APS Parent - incredibly disappointed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:5th PP. after hours twice a week I have meetings. Then I use a daily slideshow to go through the day and that takes me about 1 hour (sometimes more) to create and update each day, plus create, upload, and test that it works on iPad for each assignment. Grade and provide feedback for submitted assignments. Answer parent emails. Look ahead to future assignments and projects and compline resources. Start compiling future things for the next packet pickup. Make lists of who hasn’t turned in something so I can follow up with student the next day to finish. See who didn’t do their required lexia or dreambox targets. There’s always more to do.

I'm not trying to be a jerk, but I was under the impression this is what asynchronous Mondays are for?

They fill half of Monday with mandatory meetings. The other half isn’t enough time to get it all done from scratch every week.

Honest question - do you find those meetings useful? If not, I think we’ve found something that can actually be targeted for change to make everyone’s life better

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:5th PP. after hours twice a week I have meetings. Then I use a daily slideshow to go through the day and that takes me about 1 hour (sometimes more) to create and update each day, plus create, upload, and test that it works on iPad for each assignment. Grade and provide feedback for submitted assignments. Answer parent emails. Look ahead to future assignments and projects and compline resources. Start compiling future things for the next packet pickup. Make lists of who hasn’t turned in something so I can follow up with student the next day to finish. See who didn’t do their required lexia or dreambox targets. There’s always more to do.

I'm not trying to be a jerk, but I was under the impression this is what asynchronous Mondays are for?

They fill half of Monday with mandatory meetings. The other half isn’t enough time to get it all done from scratch every week.

Honest question - do you find those meetings useful? If not, I think we’ve found something that can actually be targeted for change to make everyone’s life better

Not all the time, but that won't change. I prefer not to meet with SPED and ESOL teachers weekly, and as separate meetings. I would prefer to alternate and fill-in the gaps with email. But I'm just one person.

[Anonymous]

My team works together so it is needed, because as a parent mentioned before we split the task of actually creating new/transferring previous activities to a digital format. We do work together and share slides, materials and lessons. I don’t know why that would be a bad thing. Don’t you want to know that your 3rd grader is doing the same thing at the same time as other 3rd graders? Obviously I differentiate as needed from the core lesson for those students who need it as much as I can, but we teach the standard and all students get that core instruction.

My special education co teacher meets with us and is part of our team, and then she also has to do the IEP stuff for those students. It just all takes a lot of time. I wish we had a repository where schools across APS could share lessons and assignments they are doing for standard XYZ. I feel like we are all individually reinventing the flipping wheel and it’s not necessary.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:5th PP. after hours twice a week I have meetings. Then I use a daily slideshow to go through the day and that takes me about 1 hour (sometimes more) to create and update each day, plus create, upload, and test that it works on iPad for each assignment. Grade and provide feedback for submitted assignments. Answer parent emails. Look ahead to future assignments and projects and compline resources. Start compiling future things for the next packet pickup. Make lists of who hasn’t turned in something so I can follow up with student the next day to finish. See who didn’t do their required lexia or dreambox targets. There’s always more to do.

I'm not trying to be a jerk, but I was under the impression this is what asynchronous Mondays are for?

They fill half of Monday with mandatory meetings. The other half isn’t enough time to get it all done from scratch every week.

Honest question - do you find those meetings useful? If not, I think we’ve found something that can actually be targeted for change to make everyone’s life better

I’m the PP. sometimes they are. They don’t need to be weekly and go as long as they do and often we get new directives the next week that undo everything we wasted time discussing the week before so it ends up being a giant energy expenditure to stuff that we have to redo anyway.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:5th PP. after hours twice a week I have meetings. Then I use a daily slideshow to go through the day and that takes me about 1 hour (sometimes more) to create and update each day, plus create, upload, and test that it works on iPad for each assignment. Grade and provide feedback for submitted assignments. Answer parent emails. Look ahead to future assignments and projects and compline resources. Start compiling future things for the next packet pickup. Make lists of who hasn’t turned in something so I can follow up with student the next day to finish. See who didn’t do their required lexia or dreambox targets. There’s always more to do.

I'm not trying to be a jerk, but I was under the impression this is what asynchronous Mondays are for?

NP. Those Mondays were filled up with meetings before school started. I do all my grading during the night Monday through Thursday. Then I try to use as much time as I can on Monday to prep for the week, but it's not normally enough, so I start on Sunday afternoon.

