Grade your school's distance learning approach

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Deal 8th A
Very organized and teachers have been great.

+1 my 8th grader is really busy and complaining about the amount of work so I'm satisfied.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Basis/5th/D-

Basis/5/A

Only a few bumps for us, but last week was great. whats been your issue? Maybe its element specific?

Basis 5th/A for us as well. (I’m on the google 5th grade listserve initiated by a parent and know some kids are struggling to figure out assignments and expectations, and are generally overwhelmed by Teams and the workload. But my kid seems extremely happy, is learning and is self-sufficient. Yes, there have been — and continue to be — some bumps. But overall an A.)

Have you actually looked too see what your kid has turned in?

Wait, I am astounded by this. All the 5th grade parents I know (personally) are up in arms. Teachers who don't submit CJs, teachers who don't show up, kids who can't get into classes, documents everywhere with no consistency, teachers who don't respond.... Tell me how this is all working for your 10 year old! I would lose my mind if this was my workplace organization - and I'm in my late 40s.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Basis/5th/D-

Interesting. What are the issues? BASIS' DL approach is reputed to be kick ass.

My kid isn't at Basis but my daughter's best friend started in 5th grade this fall.
The 5th graders have live Zoom calls from 8:30am to 4pm with 30 minutes off for lunch and a few 5 minute bathroom breaks. It's almost 8 hours of Zoom each day.

I think this would be fantastic for some kids and a complete nightmare/bad fit for others and probably explains the differing opinions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Basis/5th/D-

Interesting. What are the issues? BASIS' DL approach is reputed to be kick ass.

I can see how it will (someday) be great. But 10 year olds who know no one, who are in classes of 45 kids, who have to navigate 9 subjects through teams with no consistency of organization at all with no help as to how to do it are not being set up to succeed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Basis/5th/D-

Interesting. What are the issues? BASIS' DL approach is reputed to be kick ass.

My kid isn't at Basis but my daughter's best friend started in 5th grade this fall.
The 5th graders have live Zoom calls from 8:30am to 4pm with 30 minutes off for lunch and a few 5 minute bathroom breaks. It's almost 8 hours of Zoom each day.

I think this would be fantastic for some kids and a complete nightmare/bad fit for others and probably explains the differing opinions.

It's not quite that draconian - they have an hour for lunch and many classes are a-synchronous and the kids have down time as those tend to end much more quickly than the live ones.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Basis/5th/D-

Interesting. What are the issues? BASIS' DL approach is reputed to be kick ass.

My kid isn't at Basis but my daughter's best friend started in 5th grade this fall.
The 5th graders have live Zoom calls from 8:30am to 4pm with 30 minutes off for lunch and a few 5 minute bathroom breaks. It's almost 8 hours of Zoom each day.

I think this would be fantastic for some kids and a complete nightmare/bad fit for others and probably explains the differing opinions.

So... your kid isn't at BASIS, but you are grading it on another family's behalf?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Basis/5th/D-

Basis/5/A

Only a few bumps for us, but last week was great. whats been your issue? Maybe its element specific?

Basis 5th/A for us as well. (I’m on the google 5th grade listserve initiated by a parent and know some kids are struggling to figure out assignments and expectations, and are generally overwhelmed by Teams and the workload. But my kid seems extremely happy, is learning and is self-sufficient. Yes, there have been — and continue to be — some bumps. But overall an A.)

Have you actually looked too see what your kid has turned in?

Yes, I’ve looked at my kid’s work, to the extent I can access it after she hits submit Overall she seems to be doing a solid job, though I’ll obviously know more when we start to receive grades.

Given the emails from other parents expressing deep unhappiness and ongoing challenges, I periodically check in with my child asking how it’s going — including this morning when I was told once again all was good. The only thing I need to help with during the day is printing of the math homework PDF, which then needs to be scanned back and uploaded. So I currently spend a few minutes on most days assisting with that.

What I appreciate about the Basis curriculum is that it’s substantive and rigorous.

What is truly painful is listening through my DCPS elementary child’s curriculum, which is 90% a waste of time, full of nonsense social-emotional and community-building activities (eg., morning greetings that last 40 minutes), time-killers, and garbage political indoctrination disguised as “social studies.” The highlight of our DCPS year this far has been the iready test!

[Anonymous]

Basis / 5 / B

Definitely some frustrating tech/materials hiccups in the beginning but going fairly smoothly over the last week. I work next to my son and have been fairly impressed with what I’ve observed. He mentioned this morning that he’s taken more notes in the last 2 weeks than he had the entirety of 4th grade. He’s a smart kid but new to managing such a packed schedule. He’s been doing surprisingly well with it and I like that it gives him structure compared to what he had last year. The longer scheduled lunch also provides a great break during the day (the 30 minutes at younger DC’s DCPS is not enough) He seems to be getting the hang of things and needs my help less and less each day, still I think in person would be a more optimal experience.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Basis/5th/D-

Basis/5/A

Only a few bumps for us, but last week was great. whats been your issue? Maybe its element specific?

Basis 5th/A for us as well. (I’m on the google 5th grade listserve initiated by a parent and know some kids are struggling to figure out assignments and expectations, and are generally overwhelmed by Teams and the workload. But my kid seems extremely happy, is learning and is self-sufficient. Yes, there have been — and continue to be — some bumps. But overall an A.)

Have you actually looked too see what your kid has turned in?

Yes, I’ve looked at my kid’s work, to the extent I can access it after she hits submit Overall she seems to be doing a solid job, though I’ll obviously know more when we start to receive grades.

Given the emails from other parents expressing deep unhappiness and ongoing challenges, I periodically check in with my child asking how it’s going — including this morning when I was told once again all was good. The only thing I need to help with during the day is printing of the math homework PDF, which then needs to be scanned back and uploaded. So I currently spend a few minutes on most days assisting with that.

What I appreciate about the Basis curriculum is that it’s substantive and rigorous.

What is truly painful is listening through my DCPS elementary child’s curriculum, which is 90% a waste of time, full of nonsense social-emotional and community-building activities (eg., morning greetings that last 40 minutes), time-killers, and garbage political indoctrination disguised as “social studies.” The highlight of our DCPS year this far has been the iready test!

Frustrated Basis 5th grade parent here - I do agree with you that the rigor is great. As I tell my kid, you are going to be miserable with Distance Learning wherever you are, so you might as well learn something while being miserable.

I do think the 5th grade needs a lot more attention though. What worked for kids who had been there for 7 months is not going to work for kids who have never set foot in the building. They need to slow it down and work out the kinks.

[Anonymous]

LAMB. K. Solid C.

[Anonymous]

Murch/3rd/A-

Organized teachers, schedule has lots of movement and breaks built in and a mix of kinds of learning

[Anonymous]

Deal/7th/A

[Anonymous]

Capital City/ PK3/ B
Mundo Verde Calle Ocho/PK4/ A-

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Deal/7th/A

Agree. Also:

Wilson/9th/A-

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Basis/5th/D-

Interesting. What are the issues? BASIS' DL approach is reputed to be kick ass.

I can see how it will (someday) be great. But 10 year olds who know no one, who are in classes of 45 kids, who have to navigate 9 subjects through teams with no consistency of organization at all with no help as to how to do it are not being set up to succeed.

Sorry, this arrangement sounds like a recipe for burnout and rebellion eventually, other than for a truly diligent kid.