Are your schools in touch about their plans?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I haven't heard anything yet about dates/times/groups/lead teachers and I was curious if others had.

Teachers aren’t working right now and this is typically the time of year when administrators take vacation time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I haven't heard anything yet about dates/times/groups/lead teachers and I was curious if others had.

Teachers aren’t working right now and this is typically the time of year when administrators take vacation time.

I agree with this but I can’t imagine many admin taking much vacation time with summer bridge and this wacky school year coming up. They have a lot to plan.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I haven't heard anything yet about dates/times/groups/lead teachers and I was curious if others had.

Teachers aren’t working right now and this is typically the time of year when administrators take vacation time.

I agree with this but I can’t imagine many admin taking much vacation time with summer bridge and this wacky school year coming up. They have a lot to plan.

They also have families and their own mental health. This is probably the best time to take off before things get crazy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As a teacher my school reached out with what trainings we should do before we go back. Only indication of future plans is that all teachers should be prepared to teach ELA and math.

Interesting! I wonder if my school is planning to un-departmentalize too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I haven't heard anything yet about dates/times/groups/lead teachers and I was curious if others had.

Teachers aren’t working right now and this is typically the time of year when administrators take vacation time.

I agree with this but I can’t imagine many admin taking much vacation time with summer bridge and this wacky school year coming up. They have a lot to plan.

They also have families and their own mental health. This is probably the best time to take off before things get crazy.

The ones I know took leave in late June or early July realizing the weeks leading up to this school year would be very busy. If they don’t properly prepare for DL now, it will be an absolute mess.

[Anonymous]

Capitol Hill Montessori (CHML) will be doing bimonthly zoom meetings with families beginning this week. We'll learn specifics then about what schedules to expect, supports for families, etc.

[Anonymous]

Are there any charters that have provided specifics about what the school day will look like and what's required for attendance.

I love my school, but the silence is deafening and they are leaving parents with no time to plan. We don't know if we need to supervise learning all school day, or just an hour or two. We don't know if my 3 year old will be required to show up for a zoom class. This is super frustrating.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Are there any charters that have provided specifics about what the school day will look like and what's required for attendance.

I love my school, but the silence is deafening and they are leaving parents with no time to plan. We don't know if we need to supervise learning all school day, or just an hour or two. We don't know if my 3 year old will be required to show up for a zoom class. This is super frustrating.

What school? Lee provided a sample day schedule for primary, lower elementary and upper elementary at a Town Hall last week. It looks like CHML is doing the same starting next week. I assume preschool will track closely with DCPS (30-60 minutes a day of "synchronous" learning, everything else asynchronous

[Anonymous]

I'm not going to name the school. But even 30-60 minutes a day isnt helpful if you don't know if it's going to be at 9am or 2pm. And my experience last year was that trying to get these young kids to sit and kinda pay attention for 5 minutes was a challenge. An hour will break all of us.

There seems to be zero consideration for parents. What do I tell my boss about my availability for the next couple of months? They need to know, too. Ive tried to show a lot of grace, but I can't anymore.

[Anonymous]

Our school is having meetings. I have heard that there will basically be like 4 hours a day or online learning that our kids expected to be present . Apperently some parents are pushing for TONS of online live classes... Which MAYBE I kind of get for the older kids. I do NOT understand why parents of prk-k- 3/4 would want to have to be attached and standing by to help kids on computer lessons ALL freaking day.
I was thinking we would be online like 1-2 hours and have maybe another 30-60 minutes with of lessons and activities to work through at some point in the day. I guess I am on the opposite side of most of many of parents at our school. If we are at home I just want to work on the foundations and then let my kids explore the other key / grade level topics naturally. Trying to make this a regular school day is just crazy... This isn't normal school. People need to let it go.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm not going to name the school. But even 30-60 minutes a day isnt helpful if you don't know if it's going to be at 9am or 2pm. And my experience last year was that trying to get these young kids to sit and kinda pay attention for 5 minutes was a challenge. An hour will break all of us.

There seems to be zero consideration for parents. What do I tell my boss about my availability for the next couple of months? They need to know, too. Ive tried to show a lot of grace, but I can't anymore.

This.

And we’ve had zero communication from our DCPS other than a reminder a few weeks ago to purchase the school supplies through the vendor. Yea, not going to happen, we’ll be needing those supplies at home, not shipped bulk to the school.

[Anonymous]

Zero communication. The last time we heard from them was during a matched families town hall in April (which didn't even mention Covid, which was VERY weird), and then to confirm our enrollment.

My informal survey of friends indicates that the charters have been much more communicative and proactive than DCPS schools, though it sounds like some DCPS schools have been better than others. But I think the charters that were able to make their decisions on their own, and did so earlier in the summer, have a planning advantage. It's frustrating to me that families we know who are at charters have already been told what technology is needed and what will be distributed (and when), and already have communication with parents about schedules.

For a while we thought the issue was that we were new to our school. But it sounds like this is common. I think the city really hurt DCPS by pushing the decision so far into the summer. I feel like it's going to be a total mess for families and teachers, and everyone will be combative and frustrated.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm not going to name the school. But even 30-60 minutes a day isnt helpful if you don't know if it's going to be at 9am or 2pm. And my experience last year was that trying to get these young kids to sit and kinda pay attention for 5 minutes was a challenge. An hour will break all of us.

There seems to be zero consideration for parents. What do I tell my boss about my availability for the next couple of months? They need to know, too. Ive tried to show a lot of grace, but I can't anymore.

I agree with this. I’m a teacher and my kids go to a different school. I’d like to know what the exact schedule is for both so my spouse, nanny and I can plan our days. This general of 2-3 hours is ridiculous at this point. It’s rude to parents and teachers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm not going to name the school. But even 30-60 minutes a day isnt helpful if you don't know if it's going to be at 9am or 2pm. And my experience last year was that trying to get these young kids to sit and kinda pay attention for 5 minutes was a challenge. An hour will break all of us.

There seems to be zero consideration for parents. What do I tell my boss about my availability for the next couple of months? They need to know, too. Ive tried to show a lot of grace, but I can't anymore.

I agree with this. I’m a teacher and my kids go to a different school. I’d like to know what the exact schedule is for both so my spouse, nanny and I can plan our days. This general of 2-3 hours is ridiculous at this point. It’s rude to parents and teachers.

+1

The lack of clear communication is deafening. This is why the decision to do all virtual should have been announced in early July. Schools need time to plan and provide those plans to teachers and families.

[Anonymous]

EL Haynes released the framework for it's day yesterday, broken out Prek, Kindergarten, 1st Grade, and 2nd-4ths. They are having family forums next week to go over details, and virtual home visits started this week. This is a huge improvement over communication in the Spring which was...subpar.