Kerri W
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,790
Location: Kentucky
Jun 25, 2014 20:31:44 GMT
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Post by Kerri W on Dec 10, 2020 16:45:46 GMT
How much time is your child on a screen for virtual school?
Our district is 100% virtual at this point. I keep my DGS, 3rd grade, daily so we can keep up with his school work while my DD works. I also have a high school freshman DS who is virtual in the same district.
The 3rd grade student has 2 hrs 10 min (minimum) to (this week) 3 hours of work DAILY that has to be done on a screen*. He has additional work (writing in a journal, etc) that is done off his Chromebook. Freshman DS has a maximum of 1 hr 30 min daily online. I think this is an awful lot of screen time for the elementary age. DD is a 1st grade teacher in the same district and has been told max 30 minutes daily.
*The activities are timed so it isn't as if he is just simply dawdling. He must do 30 minutes of the Language Arts program, 30 minutes of the Social Studies program, etc.
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Post by monklady123 on Dec 10, 2020 17:02:07 GMT
How much time is your child on a screen for virtual school? Our district is 100% virtual at this point. I keep my DGS, 3rd grade, daily so we can keep up with his school work while my DD works. I also have a high school freshman DS who is virtual in the same district. The 3rd grade student has 2 hrs 10 min (minimum) to (this week) 3 hours of work DAILY that has to be done on a screen*. He has additional work (writing in a journal, etc) that is done off his Chromebook. Freshman DS has a maximum of 1 hr 30 min daily online. I think this is an awful lot of screen time for the elementary age. DD is a 1st grade teacher in the same district and has been told max 30 minutes daily. *The activities are timed so it isn't as if he is just simply dawdling. He must do 30 minutes of the Language Arts program, 30 minutes of the Social Studies program, etc. I don't have young children anymore but I do know that many parents in my district are complaining (loudly) about the amount of time the elementary kids are on a screen. After SO many reminders from the school back in pre-pandemic times about limiting our kids' screen time, now suddenly they're expected to be on one for hours. I know it's not working at all for many kids...it's just too much.
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Post by bianca42 on Dec 10, 2020 17:09:31 GMT
DS is in 5th grade. He has 3-4 30 minute meetings every day and 3 assignments to be done on the computer on his own each day. The assignments take about 15 minutes of DSs time each...in addition to about 3 hours of me telling him to finish his work or he'll lose his devices...and him moaning about how unfair his life is and how long those assignments will take.
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miyooper2b
Full Member
Posts: 331
Location: Central Indiana
Jun 27, 2014 15:38:05 GMT
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Post by miyooper2b on Dec 10, 2020 17:10:14 GMT
Two of my DGDs are in elementary school and their screen time is upwards of six hours per day. It's an insane amount! They are both really struggling with school and in their home life. They both are starting to have behavior issues and there are days my DD will call me crying over it. I know that the district is trying to keep people safe but these two really need to be in a classroom setting and not online all the time.
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Post by crazy4scraps on Dec 10, 2020 17:10:36 GMT
My 5th grader is on Zoom calls for most of the day (9:00-2:30/3:00), either with her teacher or with classmates in breakout rooms. They have several 10-15 minute offline breaks throughout the day, plus a half hour for reading offline and another hour away from screens for lunch/recess.
In all honesty I don’t worry about the screen time too much right now. It seems like a lot, but the second my kid is done with school, she wants to “hang out” with her friends on FaceTime or online video games anyway. So if she can spend hours upon hours happily doing that on weekends or after school, I feel like she can handle being online that long for school. If one or the other absolutely needed to go it would be the purely social time, but I truly feel she needs that too so I’m not fighting it since she can’t spend time with other kids in person right now.
ETA: I have to say that for my kid it’s working out very well. She is having her best year yet not having to deal with or worry about the mean girls that were bullying and pestering her and her friends in previous years. She’s been able to make a few really good new friends this year in spite of all this and I’m thankful for that. I do think it would be harder for the kids in the younger grades where they tend to need more redirection even if they were in person.
