In-person school plans

[Anonymous]

The metrics are not met for Feb1 opening. They are unlikely to be met by March1st. There are only 6states in the country without any form of in person learning. WHO is now saying that even with widespread vaccination no herd immunity till 2022. We are unlikely to see normal school till Winter 2022. Going to fill out private school applications now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I work for MCPS. It is sounding more and more like the "support model" will be used if schools return. Like others have posted, students who opt in for returning to school will be in a classroom with an adult. The student will be spaced six feet away from the other kids and will log onto Zoom and continue learning the same way he/she did at home. The adult in the room might be a para who is supporting them (i.e. - babysitting) or could be a teacher who is also leading their own Zoom class. I can't imagine being a seven year old sitting in a classroom on Zoom being distracted by the teacher at the front of the room who is teaching another set of kids on Zoom who are learning at home or in another room.
The way it was explained to us is that most classrooms would only have 12 students. In my second grade classroom, I might be teaching my 21 students on Zoom. Of my 21 students, many of them will be virtual (based on their responses) but I'll have a mix of kids in my physical classroom. Some of them will be on Zoom with me (in the same room) while the rest will be on Zoom with my teammates who are teaching from home.
Personally, I wish we could do the direct model. 12 kids in the classroom with a teacher who is leading direct instruction like "normal". I know parents/teachers don't want to lose their classes but this support model looks like a disaster. I'd much rather have a new set of kids with me in my physical space if it means we can stay off Zoom and learn together in a traditional sense.

Thank you for posting this and thank you for teaching our kiddos. Most of the discussion is about ES. It would be great to hear about MS/HS. My DS would be very upset if some of his 6th grade teachers switch, as he managed to build rapport with them online and highly respects them (KUDOS to the teachers, I have no clue how they pulled that off honestly). Keeping teachers/cohort is the reason why we chose full DL for the rest of the year. So far our MS only shared that ONLY 6th graders are expected back for time being and 200 student chose hybrid. Nothing else yet.

There is a lovely AMA over in the DCPS forum talking about how much more positive the distance-learning-from-school model is relative to what was expected.

https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/940596.page

Worth a read.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm choosing middle schools at random here. Pyle, average class size for English, 17.1, for other, 19.8. Frost, 21.0 22.5. Ridgeview, 17.1 14.9. Baker, 16.7 16.6. Montgomery Village, 17.3 15.5. Rosa Parks, 19.2 19.8. Loiederman, 17.9 17.1. OK, I'm bored now, but it does lead to questions, doesn't it?

Do those numbers include self-contained special ed classes? At Hallie Wells, mainstream english classes are 28 or 29 kids, but with several of the small, self-contained classes of 6 to 10, too.

No, those numbers do NOT include self-contained special ed classes or other special education classes.

"The regular student enrollment divided by the number of classes, excluding special education, reported for two areas: English (required courses) and all other academic subjects (other English, mathematics, world languages, science, and social studies)."

https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/sharedaccountability/glance/definitions.aspx

Anyone believing that the most MS class sizes are 16 or 17, obviously doesn’t have a MS student. That’s not even the class size at most ES, though teachers certainly wish it were.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I demand the free daycare that I'm

We know you hate universal healthcare and childcare. Thank god your Trumper days are over.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If people don’t want to send their kids to school, they can choose virtual for the rest of the year.

+1
I genuinely don't get why anyone wants schools to stay closed when it's obvious virtual will still be an option.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hans Reimer’s email:

“ Evidently early stage groups are not showing up at the rate expected; whether because outreach hasn’t been strong enough, people just need time to schedule, or they are hesitant. But the outcome is clear and untenable.

That is why I am urging County officials to open up Group 1B and begin making vaccination doses available to residents over age 75.”

We won’t be going back a long while if even health care professionals are hesitant.

There's all the logistical issues of vaccine distribution too.

Teachers vaccinated does not matter. It’s about community spread.

Then why are teachers priority for vaccination? I think they should be, but only if schools open.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm choosing middle schools at random here. Pyle, average class size for English, 17.1, for other, 19.8. Frost, 21.0 22.5. Ridgeview, 17.1 14.9. Baker, 16.7 16.6. Montgomery Village, 17.3 15.5. Rosa Parks, 19.2 19.8. Loiederman, 17.9 17.1. OK, I'm bored now, but it does lead to questions, doesn't it?

