What does Chromebook use look like in your kid's elementary class?

[Anonymous]

Yes, I encourage everyone to login to their ES child’s acct and see what how they are spending their time.

As for computer literacy, my 4 yo learned how to use a mouse in 5 minutes at the library. Most people can pick this up very quickly, no hours of “practice required”.

Disappointing and infuriating

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t really think we need to start with a Chromebooks in k to teach kids how to use a mouse and keyboard. Their hands are so small anyway at that age! Not like you will teach a 5 year old touch typing. They need to learn how to actually handwrite at that age.

If we want to introduce Chromebooks to get kids used to typing and mouse usage and research, it would be completely reasonable to wait until 4th grade.

The problem is that k starts taking mClass assessments on the chromebook and need to know how to use a touch pad or mouse. But in general, most primary classrooms don't use chrome books often.

Also, what do you consider primary classrooms? K-2?

Because my 3rd graders reads on Epic daily for free reading. FWIW, I come from a nearsighted family and have talked about this with my ophthalmologist. I really feel like all the screen time isn’t great for the kids vision.

It's funny you mentioned that because all of the 3rd grade teachers removed their mini libraries in their classrooms to house the big tower of chrome books and plug ins. We were told the kids need to supply their own books from home, and they will be doing reading on Epic. How sad is that?

I agree that’s pretty terrible. Our 3rd graders still has a library in the classroom but they do encourage reading on the Chromebooks more.

When my K kid has media, instead of the librarian actually reading books to the kids, she uses a video of the book being read on the Promethean board. I feel like in the early years, there is something to be gained by having a book read aloud to you versus watching an animation of the book on the screen.

At least the K teacher actually reads the physical books in class, but it seems sad that the librarian is now also relying on the Promethean boards.

I’m not anti-screen and my kids spend a good deal of time on the iPad, but DH and I have decided no screen time at home for our K kid anymore during school. He gets hours of screen time daily at school!

Librarian here I think it's really sad when teachers to rely on videoes of books. I almost completely lost my voice this week so I was showing my students videos of the books that I would have read to them but I found that the videos wouldn't read the books in the way that I would have read them. I still pause the videos a lot to ask questions and get more interaction from students. It wasn't just a passive experience for them

Curious. Our librarian only reads to K and 1st. I find that sad. Why can't the other kids get books read to them? Also, my child says they actually bring their own chrome books to media now. Walk in the hallway and bring them for media. Is this normal? I was shocked but now that I am asking more, I can't believe how much these things are attached to their hips all day.

[Anonymous]

Sounds like MCPS teachers just outsourced themselves to chrome books and online math and reading games. So will they stick around as overpaid teachers who watch students on chrome books or what?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sounds like MCPS teachers just outsourced themselves to chrome books and online math and reading games. So will they stick around as overpaid teachers who watch students on chrome books or what?

I don't think it was the teachers who pushed for the Chromebooks...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sounds like MCPS teachers just outsourced themselves to chrome books and online math and reading games. So will they stick around as overpaid teachers who watch students on chrome books or what?

I don't think it was the teachers who pushed for the Chromebooks...

No but when you have 26-30 kids in a class and need to keep them behaved so you can teach 4-5 at a reading table, they can become a crutch. And so far, I have seen it in every class I volunteer in

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wait until Middle school and playing games during classes and tests...
Bringing Chromebooks with open internet to school is the worst decision possible by MCPS.
My child became real gamer in school. Students "educate" each other what to play. Nobody watching what is going on.
All study process (except Math) involves computers...

I don’t understand why they can’t put some sort of Parental control mechanism on the Chromebooks. Maybe not in MS but at least in ES.

At our school the principal gets a notification if someone is looking at an ‘inappropriate’ site. But there are 700 kids in our ES so that is pretty much impossible to monitor. And often the principal is off doing something else.

Put some controls on there for the ES kids. Even my work is able to block sites like Facebook and Instagram. It wouldn’t seem that hard and there is no reason for my 3rd graders to be accessing Instagram at school.

