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November 1, 2009

Teaching through the flu

By STEPHEN BARTLETT

PLATTSBURGH — The key is to teach without getting too far ahead.

Slow lessons down, add details to stories and do busy work, says Rochelle Kraynak, a Social Studies teacher at Peru High School.

Educators are doing their best to adjust to the number of student absences at area schools over the past couple weeks. For many, the school day has changed as a result.

"Everyone is being so cooperative with each other and backing each other," Kraynak said. "There have been teachers giving up any free time they have to fill in."

Peru Central School closed this past Friday due to the number of absences among faculty and staff. Before that, the district saw nearly half it's Middle and High School student population out sick.

Area health officials say the hike in student absences was expected during a pandemic, and while it is unknown how many illnesses are flu-related, chances are if a student has influenza-like symptoms it is H1N1, also called swine flu. Waves of absences are expected to continue throughout the region in the coming week.

The highest absenteeism percentages have been reported in middle- and high-school populations.

Schools have rescheduled sporting events and activities due to the number of absences, and school districts have agreed to suspend the policy requiring a doctor's note prior to a student's return to school following an illness.

"I have been a teacher 25 to 26 years, and this is the worst I have seen it," Kraynak said. "When you have six kids in class and you usually have 16 to 20, you have more than half the class missing."

She's teaching a Regents course and has to get through the curriculum, but if she goes too far ahead she has to reteach the material when the rest of the class returns.

"Basically, you are trying to come up with creative, busy work," Kraynak said. "I can exaggerate a story a bit because I want to slow it down, but it's a challenge."

Many students at Plattsburgh City School have been receiving back-work lately and are able to utilize an extra help period, which was built into the Middle School and High School a number of years ago.

"School remains consistent, and students who are absent are obligated to make up the work," said Plattsburgh City School Superintendent James "Jake" Short. "Since we have virtually no busing, students are able to meet with any teacher after dismissal and get extra help while they are making up work."

When teachers are absent, they leave lesson plans for a substitute to follow.

"We are fortunate in Plattsburgh that the vast majority of substitutes we utilize are also certified teachers; this helps us maintain some consistency with the instructional program," Short said. "With all of that said, there still is no true substitute for the formal setting of teachers and students in a classroom."

And as long as there are enough bodies for the classrooms and bus routes, the school day will go on, stressed Beekmantown Central School Superintendent Scott Amo.

"It would be egregious not to conduct classes for the kids here in school."

At the same time, he said, Beekmantown doesn't want its teachers introducing new units of study while a significant number of students are out sick.

"We would rather reinforce material students already have gone over."

Guidance departments play a role in assisting those students who are missing school.

"We collect all the homework for all the kids that are out," said Jeff Ehrlich, a guidance counselor at Saranac High School. "Anything teachers feel kids missed in the classroom so they can stay current."

Ehrlich has never collected so much homework.

If a student is seriously ill and may be out for an extended period of time, the School District hires a tutor, who brings the work home to that student and goes over lessons.

"We are just trying to keep the kids current," Ehrlich said. "That's the most important thing to do."

E-mail Stephen Bartlett at: sbartlett@pressrepublican.com

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