What makes you believe distant learning will be better in the fall?

[Anonymous]

Day 1 of summer school was already better for my HS than Q4 was. Maybe it’s the selectivity of who signed up to teach summer school. Already lots of attention to how to be engaged and connecting with other students as well as clear schedule for getting work done and goals for synchronous zoom meetings.

[Anonymous]

It will not be better. Training for teachers is on how to use the new platform, not on how to teach DL, and not everyone is good at that. Talk to teachers, while I agree they need to be safe, how can they possibly do their job if they have young children at home? The answer is they cannot.

FACT (not merely complaining as a pp suggests): HS was a sh*tshow without any live instruction (100% videos from central office). That meant no differentiation. It was awful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't think it will be better, I just think they'll be more of it. People want to delude themselves into thinking it will suffice until that safe, 100% effective vaccine magically appears for everyone in January 2021.

It was great last Spring. My kids got a lot out of it and the pace seemed better too.

Seriously? What grade?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't think it will be better, I just think they'll be more of it. People want to delude themselves into thinking it will suffice until that safe, 100% effective vaccine magically appears for everyone in January 2021.

It was great last Spring. My kids got a lot out of it and the pace seemed better too.

Seriously? What grade?

I'm not the PP, but my 10th grader liked it a lot better than being in school and got a lot out of it. He could work at his own pace, what he needed to learn was really clear, and he was just generally more relaxed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't think it will be better, I just think they'll be more of it. People want to delude themselves into thinking it will suffice until that safe, 100% effective vaccine magically appears for everyone in January 2021.

It was great last Spring. My kids got a lot out of it and the pace seemed better too.

Seriously? What grade?

I'm not the PP, but my 10th grader liked it a lot better than being in school and got a lot out of it. He could work at his own pace, what he needed to learn was really clear, and he was just generally more relaxed.

Meant 9th grader.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't think it will be better, I just think they'll be more of it. People want to delude themselves into thinking it will suffice until that safe, 100% effective vaccine magically appears for everyone in January 2021.

It was great last Spring. My kids got a lot out of it and the pace seemed better too.

Seriously? What grade?

I'm not the PP, but my 10th grader liked it a lot better than being in school and got a lot out of it. He could work at his own pace, what he needed to learn was really clear, and he was just generally more relaxed.

Meant 9th grader.

I can see why a 9th grader might find it less stressful. Actually, I have heard others say that they liked it. Unfortunately, it wasn't as great for 11th or 12th graders higher level AP classes with the exams looming.

[Anonymous]

Commenters should identify if they are a teacher or not. Because if you aren't, you have no actual idea. I am a teacher. DL will be much better, and that is the option I am picking for my HS student.

1. There will be synchronous (live) instruction 4 days out of 5, with attendance taken. Not optional office hours.
2. The county has curriculum writers working all summer to convert curriculum to Canvas. There are plenty of lessons learned and feedback from what worked and what didn't that is being incorporated.
3. Everyone will be using Canvas and there are a large variety of trainings to support teachers this summer. From the student side of things, courses will be structured in a similar fashion and the calendar will start to be useful because all the assignments will be there.
4. There will be a big emphasis on creating a classroom community via zoom, with different ways to get students to collaborate and participate in an online environment.

Will some classes and/or teachers be better than others? Of course. That is no different than in school. But if there are real problems, they should be able to be straightened out. At the HS and MS level, I really don't think that occasional in-person for each class is really going to be that much more beneficial than just having the consistency of 100% DL.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Commenters should identify if they are a teacher or not. Because if you aren't, you have no actual idea. I am a teacher. DL will be much better, and that is the option I am picking for my HS student.

1. There will be synchronous (live) instruction 4 days out of 5, with attendance taken. Not optional office hours.
2. The county has curriculum writers working all summer to convert curriculum to Canvas. There are plenty of lessons learned and feedback from what worked and what didn't that is being incorporated.
3. Everyone will be using Canvas and there are a large variety of trainings to support teachers this summer. From the student side of things, courses will be structured in a similar fashion and the calendar will start to be useful because all the assignments will be there.
4. There will be a big emphasis on creating a classroom community via zoom, with different ways to get students to collaborate and participate in an online environment.

