Schools closed for students Monday Feb 2

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:also in the amount of time we have been working onthis we could have put together emergency pickup routes. Pick up the kids who can make it, open a zoom call online for those who cannot. It seems like the district should exercise emergency authority at this point. the ice is going nowhere and no one is doing anything further to plow it away.

How am I supposed to teach a class with 8 kids who showed up and 20 who stayed home and MAYBE logged onto the zoom? I don't teach sitting behind my desk. How am I supposed to monitor those students who are at home and make sure they are actually logged in? Also, where is the webcam that broadcasts my class coming from? Do I just assume I will be teaching everything 2 or possibly 3 times? If that's the case, we just won't learn new material

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone know why MCPS doesn't have a plan on file? It's obvious that a virtual learning plan needs to demonstrate how it will help all students, including special needs kids. But if half of the counties in the state figured out how to get that done, then shouldn't MCPS have done so as well? It's just BS that every child does not have access to a chromebook, or couldn't, given what the county has spent. Or materials could have been sent home in advance if children do not have digital access or that type of learning doesn't work for them. The Board of Education needs to be held to account.
This is a killer for those of us who have sophomores and juniors in high school who will now have a week and a half (the way it's looking) of less preparation for AP exams and other standard national tests. and melt for younger students is real, too. I hope someone out there does a study on comparing how MCPS students did on these tests compared with schools that started virtual learning or went back to school in person last week.

Because there's no plausible way to make virtual effective for young students and students with special needs. Some people just don't care and want to do it anyway. None of the people here pushing for virtual care at all about lower elementary kids or students with disabilities.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Tomorrow is Groundhog Day. We’ll wake up and find out whether MCPS will be closed for another 6 weeks.

They would never tell us when we wake up. We would have to wait til 4 pm when they’ve evaluated the conditions for the following day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:also in the amount of time we have been working onthis we could have put together emergency pickup routes. Pick up the kids who can make it, open a zoom call online for those who cannot. It seems like the district should exercise emergency authority at this point. the ice is going nowhere and no one is doing anything further to plow it away.

How am I supposed to teach a class with 8 kids who showed up and 20 who stayed home and MAYBE logged onto the zoom? I don't teach sitting behind my desk. How am I supposed to monitor those students who are at home and make sure they are actually logged in? Also, where is the webcam that broadcasts my class coming from? Do I just assume I will be teaching everything 2 or possibly 3 times? If that's the case, we just won't learn new material

The vast, vast majority of kids can make it to school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So what’s the plan. The snow/ice isn’t melting anytime soon. Are they planning to just stay closed??

Yes. If MoCo doesn’t want to invest in more plows, doesn’t want any child to walk on an icy sidewalk (which is totally common in other parts of the country where snow is managed better), then they just need to open a week or two earlier in August.

And then they can have 8 or 9 snow days and have a policy that no special snowflake of MCPS shall have their feet touch ice.

At a minimum they need to articulate a plan now for what they're to deal with this. The Board needs to tell us what days they're using as makeups and MCPS needs to tell us what the expectations are for reopening. Even just hearing that they're planning to use the makeup days before June would go a long way to reestablish trust.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone know why MCPS doesn't have a plan on file? It's obvious that a virtual learning plan needs to demonstrate how it will help all students, including special needs kids. But if half of the counties in the state figured out how to get that done, then shouldn't MCPS have done so as well? It's just BS that every child does not have access to a chromebook, or couldn't, given what the county has spent. Or materials could have been sent home in advance if children do not have digital access or that type of learning doesn't work for them. The Board of Education needs to be held to account.
This is a killer for those of us who have sophomores and juniors in high school who will now have a week and a half (the way it's looking) of less preparation for AP exams and other standard national tests. and melt for younger students is real, too. I hope someone out there does a study on comparing how MCPS students did on these tests compared with schools that started virtual learning or went back to school in person last week.

Because there's no plausible way to make virtual effective for young students and students with special needs. Some people just don't care and want to do it anyway. None of the people here pushing for virtual care at all about lower elementary kids or students with disabilities.

