PGCPS virtual until 1/14/21

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The district that can least afford to do this does it again. Moronic

Hopefully the two weeks of learning at home won't hurt them.

“Learning”. Odds are slim this will only be 2 weeks. Give an inch they take a mile

There's no way spread will be better by mid January. Spread is happening in the community, not in schools.

Schools are closed because there aren't enough teachers to teach the kids.

We should have made plans to keep teaching grades preK-3 in person no matter what else.

My kids grades 4 and 5 did OK with virtual. My younger kids did not.

Where are you getting this information that there are not enough teachers? I have heard this dire prediction several times on this thread, conjuring up fear mongering imagines of teachers dropping like flies.

I’m in prince georges. My kids’ grade had most of its teachers out this week due to quarantine exposure. They were mixing classes, not moving classrooms for specials or other classes, they ended after and before care. I don’t think it was just my kids’ grade, but not sure. Kid said a lot of students were absent yesterday and today also but not sure about the numbers. I think it’s the lack of teachers causing the problem.

Why would teachers who were exposed have to quarantine? Aren’t they vaccinated?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yet sports stadiums are full and bars are open. These poor kids are being screwed because no one wants to do the difficult things.

And there you have it. Same as it ever was (i.e., Sept 2020) when education was the first thing we decided should be sacrificed but it didn't matter because everything else went on.

Because teachers unions. these unions are anti education. The problem is within . There is no need to shut anything down.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What do they expect parents to do? This isn’t 2020 where everyone is virtual. Peoples jobs expect them to be in. What the hell do they do with their kids for 3 weeks? This is BS.

-teacher

Yea...I don't know what I'd do. For instance I live in loudoun, my kids go to school in loudoun and I teach in Fairfax. My DH works for the government and works in a scif and has been called back quite a while ago. We are both out of the house 10hrs a day. No idea how in the world my kids would cope if LCPS went virtual. I'd literally have kids home alone for 10hrs a day. It worked (well not really it was a disaster still last year) but at least last year 1. LCPS went back before FCPS 2. Even though I was trying to teach from home at least my kids weren't alone..

I can't go back to virtual teaching. I'll quit. My students are such an academic disaster this year, they just can't afford anymore learning loss. This entire year so far has been remediation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yet sports stadiums are full and bars are open. These poor kids are being screwed because no one wants to do the difficult things.

Well then why doesn’t the government close sports stadiums and bars instead of schools?

Well gosh, why do you think?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What do they expect parents to do? This isn’t 2020 where everyone is virtual. Peoples jobs expect them to be in. What the hell do they do with their kids for 3 weeks? This is BS.

-teacher

Yea...I don't know what I'd do. For instance I live in loudoun, my kids go to school in loudoun and I teach in Fairfax. My DH works for the government and works in a scif and has been called back quite a while ago. We are both out of the house 10hrs a day. No idea how in the world my kids would cope if LCPS went virtual. I'd literally have kids home alone for 10hrs a day. It worked (well not really it was a disaster still last year) but at least last year 1. LCPS went back before FCPS 2. Even though I was trying to teach from home at least my kids weren't alone..

I can't go back to virtual teaching. I'll quit. My students are such an academic disaster this year, they just can't afford anymore learning loss. This entire year so far has been remediation.

And there you have it in a nutshell. People (well, media) wonder why there’s the Great Resignation, and then proceed to set up the conditions that led to it all over again. Lather, rinse, repeat.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yet sports stadiums are full and bars are open. These poor kids are being screwed because no one wants to do the difficult things.

And there you have it. Same as it ever was (i.e., Sept 2020) when education was the first thing we decided should be sacrificed but it didn't matter because everything else went on.

Because teachers unions. these unions are anti education. The problem is within . There is no need to shut anything down.

I am in PGCEA, the Prince George’s County teachers union, and we were not calling for schools to be shut down! Not at all. We were asking for extra pay for subs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The district that can least afford to do this does it again. Moronic

Hopefully the two weeks of learning at home won't hurt them.