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Kerri W
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,790
Location: Kentucky
Jun 25, 2014 20:31:44 GMT
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Post by Kerri W on Dec 10, 2020 17:12:02 GMT
I don't have young children anymore but I do know that many parents in my district are complaining (loudly) about the amount of time the elementary kids are on a screen. After SO many reminders from the school back in pre-pandemic times about limiting our kids' screen time, now suddenly they're expected to be on one for hours. I know it's not working at all for many kids...it's just too much. It is a lot. I was very much of the opinion that this year is tough but we're all in it together and we'll deal with it. We aren't complainers. Until this week. She added minimum 1 AR test daily but she'd like 2, plus the one that is the weekly standard. 11 AR tests in one week. She also added an additional online math section that is clearly named and another that is called "Extra math-ask me what this is" These are for the entire class not targeted to give DGS extra help. This week is pushing us both over the edge. I'm just curious if this is normal in other areas for this age group. It's not normal for what I'm hearing from various grades in my same district.
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breetheflea
Drama Llama
Posts: 6,379
Location: PNW
Jul 20, 2014 21:57:23 GMT
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Post by breetheflea on Dec 10, 2020 17:18:16 GMT
100% virtual 1st grade here. Zoom starts at 8:30 and ends at 11:15 with a 15 minute break and she has the kids divided into 2 reading groups so one works offline for 15 minutes and one is live and then it switches. Then arts block PE/Music/Art etc one per day(takes maybe 15 minutes) in the afternoon it's not on Zoom but there is a short video to watch with the instructions.
Homework is a combo of apps on the i-pad and workbooks which is another 15 minutes. I'm happy with the amount of screen time. It's not as bad as I thought it would be.
The 6th grader on the other hand (middle school) is on Zoom from 10-3:30 (except lunch) and it's a little too much! He has 8 classes...
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Post by Merge on Dec 10, 2020 17:18:40 GMT
It's a catch-22 for schools. Some parents complain it's too much screen time; some parents complain if there's too little because they expect the schools to "do their jobs" (in their estimation) and occupy the students for 8 hours straight.
I don't know what the right answer is. I know that I significantly scaled back the length and scope of my lessons after hearing general parent complaints about the overwhelming amount of screen time required by the school. And then immediately I had a few parents complain specifically to me that the quality and depth of the music lessons seemed to be declining. Can't win!
I don't know what is right. I know that our school has been very flexible with allowing students who struggle with the amount of work required to take longer breaks, do less, etc. Maybe a private convo with the teacher would yield a similar understanding for you and your student.
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Post by Darcy Collins on Dec 10, 2020 17:26:10 GMT
I'm more shocked that your freshman only has 1 hour and 30 minutes. My senior has 4 hours mandatory zoom synchronous a day plus spends an average of another 4-6 hours a day on classwork/homework. It's horrible.
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caangel
Drama Llama
Posts: 5,675
Location: So Cal
Jun 26, 2014 16:42:12 GMT
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Post by caangel on Dec 10, 2020 17:39:22 GMT
My 5th grader is on Zoom calls for most of the day (9:00-2:30/3:00), either with her teacher or with classmates in breakout rooms. They have several 10-15 minute offline breaks throughout the day, plus a half hour for reading offline and another hour away from screens for lunch/recess. In all honesty I don’t worry about the screen time too much right now. It seems like a lot, but the second my kid is done with school, she wants to “hang out” with her friends on FaceTime or online video games anyway. So if she can spend hours upon hours happily doing that on weekends or after school, I feel like she can handle being online that long for school. If one or the other absolutely needed to go it would be the purely social time, but I truly feel she needs that too so I’m not fighting it since she can’t spend time with other kids in person right now. ETA: I have to say that for my kid it’s working out very well. She is having her best year yet not having to deal with or worry about the mean girls that were bullying and pestering her and her friends in previous years. She’s been able to make a few really good new friends this year in spite of all this and I’m thankful for that. I do think it would be harder for the kids in the younger grades where they tend to need more redirection even if they were in person. This is us too. My DD is 6th grade. Her issue before was being too social. Being at home has definitely cut that down significantly during school time. And I am able to help her more and be her 1:1 tutor which she needed. It was a bit bumpy to get to this point but now we have a system and an understanding (ie just because an assignment is "boring" doesn't mean you ignore it). I honestly think she will come out of this year being a better student and ready for middle school than if she had been in person. FWIW our district has been doing hybrid since the end of Sept. She choose DL and DS(7th) chose Hybrid. We actually considered switching DD to hybrid when things were not going well but she really likes being home. I don't work and was a teacher so being her tutor is definitely something that is doable because of those privileges.
