APS concurrent for grades 3-5

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Rambling response from Loft. She acknowledged what she said in August but said they don’t have teacher staffing to support hybrid for everyone. Also, Pope’s MS Teams picture is highly unprofessional.

Translation:

"We don't have what we need to make our vision of hybrid learning work, so instead you're going to get a worse model of it that I, myself, said wasn't appropriate for upper elementary."

Loft needs to go. She was behind the decision to stop teaching this spring. She also instructed principals not to make classroom assignments based on hybrid/DL elections even thought many parents raised with her that this would be a huge issue. She makes the wrong call at every turn. Cut her loose already, Duran!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Rambling response from Loft. She acknowledged what she said in August but said they don’t have teacher staffing to support hybrid for everyone. Also, Pope’s MS Teams picture is highly unprofessional.

Translation:

"We don't have what we need to make our vision of hybrid learning work, so instead you're going to get a worse model of it that I, myself, said wasn't appropriate for upper elementary."

No. The first time, she said it wasn’t appropriate for MIDDLE SCHOOL. And it very likely isn’t. Also not appropriate for even younger kids.

[Anonymous]

Who was the Board member who asked her about it?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Going half the day either AM or PM with neither group eating AT school would be good except for the childcare issue it creates which is why it won’t happen.

What difference is this to back in the day when there was half day Kindergarten. You either went in the morning or afternoon. Folks made it work. I was in this group in 1985 and this was an era where women worked so not too many stay at home moms. Lower income families tend to have multiple generations living in one home so childcare is less problematic for them. This can be a business venture for someone just as the pod finding agencies that started up. They can offer afterschool care or before at some fee, and people will pay it, or who ever is watching their kid during DL now will continue.

Because they can only put 11 kids on a bus to maintain distancing and there aren't enough buses to run this with the overlapping transit times.

Does anyone know how they came up with the 11 number? Sports teams are able to fit 20 to a bus but for school it can only be 11??

APS sports?

Yes APS winter sports.

[Anonymous]

So, for clarity:

K-2 hybrid means kids come in two days a week and are spread between 2 physical classrooms. The teacher is in 1 rom half the time while the assistant is in the other room. On their home days, those students are taught by the same teacher online. Families who chose virtual will have a virtual only teacher. Some students will change teachers.

3-5: Hybrid means kids will still be in person two days a a week, but the class will be split into two in-person groups so they aren't using 2 physical classrooms for each group. On home days, the in-person students will be taught online along with the rest of the class (hybrid or virtual) by the same teacher who is teaching everyone at the same time. The teacher may or may not be in the building.

Do I understand this correctly? If so, it sounds like a physical space problem as much as a staffing problem. It sounds like more families in the upper grades chose hybrid than expected and there just wouldn't be space for the same model as the k-2 plan. I know my school has zero extra classrooms, so this doesn't surprise me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So, for clarity:

K-2 hybrid means kids come in two days a week and are spread between 2 physical classrooms. The teacher is in 1 rom half the time while the assistant is in the other room. On their home days, those students are taught by the same teacher online. Families who chose virtual will have a virtual only teacher. Some students will change teachers.

3-5: Hybrid means kids will still be in person two days a a week, but the class will be split into two in-person groups so they aren't using 2 physical classrooms for each group. On home days, the in-person students will be taught online along with the rest of the class (hybrid or virtual) by the same teacher who is teaching everyone at the same time. The teacher may or may not be in the building.

Do I understand this correctly? If so, it sounds like a physical space problem as much as a staffing problem. It sounds like more families in the upper grades chose hybrid than expected and there just wouldn't be space for the same model as the k-2 plan. I know my school has zero extra classrooms, so this doesn't surprise me.

