Author: Danielle Castonzo

What is your title? What class do you teach and what grades? 

I’m our Middle School Global Awareness teacher, which is a blend of social studies and civics. I teach 6th through 8th grade.  

My class curriculum is based on social justice and civics. We try to blend in social justice with anything we would teach in a typical social studies class – geographies, politics, economy.  

How long have you been at Christopher House? What draws you to this work and Christopher House? 

This is my third year teaching at Christopher House. I really love teaching social studies, and the entire organization is based on the wellbeing of our students and their families. I can see just how beneficial that is not only to the students, but to our staff and families as well. I know I’m at a very special place.  

Can you explain what the social justice standards are? 

This year, we started implementing Teaching Tolerance’s K-12 social justice standards into every elementary and middle school class. The standards have four categories—identity, diversity, justice, and action. At Christopher House, we’ve been having these conversations in the classroom for years, but now we are officially following the standards.  

The social justice standards focus on how people are being treated and how they are perceived in society. I try to implement these into every lesson. It doesn’t really matter the content; there’s always a social justice angle for how it affects the society.  

The justice and action standards are most relevant to Global Awareness. In the action standard, we move beyond just teaching and give students the opportunity to see that their thoughts and actions can help others. 

What do the standards look like in the classroom? 

A social studies teacher could not be more fortunate because this year, we’ve had so many events to talk about in the classroom. For example, today, we talked about white privilege, which aligns with the justice standard. After the insurrection on the Capitol, we talked about the constitution, systemic racism, the 25th amendment and how that could affect the presidency, police brutality, and equal protection under the law.  

I think of my classroom as a living, breathing classroom—I’m not a worksheet person. The class is driven around what’s actually going on, so our sources are unlimited. I encourage students to find and fact check information to make sure it’s reliable and not opinion-based. We take resources from many different places, like newsela, which has articles on current events geared toward young people, and PBSLearningMedia.  

The foundation of Global Awareness is sifting through media and determining what can be used. We talk about evaluating sources, where the information is coming from, if the information is biased. Students need to be able to determine whether something is real or fake. We’re surrounded by so many different avenues of information, which is why you need different sources and critical thinking skills.  

How have you addressed the political and social unrest and violence this year with your scholars? 

We’ve had forums on pretty much every current event that has taken place in the past year: Black Lives Matter, COVID, the vaccine rollout. My students have written op eds about Black Lives Matter, and we’ve talked about the murder of Breonna Taylor and written reflections on that. We’re now going to be focusing on the election and the aftermath of the Trump presidency.  

Every week, we have Mic Time, which is like a townhall. Students can request mic time and give their take on things. It’s been one of the best things we’ve done, and remote learning is kind of making that happen. Students can continue the conversation in the chat while someone is sharing.  

What role does education play in building a brighter, more equitable future? 

When it comes to social justice, we have to be able to engage with our students. If there’s something that is not right or an injustice—even if it happened 500 years ago—we need to call those things out. We need to discuss how that society handled it then and how it affects the world today.  

We also need to give students the skills to be critical thinkers. Don’t sell the students short , respect what they have to say. We shouldn’t refrain from discussing things because they’re too heavy. As educators, we need to bring the real world into a safe place to discuss and see how these things relate to our students.  

If your class is vibrant, the kids will be engaged. I tell my students all the time, I’m very proud of them, and I’m happy to come to work. I look forward to coming to class.  

Since COVID, there have been so many news stories, and they’re all relevant to everybody. There’s no one who can say it doesn’t affect me. It’s just really made my students more aware.  

After the year we’ve had, what makes you hopeful? 

My students are going to be a little bit stronger than they would’ve been without this tough year. One of the biggest things is that students are really getting to see how systemic racism and social inequity is so pervasive in almost every aspect of the American culture and way of life. I’m hopeful they can see these examples and say, this is what will be needed to reverse this. They’ll approach things from the lens of, how can we make this better? That is my hope.  

Our K-8 elementary school is currently conducting all virtual classes due to COVID-19. Although we have never had a school year that looks quite like this, one thing that has remained the same is our teacher’s commitment to our scholars. In this series, we’ll highlight our teachers and staff and the ways they’ve adapted to continue educating and supporting scholars through this unprecedented time.

How long have you been with Christopher House?

Four years.

Can you explain your role? What classes do you teach?

I teach the Music Technology elective for 6th, 7th, and 8th graders. I also teach a general music class for K-5th graders. A group of middle schoolers formed a little band last week, and they all want to play music together and learn more, so I’m also helping them out.

How has COVID-19 impacted your work?

