Teachers assigning asynchronous work on synchronous days(APS)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I heard about a parent who took a day off. Really. She took the day off. End of story.

Teachers can take days off. In a normal year, they'd either get a sub who assigns busywork or breaks up the class to send to other teachers. Trying to find tech-savvy subs isn't easy so what else should they do?

Then they (we) should say, “I’ll be out on X date. Our school district does XYZ in these cases.” No glimpses of ski resorts, no mentions of Disney, and if there is no sub, we need to make sure parents know that it wasn’t just our doing, that it’s a district or school matter.

If I'm puking in the toilet all night, I'm not going to tell parents I will be out. That's for my school to figure out. That's what admin gets paid the big bucks to do.

Full agreement here. Plus they should be filling in for some of the teacher absences.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One of the specials teachers my kid announced recently in a parent email that she was only going to be teaching her class every other week and that alternating weeks would be asynchronous.

When the time came for the first asynchronous class, no teacher showed up and no one told the class of 7 yos what to do. The class had an open Teams call with no teacher or instructions. Some parent must have emailed the homeroom teacher because she showed up about 25 minutes into the session and told the kids that if it ever happened again that they should read silently.

We've also had several other classes where the teacher forgot to show up, but in those cases someone (teacher or staff) did stay on the line with the students. This is the first time they were fully abandoned.

I'm sorry, but doing this to a group of 7-year olds is unacceptable. We need to share these stories with Duran, or he may end up getting a lot of negative media exposure very soon because people are losing their patience and are furious with the state of our school system.

Honest question- what are people waiting for? Why would the media exposure come “very soon” instead of now? I’m
Honestly baffled at most people’s willingness to continue with the status quo even though they disagree with the teachers and want to open schools. I was glad to see this week that some of the media is turning and focusing on opening schools but parents need to be more vocal about these issues and keep pressure up

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One of the specials teachers my kid announced recently in a parent email that she was only going to be teaching her class every other week and that alternating weeks would be asynchronous.

When the time came for the first asynchronous class, no teacher showed up and no one told the class of 7 yos what to do. The class had an open Teams call with no teacher or instructions. Some parent must have emailed the homeroom teacher because she showed up about 25 minutes into the session and told the kids that if it ever happened again that they should read silently.

We've also had several other classes where the teacher forgot to show up, but in those cases someone (teacher or staff) did stay on the line with the students. This is the first time they were fully abandoned.

I'm sorry, but doing this to a group of 7-year olds is unacceptable. We need to share these stories with Duran, or he may end up getting a lot of negative media exposure very soon because people are losing their patience and are furious with the state of our school system.

Honest question- what are people waiting for? Why would the media exposure come “very soon” instead of now? I’m
Honestly baffled at most people’s willingness to continue with the status quo even though they disagree with the teachers and want to open schools. I was glad to see this week that some of the media is turning and focusing on opening schools but parents need to be more vocal about these issues and keep pressure up

I am not sure what you think is so newsworthy. Second grade teacher is a negligent DL instructor? Yes, that is awful. Welcome to America. When I was a kid, my third grade teacher showed up drunk to class. It took forever for the district to get rid of her.

[Anonymous]

Frankly, I am more concerned about the billions that have been grifted from taxpayers over the past four years by Trump and friends, but you go ahead and focus on that one crappy teacher.

[Anonymous]

I just want to scream or cry.. not sure which at this point. As a parent, all I want is for my kids to have a good education, which is why we chose Arlington to begin with. My child (and his entire class) are learning math from last year's agenda (I ended up hiring a tutor and this is what she learned). I'm not sure if we should move or throw in the towel and assume he'll be behind an entire grade. It's so depressing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I just want to scream or cry.. not sure which at this point. As a parent, all I want is for my kids to have a good education, which is why we chose Arlington to begin with. My child (and his entire class) are learning math from last year's agenda (I ended up hiring a tutor and this is what she learned). I'm not sure if we should move or throw in the towel and assume he'll be behind an entire grade. It's so depressing.

Try living in a South African township for a year. That will put things in perspective.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I just want to scream or cry.. not sure which at this point. As a parent, all I want is for my kids to have a good education, which is why we chose Arlington to begin with. My child (and his entire class) are learning math from last year's agenda (I ended up hiring a tutor and this is what she learned). I'm not sure if we should move or throw in the towel and assume he'll be behind an entire grade. It's so depressing.

Kids are resilient and they will be fine. They will survive this deadly pandemic and learn what they need to learn.

Math is already so compressed (compared to when we were kids) that it’s not a huge deal if the content gets spread out a little.

[Anonymous]

Op have you (or anyone else complaining here) addressed your concerns to the teacher?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I agree. Back off the teachers. They are working so hard. They didn’t create the pandemic. They are adapting like the rest of us or got a sample size of 14 APS middle school teachers I my house. Not a single issue with one of them.

