Virtual Learning for Elementary School-Description by Our Principal

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Office hours are for chit chat? Our teacher in the spring said the time had to be scheduled in advance in ten minute increments and to include the topic the child needed help with in our email requesting a slot. (We never did).

Depends on how it is set up. Some people do it like your teacher, for whatever reason. Maybe they think it will cut down the number of people they have to deal with.

Office hours previously was a term prevalent in college system as a time for college kids to talk to their instructor without making an appointment. I have never seen it used in K-12 but this is a new environment. College is the only area I have seen this term used until this pandemic when the school system started using it for themselves. In college, the instructor post this office hour on their syllabus, and it is the time when they are in their office physically. You can show up during this time without making an appointment because they are required to be in their office. I showed up to a few office hours when I had to have something explained to me again. Sometimes there would be a few other students in there also asking questions. People take turns. Yes, there are chit-chats going on, either with the teacher or other students waiting for their turn, because it is an informal setting unlike the lecture halls. If you cannot make it to office hour, you can make an appointment to speak with them at another time.

K-12 schools around here just started taking this "office hour" term and used it however they want. K-12 teachers spend most of their time on behavior management and trying to get kids motivated to do the work. Showing up voluntarily to "office hour" is not likely going to be an activity that these kids are going to do. Maybe the most studious ones, if they really are stuck on something. But if you just look at how basic the academics are, the most studious kids probably won't be needing extra "help."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This was a sample schedule for upper grades released by our principal, with a total listed as 4 hours of synchronous instruction.

10:00-11:15: Morning Meeting/LA
11:15-12:00 Science/Social Studies
LUNCH
12:30-1:30 Math instruction
BREAK
1:45-2:45 or 2:50-3:50 Specials

The assumption was that kids would do assignments after their synchronous time had completed as well.

OP, sounds like your school is choosing to do less than they could.

Our kids might be at the same ES. During the meeting, he said that this is the sort of schedule that a group of principals had gotten together and developed (as a rough outline), so maybe there will be a bunch of ES with similar schedules.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

My opinion is that this schedule is realistic and sounds spot on. What social interaction do you want? They have morning meetings to talk about stuff. Your kid can show up to office hours and see if other kids are there to talk to them. You want them to work in groups? How is the teacher going to monitor that online when they're working with other kids?

Don't even mention break out groups because no teacher will have kids just go to a different "chat room" where they have no clue what these kids are doing or what they are talking about.

That's precisely what DD's teachers did in the Spring. When they had to work in groups, they put the kids into chat rooms (of sorts). Then they went from one chat room to the next, checking in on the kids, to see if they needed help, and to monitor. It worked out VERY well. Maybe it's an age thing, that these kids are young enough to do what they're asked and not engage in inappropriate behavior.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

My opinion is that this schedule is realistic and sounds spot on. What social interaction do you want? They have morning meetings to talk about stuff. Your kid can show up to office hours and see if other kids are there to talk to them. You want them to work in groups? How is the teacher going to monitor that online when they're working with other kids?

Don't even mention break out groups because no teacher will have kids just go to a different "chat room" where they have no clue what these kids are doing or what they are talking about.

That's precisely what DD's teachers did in the Spring. When they had to work in groups, they put the kids into chat rooms (of sorts). Then they went from one chat room to the next, checking in on the kids, to see if they needed help, and to monitor. It worked out VERY well. Maybe it's an age thing, that these kids are young enough to do what they're asked and not engage in inappropriate behavior.

How is the teacher doing this when they're supposed to be working with a small group in reading/math?

I don't know any teacher in my school who would be willing to do that. It is a liability issue. It takes 1 single student acting inappropriately for their to be a complaint and accusation that the teacher was not supervising the students properly if they were jumping from room to room. In a classroom, the teacher's physical presence is what allows these centers to go on when they are working with other kids. The teachers would never put kids in 4 different classrooms and then walk from 1 room to the next. That's essentially leaving the kids unsupervised and anything that happens is that person's responsibility. Sure maybe you get a good class and nothing happens, but it is still playing with fire. That's why teachers have to get someone to watch their students whenever they have an emergency such as having to go to the bathroom or take a phone call in the office, etc. No one is allowed to leave kids unsupervised in the building. Why is that allowed online?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

My opinion is that this schedule is realistic and sounds spot on. What social interaction do you want? They have morning meetings to talk about stuff. Your kid can show up to office hours and see if other kids are there to talk to them. You want them to work in groups? How is the teacher going to monitor that online when they're working with other kids?

Don't even mention break out groups because no teacher will have kids just go to a different "chat room" where they have no clue what these kids are doing or what they are talking about.

That's precisely what DD's teachers did in the Spring. When they had to work in groups, they put the kids into chat rooms (of sorts). Then they went from one chat room to the next, checking in on the kids, to see if they needed help, and to monitor. It worked out VERY well. Maybe it's an age thing, that these kids are young enough to do what they're asked and not engage in inappropriate behavior.

How is the teacher doing this when they're supposed to be working with a small group in reading/math?

