Tips for helping kids succeed with hybrid learning?

Sorry I can't help you, but I wanted to let you know that you should count your blessings. My kids have been in face-to-face school for over a month now, no other options available, and it's turning into a nightmare. Every day at least five or six kids, per class, are missing because of a sniffle or something similar. All courses are being taught in "intensive" mode in the hope that if schools are forced to close that at least kids will have some base to fall back on. The problem with that is that if a kid misses one or two days, it's almost impossible to catch up. My kids haven't missed a day yet, but their schools are a huge mess and my older son's (14, grade 9) school has a group out self-quarantining pending test results.

Yesterday, my stupid province (the most stupid province in Canada) announced that we are on red alert because of increasing cases. As a result, all restaurants and bars are closed (except for takeout) and no one who doesn't live in our homes is allowed to visit, either indoors or out, for a month. However, and here's the kick, schools will remain open no matter what.

We are not a rich province and I think the big problem is accessibility to technology, hence the butthead stance on in person school. I understand that all children are entitled to an equal education experience and at this point I'm good with just cancelling the entire school year. I am so discouraged.  

I have no advice but I sympathize with you. I'm so, so glad my 4th grader is back in school full time, he's smart and above grade level in most areas but I swear he'd fail if he had to do it all online, especially if he didn't have someone who could sit next to him and keep him on track all day. I don't know how parents and teachers do it. I do think it's ok to reach out to his teacher for advice or to ask if he could redo some work, especially since it's early in the year. Also, you say he had one bad grade then his grades went to horrible....I'm not sure what that means but do make sure you're giving him some grace, just because he could easily get an A in traditional school a C might not be all that bad while he's adjusting to this new normal.

If you figure it out, let me know. We are 100% virtual and DS is in 6th grade and had two parents at home (ok one is working from home) and we can't keep up and that is with an adult listening in on every class...

Some of it is ADHD, some of it is hearing "he's just R----" all through elementary school, part is he's 11 and I should have waited a year before he started kindergarten... we're a mess.

Have you tried asking his teachers what their take is? They can probably give you a good idea how engaged he is during class.

Also, it’s very possible he and his friends are using private chat in Zoom to play around instead of paying attention. We use Teams, so I’m not sure what Zoom’s capabilities are, but it was so bad for us that the district shut all Teams chat down.

And of course, he can also be texting with them or using social media on his phone. I’d definitely take that away during school hours. My teacher/mom ears hear his statement that he can’t pay attention online as a backwards way of telling you that his friends are blowing up the chat and he doesn’t want to miss out.

((((Hugs))) and prayers - virtual is HARD. Mine (8th grade) was doing okay academically but was on the computer from 815-530/630 every day (school day is 900-330) and was just exhausted. We switched to homeschooling right as progress reports were coming out (so half-way into first quarter)

Wow, tough call. It's hard because some can do online learning fine and others don't and there is just no guessing which kid you have.

I would definitely keep his phone during class time. I know you work, but would it be possible to just sit with him thru each of his classes over a weeks time to see what is going on? Do you think he is not understanding the material or is it a focus problem? If he is not understanding, is it possible to get workbooks that could help him? What about one of the two older boys helping him?

Is 6th grade middle school for him? I fucking hated middle school when Ds was there. I never was able to figure out what the problem was, but it was miserable across the board. Prior to that he had been a really good student. As he started highschool, he wound up in the classes that were all below college prep. Fortunately his math teacher (pre allgebra) caught on immediately that something was off and that Ds was in the wrong class. She tried to get him switched, but they insisted my kid was properly placed. She called me and asked about what happened. I explained and she asked to teach him geometry on the side. Most of his other teachers also came to realize he was not placed properly. In 10th grade, all of his previous teachers stepped up with recommendations for classes and his counselor agreed. In 10th grade Ds had all honours classes and got straight As. From there he took loads of AP and IB classes. He graduated with a 3.75. Middle school sucked.

We’ve had a few bumps, but overall it has gone fairly well for us. My kid wanted to do 100% online though and we sort of had a come to Jesus meeting before school started too where I told her she wasn’t allowed to play any games or use her iPad for videos or FaceTime until her schoolwork was done each day and that has worked out so far.

They have Zoom meetings in the morning, for LA and for math daily with her main teacher, plus she has a separate breakout Zoom for band once a week. The other classes mostly just have assignments via Seesaw where they have a video to watch, some stuff to do, etc.

Her teacher has been fabulous with keeping the kids on track and making sure they are engaged and paying attention. There have been a few times where DD has needed more help, and I have encouraged her to contact the teacher by phone or email to ask for help or more clarification. At first she hesitated but I explained that it’s her teacher’s JOB to make sure she and her classmates understand what it is they need to do. The times DD has reached out, the teacher has been really great about it and now she will ask right away instead of waiting or trying to figure things out on her own.

Yesterday was a bit of a ride on the struggle bus because DD didn’t want to read from the online book selections provided earlier in the day and chose to read her own book at home instead, but that meant that later in the day she still had to read from the provided online content on top of doing a slew of math problems and she was feeling a little overwhelmed. But today it went much better. We talked about it some and she did her required reading when she was supposed to, so there was less on her plate at the end of the day and therefore less stress.

I haven’t had to deal with virtual learning directly, as my kids are in college. But I can say that DS really struggled in MS and he didn’t have the added challenge of learning from home. But I can share some of the strategies that we used.

DS is incredibly smart. Scary smart. So I knew that he could do the work. But he just didn’t apply himself and work to overcome the immature tendencies of elementary school where the teachers were directly involved with time management, turning in assignments, and such.

