How is first day going for DCPS kids?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m trying to wait a few more weeks but I just sent my first complaint. My second graders “math class” is “who knows what 2 + 2 equals?” Seriously? That’s was covered in K. I feel like online does not all for any differentiation and the classes are definitely getting dumbed down. Looks like another 3 months of wasted class time. I now understand why people are paying thousands of dollars for tutors and pods.

I have a 3rd grader and 5th grader and am noticing the same problem. Maybe just review the first week of school? About half the screen time seems like overkill to me. I've started taking the kids off some of the Zoom meetings to read and do challenging pencil and paper math I assign them. I'm also looking at more challenging on-line work to substitute for what DCPS is feeding us, e.g. on Out School and math web sites. At a bad moment, I feel like minimal differentiation online is going to sink public school for many of us eventually.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m trying to wait a few more weeks but I just sent my first complaint. My second graders “math class” is “who knows what 2 + 2 equals?” Seriously? That’s was covered in K. I feel like online does not all for any differentiation and the classes are definitely getting dumbed down. Looks like another 3 months of wasted class time. I now understand why people are paying thousands of dollars for tutors and pods.

I have a 3rd grader and 5th grader and am noticing the same problem. Maybe just review the first week of school? About half the screen time seems like overkill to me. I've started taking the kids off some of the Zoom meetings to read and do challenging pencil and paper math I assign them. I'm also looking at more challenging on-line work to substitute for what DCPS is feeding us, e.g. on Out School and math web sites. At a bad moment, I feel like minimal differentiation online is going to sink public school for many of us eventually.

+1, I’ve never been one to scream about differentiation as I believe it’s ok that kids learn at different paces. But the varying abilities seems magnified online in my youngest DC’s class (1st grade). I see some of the kids appearing bored as the teacher spends time explaining very basic concepts to other children. I’m hoping groups can be rearranged in the next few months based on ability. This is the pits.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m trying to wait a few more weeks but I just sent my first complaint. My second graders “math class” is “who knows what 2 + 2 equals?” Seriously? That’s was covered in K. I feel like online does not all for any differentiation and the classes are definitely getting dumbed down. Looks like another 3 months of wasted class time. I now understand why people are paying thousands of dollars for tutors and pods.

I have a 3rd grader and 5th grader and am noticing the same problem. Maybe just review the first week of school? About half the screen time seems like overkill to me. I've started taking the kids off some of the Zoom meetings to read and do challenging pencil and paper math I assign them. I'm also looking at more challenging on-line work to substitute for what DCPS is feeding us, e.g. on Out School and math web sites. At a bad moment, I feel like minimal differentiation online is going to sink public school for many of us eventually.

+1, I’ve never been one to scream about differentiation as I believe it’s ok that kids learn at different paces. But the varying abilities seems magnified online in my youngest DC’s class (1st grade). I see some of the kids appearing bored as the teacher spends time explaining very basic concepts to other children. I’m hoping groups can be rearranged in the next few months based on ability. This is the pits.

We are having the same problem with DD’s K. Content is similar to DS’ PL K3 class. Repeating back compound words (literally just repeating) and identifying differences between objects as math? I understand ramping up, but kids are tuning out entirely after 4 days of this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m trying to wait a few more weeks but I just sent my first complaint. My second graders “math class” is “who knows what 2 + 2 equals?” Seriously? That’s was covered in K. I feel like online does not all for any differentiation and the classes are definitely getting dumbed down. Looks like another 3 months of wasted class time. I now understand why people are paying thousands of dollars for tutors and pods.

I have a 3rd grader and 5th grader and am noticing the same problem. Maybe just review the first week of school? About half the screen time seems like overkill to me. I've started taking the kids off some of the Zoom meetings to read and do challenging pencil and paper math I assign them. I'm also looking at more challenging on-line work to substitute for what DCPS is feeding us, e.g. on Out School and math web sites. At a bad moment, I feel like minimal differentiation online is going to sink public school for many of us eventually.

+1, I’ve never been one to scream about differentiation as I believe it’s ok that kids learn at different paces. But the varying abilities seems magnified online in my youngest DC’s class (1st grade). I see some of the kids appearing bored as the teacher spends time explaining very basic concepts to other children. I’m hoping groups can be rearranged in the next few months based on ability. This is the pits.

I teach middle school so the kids are older but our administration has explicitly told us multiple times to not really do content for the first two weeks and focus on SEL and letting the kids adjust. And yes, the result is wasting kids’ time staring at a screen doing basic content.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:10th grade Walls. Going fine. Teachers not adept at Microsoft teams yet. Think Zoom worked better (and allowed small group meetings).

To be fair it’s hard to know Teams well without practicing with actual groups of people in meetings. And Teams just sucks for classes, and DCPs keeps changing the settings without alerting teachers. You can do group meetings on Teams, it’s just a pain to set up.

All that is to say, Zoom is infinitely better for virtual classes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m trying to wait a few more weeks but I just sent my first complaint. My second graders “math class” is “who knows what 2 + 2 equals?” Seriously? That’s was covered in K. I feel like online does not all for any differentiation and the classes are definitely getting dumbed down. Looks like another 3 months of wasted class time. I now understand why people are paying thousands of dollars for tutors and pods.

I have a 3rd grader and 5th grader and am noticing the same problem. Maybe just review the first week of school? About half the screen time seems like overkill to me. I've started taking the kids off some of the Zoom meetings to read and do challenging pencil and paper math I assign them. I'm also looking at more challenging on-line work to substitute for what DCPS is feeding us, e.g. on Out School and math web sites. At a bad moment, I feel like minimal differentiation online is going to sink public school for many of us eventually.

+1, I’ve never been one to scream about differentiation as I believe it’s ok that kids learn at different paces. But the varying abilities seems magnified online in my youngest DC’s class (1st grade). I see some of the kids appearing bored as the teacher spends time explaining very basic concepts to other children. I’m hoping groups can be rearranged in the next few months based on ability. This is the pits.

We are having the same problem with DD’s K. Content is similar to DS’ PL K3 class. Repeating back compound words (literally just repeating) and identifying differences between objects as math? I understand ramping up, but kids are tuning out entirely after 4 days of this.

At the same time, my K'er had a meltdown today and ran up to his room 3x while on calls. He's struggling with how difficult it is to communicate on a tiny, crappy device on which the mute button will show up only half the time, the raise hand button doesn't work, and all the buttons are exactly 1/4" big, have a 5 second lag, and impossible to touch even for me. I can't imagine putting challenging material out there the first week of this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m trying to wait a few more weeks but I just sent my first complaint. My second graders “math class” is “who knows what 2 + 2 equals?” Seriously? That’s was covered in K. I feel like online does not all for any differentiation and the classes are definitely getting dumbed down. Looks like another 3 months of wasted class time. I now understand why people are paying thousands of dollars for tutors and pods.

I have a 3rd grader and 5th grader and am noticing the same problem. Maybe just review the first week of school? About half the screen time seems like overkill to me. I've started taking the kids off some of the Zoom meetings to read and do challenging pencil and paper math I assign them. I'm also looking at more challenging on-line work to substitute for what DCPS is feeding us, e.g. on Out School and math web sites. At a bad moment, I feel like minimal differentiation online is going to sink public school for many of us eventually.

+1, I’ve never been one to scream about differentiation as I believe it’s ok that kids learn at different paces. But the varying abilities seems magnified online in my youngest DC’s class (1st grade). I see some of the kids appearing bored as the teacher spends time explaining very basic concepts to other children. I’m hoping groups can be rearranged in the next few months based on ability. This is the pits.

We are having the same problem with DD’s K. Content is similar to DS’ PL K3 class. Repeating back compound words (literally just repeating) and identifying differences between objects as math? I understand ramping up, but kids are tuning out entirely after 4 days of this.

At the same time, my K'er had a meltdown today and ran up to his room 3x while on calls. He's struggling with how difficult it is to communicate on a tiny, crappy device on which the mute button will show up only half the time, the raise hand button doesn't work, and all the buttons are exactly 1/4" big, have a 5 second lag, and impossible to touch even for me. I can't imagine putting challenging material out there the first week of this.

To add... his teachers have been focusing on games, naming their class, and writing. I think the content has been fine. Now, I'm sorry how hard this is for working parents, but the first week of K you HAVE to ensure your child is muted and understands how this works. That's a huge frustration of the teachers (and mine), but my kid doesn't seem too bothered.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m trying to wait a few more weeks but I just sent my first complaint. My second graders “math class” is “who knows what 2 + 2 equals?” Seriously? That’s was covered in K. I feel like online does not all for any differentiation and the classes are definitely getting dumbed down. Looks like another 3 months of wasted class time. I now understand why people are paying thousands of dollars for tutors and pods.

I have a 3rd grader and 5th grader and am noticing the same problem. Maybe just review the first week of school? About half the screen time seems like overkill to me. I've started taking the kids off some of the Zoom meetings to read and do challenging pencil and paper math I assign them. I'm also looking at more challenging on-line work to substitute for what DCPS is feeding us, e.g. on Out School and math web sites. At a bad moment, I feel like minimal differentiation online is going to sink public school for many of us eventually.

+1, I’ve never been one to scream about differentiation as I believe it’s ok that kids learn at different paces. But the varying abilities seems magnified online in my youngest DC’s class (1st grade). I see some of the kids appearing bored as the teacher spends time explaining very basic concepts to other children. I’m hoping groups can be rearranged in the next few months based on ability. This is the pits.

