If you have an elementary age child in FCPS

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Please, please, please email your principal and region superintendent if your child's teacher is not providing at least 4 hours of synchronous learning (and additional office hours) during the week. Merely complaining on DCUM will not fix the problem!

Nobody attends office hours. Literally nobody except the teachers. We are dropping all but 30 minutes a day.

Are you surprised that no one is using office hours? How can children have questions about stuff if you are not providing them with any new content or if you ARE providing new content, it is the most basic of basic content. On top of all of that, students aren't receiving ANY feedback, so how can they have questions if they don't know if the work they are doing is correct or not??

You'd be better off using your office hours for one on one time (10 minutes per student once per week should do it) or reading/math groups. I have been a staunch defender of teachers on this board, but after two weeks of instruction, I'm really not sure what you guys are spending all your time on.

We aren’t allowed to do 1:1 meets with kids online . Much of parents’ complaints come from what the district tells us we can or can’t do. You’re mad but you shouldn’t direct it at us. We have no say either.

They teachers who are unilaterally deciding not to provide new content do have a say. Why not teach the new content and review if necessary next year instead of just throwing the towel in?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Please, please, please email your principal and region superintendent if your child's teacher is not providing at least 4 hours of synchronous learning (and additional office hours) during the week. Merely complaining on DCUM will not fix the problem!

Nobody attends office hours. Literally nobody except the teachers. We are dropping all but 30 minutes a day.

Are you surprised that no one is using office hours? How can children have questions about stuff if you are not providing them with any new content or if you ARE providing new content, it is the most basic of basic content. On top of all of that, students aren't receiving ANY feedback, so how can they have questions if they don't know if the work they are doing is correct or not??

You'd be better off using your office hours for one on one time (10 minutes per student once per week should do it) or reading/math groups. I have been a staunch defender of teachers on this board, but after two weeks of instruction, I'm really not sure what you guys are spending all your time on.

We aren’t allowed to do 1:1 meets with kids online . Much of parents’ complaints come from what the district tells us we can or can’t do. You’re mad but you shouldn’t direct it at us. We have no say either.

They teachers who are unilaterally deciding not to provide new content do have a say. Why not teach the new content and review if necessary next year instead of just throwing the towel in?

The environment is not conducive to kids learning and applying and retaining brand new content. It’s not. I know you think it’s as simple as “give them the material and talk about it and boom they learned” but it isn’t.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Please, please, please email your principal and region superintendent if your child's teacher is not providing at least 4 hours of synchronous learning (and additional office hours) during the week. Merely complaining on DCUM will not fix the problem!

Nobody attends office hours. Literally nobody except the teachers. We are dropping all but 30 minutes a day.

Our Teacher told us that office hours were for helping kids who were struggling with the work that they have been given. DS is not struggling with the work he has been given so we don't use the office hours. That and his class time is 2:15-3:15. He is normally done with all his class work by the time his live session is over and is not interested in doing anything from 3:15-4:15 right now, which is when office hours are.

Maybe if instead of office hours there was a small group option one day a week. A 15 minute meeting with 4 other kids once a week. The Teacher could do 2 a day and have 30 minutes to meet with kids who need help, probably no one.

I am not complaining, I am happy with what he is getting in this situation. I don't think office hours are all that useful for early elementary school.

[Anonymous]

Again, parents, I am saying that YOU can work to help fix this problem. If your school is not providing the minimum number of live teaching hours (covering NEW material) set by FCPS, then you need to stop bitching about it on DCUM and alert your school principal and the region superintendent. Many elementary schools are doing the right thing, but there are some who are not. Don't just call them out on DCUM. That solves nothing! Email the people in charge.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Please, please, please email your principal and region superintendent if your child's teacher is not providing at least 4 hours of synchronous learning (and additional office hours) during the week. Merely complaining on DCUM will not fix the problem!

Nobody attends office hours. Literally nobody except the teachers. We are dropping all but 30 minutes a day.

Maybe increasing synchronous lessons would be helpful instead of just reducing the office hours.

PP here.
We are doing that. We are also keeping pre-recorded lessons.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Please, please, please email your principal and region superintendent if your child's teacher is not providing at least 4 hours of synchronous learning (and additional office hours) during the week. Merely complaining on DCUM will not fix the problem!

Nobody attends office hours. Literally nobody except the teachers. We are dropping all but 30 minutes a day.

Are you surprised that no one is using office hours? How can children have questions about stuff if you are not providing them with any new content or if you ARE providing new content, it is the most basic of basic content. On top of all of that, students aren't receiving ANY feedback, so how can they have questions if they don't know if the work they are doing is correct or not??

You'd be better off using your office hours for one on one time (10 minutes per student once per week should do it) or reading/math groups. I have been a staunch defender of teachers on this board, but after two weeks of instruction, I'm really not sure what you guys are spending all your time on.

PP here. We are not surprised that students are not attending office hours, As they have settled into a routine we figured this would be the case.

You assume much in your post. We are providing new content. I posted about this earlier.

We make comments on every single assignment turned in through Google Classroom.

We are increasing synchronous time through read alouds (followed by discussion), number talks, and book clubs. We are not doing anything 1:1. We are keeping pre-recorded lessons.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Please, please, please email your principal and region superintendent if your child's teacher is not providing at least 4 hours of synchronous learning (and additional office hours) during the week. Merely complaining on DCUM will not fix the problem!

Nobody attends office hours. Literally nobody except the teachers. We are dropping all but 30 minutes a day.

