Were Attendance Levels Status Quo Today?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m a teacher. In one class, about 70% were there. In the other two, under 50%. But the best part is the worse behaved kids just stayed home so the day was incredibly peaceful and lowkey. We did some light work, nothing the kids who missed can’t catch up later but the ones who were there got a nice little head start. We certainly didn’t start new material or take a test or anything but we didn’t watch movies either.

Not surprised about the worst behaved kids being out. They probably took off for a long weekend skiing or something. They are people who think attendance requirements don’t apply to them, so it’s not a huge stretch that behavior requirements also don’t apply to them.

My worst behaving students’ families don’t do family activities like ski trips. Their behavior is awful because the parents are uninvolved. They probably spent the day on their Xbox.

I’m the teacher PP they’re responding to and I agree. The kids with the worst behavior aren’t paid any attention by their parents. Parents seemed to think when they were potty trained and could operate a screened device, the parenting job was done. Make them go to school? Why or how? Do anything about their abhorrent behavior at the school when they do go? Never.

I know it’s hard to fathom because even when we disagree on a lot of things , the parents who populate this forum all deeply care about their kids. But some parents - you guys, you probably can’t fathom how little guidance, structure, boundary setting and attention some kids get from their parents. It’s a free for all for those kinds of kids and it’s very sad. They didn’t go on ski vacations , they literally sat in their room on their phone the last 3 weeks. Their parents likely never even talked to them about whether they’d go yesterday or not- the parents didn’t care either way.

DP and also a teacher. This is correct.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The bus drivers had difficulty in 22101. It is awful they were put in a position to have to drop kids off on 123 (over 1.5 miles from home) because the neighborhoods were too icey to navigate.

This is our situation, glad I didn't send my kids to walk on icy roads with no sidewalks for a mile to get home.

Yet many kids did walk a mile on roads and icy sidewalks to get to/from school yesterday. And they managed just fine. I'm a teacher (HS), and my classes were mostly full, with about 1 or 2 absences per class. I would argue that you should be allowing (and even pushing/encouraging) your kids out into the world to take risks and overcome challenges. Walking on icy sidewalks? Watching the cars/traffic carefully? Yes, these type of situations should be navigated from time to time as kids grow through the years. Do not bubble-wrap your kids. You are not doing them any favors.

Oh.. I hope all these children who walked on icy roads dodging swerving cars for a mile and all these hero parents whose vehicles got stuck on icy unplowed roads near schools get a medal. I guess this is what you are looking for, but too bad, they won't. There will be no difference between those who showed up and those who didn't make it. There is no "winning" here, just people who found it easy enough to show up and those who chose not to deal with a PITA situation, e.g. people making choices based on personal circumstances. As a parent you can feel free to make choices for your kids like we do for ours, if you are even a parent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The bus drivers had difficulty in 22101. It is awful they were put in a position to have to drop kids off on 123 (over 1.5 miles from home) because the neighborhoods were too icey to navigate.

This is our situation, glad I didn't send my kids to walk on icy roads with no sidewalks for a mile to get home.

Yet many kids did walk a mile on roads and icy sidewalks to get to/from school yesterday. And they managed just fine. I'm a teacher (HS), and my classes were mostly full, with about 1 or 2 absences per class. I would argue that you should be allowing (and even pushing/encouraging) your kids out into the world to take risks and overcome challenges. Walking on icy sidewalks? Watching the cars/traffic carefully? Yes, these type of situations should be navigated from time to time as kids grow through the years. Do not bubble-wrap your kids. You are not doing them any favors.

Reading comprehension isn’t your thing. The PP you are replying to said “icy roads” and that no sidewalks were available.

haha, true. And this is a person who claims to be a HS teacher

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The bus drivers had difficulty in 22101. It is awful they were put in a position to have to drop kids off on 123 (over 1.5 miles from home) because the neighborhoods were too icey to navigate.

This is our situation, glad I didn't send my kids to walk on icy roads with no sidewalks for a mile to get home.

Yet many kids did walk a mile on roads and icy sidewalks to get to/from school yesterday. And they managed just fine. I'm a teacher (HS), and my classes were mostly full, with about 1 or 2 absences per class. I would argue that you should be allowing (and even pushing/encouraging) your kids out into the world to take risks and overcome challenges. Walking on icy sidewalks? Watching the cars/traffic carefully? Yes, these type of situations should be navigated from time to time as kids grow through the years. Do not bubble-wrap your kids. You are not doing them any favors.

Reading comprehension isn’t your thing. The PP you are replying to said “icy roads” and that no sidewalks were available.

Yes, I read that. My apologies for generalizing... I should have said icy roads/sidewalks to include all possibilities so that everyone can fill included.

You are not very smart for a HS teacher to not process the information that icy sidewalks (as in areas designated only for pedestrian use) and icy roads (where cars and other vehicles drive) are not the same thing in terms of safety for the walkers even on a good day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't understand, people who chose to keep their children home today are complaining because other children went to school and learned something? Your child missing one short day of school is not going to cause them any problems. They'll be fine.

