Post by traveltheworld on May 14, 2020 11:27:18 GMT -5
Our school district started distance learning in mid-March and it will last till end of June. We are not sure what the format of delivery will be for September. DS is in grade 2 and gets 2 daily assignments, a 30 minute zoom small group meeting once a week, and a one-hour "social meeting" with the whole class a week. His teacher has not provided any feedback on any of the work he has turned in - and some of them, like his writing assignments, clearly could benefit from feedback.
3 of the 4 grade 2 classes are very much like ours. One of them has a great teacher who does daily zoom, gives feedback on assignments, and generally checks in with the kids. A few parents I know have tried to give feedback, but all requests were met with some pretty passive aggressive responses. I can't quite figure out what the teachers are doing - given that all the assignments are the same across 4 teachers and 3 of them are not marking anything, how much time are they actually spending on teaching?
On one hand, as DH points out, we are not really affected. We could easily just give feedback on DS's writing ourselves, and he has an IEP and doesn't work on grade level materials for any other area; but on the other hand, I feel like this is an issue that goes beyond how DS is doing. I know that there are quite a number of kids who are struggling, but their parents are either new immigrants (and has language barriers) or are barely staying afloat themselves.
Just wondering what other peoples' experiences have been and thoughts on whether our group of parents should escalate this to the principal.
I honestly would cut the teacher a huge amount of slack. I know parents are super concerned their kid will be behind and all that, but the thing is this is affecting every single kid in your district/city/state/country/the world so they will all be going back at some point a little behind. The teachers are having to learn an entire new way of teaching while actually doing it, they might have their own children home with them that they are also trying to keep on on their classes, they are having a ton of meetings with their teams and admins. And you are saying that the class has a ton of immigrant families that likely the teacher is spending a lot of additional time trying to help and make sure they are able to access the material and help their own kids. I don’t think it’s fair to say “you don’t know what the teacher is doing.” They are probably doing a ton that you aren’t thinking about and don’t have to.
In a global pandemic the rules about everything change (including school work and school expectations) and that’s okay. Your kid will probably be fine, even if he doesn’t get a whole lot of feedback at the moment in 2nd grade. Other generations have had much bigger educational disruptions and ended up okay. Our kids will be okay.
So we are in a small Catholic school - one class per grade - so our experience has been different than others that I've spoken to. We have also been doing distance learning since mid-March.
DD2 is in 1st grade. She has 40 minute zoom calls with her class on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. They do different things- math lessons, they just started a science unit of caterpillars so they are doing an observation, weekly dictation, weekly spelling quiz is administered on Friday. In addition, she has a weekly 1:1 zoom call with her teacher. The teacher evaluates her reading, helps her with anything she's having trouble with. She also has weekly zoom art class, spanish class, and Mass. She also has several instructional videos that the teacher records each week to teach Math or read a story. I have turned in several packets of physical work for DD2, and I just received one packet back last week with check marks everywhere - no comments. Last week we received official progress reports from the school, but other than that, I've received no feedback from the teacher.
DD1 is in 4th grade. The 4th and 5th grade teachers team-teach - 4th grade teacher does their homeroom, reading, and religion, and then teaches math and science for 4th and 5th. DD1 goes to the 5th grade teacher for ELA and Social Studies. She has one weekly zoom call with each teacher (so 2 calls a week). Her teachers also hold "office hours" once a week if kids need 1:1 help or just want to say hi via zoom. She also has spanish, art, and Mass once a week. I have not dropped off any work yet - first drop-off and pick up is tomorrow. But she gets a number of things assigned through a Learning Management System. She is responsible for navigating the LMS, commenting in appropriate places, uploading assignments, typing in answers, taking quizzes and tests through the LMS. She has to watch videos for math, science, and reading that the teachers record each week, and she has to record and post answers on another site. I receive progress reports from her teachers weekly - that's what they've done all year. All students in 4th and 5th receive reports from both teachers weekly. Right now they outline all assignments completed, missed, and grades. Math is killing her right now.