Pretty sure that Instagram is blocked at Mcps. If you actually read the original post they were talking about a Flickr account

FWIW, Instagram is not blocked at my kid’s Elementary school. And Facebook is definitely not blocked. Not sure about Flickr.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sounds like MCPS teachers just outsourced themselves to chrome books and online math and reading games. So will they stick around as overpaid teachers who watch students on chrome books or what?

I don't think it was the teachers who pushed for the Chromebooks...

I agree! Especially in K-2, there are lots of teachers who don’t love them.

But now that they are everywhere, it’s easy to rely on them. They have been using the Promethean board for movies and videos, and the Chromebooks are just one more screen to rely on.

And agree with the PP. When you have a huge K class, how else can you keep the other kids busy?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t really think we need to start with a Chromebooks in k to teach kids how to use a mouse and keyboard. Their hands are so small anyway at that age! Not like you will teach a 5 year old touch typing. They need to learn how to actually handwrite at that age.

If we want to introduce Chromebooks to get kids used to typing and mouse usage and research, it would be completely reasonable to wait until 4th grade.

The problem is that k starts taking mClass assessments on the chromebook and need to know how to use a touch pad or mouse. But in general, most primary classrooms don't use chrome books often.

Also, what do you consider primary classrooms? K-2?

Because my 3rd graders reads on Epic daily for free reading. FWIW, I come from a nearsighted family and have talked about this with my ophthalmologist. I really feel like all the screen time isn’t great for the kids vision.

It's funny you mentioned that because all of the 3rd grade teachers removed their mini libraries in their classrooms to house the big tower of chrome books and plug ins. We were told the kids need to supply their own books from home, and they will be doing reading on Epic. How sad is that?

I agree that’s pretty terrible. Our 3rd graders still has a library in the classroom but they do encourage reading on the Chromebooks more.

When my K kid has media, instead of the librarian actually reading books to the kids, she uses a video of the book being read on the Promethean board. I feel like in the early years, there is something to be gained by having a book read aloud to you versus watching an animation of the book on the screen.

At least the K teacher actually reads the physical books in class, but it seems sad that the librarian is now also relying on the Promethean boards.

I’m not anti-screen and my kids spend a good deal of time on the iPad, but DH and I have decided no screen time at home for our K kid anymore during school. He gets hours of screen time daily at school!

Librarian here I think it's really sad when teachers to rely on videoes of books. I almost completely lost my voice this week so I was showing my students videos of the books that I would have read to them but I found that the videos wouldn't read the books in the way that I would have read them. I still pause the videos a lot to ask questions and get more interaction from students. It wasn't just a passive experience for them

Curious. Our librarian only reads to K and 1st. I find that sad. Why can't the other kids get books read to them? Also, my child says they actually bring their own chrome books to media now. Walk in the hallway and bring them for media. Is this normal? I was shocked but now that I am asking more, I can't believe how much these things are attached to their hips all day.

Our media specialist also relies on videos, even for K.

Luckily my kid’s 4th grade teacher is old school and still actually reads to them after recess! But she’s older and we find the younger teachers prefer to use the screens more.

[Anonymous]

Principals from upon us older teachers for not being up with all the technology.

But when the internet goes down, the younger teachers have no idea how to teach!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t really think we need to start with a Chromebooks in k to teach kids how to use a mouse and keyboard. Their hands are so small anyway at that age! Not like you will teach a 5 year old touch typing. They need to learn how to actually handwrite at that age.

If we want to introduce Chromebooks to get kids used to typing and mouse usage and research, it would be completely reasonable to wait until 4th grade.

The problem is that k starts taking mClass assessments on the chromebook and need to know how to use a touch pad or mouse. But in general, most primary classrooms don't use chrome books often.

Also, what do you consider primary classrooms? K-2?

Because my 3rd graders reads on Epic daily for free reading. FWIW, I come from a nearsighted family and have talked about this with my ophthalmologist. I really feel like all the screen time isn’t great for the kids vision.

It's funny you mentioned that because all of the 3rd grade teachers removed their mini libraries in their classrooms to house the big tower of chrome books and plug ins. We were told the kids need to supply their own books from home, and they will be doing reading on Epic. How sad is that?