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ashley
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,400
Jun 17, 2016 12:36:53 GMT
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Post by ashley on Dec 10, 2020 17:45:52 GMT
Mine are on screen pretty much all day — 8:30 to 2:40. They get two 15 minute breaks and a half hour lunch.
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Kerri W
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,790
Location: Kentucky
Jun 25, 2014 20:31:44 GMT
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Post by Kerri W on Dec 10, 2020 18:14:00 GMT
I'm more shocked that your freshman only has 1 hour and 30 minutes. My senior has 4 hours mandatory zoom synchronous a day plus spends an average of another 4-6 hours a day on classwork/homework. It's horrible. His schedule this semester is four classes. One is independent, not teacher led. The other three have a half hour zoom, half hour to continue to meet with the teacher if needed, then another half hour to sign up for tutoring. He has only needed to take part in the half hour of new instruction daily and hasn't needed additional help.
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Kerri W
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,790
Location: Kentucky
Jun 25, 2014 20:31:44 GMT
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Post by Kerri W on Dec 10, 2020 18:23:16 GMT
Screentime may not have been the best descriptor. I do understand and accept there is going to be a lot of screen time. This screen time is not with a teacher. It's one online program after another with no instruction from the teacher. The math program does not match what they are learning in their math zoom. The language arts program does not cover what they are learning on their zoom. And 11 AR books to read and take tests over in one week?! What she is assigning just doesn't seem productive and her zooms are a mess.
We are 17 minutes into the 30 minute math zoom and she has not covered anything at all except to yell at kids about not having their camera on (district policy is clear they do NOT have to have their camera on-yet she insists) and totally lost it on a new kid, who started TODAY, when he said he didn't understand how to log onto something. Now her dog just went crazy because the mailman came and she had to figure that out.
We are just hitting a wall this week. I would like to email some of my concerns but I want to be realistic, give a lot of grace and BE KIND.
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Post by Merge on Dec 10, 2020 18:37:54 GMT
Screentime may not have been the best descriptor. I do understand and accept there is going to be a lot of screen time. This screen time is not with a teacher. It's one online program after another with no instruction from the teacher. The math program does not match what they are learning in their math zoom. The language arts program does not cover what they are learning on their zoom. And 11 AR books to read and take tests over in one week?! What she is assigning just doesn't seem productive and her zooms are a mess. We are 17 minutes into the 30 minute math zoom and she has not covered anything at all except to yell at kids about not having their camera on (district policy is clear they do NOT have to have their camera on-yet she insists) and totally lost it on a new kid, who started TODAY, when he said he didn't understand how to log onto something. Now her dog just went crazy because the mailman came and she had to figure that out. We are just hitting a wall this week. I would like to email some of my concerns but I want to be realistic, give a lot of grace and BE KIND. I’m sorry, that sounds terrible. It sounds like the teacher is struggling and everyone else is suffering because of it. I’d ask for an individual call with her and bring up a couple of these issues, particularly the concern that what she’s covering on zoom doesn’t seem to reflect what’s in the online work. If she seems receptive, I might also bring up the overly ambitious AR goals. If she is not able to address your concerns, I’d go to the administration from a place of concern. This is clearly not working for the students or the teacher. Admin needs to help.
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Post by annie on Dec 10, 2020 18:47:53 GMT
I teach Kindergarten live from 9 - 11:30 and 1:30-3:30. It's insane. Plus they have work outside of that. This is forced by my district.
Needless to say, lots of breaks and movement.