In our town, schools closed on March 12, and distance learning started somewhere around April 15th. This consisted of about 30 minutes work of work posted to google classroom. They started zooms last week. It's varying greatly across schools and even within schools. Some elementary teachers are recording themselves teaching math or reading stories. Others are completely silent. Our district is way behind what other local districts are doing.
If you've tried to get feedback from the teacher, I'd escalate to the principal - just let her know that you're wondering how DS is doing. I don't see anything wrong with that.
I would... not escalate to the principal. Your kid is like EVERY OTHER KID on the face of the planet right now and having their education affected. But unlike a lot of kids right now, your kid has access to technology and devices, parents who "could" provide feedback, and since you brought up that many students are new immigrants, yours have a huge advantage of that you speak English fluently and can assist with homework whereas others in your distrct may not be able.
Are you spending 100% of your time on work right now? Because I know I sure as heck am not and most of the parents I know are not. I have two kids who need attention, lessons, lunch, play, discipline, etc. If my boss or a client came to me and told me I was doing a poor job of working during a crisis or that I could be doing more, they'd be LUCKY if all they were met with were passive aggressive responses.
Our teachers are giving feedback. I am assuming this is a leadership mandate as well as they are good teachers.
1st grade- 1 sight word, 1 reading, 1 math per day on Seasaw and comments are there. The teacher has reached out via email and phone. There are multiple surveys. Google Meet Wednesdays and Fridays for fun.
3rd grade- Same district so same high standards for teachers. 1 math and 1 reading but they are more involved. Daily except Wednesday, 9:30 am advanced math teacher, 11:30 am classroom teacher for reading Google Meets. Managed mostly though Google Classroom.
We are a 1:1 technology district, and I have chrome books for both kids. I realize like many PP said that I am privileged. We still have our jobs, I am able to help them in the morning and work in the afternoon. The 1:1 technology district is awesome, and we have good internet.
Have you reached out to the teacher for feedback on the assignments and get snarky answers? If people are snarky, that is not professional. But if they are basically saying hey my workload is too much to do feedback (which actually takes longer than being in the onsite classroom) then there is not much you can do there. They might have kids at home that they are helping as well with their remote lessons with no childcare. So no, I would not escalate.
I guess I was thinking about feedback as more of “Hey, is there anything I should be doing with DS? How is he doing in general?” If you’re getting a snarky response to questions like that, I’d escalate.
Are any report cards coming out this year? Would that provide enough feedback?
Our distance learning keeps changing. We went to 100% optional to you have to show engagement by showing up to 2 social zooms to now we have to turn in the 1 random assignment the teacher decides you need to do. DD's teacher has comment on all assignments DD has turn in but it isn't feedback just thanks for turning it in or that looks cool. Most of the turn in has been art related.
DD's teacher this year is amazing at communicating and she has been really awesome at helping me get DD extra stuff and helping DD with some of the extra stuff with 1 on 1 zoom time. If this was happening last year it would have been miserable and I would have completely given up on school by now.
I would just leave it be. I know a number of teachers that are barely holding it together between a ton of mandatory zoom meetings, IEP stuff, class zoom meetings, and the million emails let alone if they have kids at home. I know our teacher is working crazy hours as one of the class zoom meetings don't start until 7pm because so many parents wanted evening class times.
I have a IEP distance learning question. We signed DD's speech IEP 3 days before this all went crazy. I just got an email link from the speech pathologist giving me a list of random exercises to do with DD. Some of it is mental health related and other is speech related but not on the sound she is struggling with. DD hadn't even had her first session with the speech pathologist at school. How am I supposed to help her on something she hasn't started? It is also on the sound that I can't say correctly myself so I can't hear it when she says it wrong unless it is really off.
Post by erinshelley21 on May 14, 2020 13:13:27 GMT -5
I wouldn't take this to the principal. That principal is already dealing with operating a school under a pandemic and the rule book for that didn't exist until the pandemic started so it is being written as they go.