Part of the problem is also that they are realizing they don't want to reassign kids and teachers at this point in the year, and try to create virtual-only and hybrid-only classes. Hard both because at this point the classrooms are bonded to a certain extent, and also that in upper grades the teachers team-teach unlike lower grades. Likely also when you reassign classes you have to appropriately cluster SN kids, ESOL kids, GT kids. Basically all things they should have handled over the summer when the principals had time to reassign homerooms but they didn't.

I need to go watch the video but did anyone on SB follow up with Loft that if this wasn't appropriate whey on earth were they moving forward with it rather than either staying full virtual when they know this is bad for kids?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Rambling response from Loft. She acknowledged what she said in August but said they don’t have teacher staffing to support hybrid for everyone. Also, Pope’s MS Teams picture is highly unprofessional.

Translation:

"We don't have what we need to make our vision of hybrid learning work, so instead you're going to get a worse model of it that I, myself, said wasn't appropriate for upper elementary."

Loft needs to go. She was behind the decision to stop teaching this spring. She also instructed principals not to make classroom assignments based on hybrid/DL elections even thought many parents raised with her that this would be a huge issue. She makes the wrong call at every turn. Cut her loose already, Duran!

The decision not to teach new material was based on a lot of things, as far as I can tell. The county did not have infrastructure for live virtual instruction (Teams). The staff weren’t trained on how to use it, and many had not even used Canvas all that much. She didn’t want older kids’ grades to suffer by being held accountable to that. I think there was a pony in that first month or so when no one really knew how long this would last.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Rambling response from Loft. She acknowledged what she said in August but said they don’t have teacher staffing to support hybrid for everyone. Also, Pope’s MS Teams picture is highly unprofessional.

Translation:

"We don't have what we need to make our vision of hybrid learning work, so instead you're going to get a worse model of it that I, myself, said wasn't appropriate for upper elementary."

Loft needs to go. She was behind the decision to stop teaching this spring. She also instructed principals not to make classroom assignments based on hybrid/DL elections even thought many parents raised with her that this would be a huge issue. She makes the wrong call at every turn. Cut her loose already, Duran!

The decision not to teach new material was based on a lot of things, as far as I can tell. The county did not have infrastructure for live virtual instruction (Teams). The staff weren’t trained on how to use it, and many had not even used Canvas all that much. She didn’t want older kids’ grades to suffer by being held accountable to that. I think there was a pony in that first month or so when no one really knew how long this would last.

Point!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So, for clarity:

K-2 hybrid means kids come in two days a week and are spread between 2 physical classrooms. The teacher is in 1 rom half the time while the assistant is in the other room. On their home days, those students are taught by the same teacher online. Families who chose virtual will have a virtual only teacher. Some students will change teachers.

3-5: Hybrid means kids will still be in person two days a a week, but the class will be split into two in-person groups so they aren't using 2 physical classrooms for each group. On home days, the in-person students will be taught online along with the rest of the class (hybrid or virtual) by the same teacher who is teaching everyone at the same time. The teacher may or may not be in the building.

Do I understand this correctly? If so, it sounds like a physical space problem as much as a staffing problem. It sounds like more families in the upper grades chose hybrid than expected and there just wouldn't be space for the same model as the k-2 plan. I know my school has zero extra classrooms, so this doesn't surprise me.

At our school, each class 3-5 will have a hybrid group and a virtual group. The same teacher will teach both groups at the same time. The hybrid kids will be at school in one room (possibly with the teacher but the teacher might also be at home) and the virtual kids will dial in. The other two days a week will essentially be the same as they are now with everyone at home. We can’t use the relocatables so 4th and 5th will share classrooms (one grade level coming Tues-We’d and the other Thurs-Fri) They are apparently needing to use every assistant and extended day staff member just to staff the pre-k through 2nd hybrid program so it for sure sounds like more of a staffing issue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Going half the day either AM or PM with neither group eating AT school would be good except for the childcare issue it creates which is why it won’t happen.

