Why does MCPS need a "transition" period between in person and synchronous?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How many people complain about the laziness of people in other professions who have been working from home for nearly two years? Do you complain about your lazy accountant, lawyer, and tech people because of where they are located while working? I'm a new teacher and have spent days trying to get ready if we go virtual. I've never done this before. Ditto for at least five of my colleagues who are also new teachers. Keep complaining and you will have even more new teachers to complain about since many teachers aren't coming back next year. I know four from my school alone who are quitting or retiring early.

+1
I can’t imagine how challenging it must be for a new teacher this year. I’ve been teaching almost 20 years and I consider this year the hardest. Thank you for all you are doing and I hope you get the support you need if you go virtual. It isn’t as easy as some, like the OP, assume it is. If it helps, know there are more people who appreciate the work you are doing than those who don’t. Sometimes the angry and uninformed are just louder.

[Anonymous]

“Why can’t I have a live unicorn dipped in gold just because I want one?”

[Anonymous]

How is this even a question, OP?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How many people complain about the laziness of people in other professions who have been working from home for nearly two years? Do you complain about your lazy accountant, lawyer, and tech people because of where they are located while working? I'm a new teacher and have spent days trying to get ready if we go virtual. I've never done this before. Ditto for at least five of my colleagues who are also new teachers. Keep complaining and you will have even more new teachers to complain about since many teachers aren't coming back next year. I know four from my school alone who are quitting or retiring early.

No one is saying all teachers are lazy but to deny that some teachers are lazy is just ignorance. My child has a lot of great teachers this year but had a horrible one last year. This was not a covid issue but she has was always known as a lazy teacher and it got much much worse during virtual learning because there was little supervision. You can't be that myopic to think that some of your colleagues are not like this.

Wishing you good luck teacher. I'm sure you'll do great because you seem to care.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How many people complain about the laziness of people in other professions who have been working from home for nearly two years? Do you complain about your lazy accountant, lawyer, and tech people because of where they are located while working? I'm a new teacher and have spent days trying to get ready if we go virtual. I've never done this before. Ditto for at least five of my colleagues who are also new teachers. Keep complaining and you will have even more new teachers to complain about since many teachers aren't coming back next year. I know four from my school alone who are quitting or retiring early.

+1
I can’t imagine how challenging it must be for a new teacher this year. I’ve been teaching almost 20 years and I consider this year the hardest. Thank you for all you are doing and I hope you get the support you need if you go virtual. It isn’t as easy as some, like the OP, assume it is. If it helps, know there are more people who appreciate the work you are doing than those who don’t. Sometimes the angry and uninformed are just louder.

My best friend is a teacher in a different state and she works really hard and she has also told me this is the hardest year she's ever taught. But she's also aware some of her colleagues are not working hard and are taking advantage of the situation. You can't say all teachers are heroes or all teachers are bad. The OP's post was directed at the catering of the policy towards teachers, not at the teachers themselves.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How many people complain about the laziness of people in other professions who have been working from home for nearly two years? Do you complain about your lazy accountant, lawyer, and tech people because of where they are located while working? I'm a new teacher and have spent days trying to get ready if we go virtual. I've never done this before. Ditto for at least five of my colleagues who are also new teachers. Keep complaining and you will have even more new teachers to complain about since many teachers aren't coming back next year. I know four from my school alone who are quitting or retiring early.

Okay, this kind of thing irritates me. All the professions you get mentioned get judged based on their performance and output. Like if your accountant doesn't file your taxes in time or messes them up, then yes, clients will complain. It doesn't matter where the accountant calculates the numbers. Teaching -- and how and where you connect with your students -- matter. Since you are a new teacher, perhaps you did not have first hand experience to see how difficult it was on the kids last year. But lots of teachers were talking about how much harder they worked. What does it matter if the actual job performance is worse and the kids suffer? I'm a lawyer. Do you think my clients care if I am working harder in the pandemic if my performance is worse than before?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How many people complain about the laziness of people in other professions who have been working from home for nearly two years? Do you complain about your lazy accountant, lawyer, and tech people because of where they are located while working? I'm a new teacher and have spent days trying to get ready if we go virtual. I've never done this before. Ditto for at least five of my colleagues who are also new teachers. Keep complaining and you will have even more new teachers to complain about since many teachers aren't coming back next year. I know four from my school alone who are quitting or retiring early.

Add me to the list. I am going to start working with my realtor as a listing agent as soon as school is out.

[Anonymous]

Right but if a lawyer advises his client to do X and then the client does Y, that's on the client. Teachers get blamed for the awful (or lack of) parenting that is not under their control. They are blamed for their student's poor performance when the student misses a ton of school due to absences which is also not under their control.

My own kids did distance learning for a year. The outcomes are entirely dependent on what students and parents put into it. Yes, I worked FT last year while my kids did DL. Honestly, just a tiny bit of effort went a long way last year. My kids could've handed in even a 1/4 of the work and gotten As. It wasn't difficult because the expectations were very low.

[Anonymous]

Give them credit - all teachers are not lazy. I'm sure there are a few but the majority of teachers are not lazy. Stop saying they are.

Now, I do believe there are quite a few teachers who still haven't mastered technology. That old phrase "if you don't use it, you lose it?" - the teachers who have not mastered technology have not taught virtually since last June. They most likely haven't been using the tools so they completely forget how to teach virtually.