[Anonymous]

There is absolutely no way my kid's 2nd grade APS teachers are putting in 50 hours a week. Zero.

So far this year there has been no differentiation. When asked the teachers say they can't do it virtually.

There has also been zero graded work or feedback. Everything is submitted to Seesaw and never reviewed.

Report cards were summaries of the material covered so far. Zero comments about my student, with the sole exception of her PALS score.

Small groups are rare. Maybe they're happening for ESL or IEP students, but my kid rarely has a small group meeting. Maybe once per week across all of her classes. When they do happen, small groups are just check ins where the teacher asks the kids if they've done their assignment and if they have any questions--no prepared materials or differentiation.

Our school has "departmentalized" which means a different teacher covers each subject. This means that a teacher only has to prep morning meeting, one class, and the closing meeting, plus two 30 minute elective blocks per week. Most classes are about 20 minutes of instruction, followed by time for kids to work independently to read, write, do Lexia or do Dreambox. Given that morning meeting and closing meeting rarely have content, this leaves the teacher prepping about 20 minutes of prepared content most days, plus an elective twice a week.

During the independent work time the teachers stay on video and prod kids who dont look like they're working. "Ben, do you have Dream Box open?" "Kenny, do you have your book?" "Doris, can you turn your camera on please?"

[Anonymous]

There is absolutely no way my kid's 2nd grade APS teachers are putting in 50 hours a week. Zero.

So far this year there has been no differentiation. When asked the teachers say they can't do it virtually.

There has also been zero graded work or feedback. Everything is submitted to Seesaw and never reviewed.

Report cards were summaries of the material covered so far. Zero comments about my student, with the sole exception of her PALS score.

Small groups are rare. Maybe they're happening for ESL or IEP students, but my kid rarely has a small group meeting. Maybe once per week across all of her classes. When they do happen, small groups are just check ins where the teacher asks the kids if they've done their assignment and if they have any questions--no prepared materials or differentiation.

Our school has "departmentalized" which means a different teacher covers each subject. This means that a teacher only has to prep morning meeting, one class, and the closing meeting, plus two 30 minute elective blocks per week. Most classes are about 20 minutes of instruction, followed by time for kids to work independently to read, write, do Lexia or do Dreambox. Given that morning meeting and closing meeting rarely have content, this leaves the teacher prepping about 20 minutes of prepared content most days, plus an elective twice a week.

During the independent work time the teachers stay on video and prod kids who dont look like they're working. "Ben, do you have Dream Box open?" "Kenny, do you have your book?" "Doris, can you turn your camera on please?"

Since you clearly don't know what their job entails, how do you know how many hours they are working? Answer: you don't! Amazing how some parents here on DCUM, in their zeal to make teachers scapegoats for the pandemic, will make completely baseless claims.

Also, what is wrong with teachers staying on the video during independent work time and check in with students who don't look like they're working? That is their job, and that is exactly what they would be doing in the classroom. Would you rather that they shut down the call and not be available for students who need help?

[Anonymous]

Parents here are full of crap. You do not know what goes I do teaching based on what you can see. And if you’re so free of anything else to do you can sit and watch your kids classes to this level of detail day in and day out you don’t have a concept of what work actually is since you don’t do it.

[Anonymous]

NP here - I think the problem is there is a huge range in how individual teachers are performing. My second grader's teacher is clearly working a ton. She provides real feedback on the Seesaw posts, periodically emails parents, and is clearly working all the time. My third grader's teacher, who has no children of her own, appears to be doing the bare minimum. She is not providing substantive feedback on seesaw posts, is not responding to parent emails, and is not differentiating instruction for the kids in the class. She appears to be relying primarily on the grade level instruction for the school without modifying it for her class.

I think most teachers are like my second grader's teacher. However, I understand the frustration for families who have teachers like my third grader's teacher - especially given that we feel we have to supplement her teaching while balancing our own work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There is absolutely no way my kid's 2nd grade APS teachers are putting in 50 hours a week. Zero.

So far this year there has been no differentiation. When asked the teachers say they can't do it virtually.

There has also been zero graded work or feedback. Everything is submitted to Seesaw and never reviewed.

Report cards were summaries of the material covered so far. Zero comments about my student, with the sole exception of her PALS score.