Do those numbers include self-contained special ed classes? At Hallie Wells, mainstream english classes are 28 or 29 kids, but with several of the small, self-contained classes of 6 to 10, too.

No, those numbers do NOT include self-contained special ed classes or other special education classes.

"The regular student enrollment divided by the number of classes, excluding special education, reported for two areas: English (required courses) and all other academic subjects (other English, mathematics, world languages, science, and social studies)."

https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/sharedaccountability/glance/definitions.aspx

Anyone believing that the most MS class sizes are 16 or 17, obviously doesn’t have a MS student. That’s not even the class size at most ES, though teachers certainly wish it were.

When half still choose virtual, that will be the size. My SIL teaches K in VA and she has 13 of her 25 kids in live class.

[Anonymous]

So I spoke with my child's principal today and one thing that she pointed out that I didn't realize was that principals have the discretion to implement different models to different classrooms or grade levels so you could have one grade doing virtual support (which is basically a distance Hub learning run by staff by mcps staff, probably a paraeducator ) another group doing simultaneous (mix of in person and virtual kids getting the same education simultaneously k and another group getting direct instruction (one teacher in a classroom with 12 kids socially distant)

Also every available measure for virus mitigation will be in place including masks and social distancing. even if you get all the teachers vaccinated you're still going to have to have that stuff in place to protect the kids from each other

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This was sent from the principal of Poolesville High School. Sounds like supervised virtual.

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While much is still left to be decided, it is important to understand that the students’ experiences in the building will not look the same as it did before the pandemic. We are so excited at the prospect of welcoming our students back, but that excitement comes with setting realistic expectations and understanding our limitations. Most students who return partially to the building are coming in for support as a compliment to the virtual experience, and they will have adults available to supervise and support their virtual learning. I will be transparent in our planning, and I will keep you updated with any logistics, schedule changes, and expectations. I appreciate your patience and support as we design the virtual and in-person experiences for our students.

Supervised virtual (aka DL with babysitting according to my principal) is planned for my MS. Definitely not what we had in March.

Meaning, there will be no live instruction in the classroom? Teachers will still be teaching from home and kids in the classroom will see them on screens?
That's not what I thought 'hybrid' entailed. In MS kids don't need babysitting, if that's what the plan is, everyone might as well continue DL from home.

Each school has some flexibility to adopt a model that works for them, based on the needs of their staff and students. This is definitely one of the ones that came up during our staff meeting as being one of the possible choices. Teachers wouldn't be teaching from home (unless they had an ADA accommodation) but they might be teaching via Zoom to students in the same classroom that they are in (while simultaneously teaching to students who are learning from home). This seems like the worst option, as it has all of the negatives of DL without any of the benefits (such as being able to get up and stretch, going to grab a snack, not having to wear as mask etc.).

The reason for this has to do with the lack of funds (and people) to hire more staff. Assuming that a school had exactly 50 % pick DL and and 50 % pick in-person, the DL half would still need instruction while the IP half were in the school. This would mean hiring twice as many teachers which isn't feasible. Ergo the concurrent/simultaneous model

If only 50% of the kids chose in-person, they should be able to go to school 5 days a week where the 50% teachers teach them in person. The rest can stay virtual 5 days a week and the other half of the teachers can teach them virtually. No need to hire anyone. Problem solved.

Let's look at a sample elementary grade, say fifth grade. In the whole grade level there are 100 students. Right now they are split between four teachers (25 per class). Now that a return to in-person instruction is being considered, 50 of them want to return for in-person and 50 want to remain DL. The 50 students who want to continue DL are split into two groups of 25 and two of the teachers instruct them. That leaves the 50 students for in-person instruction to be taught by the other two teachers. Typically you could have two classes of 25, but the classes sizes have to be significantly reduced (no more than 13 students per room) in order to maintain social distancing. That means that both classes of 25 would actually need to be split in half, which would result in the school needing a total of four teachers for in-person instruction. This results in a shortfall of two teachers since the school needs a total of six in order to teacher in-person and DL and they only have four. Problem, most certainly, not solved. Not unless the county can find the funds and the teachers.

Here it is, broken down another way:
Teacher 1: Teaches 25 students via Zoom five days a week
Teacher 2: Teaches 25 students via Zoom five days a week
Teacher 3: Teachers 12-13 students in-person five days a week
Teacher 4: Teachers 12-13 students in-person five days a week
25 students, whose parent's signed them up for in-person instruction, are not receiving any instruction

Therefore they need to hire two new teachers to offset the reduced class sizes:
Teacher 1: Teaches 25 students via Zoom five days a week
Teacher 2: Teaches 25 students via Zoom five days a week
Teacher 3: Teaches 12-13 students in-person five days a week
Teacher 4: Teaches 12-13 students in-person five days a week
Teacher 5 (New hire): Teaches 12-13 students in-person five days a week
Teacher 6 (New hire): Teaches 12-13 students in-person five days a week

From what I have heard they are only going to hire one new teacher per school and then try to pull non-classroom teachers such as esol to cover classes. I don't think they can pull special education teachers because that would run the risk of kids losing IEP mandated services.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm choosing middle schools at random here. Pyle, average class size for English, 17.1, for other, 19.8. Frost, 21.0 22.5. Ridgeview, 17.1 14.9. Baker, 16.7 16.6. Montgomery Village, 17.3 15.5. Rosa Parks, 19.2 19.8. Loiederman, 17.9 17.1. OK, I'm bored now, but it does lead to questions, doesn't it?

Do those numbers include self-contained special ed classes? At Hallie Wells, mainstream english classes are 28 or 29 kids, but with several of the small, self-contained classes of 6 to 10, too.

No, those numbers do NOT include self-contained special ed classes or other special education classes.

"The regular student enrollment divided by the number of classes, excluding special education, reported for two areas: English (required courses) and all other academic subjects (other English, mathematics, world languages, science, and social studies)."

https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/sharedaccountability/glance/definitions.aspx

Anyone believing that the most MS class sizes are 16 or 17, obviously doesn’t have a MS student. That’s not even the class size at most ES, though teachers certainly wish it were.

When half still choose virtual, that will be the size. My SIL teaches K in VA and she has 13 of her 25 kids in live class.

K is very different than middle and high school where kids change classes and no two kids have the same schedule. And, there aren't enough teachers to split a class like your SIL has or one set of kids will get neglected. You really think any teacher can be effective doing both in person and DL? Its near impossible with a class of 25.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hans Reimer’s email:

“ Evidently early stage groups are not showing up at the rate expected; whether because outreach hasn’t been strong enough, people just need time to schedule, or they are hesitant. But the outcome is clear and untenable.

That is why I am urging County officials to open up Group 1B and begin making vaccination doses available to residents over age 75.”

We won’t be going back a long while if even health care professionals are hesitant.

There's all the logistical issues of vaccine distribution too.

Teachers vaccinated does not matter. It’s about community spread.

Then why are teachers priority for vaccination? I think they should be, but only if schools open.

To humor parents demanding it and protect them if depending on their home life/personal life so they can keep teaching virtually and when numbers go down, be ready for in person.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If people don’t want to send their kids to school, they can choose virtual for the rest of the year.

+1
I genuinely don't get why anyone wants schools to stay closed when it's obvious virtual will still be an option.

It has to do with community spread. And, if our virtual kids share a teacher with in person as they are doing both, teacher gets sick, virtual kids lose their stable teacher out on sick leave.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I work for MCPS. It is sounding more and more like the "support model" will be used if schools return. Like others have posted, students who opt in for returning to school will be in a classroom with an adult. The student will be spaced six feet away from the other kids and will log onto Zoom and continue learning the same way he/she did at home. The adult in the room might be a para who is supporting them (i.e. - babysitting) or could be a teacher who is also leading their own Zoom class. I can't imagine being a seven year old sitting in a classroom on Zoom being distracted by the teacher at the front of the room who is teaching another set of kids on Zoom who are learning at home or in another room.
The way it was explained to us is that most classrooms would only have 12 students. In my second grade classroom, I might be teaching my 21 students on Zoom. Of my 21 students, many of them will be virtual (based on their responses) but I'll have a mix of kids in my physical classroom. Some of them will be on Zoom with me (in the same room) while the rest will be on Zoom with my teammates who are teaching from home.
Personally, I wish we could do the direct model. 12 kids in the classroom with a teacher who is leading direct instruction like "normal". I know parents/teachers don't want to lose their classes but this support model looks like a disaster. I'd much rather have a new set of kids with me in my physical space if it means we can stay off Zoom and learn together in a traditional sense.