This is what happens when there is an obsession with equity, coming down from leadership. People start to think every student must have the same exact experience all the time, every day or it isn’t fair. So if they didn’t feel safe sending their kids to school no one else should get to go because it’s not fairrr.

This isn't a personal thing, schools would not be closed for days. Decision was made for so many snow days because there was a reason in the first place that circumstances of school commutes were made difficult for enough number of people to make it not worth reopening. Friday opening was purely optics because there was no difference in areas affected by the lack of plowing between Thursday and Friday. Because of the warming and snow melting there will be a difference between Friday and Monday, I already see it.

[Anonymous]

6th grade teacher. Had 19/19 kids. My attendance is usually good.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't understand, people who chose to keep their children home today are complaining because other children went to school and learned something? Your child missing one short day of school is not going to cause them any problems. They'll be fine.

This is what happens when there is an obsession with equity, coming down from leadership. People start to think every student must have the same exact experience all the time, every day or it isn’t fair. So if they didn’t feel safe sending their kids to school no one else should get to go because it’s not fairrr.

This isn't a personal thing, schools would not be closed for days. Decision was made for so many snow days because there was a reason in the first place that circumstances of school commutes were made difficult for enough number of people to make it not worth reopening. Friday opening was purely optics because there was no difference in areas affected by the lack of plowing between Thursday and Friday. Because of the warming and snow melting there will be a difference between Friday and Monday, I already see it.

+1 this exactly

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The bus drivers had difficulty in 22101. It is awful they were put in a position to have to drop kids off on 123 (over 1.5 miles from home) because the neighborhoods were too icey to navigate.

This is our situation, glad I didn't send my kids to walk on icy roads with no sidewalks for a mile to get home.

Yet many kids did walk a mile on roads and icy sidewalks to get to/from school yesterday. And they managed just fine. I'm a teacher (HS), and my classes were mostly full, with about 1 or 2 absences per class. I would argue that you should be allowing (and even pushing/encouraging) your kids out into the world to take risks and overcome challenges. Walking on icy sidewalks? Watching the cars/traffic carefully? Yes, these type of situations should be navigated from time to time as kids grow through the years. Do not bubble-wrap your kids. You are not doing them any favors.

Oh.. I hope all these children who walked on icy roads dodging swerving cars for a mile and all these hero parents whose vehicles got stuck on icy unplowed roads near schools get a medal. I guess this is what you are looking for, but too bad, they won't. There will be no difference between those who showed up and those who didn't make it. There is no "winning" here, just people who found it easy enough to show up and those who chose not to deal with a PITA situation, e.g. people making choices based on personal circumstances. As a parent you can feel free to make choices for your kids like we do for ours, if you are even a parent.

Yet you seem crabby that teachers gave instruction and the class moved on, instead of waiting for your snowflake next week.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it’s funny that third graders are able to report that they learned “new material.” Mine had already forgotten everything he did today, per usual, by the time he ran off the bus…

My fourth grader said they didn’t start a new benchmark lesson but did learn something new in math.

My 3rd grader learned something new today and articulated it perfectly. But he’s AAP level 4.

WTF kind of flex is this supposed to be? Newsflash: the vast majority of 3rd graders can perfectly articulate what they did all day. Not sure why you think AAP makes your child special? He's either just better at taking tests or he's a high SES kid in a low SES school.

There was a mom claiming no 4th grader could articulate what they learned. I was just assuming that if that’s true, my kid is special. It seems you’re claiming her child is “special”. Either way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't understand, people who chose to keep their children home today are complaining because other children went to school and learned something? Your child missing one short day of school is not going to cause them any problems. They'll be fine.

This is what happens when there is an obsession with equity, coming down from leadership. People start to think every student must have the same exact experience all the time, every day or it isn’t fair. So if they didn’t feel safe sending their kids to school no one else should get to go because it’s not fairrr.

This isn't a personal thing, schools would not be closed for days. Decision was made for so many snow days because there was a reason in the first place that circumstances of school commutes were made difficult for enough number of people to make it not worth reopening. Friday opening was purely optics because there was no difference in areas affected by the lack of plowing between Thursday and Friday. Because of the warming and snow melting there will be a difference between Friday and Monday, I already see it.

I see the optics exactly opposite. School could have been (and probably should have been) opened Thursday. But to give the appearance [optics] that the team at Gatehouse was putting student safety first, they foolishly closed. As a result, kids were at the mall, the movies, out to lunch, whatever, while schools sat empty another day. We can't wait for every street in the county (there are 17,000 btw) to be plowed perfect or every sidewalk to be shoveled. The kids will be okay.

[Anonymous]

Upper ES teacher here -
80% of my students were in class. The ones who were not in attendance live in the same neighborhood/same street as those who were there (bus riders). The ones absent are also the same students who are frequently absent. Most of our area was fairly well plowed compared to some of the pictures I’ve seen. We did academic review all day & will hit the ground running on Monday.