Small groups are rare. Maybe they're happening for ESL or IEP students, but my kid rarely has a small group meeting. Maybe once per week across all of her classes. When they do happen, small groups are just check ins where the teacher asks the kids if they've done their assignment and if they have any questions--no prepared materials or differentiation.

Our school has "departmentalized" which means a different teacher covers each subject. This means that a teacher only has to prep morning meeting, one class, and the closing meeting, plus two 30 minute elective blocks per week. Most classes are about 20 minutes of instruction, followed by time for kids to work independently to read, write, do Lexia or do Dreambox. Given that morning meeting and closing meeting rarely have content, this leaves the teacher prepping about 20 minutes of prepared content most days, plus an elective twice a week.

During the independent work time the teachers stay on video and prod kids who dont look like they're working. "Ben, do you have Dream Box open?" "Kenny, do you have your book?" "Doris, can you turn your camera on please?"

+10000 It seems like it varies by school, but this has been my experience so far, which is perhaps giving the teaching population a bad reputation right now. But this is why parents are so tired of teachers complaining about how much they are working right now. And many of these teachers are hoping to keep it this way.

[Anonymous]

NP. I’m a teacher and I hate virtual instruction. I hate that I do t truly o ow my students the way I would if we were together. I hate that I have a few struggling students who I could be so much more effective with if I could sit with them and show them how to edit their writing or work out that math problem. We could do our fun dances and routines and I could referee their football games on the playground during recess. I miss that, along with the close friendships and work relationships I have made with my colleagues after working together for the last few years.

But I also do not feel safe being back in the classroom with students and colleagues whose families have different risk awareness than I do. Some of my colleagues are young/single and still hanging out amongst each other and their college friends who are in DC, renting air bnbs for thanksgiving in the mph rains with 10+ other millennials, kids in my class are traveling to see cousins in NY and NC. I am doing none of that, my spouse has a high risk factor, and being back in the building with unmasked lunch and trying to keep distancing... I am not doing it. My child won’t be doing it.

[Anonymous]

Woah sorry for all the typos! I’m an APS Parent and FCPS teacher, btw.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Parents here are full of crap. You do not know what goes I do teaching based on what you can see. And if you’re so free of anything else to do you can sit and watch your kids classes to this level of detail day in and day out you don’t have a concept of what work actually is since you don’t do it.

I have a K-2 student. I'm her childcare and tech support. Of course I know what's going on after 2.5 months of supervising DL, even while working. I've also been working nights and weekends to make up for the time spent helping her during the school day. It's endless. I'm exhausted.

Here, let me write her math lesson today:

Look at this picture of crap. Estimate how much crap you see. What does everyone think?
Write 673, 894, and 546 in expanded form.
Write 300+30+2 in reduced form. Write 400+50+3 in reduced form.
Go do Dreambox.

Here's a writing lesson:
Do pages 16-20 in Handwriting without Tears
Record yourself telling me three ideas for your next story

Here's a reading lesson:
Read the assigned text in Raz Kids and do the quiz.

This isn't rocket science.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:NP. I’m a teacher and I hate virtual instruction. I hate that I do t truly o ow my students the way I would if we were together. I hate that I have a few struggling students who I could be so much more effective with if I could sit with them and show them how to edit their writing or work out that math problem. We could do our fun dances and routines and I could referee their football games on the playground during recess. I miss that, along with the close friendships and work relationships I have made with my colleagues after working together for the last few years.

But I also do not feel safe being back in the classroom with students and colleagues whose families have different risk awareness than I do. Some of my colleagues are young/single and still hanging out amongst each other and their college friends who are in DC, renting air bnbs for thanksgiving in the mph rains with 10+ other millennials, kids in my class are traveling to see cousins in NY and NC. I am doing none of that, my spouse has a high risk factor, and being back in the building with unmasked lunch and trying to keep distancing... I am not doing it. My child won’t be doing it.

They don’t care.
DL is not good but that’s our fault.
School isn’t safe but we should go anyway.
Concurrent learning is a mess and that’ll be our fault too.

They just need someone to blame for this year being misery. Teachers fit the bill. We are working parents just like they are and they do not see themselves in us.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Parents here are full of crap. You do not know what goes I do teaching based on what you can see. And if you’re so free of anything else to do you can sit and watch your kids classes to this level of detail day in and day out you don’t have a concept of what work actually is since you don’t do it.

+1000