Remote Learning Thoughts/Opinions/Suggestions

How is everyone doing with the virtual classrooms?  I find that in some ways it's easy but in terms of student/teacher communication , we are having issues with the reply time. Anyone else experiencing this?

Can you be more specific? How long are you typically waiting for replies?

Teachers are supposed to be setting up 90 minutes of dedicated office hours, and communicating those hours to their classes. Is this happening during those hours?

My son splits time between me and my ex wife and I had him this past week for the first time since the whole virtual learning started.  He is in MMS and I find his m.o. to be wake up normal time (around 7 am), eat, logon to google classroom, look for his "assignments" and complete them if there are any in about an hour's time.  I constantly find myself asking him, "are you sure you don't have any additional work?"  The response is always the same.  I looked at his most recent assignment and it was essentially four questions about climate change, which he completed in about 15 minutes.

I'm not knocking the system because I know it's difficult and even my college aged son said that the workload is not nearly as much as had he been back in school.  But am I missing something?  Should I see more work being done?   There are some days he claims there is nothing to do but read a passage in some classes and I'm worried about all students falling behind.  Given the fact that most parents I know are busy trying to coordinate wfh, online meetings etc. and cannot be on top of their kids constantly, how are you all dealing with the assignemnts or lack thereof?

If the workload is lighter AND if he is working diligently to knock it out every morning, then yes, and hour actually seems reasonable 

A lot of classroom time is taken up with handing stuff out, turning stuff in, getting everyone on the same page, getting students attention, changing classes, other things like that.  It is actually common for homeschoolers to be able to knock out the equivalent of a full days schooling (not a light workload like we have now) in a few short hours. 

I’m not knocking the public school system, it isn’t that they’re inefficient, it’s just that going from a ratio of 1:25 down to effectively 1:1 means work can be completed quicker.  My father was public school teacher and I remember him saying something similar about the amount of time needed to teach a subject vs the amount of time it actually took

If you’re still concerned then check in with the teacher.  If he truly is getting everything done that he is supposed to, and if he is truly understanding the material given to him, then great.  And don’t be tempted to add on extra stuff, don’t punish efficiency 

As the Passover holiday begins tonight, and Spring break starts on Friday, the teachers are also not assigning anything due today or tomorrow. This is also reducing the course load.

Anyone else annoyed that we still have a spring break?  Millburn is on break this week and it would have been great to have just a little work to fill the time of my high schooler.  I can understand no online meetings but really she was only spending 1-2 hrs a day on work anyway.  Math practice, easy assignments to reinforce material, something.  Uhg.  I know the teachers need a break and many have younger kids but they lost at least a week ramping up to virtual learning so it is frustrating.

My BIL teaches in another district that shifted up the school year by a week by removing this Spring break. The fact that they changed the schedule in a district where many families have challenges with internet access, with less than a week's notice, caused its own set of issues.

My district still hopes that we will have school in June.  If we skipped spring break and ended a week earlier, that lowers our chances of actually seeing our students and getting some closer for this crazy year.

wendyn said:

Anyone else annoyed that we still have a spring break?  Millburn is on break this week and it would have been great to have just a little work to fill the time of my high schooler.  I can understand no online meetings but really she was only spending 1-2 hrs a day on work anyway.  Math practice, easy assignments to reinforce material, something.  Uhg.  I know the teachers need a break and many have younger kids but they lost at least a week ramping up to virtual learning so it is frustrating.

 No. I am glad my daughter gets a break. 

This is really stressful on kids. My daughter is coping pretty well but we can tell this is tough on her. I'm happy to give her a chance to just chill out, read books, play video games, do whatever she wants within the restrictions we're all living under.

sportsnut said:

My son splits time between me and my ex wife and I had him this past week for the first time since the whole virtual learning started.  He is in MMS and I find his m.o. to be wake up normal time (around 7 am), eat, logon to google classroom, look for his "assignments" and complete them if there are any in about an hour's time.  I constantly find myself asking him, "are you sure you don't have any additional work?"  The response is always the same.  I looked at his most recent assignment and it was essentially four questions about climate change, which he completed in about 15 minutes.

I'm not knocking the system because I know it's difficult and even my college aged son said that the workload is not nearly as much as had he been back in school.  But am I missing something?  Should I see more work being done?   There are some days he claims there is nothing to do but read a passage in some classes and I'm worried about all students falling behind.  Given the fact that most parents I know are busy trying to coordinate wfh, online meetings etc. and cannot be on top of their kids constantly, how are you all dealing with the assignemnts or lack thereof?

 To give you something to compare to, my son is in 8th st Soms.  He has had to spend about 4 hours per day working, plus band or PE work.  Today was only 2.5 hours.  I expect tomorrow to be less.   He can get distracted sometimes, but he also cares a bunch about his work and gets it all done.  He does all of the offered zoom things, and emails teachers as needed.

My kid had like 2 days of a “stressful” amount of work (which was mainly stressful because she insisted on sleeping as late as possible).   Compared to her normal spring schedule of  school + sport + homework the (academic) stress level is pretty low.  She’s watched every rom com made since 1980.  She is now bugging us to play board games either in the middle of the day when we are working or at 9:30 at night lol.  She’s pretty bored.

   I was not thinking of ending the school year early, i figure we’ve missed at least a week of learning time already.

I’m not sure how removing spring break would change anything for people who were already having internet challenges but maybe I’m missing something.

Seems like I might be alone here though and it’s already half over anyway!  And hey she put the dishes away without me asking so boredom has an up side.

wendyn said:
I’m not sure how removing spring break would change anything for people who were already having internet challenges but maybe I’m missing something.

It's more that there are challenges with getting communications out to everyone. It can take extra time out of the regular week to manage and check that everyone was aware. I'm not sure if there were plans to use the break to assist more students with getting online, but that was my impression.

And the teachers are also impacted: Before my BIL had spring break for his own kid and his classes at the same time. Now they are not aligned.

In addition, there are a high number of students who are eligible for free/reduced price lunch that the district is delivering to, and more are likely to be in need with all the layoffs. The deliveries were going to be suspended for spring break --but now they are not, so those preparing and delivering the meals do not have expected time off. 

While there are some who find the change convenient, others can find it inconvenient.

wendyn said:

She’s watched every rom com made since 1980.  

HBO is free streaming some of their older shows and documentaries. I've started watching McMillion$ with my high schooler (six 1-hour episodes). It is mostly people talking, and doesn't move very fast, but has funny moments, as well as illustrates several real-life relationships that are sometimes too real. My kiddo is sucked in also. Don't know if it will have a happy ending like a rom-com yet, or something more tragic...

FilmCarp said:

sportsnut said:

My son splits time between me and my ex wife and I had him this past week for the first time since the whole virtual learning started.  He is in MMS and I find his m.o. to be wake up normal time (around 7 am), eat, logon to google classroom, look for his "assignments" and complete them if there are any in about an hour's time.  I constantly find myself asking him, "are you sure you don't have any additional work?"  The response is always the same.  I looked at his most recent assignment and it was essentially four questions about climate change, which he completed in about 15 minutes.

I'm not knocking the system because I know it's difficult and even my college aged son said that the workload is not nearly as much as had he been back in school.  But am I missing something?  Should I see more work being done?   There are some days he claims there is nothing to do but read a passage in some classes and I'm worried about all students falling behind.  Given the fact that most parents I know are busy trying to coordinate wfh, online meetings etc. and cannot be on top of their kids constantly, how are you all dealing with the assignemnts or lack thereof?

 To give you something to compare to, my son is in 8th st Soms.  He has had to spend about 4 hours per day working, plus band or PE work.  Today was only 2.5 hours.  I expect tomorrow to be less.   He can get distracted sometimes, but he also cares a bunch about his work and gets it all done.  He does all of the offered zoom things, and emails teachers as needed.

 Thanks for this as mine is in 8th grade at MMS.  He plays an instrument which he no longer has access to and I didn't even think of PE work.  He does go out on daily walks with his older brother, which is a good thing.  I never really thought about the age difference between the two of them - 8 years or the fact that my older son has been away at college and spent last summer in Korea.  Seeing them spend time together now that they are older and more mature can only be a good thing. 

I think my son has spent more time working in the past so maybe it was as Sprout suggested - coming into the holidays there just wasn't much work assigned.