I don't know any teacher in my school who would be willing to do that. It is a liability issue. It takes 1 single student acting inappropriately for their to be a complaint and accusation that the teacher was not supervising the students properly if they were jumping from room to room. In a classroom, the teacher's physical presence is what allows these centers to go on when they are working with other kids. The teachers would never put kids in 4 different classrooms and then walk from 1 room to the next. That's essentially leaving the kids unsupervised and anything that happens is that person's responsibility. Sure maybe you get a good class and nothing happens, but it is still playing with fire. That's why teachers have to get someone to watch their students whenever they have an emergency such as having to go to the bathroom or take a phone call in the office, etc. No one is allowed to leave kids unsupervised in the building. Why is that allowed online?

Small group work was done strictly during office hours so the teachers could focus their attention on kids who needed it. I think the fact that the teachers could drop in unannounced, probably kept the kids honest. It's not like a teacher going to the bathroom; the kids know how long that takes, whereas this is variable. And since they are too young to be left home alone, they were supervised (so to speak) by an adult at home. One of the problems with leaving kids alone in classes is that they are physically able to do things they shouldn't, and if say, they bully someone, that kid is trapped. With the online chats, there are no such issues, since anyone can leave at any time, or ping their instructor if there are problems. My daughter frequently ended up with kids she didn't like, or in groups where she was the only girl, and there were zero problems.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

My opinion is that this schedule is realistic and sounds spot on. What social interaction do you want? They have morning meetings to talk about stuff. Your kid can show up to office hours and see if other kids are there to talk to them. You want them to work in groups? How is the teacher going to monitor that online when they're working with other kids?

Don't even mention break out groups because no teacher will have kids just go to a different "chat room" where they have no clue what these kids are doing or what they are talking about.

That's precisely what DD's teachers did in the Spring. When they had to work in groups, they put the kids into chat rooms (of sorts). Then they went from one chat room to the next, checking in on the kids, to see if they needed help, and to monitor. It worked out VERY well. Maybe it's an age thing, that these kids are young enough to do what they're asked and not engage in inappropriate behavior.

Yes zoom has breakout rooms and google meet is adding them in preparation for DL this school year. It works for those purposes.

[Anonymous]

Does anyone know if my child will receive speech therapy if we choose 100% virtual? She did not receive any speech after school closed in the spring.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This was a sample schedule for upper grades released by our principal, with a total listed as 4 hours of synchronous instruction.

10:00-11:15: Morning Meeting/LA
11:15-12:00 Science/Social Studies
LUNCH
12:30-1:30 Math instruction
BREAK
1:45-2:45 or 2:50-3:50 Specials

The assumption was that kids would do assignments after their synchronous time had completed as well.

OP, sounds like your school is choosing to do less than they could.

Our kids might be at the same ES. During the meeting, he said that this is the sort of schedule that a group of principals had gotten together and developed (as a rough outline), so maybe there will be a bunch of ES with similar schedules.

WHY on earth is it allowable during this highly stressful time to individualize schools and the amount and time dedicated to a curriculum?
Principals in cohort with grade level staff, should collaborate and submit to FCPS admin a schedule per grade level to be applied to ALL students in the same grade across all schools - especially ES. Then FCPS chooses the best model and blankets it by mandate across schools of the same level. This would alleviate parent panic and alleviate teachers or principals from having to create their own wheel. Kindergarten looks like this, 1st grade will look exactly like this, etc etc - absolutely standardized across all FCPS schools. Allow teachers to plan how they will teach what is required in each given time slot per subject to best education the child. This should not be school specific - one school doing the minimum, one school out performing another.

[Anonymous]

TBH it looks like OPs school is doing way less than the minimum.

[Anonymous]

Maybe things will be more standardized across the schools when the time comes, but some principals have tried to be helpful in giving possible sample schedules to parents desperate for information. It could be that the times allotted for each subject aren't meant to be exact but only to give a rough idea of what things might look like.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Maybe things will be more standardized across the schools when the time comes, but some principals have tried to be helpful in giving possible sample schedules to parents desperate for information. It could be that the times allotted for each subject aren't meant to be exact but only to give a rough idea of what things might look like.

That was my understanding. They can't come up with anything more firm until they have a better idea of numbers and resources.

[Anonymous]

Yes, but this principal clearly has the idea that the 3.5 hours promised teaching per day does not matter.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Maybe things will be more standardized across the schools when the time comes, but some principals have tried to be helpful in giving possible sample schedules to parents desperate for information. It could be that the times allotted for each subject aren't meant to be exact but only to give a rough idea of what things might look like.

Possible, but the OPs principals plan was pretty specific in amounts of time.

[Anonymous]

I would be more likely to choose DL if i knew it was NOT up to the individual schools/principals to implement and the program was ran by a DL unit for FCPS. Our school, which is highly rated on great schools, did a terrible job with DL. Teachers did whatever they wanted and there was zero oversight. There was ONE hour of instruction a day for 4 days. No office hours. No small groups, nothing. No one was even getting pulled by specialists or even resource teachers. The principal was told and did nothing. We ended up finding resources online that other counties were posting for their students and had my child do those. We got a tutor who teaches at our school to help DURING spring DL. I'm choosing hybrid bc I can't risk that again.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are you counting the reading and math time? Sometimes it’s independent work and sometimes it’s teacher- led, but it still would count as instruction. That adds up to about 3 hours. I’m guessing that the science, social studies, and perhaps other instruction periods would include activities that could add up to a total of 3.5.

If a child logs off to do work independently while the teacher meets virtually with other
kids, then no—I would not consider what that child is doing alone to be “instructional time”. Do you? They are working alone at home.

That’s what we do during the school day. We don’t spend all the time teaching directly to the entire class.