Good God that is AWFUL!

Our (new) teacher has an awesome library. I would lose it if she removed it for computer reading.

That said, my child and a few other children were competing to see who would read more books on Epic. They were flipping through little kid books as fast as possible in order get more points. I told him he'd better cut it out NOW. I love this age where they do bonehead things but usually confess to them immediately.

My kid did that also! We talked about it and it got better.

I guess the books on Epic are cheaper than actual books? Kind of like how people have started buying E-Books over paper copies on amazon.

The Epic business model is kind of a racket basically it's free for schools to use but parents have to pay a subscription fee to use it at home. I've seen language on the website basically encouraging teachers to get parents to sign up and pay for it otherwise it won't be free at school anymore

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wait until Middle school and playing games during classes and tests...
Bringing Chromebooks with open internet to school is the worst decision possible by MCPS.
My child became real gamer in school. Students "educate" each other what to play. Nobody watching what is going on.
All study process (except Math) involves computers...

I don’t understand why they can’t put some sort of Parental control mechanism on the Chromebooks. Maybe not in MS but at least in ES.

At our school the principal gets a notification if someone is looking at an ‘inappropriate’ site. But there are 700 kids in our ES so that is pretty much impossible to monitor. And often the principal is off doing something else.

Put some controls on there for the ES kids. Even my work is able to block sites like Facebook and Instagram. It wouldn’t seem that hard and there is no reason for my 3rd graders to be accessing Instagram at school.

Pretty sure that Instagram is blocked at Mcps. If you actually read the original post they were talking about a Flickr account

FWIW, Instagram is not blocked at my kid’s Elementary school. And Facebook is definitely not blocked. Not sure about Flickr.

How do you know? Did you login as a student and go to Instagram?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t really think we need to start with a Chromebooks in k to teach kids how to use a mouse and keyboard. Their hands are so small anyway at that age! Not like you will teach a 5 year old touch typing. They need to learn how to actually handwrite at that age.

If we want to introduce Chromebooks to get kids used to typing and mouse usage and research, it would be completely reasonable to wait until 4th grade.

The problem is that k starts taking mClass assessments on the chromebook and need to know how to use a touch pad or mouse. But in general, most primary classrooms don't use chrome books often.

Also, what do you consider primary classrooms? K-2?

Because my 3rd graders reads on Epic daily for free reading. FWIW, I come from a nearsighted family and have talked about this with my ophthalmologist. I really feel like all the screen time isn’t great for the kids vision.

It's funny you mentioned that because all of the 3rd grade teachers removed their mini libraries in their classrooms to house the big tower of chrome books and plug ins. We were told the kids need to supply their own books from home, and they will be doing reading on Epic. How sad is that?

I agree that’s pretty terrible. Our 3rd graders still has a library in the classroom but they do encourage reading on the Chromebooks more.

When my K kid has media, instead of the librarian actually reading books to the kids, she uses a video of the book being read on the Promethean board. I feel like in the early years, there is something to be gained by having a book read aloud to you versus watching an animation of the book on the screen.

At least the K teacher actually reads the physical books in class, but it seems sad that the librarian is now also relying on the Promethean boards.

I’m not anti-screen and my kids spend a good deal of time on the iPad, but DH and I have decided no screen time at home for our K kid anymore during school. He gets hours of screen time daily at school!

Librarian here I think it's really sad when teachers to rely on videoes of books. I almost completely lost my voice this week so I was showing my students videos of the books that I would have read to them but I found that the videos wouldn't read the books in the way that I would have read them. I still pause the videos a lot to ask questions and get more interaction from students. It wasn't just a passive experience for them

Curious. Our librarian only reads to K and 1st. I find that sad. Why can't the other kids get books read to them? Also, my child says they actually bring their own chrome books to media now. Walk in the hallway and bring them for media. Is this normal? I was shocked but now that I am asking more, I can't believe how much these things are attached to their hips all day.

