaces, but perhaps most importantly schools.
Norwalk students and teachers alike were taken for a ride on the roller coaster of new
variants, mask mandates, remote learning and school re-opening.
Making decisions based on the latest set of moving circumstances, students tried to find
compromise between forfitting their in-person education and putting loved ones at risk
of sickness.
In the years since the pandemic originally shut down the country in March 2020, society
has worked to understand the true damage it caused, not only in the context of the people
that made fall ill and in some of the more tragic cases, the people that killed, but in
the context of people that inflicted social strain on, the people who suffered depression,
anxiety and a stagnation in their learning.
As we reckon with distinctly post-pandemic technologies like Zoom meetings and Slack
channels, the consensus that the constant usage of our phones and laptops is actually dangerous
in the context of maintaining attention spans is emerging, leading from writing to authors
and action from politicians.
To this day, we're still dealing with the fallout from COVID, and there's a lot that we
don't know.
So for the first episode of Community Ties, a Nancy on Norwalk podcast, we decided to sit
down with two individuals from Norwalk who experienced the crisis from different sides
of the classroom.
The first is Connie Galvez, a 2024 Brian McMahon High School graduate and current student
at American University, and the second is Rachel Carson, a music teacher at Concord Magnet
School who worked at Cranberry School during the time of the pandemic.
I myself am a former Brian McMahon High School student graduating in the class of 2022.
I hope you enjoy our conversation as we try to debrief years of confusion, panic and
lost time.
I think the conversation around education and COVID is particularly interesting now that
we have some perspective.
It feels like we're out of the woods of thinking about this situation solely as a pandemic.
So I want to go around and take us back into those woods and ask you guys what you felt
going into the first lockdown in March 2020.
For multiple months, COVID was only something that we understood through the lens of what
we saw on the news in the context of China and then Italy and then a few cases in the
United States and New York City happened to be the first real hub of COVID.
Both then suddenly somewhere around March 14th, March 15th, everything shut down all at once.
We were sent home packets, I'm sure you remember, for two weeks of work and we were told that
we were going on coronacation.
Rachel, I want to start with you here.
What did you feel during those two weeks and how did you speak with students?
I'm sure many of whom were very confused and scared at that time.
It was interesting because I came to Norwalk because of COVID because when lockdown happened,
I actually wasn't teaching in Norwalk.
I was teaching in New York City and was at a school in East Harlem.
We went in on, I remember, it was a Friday morning.
We went into school and by the end of the day it was when they told us we were going into
lockdown and it was the same deal as Norwalk where we gave them two weeks of stuff to do.
With me, I was teaching music and art at the time.
It was really, really, it was very confusing.
Just with me, I was teaching a lot of different things.
I was teaching strings and so for me, I was going around, grabbing all the students' instruments
and tuning them because we basically found out an hour before the end of the day that we
were going into, like you said, what, COVID-cation?
Coronacation.
Coronacation.
Yeah, so there wasn't really a lot of time to prepare and the whole thing was just trying
to keep the kids calm.
We didn't know how long it was going to be.
We didn't know how serious it was going to be and we were in the city.
It was for me just talking to them about it.
I didn't want to tell them, oh, we're going to be back in a couple of weeks.
I didn't want to tell them anything because I didn't know.
But it was more so just saying, this is the right decision that we're making and everything
is going to be okay and we're going to figure this out.
Just trying to assure them that as a teacher that I'm still going to be there for you and
things like that.
Yeah, that was the perspective and I was right in New York City when it was happening.
So it was kind of like, oh, this is happening all around us and the kids were already starting
to come to school wearing masks and stuff like that.
Yeah, absolutely.
It must have felt like it was just all at once and adjusting to a new style of teaching
as well.
How was that adjustment to teaching class online?
Oh, so it was really interesting because so first of all, we got no professional development.
Again, this is a New York City system speaking to Norwalk District.
There was no preparation whatsoever and I consider myself to be medium level in the tech
sadness category.
So I knew how to do certain things and you had to make presentations and create digital
media.
But so many teachers that so many of my colleagues were really, really just completely ship
racked, not sure what to do.
We didn't do video lessons in the particular school that I was teaching and we didn't do that
for the first couple of weeks because there was so much concern over safety.
Video chatting is it going to be safe for the students?
Is it going to be something that they're going to be allowed to do or parents going to consent
to that?
Also, how many of the kids have laptops?