Thank you for posting this and thank you for teaching our kiddos. Most of the discussion is about ES. It would be great to hear about MS/HS. My DS would be very upset if some of his 6th grade teachers switch, as he managed to build rapport with them online and highly respects them (KUDOS to the teachers, I have no clue how they pulled that off honestly). Keeping teachers/cohort is the reason why we chose full DL for the rest of the year. So far our MS only shared that ONLY 6th graders are expected back for time being and 200 student chose hybrid. Nothing else yet.

There is a lovely AMA over in the DCPS forum talking about how much more positive the distance-learning-from-school model is relative to what was expected.

https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/940596.page

Worth a read.

Thanks. Just noting though that is a CARES classroom with few kids and for some schools, this model really looks different. At my school, students will stay in homerooms and attend various classes via Zoom on a Chromebook.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I demand the free daycare that I'm

We know you hate universal healthcare and childcare. Thank god your Trumper days are over.

Whose going to pay for it all? And, as someone on a universal health care program, I can tell you it sucks and I regularly cannot get an appointment. It takes months to get things like MRI's and have been declined for speciality appointments and they are the only ones who can prescribe medications so I've had to private pay for costly speciality appointments and medications.

We have child care for low income and working parents if you fit within the criteria.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I work for MCPS. It is sounding more and more like the "support model" will be used if schools return. Like others have posted, students who opt in for returning to school will be in a classroom with an adult. The student will be spaced six feet away from the other kids and will log onto Zoom and continue learning the same way he/she did at home. The adult in the room might be a para who is supporting them (i.e. - babysitting) or could be a teacher who is also leading their own Zoom class. I can't imagine being a seven year old sitting in a classroom on Zoom being distracted by the teacher at the front of the room who is teaching another set of kids on Zoom who are learning at home or in another room.
The way it was explained to us is that most classrooms would only have 12 students. In my second grade classroom, I might be teaching my 21 students on Zoom. Of my 21 students, many of them will be virtual (based on their responses) but I'll have a mix of kids in my physical classroom. Some of them will be on Zoom with me (in the same room) while the rest will be on Zoom with my teammates who are teaching from home.
Personally, I wish we could do the direct model. 12 kids in the classroom with a teacher who is leading direct instruction like "normal". I know parents/teachers don't want to lose their classes but this support model looks like a disaster. I'd much rather have a new set of kids with me in my physical space if it means we can stay off Zoom and learn together in a traditional sense.

Thank you for posting this and thank you for teaching our kiddos. Most of the discussion is about ES. It would be great to hear about MS/HS. My DS would be very upset if some of his 6th grade teachers switch, as he managed to build rapport with them online and highly respects them (KUDOS to the teachers, I have no clue how they pulled that off honestly). Keeping teachers/cohort is the reason why we chose full DL for the rest of the year. So far our MS only shared that ONLY 6th graders are expected back for time being and 200 student chose hybrid. Nothing else yet.

There is a lovely AMA over in the DCPS forum talking about how much more positive the distance-learning-from-school model is relative to what was expected.

https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/940596.page

Worth a read.

Thanks. Just noting though that is a CARES classroom with few kids and for some schools, this model really looks different. At my school, students will stay in homerooms and attend various classes via Zoom on a Chromebook.

So, child care. MoCo already has equity hubs for low income families and lots of supports in place for those that need it. I'm assuming you are in DC and just commenting to comment or you'd know that. MoCo was proposing a hybrid program, not full 5 days a week. So, kids who are going to equity hubs in MoCo schools will be displaced to reopen those schools and parents will have to scramble for child care for the 3 days a week that they are not in person.