Did anyone remember the thread from a couple weeks ago about the person complaining because the Boomers in her workplace still haven't figured out how to share a screen in Zoom? And that poster got ripped to shreds by Boomers? I'm sure there are plenty of teachers who can't do that basic task either (or similar basic tasks). In my organization, there are definitely people who still don't get all this technology/new way of doing business. It's quite frustrating. Teachers are the same way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Right but if a lawyer advises his client to do X and then the client does Y, that's on the client. Teachers get blamed for the awful (or lack of) parenting that is not under their control. They are blamed for their student's poor performance when the student misses a ton of school due to absences which is also not under their control.

My own kids did distance learning for a year. The outcomes are entirely dependent on what students and parents put into it. Yes, I worked FT last year while my kids did DL. Honestly, just a tiny bit of effort went a long way last year. My kids could've handed in even a 1/4 of the work and gotten As. It wasn't difficult because the expectations were very low.

Cool, my kid showed up and worked for every class. She found that school was very difficult to follow remotely compared to in-person. It's not just about the grade because so much of school builds on one another. if you don't understand Algebra I, you are not going to understand Algebra II, even if the grading standards are lax. So an A in Algebra I (based on doing 25% of the work) is going to spell trouble in Algebra II. I know you all think it's cool to blame the kids and parents, but really remote schooling does not work for many many subjects and for many people.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Right but if a lawyer advises his client to do X and then the client does Y, that's on the client. Teachers get blamed for the awful (or lack of) parenting that is not under their control. They are blamed for their student's poor performance when the student misses a ton of school due to absences which is also not under their control.

My own kids did distance learning for a year. The outcomes are entirely dependent on what students and parents put into it. Yes, I worked FT last year while my kids did DL. Honestly, just a tiny bit of effort went a long way last year. My kids could've handed in even a 1/4 of the work and gotten As. It wasn't difficult because the expectations were very low.

Cool, my kid showed up and worked for every class. She found that school was very difficult to follow remotely compared to in-person. It's not just about the grade because so much of school builds on one another. if you don't understand Algebra I, you are not going to understand Algebra II, even if the grading standards are lax. So an A in Algebra I (based on doing 25% of the work) is going to spell trouble in Algebra II. I know you all think it's cool to blame the kids and parents, but really remote schooling does not work for many many subjects and for many people.

My kids did all of their work. Why wouldn't they? Because of where they were sitting? If kids didn't do their work at home, that's on the parents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think the anger is directed at teachers who taught in person as if they were still virtual. My child has several teachers like this like doing "science" experiments virtually so there's no set up or clean up. It has been a big issue at some schools.

Some "hands on" work is now hands off, observe and virtual because in some places the rules for distancing, sharing equipment etc. are that strict. Some items just can't be sanitized per county regulations or can't be sanitized adequately between classes.
Not saying there aren't teachers that do hands on anyway and then give a quick swipe of the antiviral or a squirt from the spray bottle but that's not really following the rules.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Right but if a lawyer advises his client to do X and then the client does Y, that's on the client. Teachers get blamed for the awful (or lack of) parenting that is not under their control. They are blamed for their student's poor performance when the student misses a ton of school due to absences which is also not under their control.

My own kids did distance learning for a year. The outcomes are entirely dependent on what students and parents put into it. Yes, I worked FT last year while my kids did DL. Honestly, just a tiny bit of effort went a long way last year. My kids could've handed in even a 1/4 of the work and gotten As. It wasn't difficult because the expectations were very low.

Cool, my kid showed up and worked for every class. She found that school was very difficult to follow remotely compared to in-person. It's not just about the grade because so much of school builds on one another. if you don't understand Algebra I, you are not going to understand Algebra II, even if the grading standards are lax. So an A in Algebra I (based on doing 25% of the work) is going to spell trouble in Algebra II. I know you all think it's cool to blame the kids and parents, but really remote schooling does not work for many many subjects and for many people.

My kids did all of their work. Why wouldn't they? Because of where they were sitting? If kids didn't do their work at home, that's on the parents.

Im the post above- are you responding to my comment? I’m responding to the poster above who seemed to suggest the issue with remote schooling was that kids weren’t doing work or attending. Im saying even with doing both, there were issues.

[Anonymous]

OP is just another bored fool with no idea about actual instruction making up something to complain about. Of course teachers know how to teach virtually, but the lessons that I have already planned out for two weeks in person need to be changed and adapted for virtual instruction. And before you whine about "that's what teachers should have been doing for the two snow days", that's exactly what many of us have been doing - adapting materials to work either in person or virtually while adjusting for two less days in the quarter. When you leave school prepped for the following day in person, and then you are told that evening you need to shift to virtual, there has to be a day for planning. Despite what some parents want, we are not on the clock 24 hours a day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think the anger is directed at teachers who taught in person as if they were still virtual. My child has several teachers like this like doing "science" experiments virtually so there's no set up or clean up. It has been a big issue at some schools.

Some "hands on" work is now hands off, observe and virtual because in some places the rules for distancing, sharing equipment etc. are that strict. Some items just can't be sanitized per county regulations or can't be sanitized adequately between classes.
Not saying there aren't teachers that do hands on anyway and then give a quick swipe of the antiviral or a squirt from the spray bottle but that's not really following the rules.

Also the supply/ordering situation was pretty bad. One missing item means you can’t do an experiment even if you have all the other parts. Honestly, I have been so overwhelmed this year that taking the time to get a lab together, organized, along with an online option for kids quarantined/absent has made me a worse teacher. I has been just really really hard to be perfect and provide the best lessons I know of this year. I have had to cut a lot of corners to make it through my three different courses.