Another teacher in the same grade had only 40% in attendance.

The school had 70% attendance overall. This will not be helpful to our attendance data with the county and state.

VDOT did an astoundingly poor job with snow removal and abatement.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The bus drivers had difficulty in 22101. It is awful they were put in a position to have to drop kids off on 123 (over 1.5 miles from home) because the neighborhoods were too icey to navigate.

This is our situation, glad I didn't send my kids to walk on icy roads with no sidewalks for a mile to get home.

Yet many kids did walk a mile on roads and icy sidewalks to get to/from school yesterday. And they managed just fine. I'm a teacher (HS), and my classes were mostly full, with about 1 or 2 absences per class. I would argue that you should be allowing (and even pushing/encouraging) your kids out into the world to take risks and overcome challenges. Walking on icy sidewalks? Watching the cars/traffic carefully? Yes, these type of situations should be navigated from time to time as kids grow through the years. Do not bubble-wrap your kids. You are not doing them any favors.

Reading comprehension isn’t your thing. The PP you are replying to said “icy roads” and that no sidewalks were available.

haha, true. And this is a person who claims to be a HS teacher

Because that teacher knows that there are no walkers on streets where there are no sidewalks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The bus drivers had difficulty in 22101. It is awful they were put in a position to have to drop kids off on 123 (over 1.5 miles from home) because the neighborhoods were too icey to navigate.

This is our situation, glad I didn't send my kids to walk on icy roads with no sidewalks for a mile to get home.

Yet many kids did walk a mile on roads and icy sidewalks to get to/from school yesterday. And they managed just fine. I'm a teacher (HS), and my classes were mostly full, with about 1 or 2 absences per class. I would argue that you should be allowing (and even pushing/encouraging) your kids out into the world to take risks and overcome challenges. Walking on icy sidewalks? Watching the cars/traffic carefully? Yes, these type of situations should be navigated from time to time as kids grow through the years. Do not bubble-wrap your kids. You are not doing them any favors.

Reading comprehension isn’t your thing. The PP you are replying to said “icy roads” and that no sidewalks were available.

Yes, I read that. My apologies for generalizing... I should have said icy roads/sidewalks to include all possibilities so that everyone can fill included.

You are not very smart for a HS teacher to not process the information that icy sidewalks (as in areas designated only for pedestrian use) and icy roads (where cars and other vehicles drive) are not the same thing in terms of safety for the walkers even on a good day.

You are not very smart period.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The bus drivers had difficulty in 22101. It is awful they were put in a position to have to drop kids off on 123 (over 1.5 miles from home) because the neighborhoods were too icey to navigate.

This is our situation, glad I didn't send my kids to walk on icy roads with no sidewalks for a mile to get home.

Yet many kids did walk a mile on roads and icy sidewalks to get to/from school yesterday. And they managed just fine. I'm a teacher (HS), and my classes were mostly full, with about 1 or 2 absences per class. I would argue that you should be allowing (and even pushing/encouraging) your kids out into the world to take risks and overcome challenges. Walking on icy sidewalks? Watching the cars/traffic carefully? Yes, these type of situations should be navigated from time to time as kids grow through the years. Do not bubble-wrap your kids. You are not doing them any favors.

Oh.. I hope all these children who walked on icy roads dodging swerving cars for a mile and all these hero parents whose vehicles got stuck on icy unplowed roads near schools get a medal. I guess this is what you are looking for, but too bad, they won't. There will be no difference between those who showed up and those who didn't make it. There is no "winning" here, just people who found it easy enough to show up and those who chose not to deal with a PITA situation, e.g. people making choices based on personal circumstances. As a parent you can feel free to make choices for your kids like we do for ours, if you are even a parent.

Yet you seem crabby that teachers gave instruction and the class moved on, instead of waiting for your snowflake next week.

Teachers will have to reteach don;'t worry.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it’s funny that third graders are able to report that they learned “new material.” Mine had already forgotten everything he did today, per usual, by the time he ran off the bus…

My fourth grader said they didn’t start a new benchmark lesson but did learn something new in math.

My 3rd grader learned something new today and articulated it perfectly. But he’s AAP level 4.

WTF kind of flex is this supposed to be? Newsflash: the vast majority of 3rd graders can perfectly articulate what they did all day. Not sure why you think AAP makes your child special? He's either just better at taking tests or he's a high SES kid in a low SES school.

There was a mom claiming no 4th grader could articulate what they learned. I was just assuming that if that’s true, my kid is special. It seems you’re claiming her child is “special”. Either way.

OMG. There was one lady who jokingly said her kid doesn't tell her what happened at school and you took her seriously and then had to imply that because your child is in AAP he is much more articulate than other children his age, which as we all know is not true because AAP children are no different than other kids, even though you want to think that.