Will some classes and/or teachers be better than others? Of course. That is no different than in school. But if there are real problems, they should be able to be straightened out. At the HS and MS level, I really don't think that occasional in-person for each class is really going to be that much more beneficial than just having the consistency of 100% DL.

Are these parameters just for the semester-long 100% DL option? I’m still having trouble understanding how DL will be the same/different for the hybrid kids before the phase-in, and for those two at-home learning days after they’re phased into hybrid. And who will be teaching these various components?

[Anonymous]

One of my kids started summer classes today (just for "fun" -- i.e., I made him). They went smoothly and he seemed so interested I actually stuck my head in to make sure he wasn't playing a game with his friends. He wasn't.

He had two classes today and they went well. I think DL in the fall will be fine.

[Anonymous]

They're going to do the best they can. This is a pandemic. It has never happened before.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In so many threads people make comments about how distant learning will be better in the upcoming school year than in the spring. They say spring was so bad because there was no time to prepare. What do you think MCPS is preparing now to ensure that it will be better next year? What concrete steps are being taken? Is the curriculum being modified to better fit DL, is the county preparing content and aids to help teachers in DL, are teachers receiving intensive training this summer? Or is the promise of more live zooms enough to convince you that it is going to better?

Do we have any real proof that it will be better, or is it just the same way of thinking as believing that the vaccine will be here in January?

My fourth grader has 30 min a day of instruction with 24 kids., the materials were hard to figure out bc spread across the portal and google docs and our teacher didn’t send a weekly guide of the week, so we were trying to piece together where the math stuff was and were the ELA links were etc. (There was a teacher for math and diff for ELA.)

It has to be better than 30 min of live instruction and scattered materialsL It has to be. Anything would be.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:One of my kids started summer classes today (just for "fun" -- i.e., I made him). They went smoothly and he seemed so interested I actually stuck my head in to make sure he wasn't playing a game with his friends. He wasn't.

He had two classes today and they went well. I think DL in the fall will be fine.

We're in ES, and the summer classes went well today, but I think that's partly due to class size. They were half of usual, since only about half the kids in our ES signed up for them.

[Anonymous]

If we are posting if we are a teacher or not, I think we also need to post if we're white or not. Who in their right mind would think distance learning is better? Do you know how this will affect the immigrant community and communities of color? No you don't. You only care about yourself.

The fact is many parents are WORKING low income jobs and they still don't know how to work a computer. They might be non-readers and can't help their children access online materials.

The risk of getting in a car accident is much higher. I can't stand that you live your lives in such fear.

How can you be content staying at home all day?? What is wrong with you??

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Commenters should identify if they are a teacher or not. Because if you aren't, you have no actual idea. I am a teacher. DL will be much better, and that is the option I am picking for my HS student.

1. There will be synchronous (live) instruction 4 days out of 5, with attendance taken. Not optional office hours.
2. The county has curriculum writers working all summer to convert curriculum to Canvas. There are plenty of lessons learned and feedback from what worked and what didn't that is being incorporated.
3. Everyone will be using Canvas and there are a large variety of trainings to support teachers this summer. From the student side of things, courses will be structured in a similar fashion and the calendar will start to be useful because all the assignments will be there.
4. There will be a big emphasis on creating a classroom community via zoom, with different ways to get students to collaborate and participate in an online environment.

Will some classes and/or teachers be better than others? Of course. That is no different than in school. But if there are real problems, they should be able to be straightened out. At the HS and MS level, I really don't think that occasional in-person for each class is really going to be that much more beneficial than just having the consistency of 100% DL.

Do you know if the synchronous instruction will be just for students who choose 100% DL? People are confused about whether there will be synchronous instructions for students who choose a blended option once schools are able to reopen. (There are numerous threads debating this point.) Thanks. - Parent

[Anonymous]

Will there still be two hours a day blocked out for kids to pick up lunch?