What difference is this to back in the day when there was half day Kindergarten. You either went in the morning or afternoon. Folks made it work. I was in this group in 1985 and this was an era where women worked so not too many stay at home moms. Lower income families tend to have multiple generations living in one home so childcare is less problematic for them. This can be a business venture for someone just as the pod finding agencies that started up. They can offer afterschool care or before at some fee, and people will pay it, or who ever is watching their kid during DL now will continue.

Because they can only put 11 kids on a bus to maintain distancing and there aren't enough buses to run this with the overlapping transit times.

Does anyone know how they came up with the 11 number? Sports teams are able to fit 20 to a bus but for school it can only be 11??

APS sports?

DP and yes,

It's crazy that kids can ride to and from sporting events on school buses but students can't rid buses to school.

[Anonymous]

So could APS handle if all kids were hybrid? That is unfortunately a possibility for fall. What is needed? Additional transportation, teachers?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Rambling response from Loft. She acknowledged what she said in August but said they don’t have teacher staffing to support hybrid for everyone. Also, Pope’s MS Teams picture is highly unprofessional.

Translation:

"We don't have what we need to make our vision of hybrid learning work, so instead you're going to get a worse model of it that I, myself, said wasn't appropriate for upper elementary."

Loft needs to go. She was behind the decision to stop teaching this spring. She also instructed principals not to make classroom assignments based on hybrid/DL elections even thought many parents raised with her that this would be a huge issue. She makes the wrong call at every turn. Cut her loose already, Duran!

The decision not to teach new material was based on a lot of things, as far as I can tell. The county did not have infrastructure for live virtual instruction (Teams). The staff weren’t trained on how to use it, and many had not even used Canvas all that much. She didn’t want older kids’ grades to suffer by being held accountable to that. I think there was a pony in that first month or so when no one really knew how long this would last.

Please. Could’ve at least not prohibited new instruction, which is what she did. Teachers who were teaching were stopped in their tracks. Could’ve suspended grades and still folded 4th quarter into the next year without just dropping all new instruction. It was absurd.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So could APS handle if all kids were hybrid? That is unfortunately a possibility for fall. What is needed? Additional transportation, teachers?

Once all adults (who want to be) are vaccinated and/or metrics are in the safe range, hybrid needs to go bye bye.

[Anonymous]

And yes. They did have teams. My 5th and 7th grader were learning on teams (not for full class periods but with check ins and then also with videos) until the Central Admin shut that down. Something would have been far preferable to nothing. But our assistant superintendent said it would be unconscionable to teach.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Rambling response from Loft. She acknowledged what she said in August but said they don’t have teacher staffing to support hybrid for everyone. Also, Pope’s MS Teams picture is highly unprofessional.

Translation:

"We don't have what we need to make our vision of hybrid learning work, so instead you're going to get a worse model of it that I, myself, said wasn't appropriate for upper elementary."

Loft needs to go. She was behind the decision to stop teaching this spring. She also instructed principals not to make classroom assignments based on hybrid/DL elections even thought many parents raised with her that this would be a huge issue. She makes the wrong call at every turn. Cut her loose already, Duran!

The decision not to teach new material was based on a lot of things, as far as I can tell. The county did not have infrastructure for live virtual instruction (Teams). The staff weren’t trained on how to use it, and many had not even used Canvas all that much. She didn’t want older kids’ grades to suffer by being held accountable to that. I think there was a pony in that first month or so when no one really knew how long this would last.

Please. Could’ve at least not prohibited new instruction, which is what she did. Teachers who were teaching were stopped in their tracks. Could’ve suspended grades and still folded 4th quarter into the next year without just dropping all new instruction. It was absurd.

Agree, it certainly could have been taught without penalizing the kids grades. It was total BS that kids would be "caught up" in the fall. It did not happen for my kids- they just went right into the curriculum for the next grade. I was wondering how this would happen when kids are going from ES-MS or MS-HS. It didn't. My son however was thrilled to miss out on the 5th grade reproduction talk lol.