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Kerri W
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,790
Location: Kentucky
Jun 25, 2014 20:31:44 GMT
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Post by Kerri W on Dec 10, 2020 18:48:43 GMT
Screentime may not have been the best descriptor. I do understand and accept there is going to be a lot of screen time. This screen time is not with a teacher. It's one online program after another with no instruction from the teacher. The math program does not match what they are learning in their math zoom. The language arts program does not cover what they are learning on their zoom. And 11 AR books to read and take tests over in one week?! What she is assigning just doesn't seem productive and her zooms are a mess. We are 17 minutes into the 30 minute math zoom and she has not covered anything at all except to yell at kids about not having their camera on (district policy is clear they do NOT have to have their camera on-yet she insists) and totally lost it on a new kid, who started TODAY, when he said he didn't understand how to log onto something. Now her dog just went crazy because the mailman came and she had to figure that out. We are just hitting a wall this week. I would like to email some of my concerns but I want to be realistic, give a lot of grace and BE KIND. I’m sorry, that sounds terrible. It sounds like the teacher is struggling and everyone else is suffering because of it. I’d ask for an individual call with her and bring up a couple of these issues, particularly the concern that what she’s covering on zoom doesn’t seem to reflect what’s in the online work. If she seems receptive, I might also bring up the overly ambitious AR goals. If she is not able to address your concerns, I’d go to the administration from a place of concern. This is clearly not working for the students or the teacher. Admin needs to help. I really appreciate your perspective as an educator. I truly want to be understanding and kind. It does seem as if she is struggling. She is not a new teacher but this is her first year back after 10+ years off with her kids. So she has kids this age as well and sees it from the parent perspective. I am going to wait until next week. I want to be sure it's not just me being stressed. Or perhaps she is stressed and next week will be better.
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Post by huskermom98 on Dec 10, 2020 19:11:33 GMT
Last spring, my then 6th grade son's private school did actual classes online within a week of things shutting down. He had 2-3 Zoom classes a day that were 45 minutes at the most. He usually spent from 9am to 4pm(ish) on his computer for the Zoom classes and homework. He's a slow worker otherwise he wouldn't have had to spend that much time on classwork. Thankfully he's in-person this year, even though they use their Chromebooks in school, it's still better for him to be there than at home.
My sophomore son has been 100% virtual this year so far (1st term was against his wishes, 2nd term is because of his classes). First term he barely had to get on his computer for his band class and then was on 30-60 each for his History and Intro to Wood construction classes. This term he's on his computer at least 45 minutes, up to 90 minutes for each of his three classes (German, English and Math). The most is for his math class because it's a radically accelerated class where they do Algebra 2, Geometry and Pre-Calc in two years. Last year was Geometry and a tiny bit of Algebra 2 (would have been more but his district couldn't do any new material after mid-March) so this year they are trying to do Algebra 2 in a 9 week session and Pre-Calc in a second 9 week session...so yah, they are using the entire 90 minute block they are allowed. He's a smarty and a fast worker so he doesn't have to do a lot outside of class time. Hopefully the district will be hybrid for most of the 3rd term starting in January--he has the same schedule, but a hybrid scenario would get him into school for band and wood construction and only online for History. Unless things improve dramatically he'll be online during 4th term with the same German, English, Math schedule again (his History, English, German, and Math are all at a central school the district has that brings in kids from 18+ schools a day so they agreed to be online regardless of what the rest of the district is doing this year as long as necessary).
But for both boys it's all been teacher-led classes, not "here's a link, watch this video" so I can't really complain about screen time.
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Post by sabrinae on Dec 10, 2020 19:23:47 GMT
My 8th grader has one zoom class per class a week and then google classroom assignments. She probably spends 5-7 hours a day depending. My 5th grader only has one zoom a week and probably has another 4-5 hours of work a day on google classroom
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Post by ghislaine on Dec 11, 2020 2:04:28 GMT
We chose our school district's 100% virtual option. It's going fairly well for us.
My 2nd grader has less than an hour of synchronous video call time per day, and a half hour to an hour of additional work, but not necessarily screen time. She does like to check email frequently which I allow because it's all emails with my in-laws doing a LEGO build guessing game.
My 6th grader has about the same amount of synchronous time but probably double the additional work which, in her case is all online. She also has some video call socializing time.