It’s changed a lot because so much of what we did before was playing instruments. We’re not able to play instruments together now; we are limited to singing and a lot of digital work. We’re reviewing songs we learned last year, we know dozens of songs together. For all those songs, I make lyric videos and post them on Youtube, and they can review all the lyrics. I’ve posted at least 25 songs that they know or are learning with lyrics.

I see my K-5th grade scholars twice a week for a half-hour of live sessions. I also give them a half-hour of work to do on their own once we log off the live meeting. During the live classes, I go over our composition projects and we sing together. But singing is pretty weird with the time delay on the videos!

In what ways have you innovated to stay connected to scholars in a virtual environment?

There are so many programs the kids work with online, from music games to music composition software.

The youngest ones use Chrome Music Lab, which explores different music ideas like sound recording and different types of instruments. One of the features of Chrome Music Lab is the Song Maker, an online composition maker that allows students to save and share their work. They compose things and post their work on my Google Classroom. I can hear it and provide feedback, and they can also listen to each other and give each other feedback.

The older kids are currently learning Bandlab, which is perfect for older kids. It’s really sophisticated and almost identical to what professional musicians use to create and edit sounds. They’ve been introduced before, but now we’re spending more time on it. They can make professional-sounding songs on this program. The middle school just started their first soundtrack project, where they’re making music for videos. I put together a two-minute sci-fi video and the kids are making the soundtrack for that.

What are you most looking forward to after the pandemic is over?

Seeing the kids! They miss each other, and we all miss playing music in the same room. We do our best virtually, but it’s obviously not the same.

I also miss having casual conversation with the kids. They like to log on early and just talk to each other; they’re really missing their friends.

Why is art education so important during a global pandemic/time of unrest?

I try to make our music class a relaxing and joyous time together. Without the pressure of having to perform for school, the students are just having fun and being creative and making music, and I find it’s genuinely comforting for them during this difficult time.

With the closure of our schools in March due to COVID-19, so much has changed about the way we conduct learning in our pre-school, elementary, and middle school classrooms. But one thing that hasn’t changed is our commitment to our scholars and families. In this series, we’ll highlight our teachers and staff and the ways they’ve adapted to continue educating and supporting scholars through COVID-19.

How long have you been with Christopher House?

This is my second year at Christopher House.

Can you explain your role? What are your main responsibilities?

I take the lead when it comes to getting the team together, lesson planning, and looking at student work. When the shelter in place order began, I took the lead in setting up Google Classroom and remote learning. I set the agenda for the team and make sure we’re all on the same page.

How has COVID-19 impacted your work?

We’ve had to be really innovative and think on our feet about what would be best for our kids. Especially with the younger kids, we don’t use as much technology in the classroom, so it took a lot of getting used to. Our kids have never used Google Classroom, so we had to set that up and create tutorials. We also started doing Google Hangouts, which is new for us.

In first grade, reading groups are really important. They’re in really different places; some kids are reading chapter books and others are learning their letters. Now, we’re doing small reading groups on Google Hangouts. I take a book from our reading app and pull it up on my screen, share it with the students, and we take turns reading a line each. Sometimes we’ll go back and read it all together and have comprehension questions at the end. It’s very different from what I’m used to, but I’m glad we’re making it work and still seeing growth from the kids.

How are you continuing to connect with students and families?

In the elementary school, we already had the Remind App to communicate with parents. At the very beginning, we double checked that we had all the parents on Remind. I communicate daily with all my parents. Sometimes they’ll message me and ask questions, and I’ll walk them through it. Sometimes, some of the kids just want to say hi or talk to their friends, so we’ll set things like that up, too. Not all the kids can be there during school hours, so I record the lessons and post it on Google Classroom so they can go back and watch it. It’s been really nice having the technology.

The leadership team has been instrumental in making the technology accessible to everyone. From day one, Principal Novy made sure everyone took a computer home. She made sure families could get set up with free WiFi and that any family who couldn’t set it up was being mailed work packets. Everyone is being offered something, which is a big difference from Chicago Public Schools. They’ve had a lot of difficulty getting out technology and getting every kid connected. I’m really grateful to leadership for having this technology in place already.

What are you most looking forward to after quarantine?

I really want to get back in my classroom and see my kids. I feel like there’s going to be a lot of time spent getting adjusted. I think they’re going to be really happy to be back and really grateful to be in a classroom and have fun things to do and get that camaraderie back. It’s not academic, but that’s what I want to focus on at the beginning of the school year.

What advice do you give students/families for coping with COVID-19?

We’ve taken a really non-judgmental approach to all this. Everyone is in such a different place. Even though we have daily assignments, we really just want them to complete what’s comfortable and what they can do. As long as I’m hearing something from them at least once a week, then I’m happy. I know they’re doing the best that they can right now.

Anything else you want to share?

I recently got one poem that made me feel special for Teacher Appreciation week: