GothamSchools — daily independent reporting on NYC public schools

When Joseph Dell’Aquila learned that he would have to leave his students at a Bronx middle school for more than two weeks to grade state reading exams, he was determined not to leave them entirely high and dry. Instead, he figured out a way to be in two places at once: While he scored tests during the day, his students would listen to video and voice recordings of him explaining Power Point slides with lessons he’d made the previous night.

“If there’s no consistency, they kind of lose track of how to act. I just wanted to remain consistent with them, let them know that I’m still there, that I’m still their teacher,” Dell’Aquila said. “It wasn’t like I was going to bounce on them and have a vacation. I wanted them to know that I was there for them.”

The result was that his students followed through a planned unit on hip hop and poetry, just by listening to their teacher’s voice. (A video of how this worked, provided by the school, CIS 339, is above.) (more…)