I'll be honest, and maybe this is a FFFC, I haven't checked DS's grades a single time. Granted he is in K, but his grades before this were fine. His handwriting is atrocious and the kid is spelling words wrong that are literally right in front of his face for him to copy because that is the assignment. I don't care what his grades are right now. What I care about is that he is at least doing what he is told to do and should give his best effort even if no one is necessarily looking or grading it.
I've got second graders as well. From my experience, the teachers know which families need more hand holding, and they're providing that and just trying to get some families to even respond and acknowledge anything. Families that are getting by on their own, they're more hands off. They only have so much bandwidth to spread around, so you're probably in the hands off group since you are getting by ok.
As far as any grades or feedback, I know the teachers track if the kids are doing it, because we've been called out on not completing assignments. That's when I told the teacher to back off basically. They review simple things on Zoom calls. But otherwise, nothing has been graded and sent back to us in any way. I don't really care. It is what it is at this point.
I have a second grader, and I have let him take the reins with respect to his e-learning (particularly because my semester was wrapping up and I was swamped with my own students). Two weeks in I texted his messaged his teacher just to check how he was doing. She sent me one line saying that he is participating in everything, and doing a good job. Which is all the feedback I've gotten, but really all that I was hoping for as well. I just wanted to make sure that he wasn't skipping stuff that he should have been doing.
Yeah, our kids are having quizzes and tests and nothing is optional. DD1 is a total crapshoot re:whether or not she does an assignment, does it correctly, turns it in, etc because I stopped helping her because all she did was scream. So I rely on that feedback because she’s getting graded and will receive a report card at the end of the term.
We have more work and feedback than we would like for my 2nd grader - her teacher is amazing and I can tell she's working really hard, but DH and I are both working all day and watching two other kids for half the day so there's not much time to help DD or makes sure she's getting it done. DH thinks we should just forget about it, but I feel like we need to make an effort. We're probably getting about half of the "must dos" done per day, and none of the "may dos." She probably has 3 must-do tasks of varying difficulty in each of 5 subject areas per day - so 15 must-do assignments total per day. Her teacher holds two zooms each day - one for some kind of 20-30 minute lesson, one for sort of "office hours" if kids have questions. I suggested paying DD but DH doesn't like that idea.
We started online learning on April 2nd. Our school district provides chromebooks for everyone in grades 3 - 12 (even before all of this started). The new grading process is: K does not have any grading for this grading period. Grades 1 - 8 will receive pass/fail only. Grades 9 - 12 will receive letter grades. DD is in 5th grade. She has an assignment everyday in her core subjects (ELA, science, social studies, math) and a weekly assignment in her specials (gym, band, computers). The assignments are posted in Google Classroom. They may point you to a website for a lesson or direct you to the teacher's YouTube channel. Then there is a form or document that has to be filled out and submitted. Almost all of her teachers respond pretty quickly. Assignments are graded and I've been checking our online grades system to make sure DD is turning them in. She usually has one Zoom meeting per week with her ELA teacher. DS1 is in K. His teacher sends a checklist and documents every Sunday. The checklist shows what to work on every day (ELA, math, specials). At the end of the week, we sign the checklist and send a pic of it to the teacher. DS1 usually has one Zoom meeting a week with his K class. His K teacher responds to emails pretty quickly.
I believe all of the teachers in the school district have core hours that they are to be available for questions and concerns. The principals have asked parents to reach out to them for any issues with internet, special needs, tech issues, etc. The district has also updated their main website to include a lot of useful info on resources. Our district is also providing free lunch to any child under 18 in the township 3x per week.
I agree with a lot of other posts on here. The teachers are probably juggling just as much as we are (WFH + kids at home). I think it's also due to the teacher's personality/style. Some teachers are really hands-on and on top of everything. There are also some that are laid back or are struggling to connect with the students. And there are plenty in between these extremes. But I also agree that if your questions/concerns to the teacher are met with snarky responses, then that is not very professional. We only have two weeks of school left here. My kids' grades are great and they seem to be understanding the new material, so I would be hesitant to escalate. However, traveltheworld, if your child is struggling with the new material and has been before this started, I might get a little pushy with the teacher or principal (not in mean way, but from the concerned parent POV). Everyone is going to be behind at the start of next school year. The teachers know this and I'm sure their plans will be made accordingly.
