|
|
Post by crazy4scraps on Mar 18, 2021 14:51:20 GMT
I agree with you that for some kids it will be difficult to go back. My kid is already dreading next fall when she will have to go back in person. The district sent out an email to all the families asking for people interested in continuing online in the fall to fill out a survey, so I did. I figured it would be easier to opt out of continuing online than it would be to opt into it, depending on what the circumstances bear out in the fall. I got another email late last week saying it’s a no go because less than 200 families chose it and it would be too expensive to implement for so few families. Our SD told us that our state DoE told them nobody could offer remote learning next school year, so our SD is looking at having an online school. 2/3 of my kids will still be in elementary and one of them is really not jazzed to go back. I don't blame her. We're waiting on more information, but I have a feeling it'll be "business as usual" when August rolls around.That’s exactly what I’m afraid of. The middle school and younger high school kids will be the most at risk because of the size of the schools here and the size of the kids attending those schools. Each one of the two middle schools has attendance of roughly 1250 students and the high school is double that. Couple that fact with the general attitude of invincibility that a lot of kids have at that age and it’s just not a good combination. It was so nice having a school year where my kid *didn’t* get sick for once. I would guess that she missed between 8-12 days of school on average in a normal year due to illness. This year she missed ZERO days being sick for the first time ever. |
|
|
|
Post by silverlining on Mar 18, 2021 14:55:29 GMT
Schools here have been closed since March 2020 and many students and parents are over-joyed they are opening again on April 12th. The last day is June 14th so it will be only two months. The teachers and district administration wanted to wait until it could be done safely, and finally the criteria have been met. Case numbers are much lower and all teachers can be vaccinated.
Some families will choose to finish the school year at home, and many will go back.
|
|
|
|
Post by crazy4scraps on Mar 18, 2021 15:11:29 GMT
Well my daughter's mental health is at stake, so the sooner the kids are in the classroom, the better. And for my kid, it has been the exact opposite. She has done so much better this year emotionally because she didn’t have to deal with the mean girls and bullies being right in her face saying and doing stuff every damn day. I definitely haven’t missed having to deal with the near daily fallout from that. |
|
sassyangel
Drama Llama
Posts: 7,456 
|
Post by sassyangel on Mar 18, 2021 15:21:46 GMT
Well my daughter's mental health is at stake, so the sooner the kids are in the classroom, the better. And for my kid, it has been the exact opposite. She has done so much better this year emotionally because she didn’t have to deal with the mean girls and bullies being right in her face saying and doing stuff every damn day. I definitely haven’t missed having to deal with the near daily fallout from that. Aww I can imagine. ☹️ I feel for both kinds of kids - the kids for whom being away from school has really mentally tough for them, and those for whom being in school daily is already mentally tough for them due to incessant bullying.  I wish there was a good permanent solution for both types, that didnt result in stretching teachers thinner or straight homeschooling. |
|
|
|
Post by Darcy Collins on Mar 18, 2021 15:32:13 GMT
And for my kid, it has been the exact opposite. She has done so much better this year emotionally because she didn’t have to deal with the mean girls and bullies being right in her face saying and doing stuff every damn day. I definitely haven’t missed having to deal with the near daily fallout from that. Aww I can imagine. ☹️ I feel for both kinds of kids - the kids for whom being away from school has really mentally tough for them, and those for whom being in school daily is already mentally tough for them due to incessant bullying. I wish there was a good permanent solution for both types, that didnt result in stretching teachers thinner or straight homeschooling. Our district has always offered a fully online option. I know a few kids who've done it - some with great success, some with none. I really does depend on the kid. |
|
|
|
Post by crazy4scraps on Mar 18, 2021 15:37:57 GMT