We are having the same problem with DD’s K. Content is similar to DS’ PL K3 class. Repeating back compound words (literally just repeating) and identifying differences between objects as math? I understand ramping up, but kids are tuning out entirely after 4 days of this.

At the same time, my K'er had a meltdown today and ran up to his room 3x while on calls. He's struggling with how difficult it is to communicate on a tiny, crappy device on which the mute button will show up only half the time, the raise hand button doesn't work, and all the buttons are exactly 1/4" big, have a 5 second lag, and impossible to touch even for me. I can't imagine putting challenging material out there the first week of this.

To add... his teachers have been focusing on games, naming their class, and writing. I think the content has been fine. Now, I'm sorry how hard this is for working parents, but the first week of K you HAVE to ensure your child is muted and understands how this works. That's a huge frustration of the teachers (and mine), but my kid doesn't seem too bothered.

Yes the muting thing is a huge problem. My kids’ teachers have spent so much time going through it but it’s hard for some kids to get, I guess. But I sat with my 3 year old and went through it and now she gets it. So kindergarteners should definitely be able to learn this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:10th grade Walls. Going fine. Teachers not adept at Microsoft teams yet. Think Zoom worked better (and allowed small group meetings).

To be fair it’s hard to know Teams well without practicing with actual groups of people in meetings. And Teams just sucks for classes, and DCPs keeps changing the settings without alerting teachers. You can do group meetings on Teams, it’s just a pain to set up.

All that is to say, Zoom is infinitely better for virtual classes.

During this week, I have seen functionality improving on Teams as teachers accts are updated with the small group feature. Teachers can put kids together in a small group Where only those kids screens are visible to each other. The teacher can move between groups while the kids work on a group task. Now, the rub is that the younger kids left in a smaller group without a teacher or aide may wander off or not get a lot done on the assignment. It helps to have an adult around on the kid’s end but obviously that isn’t possible for many kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m trying to wait a few more weeks but I just sent my first complaint. My second graders “math class” is “who knows what 2 + 2 equals?” Seriously? That’s was covered in K. I feel like online does not all for any differentiation and the classes are definitely getting dumbed down. Looks like another 3 months of wasted class time. I now understand why people are paying thousands of dollars for tutors and pods.

I have a 3rd grader and 5th grader and am noticing the same problem. Maybe just review the first week of school? About half the screen time seems like overkill to me. I've started taking the kids off some of the Zoom meetings to read and do challenging pencil and paper math I assign them. I'm also looking at more challenging on-line work to substitute for what DCPS is feeding us, e.g. on Out School and math web sites. At a bad moment, I feel like minimal differentiation online is going to sink public school for many of us eventually.

+1, I’ve never been one to scream about differentiation as I believe it’s ok that kids learn at different paces. But the varying abilities seems magnified online in my youngest DC’s class (1st grade). I see some of the kids appearing bored as the teacher spends time explaining very basic concepts to other children. I’m hoping groups can be rearranged in the next few months based on ability. This is the pits.

We are having the same problem with DD’s K. Content is similar to DS’ PL K3 class. Repeating back compound words (literally just repeating) and identifying differences between objects as math? I understand ramping up, but kids are tuning out entirely after 4 days of this.

At the same time, my K'er had a meltdown today and ran up to his room 3x while on calls. He's struggling with how difficult it is to communicate on a tiny, crappy device on which the mute button will show up only half the time, the raise hand button doesn't work, and all the buttons are exactly 1/4" big, have a 5 second lag, and impossible to touch even for me. I can't imagine putting challenging material out there the first week of this.

To add... his teachers have been focusing on games, naming their class, and writing. I think the content has been fine. Now, I'm sorry how hard this is for working parents, but the first week of K you HAVE to ensure your child is muted and understands how this works. That's a huge frustration of the teachers (and mine), but my kid doesn't seem too bothered.

Yes the muting thing is a huge problem. My kids’ teachers have spent so much time going through it but it’s hard for some kids to get, I guess. But I sat with my 3 year old and went through it and now she gets it. So kindergarteners should definitely be able to learn this.

If the device is normal, absolutely. But the way Teams works on my kid’s device makes it frustrating, even for me and I’m in tech.

[Anonymous]

My second grader has done NO actual learning this week. He had about four 20 minute sessions each day, to learn about how to use See Saw. Half of that time the teacher is telling one or two kids where to find different buttons, etc. One read aloud a day. No math at all. He's above grade level in both reading and math, so he's extremely bored and it's difficult to motivate him to log in. Both parents are working from home so we can't really supplement on the side. Honestly though, even if we did supplement, I think it will just be awful again when we go back in person - as the teachers still teach to the lowest level until everyone is back up to speed (which I don't think would happen this year).