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Post by angie3dpea on Dec 11, 2020 2:12:13 GMT
I'm more shocked that your freshman only has 1 hour and 30 minutes. My senior has 4 hours mandatory zoom synchronous a day plus spends an average of another 4-6 hours a day on classwork/homework. It's horrible. My sophomore is spending at least 12 hours a day online. While I know part of this is due to his ADHD and ensuing lack of focus, he has so much work. I’ve literally started kicking him off the computer for brain breaks! It’s crazy!
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Post by iamkristinl16 on Dec 11, 2020 2:14:29 GMT
This is my 3rd grader’s distance learning schedule:
8:15-8:30 live morning meeting 8:30-8:45 read to self 8:45 live LA lesson 9:45 live read aloud 10-10:30 WIN and small group time 10:30 live math lesson 11:30-12:30 lunch and recess 12:30-1:00 asynchronous science or social studies lesson 1:00-2:40 asynchronous specialists
They have some other apps that they can do on their own time if desired but it isn’t required. They also have assignments in each class. Some are done during the class time. Some are homework.
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SabrinaP
Pearl Clutcher
Busy Teacher Pea
Posts: 4,408
Location: Dallas Texas
Jun 26, 2014 12:16:22 GMT
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Post by SabrinaP on Dec 11, 2020 2:22:05 GMT
Virtual is a choice in my district. Live lessons are not required but kids that attend are doing so much better than those that watch videos. My students have 4 core classes that last between 30-40 min each live then they usually have 20-40 min of work in each of those core classes. They have assignments weekly for electives.
I would say my virtual 6th graders probably spend 6 hours a day on screens. They do not get any packets. Everything is on their computer. Our district is 1:1 and we have been for 10 years, so most of our work was 100% digital before COVID.
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Post by ExpatBackHome on Dec 11, 2020 4:05:20 GMT
I have a son in grade 1 that just did 2 days online because he had stayed home with a sore throat. He dialed in on Zoom for each subject (like 6-7 times) The teacher teaches, then they either do an activity over zoom together or get off zoom and complete the activity. 2-3 of the activities could have been done on the iPad but I print them and make him use a pencil. He also had some PE on the iPad but the was exercising with a 10 minute video. So total iPad time that wasn’t interacting with the teachers/live was about 20 minutes a day.
Most of it is done online together with his class and teachers.
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Post by Linda on Dec 11, 2020 4:10:10 GMT
we pulled my 8th grader out of school because the virtual option involved SO much screen time...she was on her computerfrom shortly after 8 until past 6pm with a very short lunch break. Almost none of it was zoom/live - maybe 2-3 20min sessions/wk. It just wasn't a good fit for her, she hated it, and was so anxious and stressed all the time. I'm homeschooling her now and she spends about an hour/wk on the computer for school related stuff (she watches a short daily video about geography and occasionally needs to type a report/essay).
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Post by crazy4scraps on Dec 11, 2020 5:22:59 GMT
Screentime may not have been the best descriptor. I do understand and accept there is going to be a lot of screen time. This screen time is not with a teacher. It's one online program after another with no instruction from the teacher. The math program does not match what they are learning in their math zoom. The language arts program does not cover what they are learning on their zoom. And 11 AR books to read and take tests over in one week?! What she is assigning just doesn't seem productive and her zooms are a mess. We are 17 minutes into the 30 minute math zoom and she has not covered anything at all except to yell at kids about not having their camera on (district policy is clear they do NOT have to have their camera on-yet she insists) and totally lost it on a new kid, who started TODAY, when he said he didn't understand how to log onto something. Now her dog just went crazy because the mailman came and she had to figure that out. We are just hitting a wall this week. I would like to email some of my concerns but I want to be realistic, give a lot of grace and BE KIND. This doesn’t sound anything like what my kid is doing. Her teacher is actively teaching all day with the exception of her lunch/prep time. If she has the kids working in small groups, she is popping in from one breakout room to the next checking on what they are doing or she is using that time to do 1:1 check ins with each kid in class which she does every week. My kid’s schedule looks like this: 9:00-9:30, morning meeting 9:30-9:40, short break for snack or bathroom or they can chat with classmates 9:40-10:45, reading or writing (this flips on different days) 10:45-11:00, breakout room with their reading/writing partner 11:00-11:30, independent reading time on or offline depending on if they have a book