I don't know with you guys in Norwalk if they sent you home with like a Chromebooks or
whatnot, but a lot of our kids didn't have laptops and we had to suddenly get them because
we wanted to keep the equity factor there.
So yeah, so it was really, really tricky for us to just kind of like turn on a dime and do
that, but I found that in those first couple of weeks it was the hardest and then it was
just getting used to it.
It's a new rhythm and as teachers we adapt.
So Connie, take me into the shoes of you, you must have been in eighth grade.
Yeah, I was.
You were in eighth grade.
Five years ago.
I didn't know.
So what were you feeling at the time and specifically were there things that you remember
looking forward to that COVID cancel?
Oh my gosh.
I just remember when they let us out the last day of my eighth grade, like officially in
person.
I just remember all my friends and I were really excited and we all went to the skatepark
and got faster and we were just like really excited.
We had no school and we kind of had like false hopes if that makes sense because we kept
thinking we'll be back soon, you know, like we'll be back in a week or two weeks and then
we were like really excited because like we get to like sleep and kind of, we don't have
to worry about school and then slowly like the reality kind of hit us, especially as
eighth graders.
I really showed how a lot of teachers weren't really prepared.
I feel like at the end of my eighth grade year I really wasn't learning much.
We were able to get away with so much because when your teachers they don't know how to use
like like a lot of digital things and it was just like really confusing.
I think that's one common word that everyone can use no matter their role, just absolute
confusion.
I mean people were wiping down packages.
Grocery store shelves were empty.
There was a scramble to get hand sanitizer.
I still remember my dad bringing home a gallon thing of hand sanitizer.
Is it toilet paper?
Absolutely.
Yeah, we still have that hand sanitizer.
Not only were there the more, you know, memorable things but there was sort of a silent
home of struggle as some people were classified as essential workers.
Others were not.
Many were laid off their jobs, the economy crashed and many of us had loved ones that fell ill,
some of whom tragically passed away.
In those following months in summer 2020, a discourse began to form in the conversation
around COVID.
There were sort of lines drawn in the sand about people who believe different things about
the pandemic.
People, there were certain people who wanted to open things back up relatively quickly and
there were people who didn't or at least were significantly more cautious.
Connie, at this time you're going into your freshman year of high school.
Yeah.
So were you inclined to come back to school in person or did you opt for a fully online
learning?
No, I did not come back at all.
Generally, I was very scared and worried because when I have a mother whose immune system
is really bad, when she got, she got COVID at one point and it hit her thyroid, it's really
badly.
So I did not want to affect that to her at all.
I didn't want to go in.
And I remember I went in very later.
Me and my family just stayed in but at the same time, you talked about jobs and everything.
We were very worried at the time because both of my parents have jobs where it's in person.
My mom is a house cleaner.
She does babysitting.
She couldn't find a job for about two years or so like that.
And then my dad, he works at a gas station.
He needs to go into work and all of that.
So it was really complicated for us so we couldn't have too much people out of the house especially
with my mom and the issue she was having.
So I was very worried and confused.
So I waited till later to see how high school was.
Plus, it was very difficult because it wasn't like I was going back to ponies, the middle
school I went to.
It wasn't like I was going back there.
It was going back to a whole new school.
But I guess I just got tired of online learning once I learned about the gist and how it was
for other students.
And once I learned more about it, I was like, okay, maybe I should give a hybrid learning
a chance.
In retrospect, when you think about particularly like the social situation of certain friends
coming back in, do you think you made the right decision given the circumstance?
For my mental health, yeah.
I made it for my mental health because it was just me and my mom all day at home all the
time.
And I just remember getting really tired.
I felt very lonely at the time.
So I was at a point where I was kind of desperate but at the same time I wanted to be safe too.
I wanted to protect others also.
So I guess that's what really pushed me to go back into hybrid learning.
Rachel, as the sort of discourse I talked about emerged of certain people wanting more
restrictions or at least the continuation of existing restrictions and some wanting them
to be stripped away and students to return in person full time, some of that group, how
did different parents input, which I'm sure were informed by these schools of thought?
How did that impact the decision making around preparation for that 2020 to 2021 school year?
Oh yeah, that was such a crazy transitional year.
It's interesting.
I kind of feel like I relate to Connie a little bit just because you never really got closure
for finishing middle school and then had to start a new school with us.
What happened was our school actually was closed.
They closed it and then merged us with a different school.
So I was going into a totally new population and a new building and parents with a lot of
strong opinions.
I know that us as teachers, we were terrified.