Our 4th grader's office hours are by appointment only. She is posting work that is labeled "review" but it is definitely new content. My child is struggling with the math but it is hard for a child that age to struggle with a problem, then wait a few days for "office hour" appointment, then explain what they were confused about. This is appropriate for high schoolers, not 9 year olds.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t understand why some are saying their students are receiving no new content. At my grade level we have taught poetry and are starting persuasive reviews in language arts. We are moving ahead with ancient cultures in SS. In math we started two digit by one digit multiplication and area. All new content. Much of it is pre-recorded, but some has been synchronous and we have been expanding that.

Because many Teachers are not doing this. DS Teachers have been doing new work but many Teachers are not.

Sorry. I should have phrased that differently. I was thinking more along the lines of, “I don’t understand why students aren’t receiving new content”.

Fair enough. The parents don't really understand what's going on either. Our child has 3, 30 minute "live" sessions with his teacher each week. There is no teaching going on--only morning meeting and things like that. This is 5th grade and she just started reading a chapter book to them. I suspect to kill time. The teacher is posting some worksheets on slides in google classroom. No video lessons. WHen my child turns in the work, there are no grades or comments.

And BTW, I did contact the principal, who told me that the rules were that each teacher can decide her own teaching schedule. So, that was obviously a lie!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a fourth grader in AAP -- daily content is below...

15 minute morning meeting
One hour of math
One hour of language arts
In addition, they have just added a special with an assigned time for each grade daily.

There is a Word Masters Challenge this week and two other assignments for language arts are due. There is also a standing math quiz each Friday.

I call bullshit unless you tell us what school.

You can call bullshit all you want but I am not telling you the school as I would hate for them to face any backlash. There ARE schools and teachers doing a good job but nobody on DCUM ever wants to talk about the positive things.

Why on earth would they face backlash for doing what they're supposed to do? You are very strange.

Well...one of the teachers had to shorten the length of time they meet each day so it turns out that my concern was warranted.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t understand why some are saying their students are receiving no new content. At my grade level we have taught poetry and are starting persuasive reviews in language arts. We are moving ahead with ancient cultures in SS. In math we started two digit by one digit multiplication and area. All new content. Much of it is pre-recorded, but some has been synchronous and we have been expanding that.

Because many Teachers are not doing this. DS Teachers have been doing new work but many Teachers are not.

Sorry. I should have phrased that differently. I was thinking more along the lines of, “I don’t understand why students aren’t receiving new content”.

Fair enough. The parents don't really understand what's going on either. Our child has 3, 30 minute "live" sessions with his teacher each week. There is no teaching going on--only morning meeting and things like that. This is 5th grade and she just started reading a chapter book to them. I suspect to kill time. The teacher is posting some worksheets on slides in google classroom. No video lessons. WHen my child turns in the work, there are no grades or comments.

And BTW, I did contact the principal, who told me that the rules were that each teacher can decide her own teaching schedule. So, that was obviously a lie!

Then contact your region superintendent (your principal's boss). Your school is clearly not following the rules, and they should not be able to get away with it. What region are you in?

https://www.fcps.edu/about-fcps/leadership-team

[Anonymous]

I think the problem is that principals did not receive clear communication. The documents shown to us said an hour of direct instruction a day. Our school has interpreted that to mean either synchronous or prerecorded lessons. I’m not doing an hour of synchronous instruction. I do about 40 minutes with a few videos.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Again, parents, I am saying that YOU can work to help fix this problem. If your school is not providing the minimum number of live teaching hours (covering NEW material) set by FCPS, then you need to stop bitching about it on DCUM and alert your school principal and the region superintendent. Many elementary schools are doing the right thing, but there are some who are not. Don't just call them out on DCUM. That solves nothing! Email the people in charge.

Devils advocate--if nobody bitched about it on DCUM, nobody would know that every school wasn't doing the same thing. Person A would think that 2 hours a week was the requirement. Person B would think 8 hours a week was the requirement. FCPS hates parents communicating across schools because it shows inequity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think the problem is that principals did not receive clear communication. The documents shown to us said an hour of direct instruction a day. Our school has interpreted that to mean either synchronous or prerecorded lessons. I’m not doing an hour of synchronous instruction. I do about 40 minutes with a few videos.

This is interesting, because if I read "direct instruction", I would assume the common meaning of that to be "the teacher is directly instructing the students". There's a give and take with live direct instruction where the students can ask questions, for clarification, etc.

A teacher on a pre-recorded video isn't really doing that?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Again, parents, I am saying that YOU can work to help fix this problem. If your school is not providing the minimum number of live teaching hours (covering NEW material) set by FCPS, then you need to stop bitching about it on DCUM and alert your school principal and the region superintendent. Many elementary schools are doing the right thing, but there are some who are not. Don't just call them out on DCUM. That solves nothing! Email the people in charge.

Devils advocate--if nobody bitched about it on DCUM, nobody would know that every school wasn't doing the same thing. Person A would think that 2 hours a week was the requirement. Person B would think 8 hours a week was the requirement. FCPS hates parents communicating across schools because it shows inequity.

Very true. But people have been complaining for many, many weeks on many, many different threads. At this point, don't you think it is time that we worked together to fix the problem?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think the problem is that principals did not receive clear communication. The documents shown to us said an hour of direct instruction a day. Our school has interpreted that to mean either synchronous or prerecorded lessons. I’m not doing an hour of synchronous instruction. I do about 40 minutes with a few videos.

An hour of synchronous actually seems like quite a bit of you are talking about actual “teaching to” a class of elementary students online. If I think about the math and language arts blocks during a typical school day I don’t think an hour of the time is spent in front of the entire class of students.