And for my kid, it has been the exact opposite. She has done so much better this year emotionally because she didn’t have to deal with the mean girls and bullies being right in her face saying and doing stuff every damn day. I definitely haven’t missed having to deal with the near daily fallout from that. Aww I can imagine. ☹️ I feel for both kinds of kids - the kids for whom being away from school has really mentally tough for them, and those for whom being in school daily is already mentally tough for them due to incessant bullying.  I wish there was a good permanent solution for both types, that didnt result in stretching teachers thinner or straight homeschooling. I know what you mean, I feel for both kinds of kids too. A couple of my DD’s BFFs have been in hybrid all year and they have been struggling. Even when the school building was closed between Thanksgiving and New Years and those kids were doing 100% distance they didn’t have the same kind of educational experience my kid has had. Her 100% online teacher has done such a fantastic job, but from what I’ve heard the hybrid teachers have had a much harder time for a whole host of reasons. |
|
|
|
Post by crazy4scraps on Mar 18, 2021 15:44:30 GMT
Aww I can imagine. ☹️ I feel for both kinds of kids - the kids for whom being away from school has really mentally tough for them, and those for whom being in school daily is already mentally tough for them due to incessant bullying. I wish there was a good permanent solution for both types, that didnt result in stretching teachers thinner or straight homeschooling. Our district has always offered a fully online option. I know a few kids who've done it - some with great success, some with none. I really does depend on the kid. Ours was looking into offering that but not enough families expressed an interest in it. The district said it would cost over a million dollars to do it and there isn’t money in the budget for that now with everything else they already have to do. |
|
|
|
Post by busy on Mar 18, 2021 15:50:04 GMT
Aww I can imagine. ☹️ I feel for both kinds of kids - the kids for whom being away from school has really mentally tough for them, and those for whom being in school daily is already mentally tough for them due to incessant bullying. I wish there was a good permanent solution for both types, that didnt result in stretching teachers thinner or straight homeschooling. Our district has always offered a fully online option. I know a few kids who've done it - some with great success, some with none. I really does depend on the kid. The kid and the family. Distance learning has required far more hands-on work from us than in-person school ever did. DS was almost entirely self-sufficient with school until distance and this past year has demanded many many many hours from us (mostly me). I am so far past the end of my rope. We considered using our district's online academy before any of this, because they have more flexibility for students who are at various grade levels in various subjects. I'm so glad we didn't go that route. |
|
Belle
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 4,309
|
Post by Belle on Mar 18, 2021 16:07:20 GMT
Our governor has ordered us back. Districts have no choice in the matter. We are done mid June. Oregon too. The thing that gets me is that the kids in the district where I work will go 4 days a week in 2.5 hour shifts. By the time the younger kids get off the bus, settled etc and then packed up and on the bus at the end of the day that is about 30 minutes wasted. I don't doubt that you are right about the 30 minutes of wasted time but you should listen in on teachers taking attendance virtually....it is painful! Bueller, Bueller....? |
|
|
|
Post by Merge on Mar 18, 2021 16:19:53 GMT
Our district has always offered a fully online option. I know a few kids who've done it - some with great success, some with none. I really does depend on the kid. Ours was looking into offering that but not enough families expressed an interest in it. The district said it would cost over a million dollars to do it and there isn’t money in the budget for that now with everything else they already have to do. Yes. My fear is that a lot of parents will want a fully online option in August. Texas offers a statewide online option, but when kids do that, their PUA money goes with them. So the district is incentivized to keep kids in district, but we don’t have the funding to do a separate online option. And the result will be that teachers are forced to do hybrid again next year (which here means that we teach both ways simultaneously). At some point this can’t be Burger King. Every parent can’t get what they want. What’s infuriating me right now are the parents who see the availability of an online option as carte blanche to travel and just tell the teacher their kid will be online for a few weeks. But then they want to put them back in person as soon as they get home. This wasn’t supposed to happen, but parents quickly realized there isn’t much the school can do about it because if the way we’re funded. We are just not set up for this. We can be all online, or all in person, but we really can’t continue to do both. |
|
|
|
Post by fredfreddy44 on Mar 18, 2021 16:21:56 GMT
My senior son will fill out a survey today to ask if wants to go back hybrid for the last 6 week grading period. I told him it was up to him. His answer was "I want to go back if my friends go back". We live in San Jose. I would like him to go back. Graduation is June 4.