And I'll speak for everyone that I'm pretty sure most of us were really, really scared about
going back in because some people have autoimmune conditions and some people just, there was
a lot that we didn't know.
We didn't know and they were coming out with new variants.
I forget half of the names of them but it seemed like every week there was a new version
of COVID that was coming out.
And I'm being really, really honest.
I don't feel like we had a whole lot of talk before starting that school year, not where
I was teaching.
Maybe it was different in Norwalk but it didn't really feel like we talked a lot about like,
okay, these are going to be procedures and this is the way we're going to go into it.
It just kind of felt like we got thrown in.
And there were a lot of kids that were doing virtual.
It felt like there were a couple of classes that I was teaching that school year where I
only had like two students in person.
On the rest of them were on the computer and we respected the parents' wishes.
If anything, you got to go with, I think what you were talking about Connie, being with
your mom and everything like that, you have to make the decision that's best for your family.
But it was tough because obviously those kids who were at home got a very different learning
experience and then we had a lot of tech issues and Wi-Fi issues and kind of like going back
to the thing I was saying earlier about equity.
Those kids who were sitting in front of me, I'm not able to sing to them as a music teacher.
I'm not able to, like my position was actually stripped back to part time because they said
you can't, there's so much that you can't do now as a music teacher.
So there's a lot of things that I wasn't able to do with the students in person or online.
And I just felt like me personally was worried that I was failing those kids.
And you know, so I did try to talk to parents but we were just all, again, it's just like
not knowing there was so much unknowns and so many things that nobody knew how long it
was going to go.
We wondered like is it going to be like this for years and years and years?
You know, so yeah, it's kind of a long answer to the question but I think most in New York
City at least most families really were very reluctant to send their kids back in, at least
in the school I was teaching in.
Yeah, reflecting on my own experience as a sophomore in high school going into that junior
year in the 2020 to 2021 school year, I tried in person in those first few days and they
had a set up to where even if you were in person, you still had to have your laptop open and
you had to have the zoom on.
And so you were effectively doing online school but instead of a comfortable chair at home,
it wasn't uncomfortable desk at school.
And so ultimately I decided to spend the rest of the year online.
And just when I think about that kind of social isolation, you know, certain people have personality
types that allow them to handle it better but there are certainly people that struggle
a lot with being online for nine whole months.
So when you talk about that kind of fallout of COVID, how many years is this going to go
on?
Even though the pandemic didn't go on in the same way for years and years, a lot of the
fallout did.
And specifically I'm thinking about anxiety, depression, student's attention span and frankly
adults attention span as well.
This was sort of a world shifting kind of thing with these new technologies moving in.
And then the use of that technology and sort of managing that in our lives with remote
work being something not only found in the classroom but the workplace.
So in 2024, Jonathan Hyde released the anxious generation a book in part about how smart
phones and social media have affected children's mental health.
And this was hugely popular.
It was part of a larger dialogue about technology, attention spans, anxiety among generation
Z, conny and ice generation and the up and coming generation alpha.
And now we have a governor in governor Lamont and many other governors across the country
who are supporting the idea of technology enabled phone cases that students put their phones
away in and basically phone free classrooms.
So to start with Rachel on this one from your vantage point as an educator, how did these
issues manifest among students?
And why don't we just start with smartphones and their impact on attention spans in the
classroom?
Well if you think about it like when we went into lockdown and we just basically lost the
ability to have any kind of social connections with anyone which you know I was teaching
at a K-thru rate school at the time and that is just such a critical time in child's development
the relationships with others.
And all of a sudden that was the only way that you had an access point to the outside
world like a lot of us.
I mean as an adult I remember feeling so isolated and then getting on my phone and looking
at all the really really depressing news except for John Krasinski when he did that like some
good news thing that was fun.
That was great.
That was so awesome.
But side point, but you know you have these kids and basically they're only access to
their friends or to anyone that they care about outside of their home is suddenly whatever
device they have you know and then that becomes what they're on all the time like it's like
they're almost existing.
It feels like they're almost existing in this other version of themself because it's the
version that we present online is a little bit different than we do in person.
Simulating social activity.
Yes exactly and for them to just like be going on their phones and then having access to
the social media like in the news and things like that that I just like it's like saturated
their exposure.
That's all that they're consuming and that's that's fundamentally changing like the way
that their minds are working the way that they're viewing themselves the way that they're
viewing you know everything like outside themselves.
