Notes

- introduction and background in MCPS
Lily Liang

Eliana Wang - 7th grade
Sophie Huang - 7th grade
Stephanie Yang - 7th grade
Lily - Eliana's mom; 2 kids (older son goes to Blair); cofounder of CAPA

- general description of event (what/when:TPMS/where/how)
Eliana: Made signs, mom and her brought them over TP; one of the PTA members put up
Sophie: thank teachers for hard work for course of pandemic, welcoming them back; some of us aren't going back to school but we still wanted to
Stephanie: Other people helped too; other Takoma Park classmates
Dr Liang: total 9 students, all TPMS magnet students and Chinese Americans
principal mentioned at an exec board meeting that staff would be back on Mar 1
asked if anyone wanted to make signs, as it has been really hard for teachers this past year
"Considering the past Chinese American community's support to the school, I thought we could initiate a project...so that's how the idea started forming. Amazingly, many parents decided to support this initiative in a very short amount of time - in only 3 days. All these students who signed up through their parents - within 72 hours, all projects had been delivered to Takoma Park so the PTA could put signs up on Monday morning. We got really great feedback and comments from the principal. We got 10 signs within 72 hours -- that's the power of the Chinese American community. It conveys the message of how much the students care about the teachers and want to support." - Dr Liang

signs
- sophie: my sign says tysm (kinda looks like tpms spelled wrong). family helped with sign - butterfly was dad's idea. Spring poster "Because spring is also taken as a sign of hope, I decided to incorporate butterflies and plants
- eliana: lanterns from Chinese New Year; stickers;
- stephanie: k-pop album called HOPEWORLD inspired

visiting the school
eliana:
- people just brought them to eliana's house on sunday afternoon
- her mom and her drove to the Takoma park area; then a PTA member put them up
- also for when students picked up materials: blew up balloons and tied into bouquet

staff reaction
sophie:
- heard other parents//teachers talking about how teachers were glad to be able to see the signs


- what motivated you to organize this event?
- general thoughts or feelings about reopening plan?
sophie:
- dont know why they chose each grade for each time slot-- 7th grade is scheduled for last time slot
- likes option of choosing hybrid / virtual (bc some students need to go to school as their parents work) bc its flexible
stephanie:
- new and challenging for teachers to teach both on zoom and in class at the same time
- but will also be really happy to see students again

- what they missed about being in person
sophie:
- see friends, interact in person (body language; communication)
- harder to learn because there isn't something in front of you that you can touch and interact with to learn
- don't get to get handon experience
eliana:
- math competitions w/o proctors in the room. now her mom watches her every move
stephanie:
- being able to interact with others and materials

- enjoyed about distance learning
eliana:
- use phones at home
sophie:
- more flexible
- less awkward
- more access to google

- general feelings
sophie:
- sense of duty/responsibility that she should take
- teachers sacrificed a lot of time to learn how to teach virtually
- a lot of different methods of teaching
- have also incorporated new grading system
- so we should do something in response
stephanie:
- excited to work on an art project again
- really nice that she could create these messages for teachers
eliana:
- a small thing

dr liang
- a great experience for her too
- really touched by the power of her community
- "I felt it was a privilege and blessing to see how creative our Chinese American youth are. They have these talents that are not being noticed...As these students are in the STEM magnet program, their other talents may not be recognized."

other community service
- participated in other com. service
- organized county fair info session & at county fair
- a tradition in the montgomery county community -- contributing to county fair
- capa does a lot of events for volunteering (ITeach club, Youth Service club -- baking cookies for pandemic, etc)

- do you have any info on how the first wave of students going back has gone?



- do you think transitioning back may compound health concerns or issues?



student:
- are you choosing hybrid/virtual? why?
sophie: virtual; not everyone has gotten vaccine -- may be safer; values sleep
eliana: virtual; likes the flexibility
stephanie: hybrid; mom's decision (personally prefer virtual for waking up later & don't really live near TPMS so have to take bus)