|
|
|
|
Post by crazy4scraps on Mar 18, 2021 16:22:46 GMT
Our district has always offered a fully online option. I know a few kids who've done it - some with great success, some with none. I really does depend on the kid. The kid and the family. Distance learning has required far more hands-on work from us than in-person school ever did. DS was almost entirely self-sufficient with school until distance and this past year has demanded many many many hours from us (mostly me). I am so far past the end of my rope. We considered using our district's online academy before any of this, because they have more flexibility for students who are at various grade levels in various subjects. I'm so glad we didn't go that route. I think the individual teachers make a huge difference too. Some are just better suited to this kind of platform. My kid’s teacher this year has been so amazing. I haven’t really had to do much of anything other than troubleshoot the occasional technical difficulty, run to school once every 2-3 weeks to pick up materials and to just generally be around (which I am anyway because I worked from home anyway before all this). A friend’s younger kid (also 100% online) has a teacher from the school that my friend knows very well from being very involved with the PTA, and she didn’t have such glowing reviews for that kid’s school experience this year. She knows the teacher to be great at her job under normal circumstances, but being fully online just wasn’t a good fit for her. My friend said she didn’t think it would have been that teacher’s choice to work fully remote, but I’m sure being a recent cancer survivor kind of limited her options for working in person in a school during a pandemic. |
|
Belle
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 4,309
|
Post by Belle on Mar 18, 2021 16:27:32 GMT
Two weeks ago, our district announced they would remain 100% online for the rest of the year for middle school and high school AND had not made any plans for the fall. Late last week, they announced due to vaccine availability for teachers, the MS and HS students would be going back in April. No mention of why elementary kids were going back prior to vaccine availability for teachers.
So far, the school district has not shared any plans with the parents other than the kids will go 2 days a week for about 4 hours a day. No idea if they will have the same teacher especially concerning for AP students or if their classes will stay together with the same student cohort. No idea on what time school will start or end, school starts at 9am now but in previous years MS/HS started at 7:30am due to transportation needs.
I have a senior and a freshman in high school. My senior does not have any interest in going back 2 days a week which is about 14 days total before he graduates. My freshman will be going back at the first opportunity. Distance learning has been very hard on her. I also think going back now will be beneficial to going back in the fall. If she stayed home for the rest of the year, I think the transition in the fall would be enormous.
|
|
|
|
Post by crazy4scraps on Mar 18, 2021 16:36:41 GMT
Ours was looking into offering that but not enough families expressed an interest in it. The district said it would cost over a million dollars to do it and there isn’t money in the budget for that now with everything else they already have to do. Yes. My fear is that a lot of parents will want a fully online option in August. Texas offers a statewide online option, but when kids do that, their PUA money goes with them. So the district is incentivized to keep kids in district, but we don’t have the funding to do a separate online option. And the result will be that teachers are forced to do hybrid again next year (which here means that we teach both ways simultaneously). At some point this can’t be Burger King. Every parent can’t get what they want. What’s infuriating me right now are the parents who see the availability of an online option as carte blanche to travel and just tell the teacher their kid will be online for a few weeks. But then they want to put them back in person as soon as they get home. This wasn’t supposed to happen, but parents quickly realized there isn’t much the school can do about it because if the way we’re funded. We are just not set up for this. We can be all online, or all in person, but we really can’t continue to do both. Oh, I totally agree with you. It’s way too much to expect a teacher to teach both remote and in person at the same time. That’s crazy on so many levels. I am so glad our district set it up for this year at least the way that they did, with specific teachers designated solely for online classrooms and others solely for hybrid. The specialists got the short end of the stick because they have had to work with all the kids regardless of which model they’re in. |
|
|
|
Post by Merge on Mar 18, 2021 16:45:10 GMT
Yes. My fear is that a lot of parents will want a fully online option in August. Texas offers a statewide online option, but when kids do that, their PUA money goes with them. So the district is incentivized to keep kids in district, but we don’t have the funding to do a separate online option. And the result will be that teachers are forced to do hybrid again next year (which here means that we teach both ways simultaneously). At some point this can’t be Burger King. Every parent can’t get what they want. What’s infuriating me right now are the parents who see the availability of an online option as carte blanche to travel and just tell the teacher their kid will be online for a few weeks. But then they want to put them back in person as soon as they get home. This wasn’t supposed to happen, but parents quickly realized there isn’t much the school can do about it because if the way we’re funded. We are just not set up for this. We can be all online, or all in person, but we really can’t continue to do both. Oh, I totally agree with you. It’s way too much to expect a teacher to teach both remote and in person at the same time. That’s crazy on so many levels. I am so glad our district set it up for this year at least the way that they did, with specific teachers designated solely for online classrooms and others solely for hybrid. The specialists got the short end of the stick because they have had to work with all the kids regardless of which model they’re in. That’s me! 😁 Even if they manage to get the numbers to work where classroom teachers can be either in person or online (tried and failed this year), specialist teachers will have to do both. |
|
finaledition
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 4,896
|
Post by finaledition on Mar 18, 2021 16:45:21 GMT
Another issue in some California districts are the sports requirements. It has been a long hard battle for sports to return. It varies greatly from district to district and some counties are requiring testing each week to play. Some high school students are not returning because they don’t want to increase their chances of testing positive and having to forfeit a game (which is already a very reduced season as it is). So they are choosing to stay online for that reason alone.