So you're talking about smartphones like I think that that was something even kids that
weren't you know ones who didn't have their own phones they were using their parents devices
and then when we came back and all of a sudden we're at in person and we're learning
again and we're being social you see this dependence because that's basically like the
lifeline that they had.
I mean I know me personally I feel much more attached to my phone now than I then I did
before COVID.
It surely stinks.
Trying to work on that.
Did you observe in the classroom a through line between greater technology use in a post-pandemic
era and more depression and anxiety among students?
Yeah I mean on the positive end I will tell you my students could help you.
Help me fix any tech issue that came up like very very quickly if there's something wrong
with my computer or zoom or like any kind of connection they they knew how to fix it even
like kindergartners which is really really weird like six year olds knew how to work the
internet better than me but yeah.
That's a little scary.
Yeah but you know just in terms of mental health it was something that I saw pretty quickly
and just like full transparency I'm someone who like as an adult like when I was in college
I was diagnosed with anxiety you know like so many millennials and for me I saw those signs
like I saw the behaviors I saw like the little things that I knew like the little things
that I knew that I was doing as a younger person trying to hide when I was anxious and when
I was feeling depressed I saw those signs in kids which is really really heartbreaking.
Like seeing the way that kids will mask and they'll do everything to kind of you know avoid
and hide and the way that they would speak and even the way that they would carry themselves
and like especially something that I caught on really quickly with is the kids who developed
a lot of social anxiety like that specific form of anxiety where just like being around
others and not being able to to converse.
Like it was really interesting for us when I started working in Norwalk I looked at the
kindergarteners these were the kids who came in the the following school years is 2021-2022
those kids didn't get to go to preschool they didn't get to play with other children
in person because they were in lockdown because they were at home and just seeing the way
that they struggle so much interact with others and then seeing how anxious they would
get and see how down they would get and then talking to the parents and finding out
the parents were letting those kids go in to talk to like a child therapist and stuff
like that because they just had the kids had no sense of self because they had been able
to interact with others and then obviously the older students the older students who were
much more emotionally developed and seeing how just again like their sense of self and
sense of self confidence and understanding who they are.
Yeah just it was really really heartbreaking to see that just so present in those those
kids and yeah but I again like saying with my own experience I felt like it was it was
easy for me to see that and to relate to it which I think helped me and helped them
you know in our classroom setting.
And it feels like such a class issue as well.
We look at statistics around the summer slide and how much more that impacts kids who aren't
read to at home or weren't read to growing up or aren't engaged in rigorous activities
the summer that more affluent parents may be more inclined to sign their child up for
and so how about a summer slide but for a year and a half.
If you can speak to that as a music teacher like one thing music like I'm not an instrumental
teacher in Norwalk but I'm a kid who played violin and a bunch of different instruments
and sang and choir and did everything growing up and like the fact that we we couldn't have
choir we couldn't have those things and then the kids that were learning virtually like
not being able to have access to playing instruments which was an extra curricular that
in Norwalk that we try to make sure every kid has access to regardless of financial situation
them not being able to like have that as an outlet because those programs were because
there were restrictions on how we could teach wasn't they weren't taking the programs away
it was just they were saying like like we couldn't sing together and stuff like that so
you have those kids who don't necessarily have access to any of those things at home
but schools the only place they do have access to it and all of a sudden they're not able
to do it and that again like that takes away from from their ability to be expressive.
Yeah I fresh going into like for my freshman year I was in choir and it was a really weird
experience because I remember my teacher would try to mimic being in a choir so in zoom he
would put like the background and he would put like our faces and then when I was in hybrid
it was like we were not like a choir we just sat there it was like hanging out basically
and then you got the delay with the sound and everything like that.
I think we are slowly reckoning with and over the course of this conversation this idea that
you're gonna tell kids that you can't sing together like that when you said that that really hit
for me because I also did I also did choir choir choir guests here and I did like chamber choir in
junior year and it was the same situation as what you're describing Connie with just the you know
boxes on a screen and just how heartbreaking it could be for someone who wants to pursue music or
whatever they're interested in just saying you must do this by yourself.
Yeah like I mean because choir is such like that is such a community feeling I found that out
from doing like a play this past year at my school just like it's I feel like like vocal music is
a place where we really really bond with each other not the instrumentals just but the choir you
know you guys know your choir kids you get it you know so there's a bond there and then not being
able to share that like hearing harmony in person and being in that space together also I got
it like shout out to all the teachers who were able to do that virtual choir thing because I tried
it and it was really really like impossible for me maybe a kindergartner could have explained it to me
but yeah but I always like seeing that they look so visually cool on YouTube when you would see
all of those but like knowing that those kids were all sitting home by themselves like yeah so
Connie as a student what did you notice among yourself and among your peers regarding that
correlation between technology use isolation and heightened rates of depression and anxiety among
people yeah so for me just like what Rachel was talking about I feel like I kind of found a new
version of myself online I definitely got really attached to my phone like more than I was before I
remember but also it was kind of weird because I found a new form of communication like me and my
friends we were on discord every night we found ways to play video games with each other will do like
jackbox where people could you like jackbox but then when I got into hybrid learning it was so weird
because I feel like I still had my friends who were online in discord but also it was like I was
like switching an on and off switch like I was switching for my friends who are online and offline
and I would notice that with my other friends too and it was like a really confusing period especially
for me discovering myself but also it was kind of like eye opening to see how powerful technology is
it was so crazy it was when I first started getting getting into the news I saw how powerful
the social media could be how people could use their social media for their advantage because I
remember seeing information about like the BLM protests and all that and that really sparked an
interest in me but at the same time the reason why I switched back into hybrid learning was because
at one point it just gets so draining because when you're on tick talk when you're on instagram
you're just getting fed the same thing and it's repetitive and it's so draining and it's something I
still suffer with till this day because I don't know there's times where I find myself on tick talk
and the algorithm is just feeding on to something for me repetitive because they see that I'm liking it
they're seeing that I'm viewing it so much like right now I have tick talk off loaded
because it's just and it did the same thing to me when I was first when I was first in high school
and it was just that's why like me and my mom we decided that it's best for me to do hybrid
and I'm thankful that she did that decision because it was something that was very much needed
because I would be honest I would spend hours just on my computer and honestly like I know a lot
of students they wouldn't even pay attention in school they wouldn't even pay attention they would
either okay they would either skip classes or just leave the computer on and they're doing something
else completely like a lot of us would do that and then we'll like talk to each other online
beyond phone calls but at that point it's just like it's not the same thing I just remember it being
just I think I just reach an exhausted point and I saw that with my other friends too
and then when you were in person you guys like something we didn't talk about you were we were wearing masks
oh my gosh so like I didn't know what the bottom half of my student's faces looked like
like I was I'd started in Norwalk at this point and I remember like the following year when we did
when the mask mandate was lifted I was like oh that's what you look like I was thinking the same
thing especially if my teachers I was like I've never seen your face before but once they lifted
it up I was like oh lower half of your face does not look like how I expected it but you think
about like the social emotional like aspect of kids like not being able to see facial expressions
except in your eyes and I know was it like tyra banks was like smiles you know smile at your eyes
or something like that but it's but not being able to see expressions like not being able to see
a smile you know and when you are feeling low and as like your own emotional state and then not
being able to see like a comforting smile from your best friend who you've not been able to see
in person and now you're together and it's like that that I can't speak to like psychology but I
I can imagine not being able to see someone's face and see that like is also restricting and also
affects your like perception and your and your own mental space and I think it goes back to the other
conversation we were having which is something is basic as you can't sing together you can't
see each other smile you have to be this far apart yeah yeah I think we're gonna be reckoning with this
for a long time so we've talked a lot about the social implications of COVID and I think a lot of
those are upstream from academic implications so just to ring off some statistics here
chronic absenteeism in North public schools went from 10.3% pre-COVID to a peak of 26.8%
in the 2021 2022 school year and it looks like those trends are leading to one like these only 64
percent of students are reading at grade level as of 2022 compared to 70% in 2019 which is a drop
of 6% but still includes hundreds of students that fell behind Rachel have you noticed this in the
classroom have you ever been surprised by students performances on assignments and tests post-COVID?