I work in a primary school so I only have kindergarten through 2nd grade students. When I talk in a kindergarten through fifth grade school I still read to my older students but we often spend more time doing lessons about research skills or how to find books in the library. I found that students of all ages love it when teachers read books to them. There are lots of picture books out there that are engaging for older students

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t really think we need to start with a Chromebooks in k to teach kids how to use a mouse and keyboard. Their hands are so small anyway at that age! Not like you will teach a 5 year old touch typing. They need to learn how to actually handwrite at that age.

If we want to introduce Chromebooks to get kids used to typing and mouse usage and research, it would be completely reasonable to wait until 4th grade.

The problem is that k starts taking mClass assessments on the chromebook and need to know how to use a touch pad or mouse. But in general, most primary classrooms don't use chrome books often.

Also, what do you consider primary classrooms? K-2?

Because my 3rd graders reads on Epic daily for free reading. FWIW, I come from a nearsighted family and have talked about this with my ophthalmologist. I really feel like all the screen time isn’t great for the kids vision.

It's funny you mentioned that because all of the 3rd grade teachers removed their mini libraries in their classrooms to house the big tower of chrome books and plug ins. We were told the kids need to supply their own books from home, and they will be doing reading on Epic. How sad is that?

Good God that is AWFUL!

Our (new) teacher has an awesome library. I would lose it if she removed it for computer reading.

That said, my child and a few other children were competing to see who would read more books on Epic. They were flipping through little kid books as fast as possible in order get more points. I told him he'd better cut it out NOW. I love this age where they do bonehead things but usually confess to them immediately.

My kid did that also! We talked about it and it got better.

I guess the books on Epic are cheaper than actual books? Kind of like how people have started buying E-Books over paper copies on amazon.

It depends. If a school is purchasing an ebook it can often be more expensive than a physical book because you have to buy the rights for an unlimited amount of people to read a book at the same time. Epic right now is for schools but I wouldn't be surprised if it becomes a subscription service

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Principals from upon us older teachers for not being up with all the technology.

But when the internet goes down, the younger teachers have no idea how to teach!

I’ve noticed that the Principals push the tech in the classrooms. And you’re right! My DD’s teacher is in her 60s and it’s always fine when the wireless internet is down. She has tons of back up materials. Gasp! She even has some workbooks!!

She also reads physical books to her class, FWIW. And the kids LOVE it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t really think we need to start with a Chromebooks in k to teach kids how to use a mouse and keyboard. Their hands are so small anyway at that age! Not like you will teach a 5 year old touch typing. They need to learn how to actually handwrite at that age.

If we want to introduce Chromebooks to get kids used to typing and mouse usage and research, it would be completely reasonable to wait until 4th grade.

The problem is that k starts taking mClass assessments on the chromebook and need to know how to use a touch pad or mouse. But in general, most primary classrooms don't use chrome books often.

Also, what do you consider primary classrooms? K-2?

Because my 3rd graders reads on Epic daily for free reading. FWIW, I come from a nearsighted family and have talked about this with my ophthalmologist. I really feel like all the screen time isn’t great for the kids vision.

It's funny you mentioned that because all of the 3rd grade teachers removed their mini libraries in their classrooms to house the big tower of chrome books and plug ins. We were told the kids need to supply their own books from home, and they will be doing reading on Epic. How sad is that?

Good God that is AWFUL!

Our (new) teacher has an awesome library. I would lose it if she removed it for computer reading.

That said, my child and a few other children were competing to see who would read more books on Epic. They were flipping through little kid books as fast as possible in order get more points. I told him he'd better cut it out NOW. I love this age where they do bonehead things but usually confess to them immediately.

My kid did that also! We talked about it and it got better.

I guess the books on Epic are cheaper than actual books? Kind of like how people have started buying E-Books over paper copies on amazon.

It depends. If a school is purchasing an ebook it can often be more expensive than a physical book because you have to buy the rights for an unlimited amount of people to read a book at the same time. Epic right now is for schools but I wouldn't be surprised if it becomes a subscription service

Of course it’ll become a subscription service! That’s how they do it. Start off free. Classrooms get rid of all the paper books. Then it becomes a requirement to read on Epic because there are a paltry few physical books left. So then schools pay for it.

Definitely a racket like the other PP says.