So how did Baltimore and Anne Arundel do it? And DCPS? And Alexandria Public Schools? Why did they have virtual learning last week and McPS had nothing. There was a long list in the Washington Post of school status and a lot of districts were doing virtual.

Do all those school districts not care about lower elementary or students with disabilities?

Much more likely that they’re better at planning and making the best of crappy weather rather than doing nothing like MCPs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:also in the amount of time we have been working onthis we could have put together emergency pickup routes. Pick up the kids who can make it, open a zoom call online for those who cannot. It seems like the district should exercise emergency authority at this point. the ice is going nowhere and no one is doing anything further to plow it away.

How am I supposed to teach a class with 8 kids who showed up and 20 who stayed home and MAYBE logged onto the zoom? I don't teach sitting behind my desk. How am I supposed to monitor those students who are at home and make sure they are actually logged in? Also, where is the webcam that broadcasts my class coming from? Do I just assume I will be teaching everything 2 or possibly 3 times? If that's the case, we just won't learn new material

The vast, vast majority of kids can make it to school.

Source?
20% walk.
The rest?
Are you going to pull numbers from your arse?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:also in the amount of time we have been working onthis we could have put together emergency pickup routes. Pick up the kids who can make it, open a zoom call online for those who cannot. It seems like the district should exercise emergency authority at this point. the ice is going nowhere and no one is doing anything further to plow it away.

How am I supposed to teach a class with 8 kids who showed up and 20 who stayed home and MAYBE logged onto the zoom? I don't teach sitting behind my desk. How am I supposed to monitor those students who are at home and make sure they are actually logged in? Also, where is the webcam that broadcasts my class coming from? Do I just assume I will be teaching everything 2 or possibly 3 times? If that's the case, we just won't learn new material

The vast, vast majority of kids can make it to school.

Source?
20% walk.
The rest?
Are you going to pull numbers from your arse?

Source - the rest of the world functioning the past 5+ days.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:also in the amount of time we have been working onthis we could have put together emergency pickup routes. Pick up the kids who can make it, open a zoom call online for those who cannot. It seems like the district should exercise emergency authority at this point. the ice is going nowhere and no one is doing anything further to plow it away.

How am I supposed to teach a class with 8 kids who showed up and 20 who stayed home and MAYBE logged onto the zoom? I don't teach sitting behind my desk. How am I supposed to monitor those students who are at home and make sure they are actually logged in? Also, where is the webcam that broadcasts my class coming from? Do I just assume I will be teaching everything 2 or possibly 3 times? If that's the case, we just won't learn new material

The vast, vast majority of kids can make it to school.

I understand that. I also understand that if you give HS kids, particularly those in my school, the option to stay home and "log into a zoom", they'll just stay home and take the excused absence. I really do appreciate the kids who want to learn but I'm not going to only teach them and ignore the rest of the kids. I have a duty to all of my students, even the ones who are a little less motivated. With that said, I also cannot afford to do the same thing 3 times. I'll just wait until i have to do it only once.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This county is a joke

The county is bad, but somehow Taylor and MCPS are even worse. He has no idea what he's doing. Replace him with someone who has worked in a northern state.

And raise taxes in the county by 10% to give him the funding to handle this scenario

Right because this ice scenario was contemplated years in advance. gTFO keyboard gangsters

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone know why MCPS doesn't have a plan on file? It's obvious that a virtual learning plan needs to demonstrate how it will help all students, including special needs kids. But if half of the counties in the state figured out how to get that done, then shouldn't MCPS have done so as well? It's just BS that every child does not have access to a chromebook, or couldn't, given what the county has spent. Or materials could have been sent home in advance if children do not have digital access or that type of learning doesn't work for them. The Board of Education needs to be held to account.
This is a killer for those of us who have sophomores and juniors in high school who will now have a week and a half (the way it's looking) of less preparation for AP exams and other standard national tests. and melt for younger students is real, too. I hope someone out there does a study on comparing how MCPS students did on these tests compared with schools that started virtual learning or went back to school in person last week.

