What should MCPS' virtual learning plan be ?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Elementary School: Send on-paper worksheets home. Preferably a lot of them (but not so many that kids can't also go sledding). It's a great opportunity to have kids work at their own pace. Offer teacher office hours (or a required teacher check-in if that's what is required to have the state give 'credit' for the school day.

If it's feasible to send ES kids home with chromebooks (I think that's why MCPS has been relucatant to do virtual til now), then have kids work through Khan Academy lessons at home. These are adaptable. Teacher can track the kid's progress and see how much time was spent. Teacher isn't overwhelmed with a lot of grading on return. The actual work can adapt to the kid's needs so can provide more differentiation than is usual at school. This could actually make virtual days more effective than in-school days because kids who need more help can get more remedial lessons and other kids can work ahead on challenge problems.

High School: Regular online zoom sessions a la 2020 but give teachers flexibility to record lessons instead, or only come online to introduce the assignment and then let kids work offline.

In both cases, deadlines should be strong suggestions to keep kids on track but everything is due 24 hours after the return to school -- in case there are power outages or kids have special scheduling challenges during that week (taking care of siblings or whatnot). Maybe this is set up as actual deadlines during the snowweek, but extensions on request.

Are you actually a parent? This is wishful thinking.

Good luck getting all the kids to do the worksheets or log on to Khan Academy.

For present and engaged parents at the elementary, it will be an absolute power struggle as kids will fight tooth and nail about having to do any work on a snow day.

At the high school level, only the motivated, disciplined and responsible kids who already care about their education will do any kind of synchronous or asynchronous work on a snow day.

You all have to start dealing with the reality of kids and adolescents and not what you wish them to be.

They are not small, fully developed adults. If they think they can take the easy way out of something they think is either boring or a waste of their time, they will. Everyone involved in education policy should know this and make plans accordingly. Plans like this are absolutely a nonstarter for a public school district. This can, however, work with small or selective private and charter schools.

If its a struggle for you you need to readjust your parenting style. This is a you problem, not MCPS or us problem.

If it’s not a struggle for you to get your kids to do random Khan assignments, then why do you need the teacher to assign them? Why can’t you just tell them “Hey go do some random Khan assignments”?

Sometimes it isn't about making things better for their own kids, but rather making things worse for everyone else.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Elementary School: Send on-paper worksheets home. Preferably a lot of them (but not so many that kids can't also go sledding). It's a great opportunity to have kids work at their own pace. Offer teacher office hours (or a required teacher check-in if that's what is required to have the state give 'credit' for the school day.

If it's feasible to send ES kids home with chromebooks (I think that's why MCPS has been relucatant to do virtual til now), then have kids work through Khan Academy lessons at home. These are adaptable. Teacher can track the kid's progress and see how much time was spent. Teacher isn't overwhelmed with a lot of grading on return. The actual work can adapt to the kid's needs so can provide more differentiation than is usual at school. This could actually make virtual days more effective than in-school days because kids who need more help can get more remedial lessons and other kids can work ahead on challenge problems.

High School: Regular online zoom sessions a la 2020 but give teachers flexibility to record lessons instead, or only come online to introduce the assignment and then let kids work offline.

In both cases, deadlines should be strong suggestions to keep kids on track but everything is due 24 hours after the return to school -- in case there are power outages or kids have special scheduling challenges during that week (taking care of siblings or whatnot). Maybe this is set up as actual deadlines during the snowweek, but extensions on request.

I just don't understand how someone could write a message like this with a straight face. Really? I really wonder what sort of life you've had.

You want to use virtual days for remedial lessons for elementary school kids? What are you expecting there. Kids from rich families with SAHPs or tutors are going to be fine. They won't even need that. The kids who do are going to be much more likely to be in households with parent support, or maybe simply be at daycare settings or grandparents homes without the means to connect and participate.

Even if they do participate, what do you think expect the teacher to do? A lot of the lessons involve activities by hand or at least on paper. The student can't see what the teacher is doing, and even more importantly, the teacher can't see what the student is struggling with.

You expect young kids to be able to break down a problem, think about what's at the root of their misunderstanding, and articulate a clear question? And then be able to process a verbal response? That's simply not a reasonable expectation for a second grader. Not even an on-grade-level second grader.

Do you really think that would work? Or do you just not care?