at home they are reading 11:30-12:30, lunch/recess 12:30-12:45, zoom call where they watch a math video by a different teacher that they watch synchronously with their homeroom teacher 12:45-1:45, zoom call with the teacher at first where they get their assignment and have the option of working alone or with one or two other kids, the teacher is available to answer questions and she checks in with the different groups 1:45-2:30-45, asynchronous science/social studies or art/music/media/PE lesson on video with a district teacher, they have this time after the video to work on the assignment 2:45-3:15, flex time for independent work time for whatever they still need to work on, the teacher is available if they need individual help and she also uses this time to do 1:1 meetings with kids. For 5th grade the kids also have either band, choir or orchestra and those teachers pull the kids out once a week for a 30 minute small group lesson at different scheduled times. My kid is also in the Math League which is a separate pull out group during math time twice a week where they work on much harder problems than the general class. IMO it’s very comprehensive. Our district is doing a great job with 100% online, I don’t know how it’s working out for those whose kids were in hybrid but are now in DL. We didn’t go that route because I wanted more consistency and I’m so happy we made that choice. The district is doing the specialists (media, art, regular music, PE) in blocks this year instead of on their usual rotation so when the kids were in hybrid they were with the same specialist teacher for I think 4-5 weeks running and then they would switch, and the online kids are in with that rotation. That way the specialist teachers wouldn’t have physical contact with all the students in a week the way they normally would.
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Post by mrssmith on Dec 11, 2020 5:29:33 GMT
My kids are on 4 -5 hours a day (4th grade and 7th grade). However, I don't worry too much about screen time either. With cases going up, my kids can't do masked meetups with their friends anymore, so technology is the only way they communicate with their friends.
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Post by pierkiss on Dec 11, 2020 5:51:33 GMT
Last year, our kids had about 6 hours/day of school related things they had to complete each day. My then 5th grader was online pretty much the whole time. Sometimes longer depending on what they were doing. My then 1st header was on for about 3 hours a day. My then 3rd grader was on 4-6 hours/day.
We actually had a well check for 2 of them during the shutdown. The pediatrician got to that screen time question (1-2 hrs/day I think?) and I said “Nope!” And he just paused and looked at me and I started seriously laughing and told him it was unavoidable because of virtual school. Then I offered to lie to him if it would make him feel better. 🤣.
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Post by pierkiss on Dec 11, 2020 6:00:53 GMT
Screentime may not have been the best descriptor. I do understand and accept there is going to be a lot of screen time. This screen time is not with a teacher. It's one online program after another with no instruction from the teacher. The math program does not match what they are learning in their math zoom. The language arts program does not cover what they are learning on their zoom. And 11 AR books to read and take tests over in one week?! What she is assigning just doesn't seem productive and her zooms are a mess. We are 17 minutes into the 30 minute math zoom and she has not covered anything at all except to yell at kids about not having their camera on (district policy is clear they do NOT have to have their camera on-yet she insists) and totally lost it on a new kid, who started TODAY, when he said he didn't understand how to log onto something. Now her dog just went crazy because the mailman came and she had to figure that out. We are just hitting a wall this week. I would like to email some of my concerns but I want to be realistic, give a lot of grace and BE KIND. You can be kind and still give feedback to the teacher. Gently remind her of the non-mandatory camera use. Voice your concerns about the numerous AR books and tests and ask for a rationale. Point out how how her overreaction to the child not understand tech made you feel as a parent of another child in the classroom. If she doesn’t respond well I’d go to the principal after that. Because what you wrote up there would have pissed me right off, and a lot of it probably shouldn’t be happening.
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Post by peasapie on Dec 11, 2020 12:51:12 GMT
My grade 3 grandson is on from 8:40-2:40 3 days/wk, with about an hour free altogether - so that’s 5 hours online. They do every subject, including gym, art and music and are often directly with the teacher. There are occasional use of apps like storytelling apps, and those are boring. two days/wk they go to school for a half day and schlep a very very heavy backpack. It’s definitely not ideal but I think their school is doing a pretty good job.
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