My belief is that distance learning is highly likely to be in place when we return after summer and/or something that we return to if infections spike. While the first few weeks of distance learning were very ad-hoc at some point we have to pivot to a higher quality learning experience then we are receiving.
Feedback is not optional. Teachers are not doing live teaching at our public school for various reasons (privacy concerns, technical challenges, etc) so work is mostly independent and so feedback is exceptionally critical in that context. I am not sure you can really consider there to be any teaching without it given that students read and digest with no support.
I would ask the teacher for feedback before addressing this at a higher level. If your teacher does not provide it then I would consider escalating. Some flexibility is of course needed but teachers are supposed to be working and supporting students at this time and it sounds like you're just not getting much of anything.
I would... not escalate to the principal. Your kid is like EVERY OTHER KID on the face of the planet right now and having their education affected. But unlike a lot of kids right now, your kid has access to technology and devices, parents who "could" provide feedback, and since you brought up that many students are new immigrants, yours have a huge advantage of that you speak English fluently and can assist with homework whereas others in your distrct may not be able.
Are you spending 100% of your time on work right now? Because I know I sure as heck am not and most of the parents I know are not. I have two kids who need attention, lessons, lunch, play, discipline, etc. If my boss or a client came to me and told me I was doing a poor job of working during a crisis or that I could be doing more, they'd be LUCKY if all they were met with were passive aggressive responses.
I think that was exactly why I want to say something and DH is very much taking the "why do we care" attitude. Because my kid is not struggling, but there are a lot of families whose kids are struggling and I want to point this out as a systematic issue. For example, one of the parents reached out to the teacher to ask for help because the assignments were not clear. After a week of no responses, she emailed again and was told that it was not a graded assignment so she shouldn't worry about it. Um...what about the child actually understanding the concept? Another parent asked whether the teacher could organize more than 1 google meet per week as it would help the kids feel more connected to the teacher/their friends and was told that the parents are more than welcome to organize that themselves and she (the teacher) doesn't see why she needs to be there for that. The same parent followed up and ask if she can set up links on Google Classroom for these meet-ups or get the class email list so we can organize Zoom calls, and no response. We've also asked if there could be a weekly office hour arranged (1 HOUR) where the kids could ask questions and was told that if a child has a question, the parent can just email her directly.
I have tried really hard to think about what else the teacher is doing - not that I expect her to work 100%, but I genuinely can't even think of 30%. Aside from the weekly 1/2 hour google classroom, there's nothing.
Honestly I think I'm more inflamed about this than I otherwise would be because another parent just forwarded me the teacher's latest response to her request to please post the Google classroom meet-up link 5 minutes before the schedule time so that we can log on ahead of time to take care of any tech issues and was met with a "if you were in a regular classroom, I'd expect the class to start on the dot, so I don't see how Google classroom would be any different." As I have almost consistently failed to get DS on at exactly the right time and he gets upset every time that he's "late", that was really something I was hoping could be easily fixed (um...just post the link ahead of time?!?!). I probably need to just calm down first.
Yeah her responses leave a lot to be lacking. However, I would let the parents affected reach out to the principal if they want to rather than me doing so if I didn't have an issue personally.
traveltheworld, We get the links for the 3 zoom meetings a head of time. We get the code Friday for the following week and class dojo sends us a reminder 1 hour before class time. DD always logs in 5 minutes early and waits for her teacher to admit them to class. That is a bad attitude for the teacher to have about google class meet-up link and I can guarantee no elementary class starts 100% on time all the time. Jeez DD's class gets let in in the mornings at school 15 minutes early and they still don't start when the bell rings.
My belief is that distance learning is highly likely to be in place when we return after summer and/or something that we return to if infections spike. While the first few weeks of distance learning were very ad-hoc at some point we have to pivot to a higher quality learning experience then we are receiving.