I'm this pp, and the point of these lessons is that they're review. This may not work for K, but for third-grade-plus, why could a kid not take out worksheets on something they learned three months before, and work on them independently? A set of math problems to reinforce what they learned before? Just as an example, you take math skills learned throughout fall semester and make them worksheets that they do for practice. If the kid returns them to the teacher the next week and clearly struggled, then the teacher has learned something about needing to review. Otherwise, the kid has gotten reinforcement on something taught earlier in the year.

A better choice for the little kids would also be Khan Academy, since every lesson has videos to watch if you forgot how to do the task. But there seems to be a problem requiring computer work with the Littles, so this would be second-best. (Maybe the assignments could be set up as either/or.)

And yes, I'm a parent. And at a young age, my kids sat independently doing Khan Academy and workbooks and puzzles. (And to the critics, yes they also went sledding and played with toys and played a ton of sports). The parent doesn't need to be able to teach the kid these lessons, but they do need to be able to set them at a table for 30 minute stints to work on homework.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Elementary School: Send on-paper worksheets home. Preferably a lot of them (but not so many that kids can't also go sledding). It's a great opportunity to have kids work at their own pace. Offer teacher office hours (or a required teacher check-in if that's what is required to have the state give 'credit' for the school day.

If it's feasible to send ES kids home with chromebooks (I think that's why MCPS has been relucatant to do virtual til now), then have kids work through Khan Academy lessons at home. These are adaptable. Teacher can track the kid's progress and see how much time was spent. Teacher isn't overwhelmed with a lot of grading on return. The actual work can adapt to the kid's needs so can provide more differentiation than is usual at school. This could actually make virtual days more effective than in-school days because kids who need more help can get more remedial lessons and other kids can work ahead on challenge problems.

High School: Regular online zoom sessions a la 2020 but give teachers flexibility to record lessons instead, or only come online to introduce the assignment and then let kids work offline.

In both cases, deadlines should be strong suggestions to keep kids on track but everything is due 24 hours after the return to school -- in case there are power outages or kids have special scheduling challenges during that week (taking care of siblings or whatnot). Maybe this is set up as actual deadlines during the snowweek, but extensions on request.

I just don't understand how someone could write a message like this with a straight face. Really? I really wonder what sort of life you've had.

You want to use virtual days for remedial lessons for elementary school kids? What are you expecting there. Kids from rich families with SAHPs or tutors are going to be fine. They won't even need that. The kids who do are going to be much more likely to be in households with parent support, or maybe simply be at daycare settings or grandparents homes without the means to connect and participate.

Even if they do participate, what do you think expect the teacher to do? A lot of the lessons involve activities by hand or at least on paper. The student can't see what the teacher is doing, and even more importantly, the teacher can't see what the student is struggling with.

You expect young kids to be able to break down a problem, think about what's at the root of their misunderstanding, and articulate a clear question? And then be able to process a verbal response? That's simply not a reasonable expectation for a second grader. Not even an on-grade-level second grader.

Do you really think that would work? Or do you just not care?

I'm this pp, and the point of these lessons is that they're review. This may not work for K, but for third-grade-plus, why could a kid not take out worksheets on something they learned three months before, and work on them independently? A set of math problems to reinforce what they learned before? Just as an example, you take math skills learned throughout fall semester and make them worksheets that they do for practice. If the kid returns them to the teacher the next week and clearly struggled, then the teacher has learned something about needing to review. Otherwise, the kid has gotten reinforcement on something taught earlier in the year.

A better choice for the little kids would also be Khan Academy, since every lesson has videos to watch if you forgot how to do the task. But there seems to be a problem requiring computer work with the Littles, so this would be second-best. (Maybe the assignments could be set up as either/or.)

And yes, I'm a parent. And at a young age, my kids sat independently doing Khan Academy and workbooks and puzzles. (And to the critics, yes they also went sledding and played with toys and played a ton of sports). The parent doesn't need to be able to teach the kid these lessons, but they do need to be able to set them at a table for 30 minute stints to work on homework.

You said it would be for remedial instruction. How do you expect teachers to help kids who don't know the material when they can't see what they're doing? And when the kids can't articulate questions?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Elementary School: Send on-paper worksheets home. Preferably a lot of them (but not so many that kids can't also go sledding). It's a great opportunity to have kids work at their own pace. Offer teacher office hours (or a required teacher check-in if that's what is required to have the state give 'credit' for the school day.