[Anonymous]

I’ve been pleasantly surprised by K this week. My kid has been engaged and is the happiest he’s been for months. The teachers have been amazing- it’s clear they’ve done a ton of work to prepare classes that move quickly and have practiced a lot. Last spring was a nightmare so I had extremely low expectations and I really couldn’t be more pleased

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:10th grade Walls. Going fine. Teachers not adept at Microsoft teams yet. Think Zoom worked better (and allowed small group meetings).

To be fair it’s hard to know Teams well without practicing with actual groups of people in meetings. And Teams just sucks for classes, and DCPs keeps changing the settings without alerting teachers. You can do group meetings on Teams, it’s just a pain to set up.

All that is to say, Zoom is infinitely better for virtual classes.

I’m a teacher and got a notice today that the IT changes the settings so kids are only attendees. Now people not familiar with Teams only have to set the meeting or press the “meet now” button. I’m glad I used teams in the spring. Teams does have an update now to allow for breakout room which should help. In regard to differentiation, we will make our small groups. I teach ES. We will start content in a week.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m trying to wait a few more weeks but I just sent my first complaint. My second graders “math class” is “who knows what 2 + 2 equals?” Seriously? That’s was covered in K. I feel like online does not all for any differentiation and the classes are definitely getting dumbed down. Looks like another 3 months of wasted class time. I now understand why people are paying thousands of dollars for tutors and pods.

I have a 3rd grader and 5th grader and am noticing the same problem. Maybe just review the first week of school? About half the screen time seems like overkill to me. I've started taking the kids off some of the Zoom meetings to read and do challenging pencil and paper math I assign them. I'm also looking at more challenging on-line work to substitute for what DCPS is feeding us, e.g. on Out School and math web sites. At a bad moment, I feel like minimal differentiation online is going to sink public school for many of us eventually.

+1, I’ve never been one to scream about differentiation as I believe it’s ok that kids learn at different paces. But the varying abilities seems magnified online in my youngest DC’s class (1st grade). I see some of the kids appearing bored as the teacher spends time explaining very basic concepts to other children. I’m hoping groups can be rearranged in the next few months based on ability. This is the pits.

We are having the same problem with DD’s K. Content is similar to DS’ PL K3 class. Repeating back compound words (literally just repeating) and identifying differences between objects as math? I understand ramping up, but kids are tuning out entirely after 4 days of this.

Teacher here. Will you just listen to yourselves. You really are pathetic parents. Your kids have been out of school for more than 3 months. They have not seen most of their friends for that long and you all want to start with content like a rocketship to Mars? This is why you all need to leave the educating to us teachers. SEL is for the first two weeks. Some kids don't even know how to submit an assignment. I bet you would be the first parent to complain that their child never submitted their assignment due to a bad teacher. I listen to this garbage and just laugh. Lastly there are no zoom calls. It is all on Teams.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m trying to wait a few more weeks but I just sent my first complaint. My second graders “math class” is “who knows what 2 + 2 equals?” Seriously? That’s was covered in K. I feel like online does not all for any differentiation and the classes are definitely getting dumbed down. Looks like another 3 months of wasted class time. I now understand why people are paying thousands of dollars for tutors and pods.

I have a 3rd grader and 5th grader and am noticing the same problem. Maybe just review the first week of school? About half the screen time seems like overkill to me. I've started taking the kids off some of the Zoom meetings to read and do challenging pencil and paper math I assign them. I'm also looking at more challenging on-line work to substitute for what DCPS is feeding us, e.g. on Out School and math web sites. At a bad moment, I feel like minimal differentiation online is going to sink public school for many of us eventually.

+1, I’ve never been one to scream about differentiation as I believe it’s ok that kids learn at different paces. But the varying abilities seems magnified online in my youngest DC’s class (1st grade). I see some of the kids appearing bored as the teacher spends time explaining very basic concepts to other children. I’m hoping groups can be rearranged in the next few months based on ability. This is the pits.

We are having the same problem with DD’s K. Content is similar to DS’ PL K3 class. Repeating back compound words (literally just repeating) and identifying differences between objects as math? I understand ramping up, but kids are tuning out entirely after 4 days of this.

Teacher here. Will you just listen to yourselves. You really are pathetic parents. Your kids have been out of school for more than 3 months. They have not seen most of their friends for that long and you all want to start with content like a rocketship to Mars? This is why you all need to leave the educating to us teachers. SEL is for the first two weeks. Some kids don't even know how to submit an assignment. I bet you would be the first parent to complain that their child never submitted their assignment due to a bad teacher. I listen to this garbage and just laugh. Lastly there are no zoom calls. It is all on Teams.

I know the difference between Zoom and Teams. My DCPS kids’ classes are all Zoom.