TESTIMONY
Fernando Alvarez, 4th Grade Teacher in East Harlem, on the Challenges of Increased Class Sizes and Maintaining Student-Teacher Relationships
2:46:42
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174 sec
Fernando Alvarez shares his personal experience with the challenges of increased class sizes and maintaining student-teacher relationships.
- Alvarez taught a hybrid and synchronous 3rd grade class during the 2020-2021 school year, successfully fostering close relationships with his students and their families.
- When 12 additional students joined his class for 4th grade, he struggled to provide the same level of individual attention and maintain the strong relationships of the previous year.
- This increase in class size limited his ability to support students individually, including conducting small group work to improve reading skills and personal interactions.
- Alvarez concludes with a reflection from a student living in a shelter, who reconsidered her aspiration to become a teacher after witnessing the challenges firsthand.
Fernando Alvarez
2:46:42
Good evening.
2:46:43
My name is Fernando Alvarez.
2:46:44
I'm a 4th grade teacher in East Harlem.
2:46:47
Also a product of the bilingual people services that was mentioned earlier.
2:46:52
I am here just to offer anecdotal data.
2:46:57
I've heard a lot of numbers, a lot of calculations, I'm just here talking about an experience I had recently.
2:47:05
I taught 3rd grade both both synchronous, lean, and hybrid the year following the lockdowns.
2:47:13
So 2020 to 2021 school year, And don't ask me how I was able to pull it off, but I did.
2:47:21
I I know it sounds cliche, but I really could not have done it.
2:47:25
Without the well established relationships I was able to develop with my students and their families.
2:47:31
I was going to their houses fixing iPads, delivering styluses, helping students do homework in the courtyard of project buildings.
2:47:45
So much so that I was asked by the parents to loop with those kids to teach them 4th grade.
2:47:55
And it happened.
2:47:56
We kept our relationship going.
2:47:59
But 12 students were added to the class.
2:48:02
12 students that I was gonna welcome with open arms and I really thought I could keep what I had going in the year prior, I was gonna able to keep going and keep doing it.
2:48:14
But it was very difficult It was very, very difficult.
2:48:18
I was limited.
2:48:19
I was stifled.
2:48:21
My time was spread out more, obviously.
2:48:25
The point where I would apologize that dismissal to the kids, for not being able to speak to them, for not being able to work one on one with them, for not being able to have lunch with them, to help them do their homework.
2:48:40
Those small groups to make what was mentioned earlier, the strong readers.
2:48:47
Those strong readers that would make the help make what was it the popular brand of my school that would make my school be a place where parents wanna bring their kids and keep their kids in my school.
2:49:03
It wasn't happening, and I just wanna end with a student of mine who lived in a shelter.
2:49:12
She told me one time, I wanted to meet a teacher.
2:49:17
But now that I see everything you have to do, I don't think so, I have to find something else.
2:49:23
So, that's it.
2:49:24
I just wanted to offer my experience and what I went through.
2:49:28
And I really appreciate everything you've done for for us and standing with us and letting teachers teach.
2:49:35
Thank you.