Virtual Learning for Elementary School-Description by Our Principal

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'd this much different that what they get in person?

If so, then our kids are getting shortchanged to begin with.

I definitely will be if when go back to all DL. Hybrid classes will also meet 4x a week, but with 24 kids, not 34.

And the kids will have a personal relationship with the teacher and the shared knowledge that they'll be collectively in/out of their respective classrooms as a group throughout the year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our principal confirmed last night that each child will receive 2.5 to 3.5 hours of live instruction every day. So the PP above is incorrect. If your principal is not providing that, definitely push back.

does that include small group time (when you child presumably will not be receiving instruction when they are not a part of the group), or is there just no small group time? If the total time for a day is 3.5 hours, and there is any break out time, your child will not receive 3.5 hours

I think most people would be OK with less than 3.5 hours if their child’s math and language arts small group met with the teacher daily.

It depends on class size. They say virtual will be bigger. If they get 30-32 kids into 6 reading groups, and teacher can do 15 min with each every other class. So twice a week. I know the say they will state within state guidelines, but my third grader was in a class of 33 with no IA.

The in school cohort will likely also have daily reading groups. But only 12-15 kids. So, three groups with daily instruction, which also ends up at twice a week.

Wait! Your third grader had 33 !!!!!! Kids in her class ?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'd this much different that what they get in person?

If so, then our kids are getting shortchanged to begin with.

I definitely will be if when go back to all DL. Hybrid classes will also meet 4x a week, but with 24 kids, not 34.

I feel like all of this is the biggest game of gamble. Every bad choice has so many cons and so few pros.

[Anonymous]

I honestly can’t wrap my head around trying to run a virtual K class of 24 kids solo.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think that’s 6-7 kids per group...

Our school classes are around 20 so 26 would larger, for us. Did they say what the max size would be?

They're aiming for 24 kids, but laws allow up to 35 for the older Elementary kids, and 30 for the younger ones.

We were told to expect a max out of the 30/35. I know they want to try to go smaller in a Title I.

It’s complicated to try to make special rules for the title 1 DL kids if they are getting jumbled up with kids from other schools.

[Anonymous]

I think most k-2 kids will go hybrid. They don’t need much schooling anyway. Just there to learn how to follow rules and such. Two days of corona school will be more than enough.

Older kids will be fine in a 30 kid class, with small group daily.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our principal confirmed last night that each child will receive 2.5 to 3.5 hours of live instruction every day. So the PP above is incorrect. If your principal is not providing that, definitely push back.

does that include small group time (when you child presumably will not be receiving instruction when they are not a part of the group), or is there just no small group time? If the total time for a day is 3.5 hours, and there is any break out time, your child will not receive 3.5 hours

I think most people would be OK with less than 3.5 hours if their child’s math and language arts small group met with the teacher daily.

It depends on class size. They say virtual will be bigger. If they get 30-32 kids into 6 reading groups, and teacher can do 15 min with each every other class. So twice a week. I know the say they will state within state guidelines, but my third grader was in a class of 33 with no IA.

The in school cohort will likely also have daily reading groups. But only 12-15 kids. So, three groups with daily instruction, which also ends up at twice a week.

Wait! Your third grader had 33 !!!!!! Kids in her class ?

Yep. Well respected ES. LLIV AAP program with a crappy AAP Center. All the AAP kids stayed at the base school and there was 1 LLIV AAP class of 33 for 3rd and 4th. We left after that. If was a clusterf—k.

Did I mention the teacher in third was pregnant. Left week 2. Said she was coming back. Long term sub for 12 weeks. Teacher cam back one day and left without notice. AAP specialist stepped in. Got a newbie teacher for second semester. It was the year of 4 teachers and 33 kids. Just awful.

And no, I could never figure out how they forced 33 kids in when the cap was 30 for 3rd with no IA. They had some loophole.

[Anonymous]

Wow, what’s the crappy AAP center?

That’s completely insane

[Anonymous]

I have never heard of combining 3rd and 4th AAP into one giant class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I honestly can’t wrap my head around trying to run a virtual K class of 24 kids solo.

It can't be done effectively. One of my kids was in Kindergarten this year. And these teachers tried, these teachers cared, they really did. But distance learning just doesn't work for this age group (I know that's been said on this board ad nauseam, but it's true).

[Anonymous]

I want to choose DL but our school did such a bad job in the spring! I thought FCPS was guaranteeing learning time this fall with the 100% online plan. Now I guess we have to do hybrid.

[Anonymous]

The fact that principals are free to schedule less than the promised distance learning time does not fill me with confidence. We had a school that did less than the required time in the spring (2 classes a week for 45 minutes).

[Anonymous]

Bumping this thread up for everyone. This was the reason I chose hybrid! Serious yikes.

[Anonymous]

15 min math, 20 min language arts, all these new links to click on for each subject? Plus after the 1 hour lunch break, parent has to ensure kid clicks on the correct link again?

Fall sounds like it’s going to be a nightmare for parents juggling teleworking and K-2 kids like mine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There was also a sample plan in earlier versions of the Scenario proposals that was organized like this:

9-10:30--Teacher-Directed instruction
10:30-11--Specials (rotating each day)
11:00-12:00--Break for lunch
12:00-1:00 Teacher-Directed instruction
1:00-3:00 Choice Boards

Sounds reasonable.

This sample schedule has a lot more instruction time than what OP posted.

Starting lunch at 11:00? Seriously?