yeah I mean so the subject that I teach the form of assessment that I do is not necessarily the same
as like the classroom teachers but I've noticed that a lot in just like we do a lot of songwriting
and just like seeing the ability of students to like spelling reading comprehension
you know something interesting where I noticed that they were a lot more connected and a lot
more engaged was like anything dealing with social studies like music history because because
they were on their devices because they were so connected like that way to information but in terms
of like basic skills like math and reading and spelling like just noticing how a lot of students
were struggling with that in a way that I never remembered them struggling and like you were talking
about reading at grade level yeah like noticing kids were really really really behind in that area
and I feel like it's gotten better in the past couple of years but it still feels like it feels
like there was this really steep kind of learning curve pun intended to come back from that's
incredibly interesting with the point on social studies versus spelling and math but they could tell me
like like so much about like like and this isn't like every child but they could tell me so much about
what was going on in the world and their awareness of like different countries and even the United
States like I had some students who like for fun learned every state capital you know that was like
a fun thing that they they did but but they had trouble like writing me a paragraph about something
with like without a lot of grammatical and spelling errors that feels like almost the optimistic case
for the internet in our lives that feels like what people were saying in the 90s and 2000s when they
talked about the world at your fingertips yeah and now we can understand yes it is the world that your
fingertips in a very real way but there are also these crazy side effects that we could have not
possibly imagined when we decided to innovate in this direction it's also a world the world through
very specific lens too like in terms of you know kids developing their opinions and the way the
information is presented and you know nowadays this gets in a whole other topic which we won't talk
about today but like AI and just like what is real and what isn't and or what is being presented in
a way that's authentic um you know and and again I'm speaking as as a music teacher so like I'm not
I'm sure that's maybe some of my colleagues in Norwalk who teach social studies who may be listening
to this in the future going no that's absolutely not true but I know for me teaching about music
history and teaching about like like that social aspect I did notice that that was something they
seemed a little bit more into and with and not only AI but when you think about algorithms and you
think about it can still be real information but you could be given it in a way that completely
warps your perception of reality and the algorithm is not incentivized to give you a fair handed
understanding of the world but an understanding of the world that will keep you on their app for
the longest. That reminded me of because I take care of kids and I've done this for like four years
now and I would see kids who don't know how to read a book but when you give them an iPad they know
they they know everything I don't know some of it like some of the things they do. It's so weird
but it just like it I ponder on this question right now because I actually took a class on
digital literacy AI um for my spring semester and we pondered on the question like how do we prepare
this new generations coming in into this new digital world?
kind of like it's such a heavy question to think about especially with AI and stuff like that
because in my opinion I feel like this is something that we can't really prevent this is something
that's only growing and growing how do we because I feel like the kids are not at that level yet
the fact that they're able to do all these things on technology with iPads but they can't read or
even write a paragraph is very alarming so how do we prepare like kids who are coming into this new
digital world and it's something scary because like you said it's a whole world in their fingertips
how do we protect them? and something I've really noticed that a lot of my students um struggled with
is like writing in their own voice yeah when when they were able to to write like you know and
like okay like I you know as a teacher you you learn how to kind of look at spelling errors and be
like okay that's that's what that word is but like when I would have them do a research project you
know on an artist and then really trying to explain to them this is what plagiarism and they don't
understand it because they're young they're not there there's no ill intent there but the inability to
like form an opinion that's their opinion on it and to put something in their own words and to really
like see it as that um it was really really surprising to me and again I think that's kind of like
what you were saying about like the algorithm it's like it's telling you what you you want to see
and and kind of skewing that so how can you have your own voice have you how can you have your own
discord within yourself if everything is just kind of like in one lane showing that to you.
I find that to be so scary because I think like your creativity is like the best gift
yeah what brings you to be different from other people and the fact that we have AI and all of it
it's kind of taking away and I I struggle with this now like sometimes I like I have to like
think of what I my opinion or my creativity I'm kind of scared on that because I feel like there is
like a correct way there's something I have to do or something's bad like this one I something
I struggled with especially freshman year especially with like AI and like algorithm because like
I was just exposed to just like the same thing over and over again that I thought was correct
so then having you think it for yourself is like is this right because everything I've been fed
is saying it's not or like saying it's this way and by the way we're going to sap your creative energy
by allowing you to ask a chatbot what are the best gifts to give my dad for his birthday so you never
have to put in the effort thinking about it for yourself suddenly giving him a tie every year feels
feels weird that's right so another piece of the fallout of covid was the relationship between
parents and teachers in a big way and we alluded to it earlier when I asked you about sort of parent
feedback about whether to open the classroom keep it shut my mom was what's called a room mom when
I was in elementary school in Norwalk which meant that she'd volunteer to help students with math
coordinate classroom parties and materials for teachers help out with fundraisers like
the walkathon and bingo night and the carnival she was joined by tons of other parents eager to get
a spot to invest their time as a volunteer I remember her describing to me the rat race of trying
to get in on one of these events during covid in addition to what we talked about with different
parents having different ideas regarding how school should be opened up it feels as though something
larger has shifted Rachel what have you observed is it any harder to get parents to volunteer
and help out with school related events it's interesting because I think that my again my experience
as music teacher is a little bit different because like doing a show this past year actually you know
what I can I can answer this in a pretty specific way because I got very used to not having parents
support like I love I just want to say right now like I adore so many of the parents that I talk to
like I have such great relationship with so many of them because music is something that's so personal
and so like you know the parents losing their kids become creative and becoming more outgoing through
it but in terms of yeah like just just noticing that we didn't have as much parent involvement some
not by choice because like at least in my school like parents weren't allowed in the building at least
like in 2021 or 2020 2021 I think we only started having I know what the room moms are we only started
having those again I love them by the way like the following school year so so there weren't as many
opportunities so I think parents there were a lot of parents that felt very shut out and that
wasn't by any fault of like the school or anything is just the reality of like we're trying to
limit the amount of people that can come into the building limit the possible spread because these
are like parents that might be out working and interacting you know we don't have control over it we
have control over these students who are in the building so so I got really used to just kind of
having to do things on my own you know concerts and all that I had supported my colleagues but I
didn't have as much parent support so I could just kind of like was like all right you know and then
coming to concord this year and doing a show for the first time all of a sudden I had like a lot of
parents that wanted to help out and wanted to offer their time and their talents and that was
I just realized that there was this perception that I built up in in me of like not expecting that
and then the way the community did come through for me and support me was like so incredible and
so inspiring um you know and so for me just I guess my answer is just really I noticed the shift
in the sense of how it affected me and how it made me feel like I could reach out to parents for help
and now I'm feeling like like it came back and I think that also speaks to like my particular school
community is like super super involved and I really love that about it um so yeah I don't know if
that's like the right the right or wrong answer but um but that's something that I noticed
so to wrap up I'm wondering if everyone's willing to share some sort of positive anecdote or
memory that in your mind makes Norfolk Public Schools special that you associate with Norfolk Public
Schools and while you're thinking I'll start the heritage dinner is an annual celebration of
diversity where I went to in elementary school and it was a sharing of cultures through food and
music there were kids in my class who I didn't know very well but they were able to bring their
culture to the table with their parents doing something as simple as baking a dish that they
always had at dinner. Norwalk in a lot of senses I feel like is a microcosm of America in the sense
that it has a lot of strengths in its diversity and culture but it has a lot of issues mostly that stem
from really stark inequality but it felt like in the moment of that heritage dinner a lot of that
felt like it was put in the background and for a moment we could all just you know enjoy each other
so Rachel if you wanted to share your moment with us. I love that so much by the way this such a
cool thing my so my um the elementary school started at in Norwalk had a like we had a heritage festival
the where it was like in the parking lot maybe this was a post-coded thing where they had like their
trunks open and everyone kind of like represented different cultures and food that's is not my
anecdote by the way I just want to say how cool I think that is because I think that's something
it needs to happen in like every school. Yeah I mean so for me I kind of talked earlier about doing a show
I've been a music teacher for almost 20 years and I never directed musical in my life I've been in
the pit orchestra and I've been like someone who who'd always been like in the background I like to
think I'm you know person who can be dramatic in a good way at least in the theater sense so doing
that show was like something that was super super scary for me and just like I was talking about
earlier with the amount of support that I got from the community like my school community
and how like surprising and and incredible that was but like I think speaking just like over the
course of this conversation just like realizing that there's a lot of opportunities and a lot of
things that I feel like I've been able to experience in Norwalk like things that I see students being
able to do that I wish I'd had like a lot of I think that there's a certain catharsis in teaching
where you you're getting to impact kids um and this really like deep emotional level and you're seeing
in music and seeing them connect to something and finding their voice and Norwalk's the first
district it's the first place that I've worked where I've really felt like kids just have this
inherent creativity that is not just like encouraged but also just being supported so much by their
school communities and by on their teachers and by and by families and I think that there's a lot
of opportunities I mean obviously things aren't perfect and there's like you know like you're talking
about inequality and and you know issues where we don't have that necessarily but I feel like it's a
space where I am as an educator given a lot of room to to do the things that I want to do I feel like
I'm I'm given almost like a hot air balloon of encouragement in this district to really
try to push the envelope and and do things that go beyond because the kids are really pushing
me to to do more and more and whether it was doing a show last year which is a new skill I said I
got like it's like a gem on my Thanos glove of like things that that I've done now you know now I'm
thinking of like a million other things that I want to do and I know that I have students who are
dying to do that and I also know that I have administrators and I have a school community that
is really really behind me and that's something that I've never felt and that just that's like for me
a dream come true as a teacher there is something so beautiful in seeing just how curious kids are
yes and fostering that curiosity I think is I'm I'm sure you would agree just one of the most beautiful
things that a teacher can do it makes me excited to like kid up and come to work I tell people how much I
I really do love my job you really really do love what I what I do because it's like you're getting
to live through their excitement and and yeah their curiosity that's such a good word like and
I don't know if anybody watches Ted Lasso but they said be curious not judgmental and I find that
being in a space where I can encourage kids to explore things maybe about themselves that they
didn't realize through music that it's helping them to become to find that that ability to like
you know have their own voice and their own ideas but also to be less judgmental and more
you know going to become adults that are really like seeing the world in a lot of different ways
and good ones so Connie what was your moment that makes New York Public School special I have to say
a racial that was a beautiful response and I'm very happy to like that you're a teacher oh thank you
is any happy for me um nor public schools really helped me shape my interests especially with journalism
and communication I remember my um I think it was sophomore year where I was introduced to journalism
because I remember I was like I have so much interest like I like music I like our by like politics too
and my teacher was like have you ever thought of journalism I was like oh wait you're right so um
the bryamick man allowed me to have my space to start a newspaper and it was something I was
because I remember after covid make man really didn't feel like a community at all it was very
lonely like I remember before covid because I have an older sister who went to bryamick man
I remember seeing her her I remember the school spirit was amazing I remember it was lived of
they would do lived of and I was like so excited to go into high school and do that but I never got
that and I was like I was like I want to create a space where students could have their voice
but the community could be in one corner too where you get all the achievements and all that so I was
like what if I start a newspaper so I started the make man archive going into my junior year and
you're leaving and I it was beautiful because it was interesting to see all the students who come
together but also the teachers that were behind me is um mr. tuluchi helped me a lot with that
but also how the the school is so open to it I thought I was going to be like a hurdle I was like
because I remember I presented to like only two two administrators and I was so nervous I thought
I was going to be like we have to keep pushing for it no there was so open there was so excited for
this and it was just an amazing time I remember I I don't know I just loved it and I loved forming it
I loved they made me like the editor in chief I loved like seeing all the students who were passionate for
it and I don't know I thought it was beautiful because also it allowed me to also meet people from
school that I would never talk to because make man is like consider one of the most diverse schools
it's very diverse and I talk to so many students from like who are band students ROTC who are on the
football team students I've never talked to before I built so much connection through that it was so
beautiful and like if there's like any students listening like if you like are passionate enough like
I do believe if you push for it with like some of your friends like don't be shy it's like if it
doesn't work out it doesn't work out doesn't hurt it's not hurting anyone but if you really push for
it even a little bit like I'm pretty sure you'll get it because one thing I noticed is that
when I left um high school the make man archive is not posting anymore and sadly there's not
enough students who are not passionate enough it feels like there's that that that thing that's like
lacking it's like not enough students are passionate they're stuck in their own bubble you know they're
not looking at their own community or any of that and I I don't know it made me appreciate more
about community and what they could do for you which I'm really appreciate um more public schools
for helping me learn that lesson so I want to underline what you said about how getting involved in
extra curriculars and going out of your way to interact with those in your classroom is such a
uniquely fulfilling experience in a place like Norfolk Public Schools just because of how diverse
it is you have people who are speaking so many different languages and from so many different
backgrounds and yet you're all in the same classroom and public schools truly is the great equalizer
and I think it's wonderful thank you both so much for sharing your experience of COVID because
everyone experienced it differently but in a way it was all very similar because of just the
collective struggle of adapting to a new world so I want to thank you Rachel and thank you
Connie so much thank you so much just fine yeah thank you
this episode of Community Ties couldn't have happened without the work of the board of Nancy
on Norwack particularly that of Justin Matley Sean Fox and Ashley R.K. Smith of course I want to
additionally sincerely thank Rachel Carson and Connie Galvez for coming on the show and sharing
their stories access to recording equipment was provided by the Westport libraries verso studios
special thanks to Travis Bell for showing me how it all works I highly encourage listeners to look
into the resources that the Westport library offers if you're at all interested in audio, music,
or podcasting of course always support public libraries we appreciate everyone for tuning in for
what is hopefully the first episode of many as Nancy on Norwack explores new mediums and want to
especially shout out Nancy on Norwack's donors who keep this organization's lights on
(soft music)