|
|
|
|
Post by crazy4scraps on Mar 18, 2021 23:28:59 GMT
Oh, I totally agree with you. It’s way too much to expect a teacher to teach both remote and in person at the same time. That’s crazy on so many levels. I am so glad our district set it up for this year at least the way that they did, with specific teachers designated solely for online classrooms and others solely for hybrid. The specialists got the short end of the stick because they have had to work with all the kids regardless of which model they’re in. That’s me! 😁 Even if they manage to get the numbers to work where classroom teachers can be either in person or online (tried and failed this year), specialist teachers will have to do both. That sucks so bad. My kid’s specialists have really tried hard to make the best of a bad situation this year and have come up with some creative assignments to engage them in spite of having to do mostly asynchronous lessons. Her trumpet lessons have been via Zoom and that has worked out surprisingly well. |
|
|
|
Post by iteach3rdgrade on Mar 18, 2021 23:57:41 GMT
It's ridiculous. I'm ready for this year to be over. I am thankful we went back face to face to start the year and we've been able to remain that way. Little things we had to add to our routines etc. are exhausting, but I cannot imagine what some of the other schools have done. I think it's even silly to come back for one quarter. You've missed the entire year and you don't know any routines and by the time you do, it's summer. I'm not doing that to my son. At least in my district, parents who want their kids to stay online can still keep their kids online. But some of our kids really want live class “done to them” and are thrilled at the idea that routines they don’t like will be broken up. Some kids are doing well online. But if your kid hasn’t been in online school for a year plus now, you might not be aware of how hard it is for some kids. I do understand how difficult it is for students and parents. It's very tough. We won't do it again. It's a killer for working parents. School would actually be easier for us. This curriculum is well above what is in school. It's all about the individual child and most really do best at school and need that interaction. I'm just speaking for a few examples I've seen, and the reasons for those choices. After rereading my original comment, I think I had a really tough day. It's tough to see the constant change within a room when that change creates issues for several and disrupts the learning taking place. I am hoping we don't offer the virtual. We can't keep the back and forth going. Some districts have wonderful examples of what at home learning can be and then some not so much. |
|
seaexplore
Prolific Pea
Posts: 8,786
Apr 25, 2015 23:57:30 GMT
|
Post by seaexplore on Mar 19, 2021 0:08:56 GMT
Well my daughter's mental health is at stake, so the sooner the kids are in the classroom, the better. And for my kid, it has been the exact opposite. She has done so much better this year emotionally because she didn’t have to deal with the mean girls and bullies being right in her face saying and doing stuff every damn day. I definitely haven’t missed having to deal with the near daily fallout from that. We’ve been back in person exactly 4 days and the dumb drama has already started with my 8th graders. It was so nice not having that shit to deal with. |
|
|
|
Post by crazy4scraps on Mar 19, 2021 0:15:23 GMT
And for my kid, it has been the exact opposite. She has done so much better this year emotionally because she didn’t have to deal with the mean girls and bullies being right in her face saying and doing stuff every damn day. I definitely haven’t missed having to deal with the near daily fallout from that. We’ve been back in person exactly 4 days and the dumb drama has already started with my 8th graders. It was so nice not having that shit to deal with. Yeah, my kid is in 5th grade and we’ve been on that struggle bus since first grade. I was hoping she wouldn’t have to deal with all that girl drama until middle school, but nooooo. |
|
seaexplore
Prolific Pea
Posts: 8,786
Apr 25, 2015 23:57:30 GMT
|
Post by seaexplore on Mar 19, 2021 0:21:26 GMT
We’ve been back in person exactly 4 days and the dumb drama has already started with my 8th graders. It was so nice not having that shit to deal with. Yeah, my kid is in 5th grade and we’ve been on that struggle bus since first grade. I was hoping she wouldn’t have to deal with all that girl drama until middle school, but nooooo. This class has been drama since 1st, maybe even K. Girl and boy drama. |
|
|
|
Post by simplyparticular on Mar 19, 2021 0:38:07 GMT
Our district started remote, planned to offer hybrid 2 days/week beginning in Dec but pushed it to Feb when cases surged after the holidays. Lots of outcry from parents so they moved hybrid for K-3 up, and then eventually moved all grades up to Jan 12.