Oh, come on. My kid's elementary teachers aren't working that hard. They just aren't. They teach 20-30 minutes of content a day, leaning heavily on Lexia and Dreambox and RazKids and BrainPop. They don't offer any small groups or interact with students on Mondays. They don't grade or comment on any work. They don't write any individualized comments on report cards. There is no diffentiation or small groups. There are evaluations other than PALS. There are no thoughtful assignments, just scanned worksheets several grade levels below what the kids should be doing. If anything, this is a vacation. They have vastly more prep time, but are teaching far less content with fewer hours of student contact.

If the administration is somehow sucking up their time with meetings, then they teachers should be vocal about that because it's not of any benefit to students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Op have you (or anyone else complaining here) addressed your concerns to the teacher?

Yes. I asked my child's 2nd grade math teacher her to please have the kids do at least some math in writing, rather than solely in apps, because my 7 yo had forgotten how to write her numbers. She said that she was unwilling to make any changes and I could supplement at home if I was unhappy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just want to scream or cry.. not sure which at this point. As a parent, all I want is for my kids to have a good education, which is why we chose Arlington to begin with. My child (and his entire class) are learning math from last year's agenda (I ended up hiring a tutor and this is what she learned). I'm not sure if we should move or throw in the towel and assume he'll be behind an entire grade. It's so depressing.

Kids are resilient and they will be fine. They will survive this deadly pandemic and learn what they need to learn.

Math is already so compressed (compared to when we were kids) that it’s not a huge deal if the content gets spread out a little.

It’s not getting spread out. It’s just as compressed, just whole parts are getting skipped or skimmed over. DD will go to Geometry next year regardless of how much of the Algebra curriculum her teachers managed to teach in 60 minutes 2x a week virtual.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Op have you (or anyone else complaining here) addressed your concerns to the teacher?

It was discussed on the first two pages, and the last eight have just been going off on the topic. Like every other thread on this forum.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just want to scream or cry.. not sure which at this point. As a parent, all I want is for my kids to have a good education, which is why we chose Arlington to begin with. My child (and his entire class) are learning math from last year's agenda (I ended up hiring a tutor and this is what she learned). I'm not sure if we should move or throw in the towel and assume he'll be behind an entire grade. It's so depressing.

Kids are resilient and they will be fine. They will survive this deadly pandemic and learn what they need to learn.

Math is already so compressed (compared to when we were kids) that it’s not a huge deal if the content gets spread out a little.

It’s not getting spread out. It’s just as compressed, just whole parts are getting skipped or skimmed over. DD will go to Geometry next year regardless of how much of the Algebra curriculum her teachers managed to teach in 60 minutes 2x a week virtual.

The MSs *are* spreading out the math content. Anything not covered last year was covered early this year. And will continue. They aren't skipping material.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I agree. Back off the teachers. They are working so hard. They didn’t create the pandemic. They are adapting like the rest of us or got a sample size of 14 APS middle school teachers I my house. Not a single issue with one of them.

Oh, come on. My kid's elementary teachers aren't working that hard. They just aren't. They teach 20-30 minutes of content a day, leaning heavily on Lexia and Dreambox and RazKids and BrainPop. They don't offer any small groups or interact with students on Mondays. They don't grade or comment on any work. They don't write any individualized comments on report cards. There is no diffentiation or small groups. There are evaluations other than PALS. There are no thoughtful assignments, just scanned worksheets several grade levels below what the kids should be doing. If anything, this is a vacation. They have vastly more prep time, but are teaching far less content with fewer hours of student contact.

If the administration is somehow sucking up their time with meetings, then they teachers should be vocal about that because it's not of any benefit to students.

Talk to your principal. This is not true at our school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I agree. Back off the teachers. They are working so hard. They didn’t create the pandemic. They are adapting like the rest of us or got a sample size of 14 APS middle school teachers I my house. Not a single issue with one of them.

Oh, come on. My kid's elementary teachers aren't working that hard. They just aren't. They teach 20-30 minutes of content a day, leaning heavily on Lexia and Dreambox and RazKids and BrainPop. They don't offer any small groups or interact with students on Mondays. They don't grade or comment on any work. They don't write any individualized comments on report cards. There is no diffentiation or small groups. There are evaluations other than PALS. There are no thoughtful assignments, just scanned worksheets several grade levels below what the kids should be doing. If anything, this is a vacation. They have vastly more prep time, but are teaching far less content with fewer hours of student contact.

If the administration is somehow sucking up their time with meetings, then they teachers should be vocal about that because it's not of any benefit to students.

Talk to your principal. This is not true at our school.

This is the standard encouraged by the principal. She stated at a PTO meeting that she expects kids to catch back up once they are in person again. She wants teachers to focus on social emotional health rather than learning this year. Hence my 2nd grader spending math class last week reviewing how to recognize circles, triangles, squares and rectangles. I've emailed Engage several times with no change. It's like a black hole.