It was a very odd summer for many school administrators. There were changing guidelines, shifting expectations, and just a whole lot of uncertainty about what school would look like in the fall. At our middle school, while nothing was official until further along in the summer, it was increasingly clear that our school would start in some format of distance learning. Upon this belief, I searched for ideas that might make the loss of in-person school a little less painful for our students and their families.
One idea I latched onto very early was the idea of a learning pod for our students. One of my early emails to our families used this terminology as something we would explore to best support all students. However, just as quickly as I began to figure out what this process would look like for our school, a huge backlash regarding learning pods surfaced within education. Questions of equality, equity, and whether or not a school should become involved in the process.
These conversations helped me refine my thinking on what I was truly looking for to best support our students. What I wanted was the opportunity for a student to select a friend to be in their classes. Thus, when they were on their Zooms together, they'd see a friendly face... when they were working on their assignments, they had someone to connect with who they already felt comfortable talking to... what I was searching for was for our students to have a classmate twin.
And so, that's what we offered our students: name a student who you'd like to share your four core academic classes with and, if they also name you, you'll be partnered together. Sounds simple, right?
It wasn't.
Behind the scenes, we were building a master schedule that we had never created before. We were on a time crunch to build student schedules quickly, as a promise I made to myself was to provide students their schedules as early as possible this year. The final schedule format was approved rather late in the summer, sending us scrambling to shove a 6 weeks process down to 6 days. Everything we were doing was to best support our students.
Nevertheless, we added the wrinkle of the classmate twin. I thought it would be really easy. Students just had to click on a link and fill out a 4 question form. That's it. Nothing more. We even developed a FAQ that answered every student/parent question that we could think of. Regardless, and perhaps this shouldn't have been a surprise, there was a flood of questions and special requests about the classmate twin process.
Can we be triplets? (no... just twins...)
Do I have to select my sibling? (check with mom and dad first... i'm fine with whomever you select)
Can I be a classmate twin with someone from a different grade? (exactly how would it work for a 7th grade to be a classmate twin with a 6th grader? what am I missing here?)
My student is new to UMS; we don't know anyone; how are we supposed to select a classmate twin? (you're right; it's hard to select a classmate twin when you don't know anyone - but that's ok... you aren't missing out; after all, most years this isn't even an option)
Can you extend the deadline until after school starts? (this doesn't even make any sense... that's not how a master schedule works)
The student my child wants to partner with doesn't want to partner with them. Can you make the classmate twins anyway? (yeah, no, not going to happen)
And so on....
I also received a lot of angry emails from parents. They were upset that I had only given them a week to find a classmate twin and only a half dozen notification reminders. They were upset that their child's two best friends had chosen each other and left their student without a classmate twin. They were upset that their student's best friend refused to fill out the form and reciprocate in the process. They were just upset.
Meanwhile, amidst all of these emails, we had our admin team working around the clock to make the necessary changes to all of the students' schedules who selected a classmate twin. We spent almost the entire weekend working on the classmate twin schedule requests. I personally paid two separate babysitters to watch my own kids on a Saturday afternoon so I had extra time to work on the schedule requests. And this wasn't us leaving the work to the last minute; the opportunity to select a classmate twin was jammed into our get-ready-for-school timeline and we just had to find the time.
In my mind, I thought the classroom twin process would be just a few clicks per student. I was wrong. I was very, very wrong. After the dozens and dozens of hours we spent checking the spreadsheet, comparing classmate twin schedules, adding classes, dropping classes, checking back to make sure all students had a full schedule... All I could think about was a question a colleague asked: knowing what you know now, would you have introduced the classmate twin idea for this school year?
Every single time I was asked or reflected on this question, I was able to provide an immediate answer: Absolutely not. Never again. It was a huge mistake and not worth the angry emails or time away from our families. It was just too much to do in such a short amount of time. Nothing could dissuade me from how certain I was that I'd never go through the classmate twin process again. I truly cannot express how labor intensive the process was behind the scenes for our admin team. We just couldn't ever subject ourselves to that kind of commitment with everything else that's going on at the start of the school year.
And then I got the following unsolicited email in early September, reprinted below with permission and slightly edited to hide the identity of the parent and their family.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Dear Mr. Feinberg,
Going from K-5 to MIDDLE SCHOOL was a milestone (my child) was looking forward to with much enthusiasm. But as we closed out 5th grade, we knew everything was now "subject to change" and we'd have to wait to see how the beginning of 6th grade was going to happen.
Right as summer break started, our family made a conscious decision to pair up with another student (and their family) from (elementary school Y) that we knew through soccer. Expanding our "bubble" with this other family gave both (students) some semblance of "fun" and excitement during summer break, and a chance to escape from being sequestered alone with their parents 24/7.
When your email came out announcing the opportunity to request a Class Twin for the academic year, it was like you had read our minds, heard our anxiety around the start of the school year, and offered a solution that felt like it was custom made for us. (Our daughter) and (their friend) were assigned to be Class Twins and have been navigating through the world of Union Middle School together. It not only has been fun for them to share the experience together, it's given the parents a chance to share oversight responsibilities too. The (students) alternate houses during the school week, which gives each set of parents (all 4 working from home) a day or two of fewer distractions and more opportunity to focus on work.
I'll take a page from your playbook -
TL/DR:
THANK YOU for the class twin program and for accommodating (our daughter's) and (their friend's) request. They are going through 6th grade right now together as they alternate between houses during the school week. It's gone a long way to helping all of us get through these unusual times together.
I hope you have a great holiday weekend.
Sincerely,
(Parent)