Because there's no plausible way to make virtual effective for young students and students with special needs. Some people just don't care and want to do it anyway. None of the people here pushing for virtual care at all about lower elementary kids or students with disabilities.

So how did Baltimore and Anne Arundel do it? And DCPS? And Alexandria Public Schools? Why did they have virtual learning last week and McPS had nothing. There was a long list in the Washington Post of school status and a lot of districts were doing virtual.

Do all those school districts not care about lower elementary or students with disabilities?

Much more likely that they’re better at planning and making the best of crappy weather rather than doing nothing like MCPs.

In person learning is better than virtual learning. It is best to close the schools and extend the school year than it is to close the schools and do virtual learning. However, a school closer was not a good call at all. PGCPS even said two hour delay but will excuse other absences. Best call to make. We are open if you need to be here and you are excused if you can’t make it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The message said all schools are ready.

So then why the closure?

Because kids can't safely walk to school and they can't pick up students with disabilities. They lay that out in the message. The problem is this is unlikely to change any time soon.

You left off the top reason they gave us that many streets are too narrow for buses to drive or turn?

busses cannot get on our streets especially with no sidewalks and everyone walking in the street.

Lots of neighborhoods have walkers but no sidewalks all the time. Our buses manage the kids in the street.

Right, lots of neighborhoods have walkers and no sidewalks, especially no sidewalks with a foot of ice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The message said all schools are ready.

So then why the closure?

Because kids can't safely walk to school and they can't pick up students with disabilities. They lay that out in the message. The problem is this is unlikely to change any time soon.

Are the kids in Frederick County and the other MD counties that are open magically safer than the MoCo kids?

Other counties are not as densely populated as MCPS and it leads to much fewer walkers and less small neighborhood streets. Picking kids up at the end of their rural driveways is not an issue. Navigating a bus through Silver Spring is.

Those are often in walk zones. People have been walking all week.

We are not rural and no sidewalks. Streets are hit or miss but all are basically one lane. It’s impossible to get to some buses and walking to school is dangerous. Driving is hard as not all streets are passable.

Then walk through yards. This isn't rocket science.

I live in a densely populated neighborhood with narrow streets. Most of the front yards are fenced in, and the fences are just 3 inches from the sidewalk. There’s no cutting through yards and MCPS policy can’t depend on that anyway.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The message said all schools are ready.

So then why the closure?

Because kids can't safely walk to school and they can't pick up students with disabilities. They lay that out in the message. The problem is this is unlikely to change any time soon.

Are the kids in Frederick County and the other MD counties that are open magically safer than the MoCo kids?

Other counties are not as densely populated as MCPS and it leads to much fewer walkers and less small neighborhood streets. Picking kids up at the end of their rural driveways is not an issue. Navigating a bus through Silver Spring is.

Those are often in walk zones. People have been walking all week.

We are not rural and no sidewalks. Streets are hit or miss but all are basically one lane. It’s impossible to get to some buses and walking to school is dangerous. Driving is hard as not all streets are passable.

Then walk through yards. This isn't rocket science.

Everyone is just stupid if for having listen to your comment, you expect little kids to walk on ice for blocks? Idiot

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:also in the amount of time we have been working onthis we could have put together emergency pickup routes. Pick up the kids who can make it, open a zoom call online for those who cannot. It seems like the district should exercise emergency authority at this point. the ice is going nowhere and no one is doing anything further to plow it away.

How am I supposed to teach a class with 8 kids who showed up and 20 who stayed home and MAYBE logged onto the zoom? I don't teach sitting behind my desk. How am I supposed to monitor those students who are at home and make sure they are actually logged in? Also, where is the webcam that broadcasts my class coming from? Do I just assume I will be teaching everything 2 or possibly 3 times? If that's the case, we just won't learn new material

Exactly. The parents that a big a game about is emergency pick up routes are the last to actually put in the labor. Not a practical bone in that poster’s body