Our first rule was absolutely all assignments had to be completed and turned in. DS was horrible about turning in his homework. He would do it, but “forget” to turn it in. And then would say that there wasn’t a point to turning it in late because he wouldn’t get any points. I didn’t care, as the point was to learn, not get the grades (surrre...!). But I was hoping that he would decide that if he had to do the work, he may as well turn it in.

Secondly, I didn’t allow any TV shows or (console in those days) video games durning the week. Once he got better turning in assignments, I allowed 30 minutes a day and used a timer to enforce that. I also had a rule that they couldn’t do any homework for about 45 minutes after they got home from school. They had a snack and jumped on the trampoline most days. I just felt like they needed a bit of a break before starting up again.

Thirdly, I provided A LOT of support. DS did his homework at the kitchen table while I made dinner. I had him work in 30 minute increments and would set a timer. There were no snacks, bathroom breaks, getting up for water, etc during that time. He was usually done in those 30 minutes 75% of the time because he was actually really good about working during as class time given.

After DS started turning in assignments, we then worked on doing more than the bare minimum. He was just slapping projects together to get them done, but that wasn’t getting the grades that he needed. (He was in a highly academic school.)

It did get better but he would also slip up. He just didn’t have the maturity to keep it up on his own. He doesn’t have Asperger’s, so that was part of it. And he was in a new school district where the other kids had been working on their independence leading up to MS. And he really needed a lot of support from me in the following years. We looked at his work load, broke tasks down into manageable chunks, argued, nagged, threatened... but in the end, it was up to him to decide what he wanted. It was a lot of two steps forward and one step back. And his teachers encouraged us to let him fail a few times, just for us (and home) to see how he was doing.

I’m not going to lie. It was a ton of my time to keep him moving. And I was a SAHM, so I had the time to devote to him. DH was a Squadron Commander at that time, so he wasn’t home a lot. It was hard to keep DS motivated and focused without him becoming completely demoralized. But by the time DS entered HS, he was a very independent student. He graduated HS Magna cum laude and entered college 4 credits short of being a sophomore. He graduated college in 4 years and is now in grad school. But in the end, DS had to want it for himself. He has said how grateful he is for the support, so at least I have that!

Also if his teacher doesnt have google classroom schedule ask if that can be posted.

Dh uses slides to have the weeks agenda, lessons (with hyper links), links to his video lessons, link to period 6 support class, ect.

My kids have been in a hybrid school for the past 13 years (DD graduated, DS1 9th grade and DS2 7th grade). Our elementary (K-6) school is 2 days a week in school and 3 at home following the teachers lesson plan. Then our secondary (7-12) is 3 days a week at school, and 2 at home following the teachers lesson plans. The student are required to turn in work on their school days, from their home days, and test and quizzes are taken at school.....most of the time)

Grace is definitely necessary during the transition period. It is so different to "normal" school, but in our case, over the 13 years our kids have thrived. That is not to say there have not been hard days and seasons. My youngest son is struggling in math so far in 7th grade, but it will get better. Some days we all want to tear our hair out!

With that said, here is what helps us: (keep in mind, this is what I have found works for us, it may not work for everyone)

We keep the same schedule no matter the day of the week and not matter the location of schooling that day.

Each kid has their space for work at home. Don't get legalistic about this, do what works for your family. Over the years, we have used the dining table, desks in their rooms, the couch, the table outside.

This one is HUGE for my kids; turn OFF all notifications on their phone(if they have one) and their computer. A few years ago I was in my son's room helping him with some school work, and the computer kept dinging to notify of a new message in the google chats. It was so distracting! I had him turn off the notifications and it was SO much better!!

Our rule is, school work first, then playtime. Though we do takes breaks outside as needed during the day.

Sometimes it is hard when they are at school to remember what needs to be turned in. My kids use a binder, with tabs for each subject. They use the Avery two pocket big tab dividers. (These are my favorite because they are durable, and it helps keep them organized) All current work for the subject goes behind the correct tab, and any work that needs to be turned in goes in the pocket of the tab. Hopefully that makes sense.

Communication is critical in hybrid schools. As a 6th grader, they should be learning to email their teacher using positive language. When my kids were younger(5th, 6th grade), and needed to email their teacher, I had them write the email, but have me check it first, to make sure it was clear, kind and positive. I think this is a vital skill as they prepare to go to college and beyond that, into the work force. Many times my kids have emailed their teacher, to clarify something, and the teacher has always helped them as needed.

I am around on their homedays, but I don't hover over them. This is dependent on the age and needs of the student though. I am usually working, but they can call me if they have a question, or they need help understanding something.

With younger students I check over their work when they are done to make sure they did everything they were supposed to do. My youngest was in 6th grade last year, and while I didn't check his work for accuracy, I did check for completion. On home days it can be easy for students to overlook something in their rush to be done. Most days it would take me 15-30 minutes to look over the lesson plans (check list) and verify it was all done. Youngest son is in 7th grade and I still check his work on homedays for completion, he has been known to forget small things. As they get older I gradually stop this check, if they start dropping balls again, I restart checking their work, eventually they learn.

I started by say grace is needed, and I'll end with that too. We are all dealing with these uncertain time in different ways, and things I may not have let slide academically in the past, I am giving grace on now. The most important thing to me is that my child feels safe and encouraged. I say all the time, I am not be kids co-teacher, home guide, whatever title suits your situation, I am their cheerleader, encouraging them that they can do this.