Feedback is not optional. Teachers are not doing live teaching at our public school for various reasons (privacy concerns, technical challenges, etc) so work is mostly independent and so feedback is exceptionally critical in that context. I am not sure you can really consider there to be any teaching without it given that students read and digest with no support.
I would ask the teacher for feedback before addressing this at a higher level. If your teacher does not provide it then I would consider escalating. Some flexibility is of course needed but teachers are supposed to be working and supporting students at this time and it sounds like you're just not getting much of anything.
hocus2 this is what I'm afraid of - that distance learning is here to stay. I'm OK with my kids not learning much for a few months this year, but I'm concerned about them not learning for all of next year, or only half time in the classroom. For the fall, if schools don't open or only open half time, what are other WPs (who can afford some help) planning to do? I'm wondering if private schools are more likely to open because there's not the issue of teachers unions blocking it/they need revenue? Or would anyone try to hire a private tutor/nanny for when the kids aren't in school?
sdlaura , I'm just trying to get through May/ June. I have no idea what I will do in the fall if school doesn't open. I will definitely be crying.
It might be possible that the aftercare might provide care? And maybe elearning if school is open part time/ staggered shift and aftercare takes the other shift?
Maybe if the Cares Act is still available I will have to take months off with that.
It's possible to hire a nanny and have them do e-learning. That wouldn't be my first choice because then I feel like I have to get into nanny taxes, health insurance, unemployment and disability insurance. But maybe a part time babysitter where I am not tied to the same regulations? Not sure where that cut off is....
I thought about hiring a teacher this summer to do catch up learning with DS for writing, but I settled on a writing workbook for now that I will enforce. I did writing with him last summer, so it's not a new thing for us.
Our 2nd grade e-learning is still a joke. The "assignments" and meeting links are posted on Sunday for the week and you pick one item from each chart to do each day. For example, today DD1 picked a word and then wrote down as many words as she could think of that rhyme with it, 20 minutes of reading, two pages in her math book and then wrote in her journal. There is no actual teaching or curriculum to follow. Do the math sheets but without actually learning the concepts. Nothing is turned in or graded. We don't get any feedback from the teacher. The teacher does a 20 minute video meeting with the class each day to socialize and maybe play a game. Then, we can also sign up for one 20 minute small group session each week.
Honestly, I've let it go and am calling it a year for this school year. We will do our best at home with getting her to do some form of learning for an hour a day.
Your teacher's answers seem unacceptable to me though.
sdlaura , I'm just trying to get through May/ June. I have no idea what I will do in the fall if school doesn't open. I will definitely be crying.
It's possible to hire a nanny and have them do e-learning. That wouldn't be my first choice because then I feel like I have to get into nanny taxes, health insurance, unemployment and disability insurance. But maybe a part time babysitter where I am not tied to the same regulations? Not sure where that cut off is....
The cut off for not filing taxes on a household employee is very low. I believe it is a $2,200 per year.
Post by traveltheworld on May 14, 2020 16:40:43 GMT -5
k3am, no worries. I think I have an odd attachment to this issue because I WAS the kid with new immigrant parents who didn't speak English, and now my kids lead a very privileged life and I have many feels about that, none that I can articulate eloquently. I just think if this is how little his teacher is doing, then the kids who are truly struggling are probably being left behind.
That's also why I thought the email might be better received coming from me, rather than the other parents. The principal knows DS well and would hopefully think that I'm just trying to help improve the process for everyone. I wasn't planning on criticizing any one teacher, but more of a "hey, here are a few things that I think would be helpful to standardize the service delivery and make life easier for the teachers, parents and kids". Like for example, one of the Grade 2 teachers posts a weekly schedule with assignments and links included, they could share that among all Grade 2 classes since they all have the same assignments.