If it's feasible to send ES kids home with chromebooks (I think that's why MCPS has been relucatant to do virtual til now), then have kids work through Khan Academy lessons at home. These are adaptable. Teacher can track the kid's progress and see how much time was spent. Teacher isn't overwhelmed with a lot of grading on return. The actual work can adapt to the kid's needs so can provide more differentiation than is usual at school. This could actually make virtual days more effective than in-school days because kids who need more help can get more remedial lessons and other kids can work ahead on challenge problems.

High School: Regular online zoom sessions a la 2020 but give teachers flexibility to record lessons instead, or only come online to introduce the assignment and then let kids work offline.

In both cases, deadlines should be strong suggestions to keep kids on track but everything is due 24 hours after the return to school -- in case there are power outages or kids have special scheduling challenges during that week (taking care of siblings or whatnot). Maybe this is set up as actual deadlines during the snowweek, but extensions on request.

Are you actually a parent? This is wishful thinking.

Good luck getting all the kids to do the worksheets or log on to Khan Academy.

For present and engaged parents at the elementary, it will be an absolute power struggle as kids will fight tooth and nail about having to do any work on a snow day.

At the high school level, only the motivated, disciplined and responsible kids who already care about their education will do any kind of synchronous or asynchronous work on a snow day.

You all have to start dealing with the reality of kids and adolescents and not what you wish them to be.

They are not small, fully developed adults. If they think they can take the easy way out of something they think is either boring or a waste of their time, they will. Everyone involved in education policy should know this and make plans accordingly. Plans like this are absolutely a nonstarter for a public school district. This can, however, work with small or selective private and charter schools.

If its a struggle for you you need to readjust your parenting style. This is a you problem, not MCPS or us problem.

If it’s not a struggle for you to get your kids to do random Khan assignments, then why do you need the teacher to assign them? Why can’t you just tell them “Hey go do some random Khan assignments”?

These posters touting this party line have no experience with children other than their privileged, well-resourced kids.

Here come the bigotry of low expectations folks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Elementary School: Send on-paper worksheets home. Preferably a lot of them (but not so many that kids can't also go sledding). It's a great opportunity to have kids work at their own pace. Offer teacher office hours (or a required teacher check-in if that's what is required to have the state give 'credit' for the school day.

If it's feasible to send ES kids home with chromebooks (I think that's why MCPS has been relucatant to do virtual til now), then have kids work through Khan Academy lessons at home. These are adaptable. Teacher can track the kid's progress and see how much time was spent. Teacher isn't overwhelmed with a lot of grading on return. The actual work can adapt to the kid's needs so can provide more differentiation than is usual at school. This could actually make virtual days more effective than in-school days because kids who need more help can get more remedial lessons and other kids can work ahead on challenge problems.

High School: Regular online zoom sessions a la 2020 but give teachers flexibility to record lessons instead, or only come online to introduce the assignment and then let kids work offline.

In both cases, deadlines should be strong suggestions to keep kids on track but everything is due 24 hours after the return to school -- in case there are power outages or kids have special scheduling challenges during that week (taking care of siblings or whatnot). Maybe this is set up as actual deadlines during the snowweek, but extensions on request.

Are you actually a parent? This is wishful thinking.

Good luck getting all the kids to do the worksheets or log on to Khan Academy.

For present and engaged parents at the elementary, it will be an absolute power struggle as kids will fight tooth and nail about having to do any work on a snow day.

At the high school level, only the motivated, disciplined and responsible kids who already care about their education will do any kind of synchronous or asynchronous work on a snow day.

You all have to start dealing with the reality of kids and adolescents and not what you wish them to be.

They are not small, fully developed adults. If they think they can take the easy way out of something they think is either boring or a waste of their time, they will. Everyone involved in education policy should know this and make plans accordingly. Plans like this are absolutely a nonstarter for a public school district. This can, however, work with small or selective private and charter schools.

If its a struggle for you you need to readjust your parenting style. This is a you problem, not MCPS or us problem.

If it’s not a struggle for you to get your kids to do random Khan assignments, then why do you need the teacher to assign them? Why can’t you just tell them “Hey go do some random Khan assignments”?

These posters touting this party line have no experience with children other than their privileged, well-resourced kids.

Here come the bigotry of low expectations folks.

More like the McPS staffers who don’t want their extra snow day vacation interrupted when they can just throw on videos for a half day in June.