Next week is the next change - K & ! are coming back 4 days a week, and they're trying to get as many in building as possible. This requires more teachers, and they're moving the full remote kids to different teachers instead of hybrid. The parent outcry is large over the shifting teachers, and all art/musicgym teachers are losing their areas and will work off carts. PE is moving outside.
And HS is going to be 2 days first week, 3 days second week, removing the remote Wednesday and rotating it.
I'm waiting to hear what change is planned for the middle school. The team teaching at this level makes changing teachers impossible. They did just cancel final exams for everyone except 8th grade and advanced classes that need the same for credit at the HS.
|
|
|
|
Post by iteach3rdgrade on Mar 19, 2021 1:01:01 GMT
Our district started remote, planned to offer hybrid 2 days/week beginning in Dec but pushed it to Feb when cases surged after the holidays. Lots of outcry from parents so they moved hybrid for K-3 up, and then eventually moved all grades up to Jan 12. Next week is the next change - K & ! are coming back 4 days a week, and they're trying to get as many in building as possible. This requires more teachers, and they're moving the full remote kids to different teachers instead of hybrid. The parent outcry is large over the shifting teachers, and all art/musicgym teachers are losing their areas and will work off carts. PE is moving outside. And HS is going to be 2 days first week, 3 days second week, removing the remote Wednesday and rotating it. I'm waiting to hear what change is planned for the middle school. The team teaching at this level makes changing teachers impossible. They did just cancel final exams for everyone except 8th grade and advanced classes that need the same for credit at the HS. What a mess! I can't imagine being with that. Why make it so complicated. |
|
|
|
Post by circusjohnson on Mar 19, 2021 1:36:22 GMT
I've been reading all the different posts about how school is in your areas. It's so interesting to me how different everyone's experience has been. I am a teacher and we started the school year in hybrid and then in November we went back 4 days a week with Fridays as remote and one on one help for students that need it. There is not much social distancing but kids have been really good about wearing masks and sanitizing. It has gone really well. I teach at a jr. high and we haven't closed once this year. My dd who is a senior had her high school close three times for two weeks each time due to outbreaks. Then in January they initiated a test to stay policy. Basically anytime they have 1% of the school population have active cases of covid they test everyone. If you test negative you can stay in school if you test positive you quarantine for 2 weeks. If you refuse to test then you have to stay home for two weeks. In January they had to test everyone and they only found 5 additional cases since then the case count for our state has gone way down and we haven't had to do a big test to stay.
|
|
|
|
Post by iteach3rdgrade on Mar 19, 2021 1:38:00 GMT
That is interesting.
|
|
|
|
Post by worldwanderer75 on Mar 19, 2021 8:36:35 GMT
My elementary aged kids have been hybrid since November- half the students in the morning, half in the afternoon with social distanced classrooms. My 2 kids in HS are still in virtual school. Their mental health is suffering and I would give just about anything to have them back in the classroom even if for just a couple of months. My younger kids are doing significantly better than my older kids. (I work as an speech pathologist in an elementary school and I'm not vaccinated but doing ok because of all the precautions we are taking).
|
|