sdlaura, I can't remember how old your kids are, but DS has been doing really well using various on-line platforms. We use Beast Academy for math, Midnight Zookeeper for creative writing, and he does Outschool classes for special interests. All those can be done independently. So between all that and reading, he's mostly occupied for 5 to 6 hours a day. DD, who is 5, is a lot harder. But I think we'll sign her up for more Outschool classes, and hopefully between that and kindergarten (I know that both of the kindergarten teachers in the school are doing lots with the kids), she'll be mostly occupied.
hocus2 this is what I'm afraid of - that distance learning is here to stay. I'm OK with my kids not learning much for a few months this year, but I'm concerned about them not learning for all of next year, or only half time in the classroom. For the fall, if schools don't open or only open half time, what are other WPs (who can afford some help) planning to do? I'm wondering if private schools are more likely to open because there's not the issue of teachers unions blocking it/they need revenue? Or would anyone try to hire a private tutor/nanny for when the kids aren't in school?
My friend's kid attends a local private. I think they are less likely to open to be honest. However their e-learning is far more substantial. They have a bell schedule and there is live instruction for several hours. Students wear their uniforms.
My kids are split public/private and while my kid isn't wearing a uniform he is having more instruction and I would expect them to either open or build on what they do now. They may have a hybrid model of days at school and e-learning.
I think we have a good enough elearning system/various apps through our school but I’m not willing to have that be half my kids’ school for the full school year next year. My kids aren’t into it - they need a person to help them. And I’m not interested in spending half of the next school year nagging them to do it.
If we continue to have e-learning I’ll need to hire someone to help with it - because no matter how good it is, DH and I can’t do it while working FT. So that’s my option for the fall if schools aren’t open FT.
When I spoke to my kids’ principal earlier this week, the first thing I asked her was how she was doing. I thought she was going to cry. She said she misses the kids so much and really wants to go back... and then said she’s pretty sure that we won’t go back in Sept.
We aren’t an independent school, though. We have to follow the archdiocese. The archdiocese actually closed the schools before the governor did.
Post by mustardseed2007 on May 14, 2020 17:28:22 GMT -5
Has anyone thought about pulling their kid from public school and doing full homeschooling?
I don't understand how I would handle that but its a subject in a lot of mom groups I'm in. The public school's distance learning curriculum isn't great apparently, and so some people are wondering if they don't have the OPTION of sending their kids to a building, maybe they should purchase home school curriculum that is truly built for home schooling.
Has anyone thought about pulling their kid from public school and doing full homeschooling?
I don't understand how I would handle that but its a subject in a lot of mom groups I'm in. The public school's distance learning curriculum isn't great apparently, and so some people are wondering if they don't have the OPTION of sending their kids to a building, maybe they should purchase home school curriculum that is truly built for home schooling.
The thought of it makes me want to cry.
My mom brought this up last weekend. She's a secretary at an elementary school and is responsible for sending out homeschool materials that are provided by the school. She said many parents are considering going this route instead of sending their kids back to school in the fall. I was shocked, mostly because I'm in my bubble here on the WP and see how hard it has been for everyone.
Has anyone thought about pulling their kid from public school and doing full homeschooling?
I don't understand how I would handle that but its a subject in a lot of mom groups I'm in. The public school's distance learning curriculum isn't great apparently, and so some people are wondering if they don't have the OPTION of sending their kids to a building, maybe they should purchase home school curriculum that is truly built for home schooling.
The thought of it makes me want to cry.
My mom brought this up last weekend. She's a secretary at an elementary school and is responsible for sending out homeschool materials that are provided by the school. She said many parents are considering going this route instead of sending their kids back to school in the fall. I was shocked, mostly because I'm in my bubble here on the WP and see how hard it has been for everyone.
I can't fathom doing this in normal times, but if my kid is going to be in my house anyway, then having a curriculum that is designed to be done at home and that gives us flexibility to work our own hours and at our own pace might be better??? (it still sounds horrible).
The thing is - there's a cool aspect to home schooling that we would never be able to manage. That is, doing things like going on lots of field trips or whatever. I was home all day and did not work with my kids at all.
If I was a SAHP then I would consider this more seriously than I am at the moment.