“Learning”. Odds are slim this will only be 2 weeks. Give an inch they take a mile

There's no way spread will be better by mid January. Spread is happening in the community, not in schools.

Schools are closed because there aren't enough teachers to teach the kids.

We should have made plans to keep teaching grades preK-3 in person no matter what else.

My kids grades 4 and 5 did OK with virtual. My younger kids did not.

Where are you getting this information that there are not enough teachers? I have heard this dire prediction several times on this thread, conjuring up fear mongering imagines of teachers dropping like flies.

From the elementary school in which I teach. We have two teachers who resigned mid year and have yet to be replaced. We have teacher absences and no subs to take over their class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The district that can least afford to do this does it again. Moronic

Hopefully the two weeks of learning at home won't hurt them.

“Learning”. Odds are slim this will only be 2 weeks. Give an inch they take a mile

There's no way spread will be better by mid January. Spread is happening in the community, not in schools.

Schools are closed because there aren't enough teachers to teach the kids.

We should have made plans to keep teaching grades preK-3 in person no matter what else.

My kids grades 4 and 5 did OK with virtual. My younger kids did not.

Where are you getting this information that there are not enough teachers? I have heard this dire prediction several times on this thread, conjuring up fear mongering imagines of teachers dropping like flies.

It’s false. PP is talking out to their butt

No I’m not. I have direct knowledge as a teacher plus indirect knowledge from my children’s schools that there haven’t been substitutes to cover teacher absences for quite some time. My kids in high school say when their teachers not show up there just sent to the auditorium to work quietly.

When you take that situation that already has begun, and now add onto it more teacher absences due to illness or quarantine, you are going to get a situation where staffing is hard to impossible.

[Anonymous]

It’s the same in mcps. We jumped ship and went private this year but DD bestie is at Burtonsville ES. Her teacher was out and there were no subs available so the class got split amongst the other 4th grade classes. This is happening frequently and it’s not good for anyone.

[Anonymous]

Appalling and shameful. I certainly hope they are required to add days on to the school year to make up for the days school closed in January.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Appalling and shameful. I certainly hope they are required to add days on to the school year to make up for the days school closed in January.

I’m particularly worried about that possibility. As a teacher, I do not want to move to virtual teaching for two weeks or more. However if I have to teach virtually I will do my very best to do a good job at it. But I want reassurance is that the state of Maryland will except these days as part of our days of instruction, and so far I’m not sure that has been approved. If these days don’t count as instruction, and we have to make them up and June And early July, then we need to know that now.

As it is, the decision to close schools and moved to virtual was announced to teachers after we had all left for the day. We have been told to begin teaching our regular schedule virtually starting Monday morning. However we also need to prepare materials to send home, and to pass out devices, and to figure out what to do with our students who don’t have a device (in elementary school is quite a few) I and of course we had activities planned for Monday through Thursday of this week that did not use the Internet or virtual materials. I have a lot of lessons with manipulatives for example, that the students will not be able to use now. So the idea that we are going to simply switch to seamless instruction on Monday is a bit far-fetched. If we’re going to have to just make up all these days at the end of June I’d rather just stay home instead of dragging myself into school to teach my students virtually.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Appalling and shameful. I certainly hope they are required to add days on to the school year to make up for the days school closed in January.

I’m particularly worried about that possibility. As a teacher, I do not want to move to virtual teaching for two weeks or more. However if I have to teach virtually I will do my very best to do a good job at it. But I want reassurance is that the state of Maryland will except these days as part of our days of instruction, and so far I’m not sure that has been approved. If these days don’t count as instruction, and we have to make them up and June And early July, then we need to know that now.

As it is, the decision to close schools and moved to virtual was announced to teachers after we had all left for the day. We have been told to begin teaching our regular schedule virtually starting Monday morning. However we also need to prepare materials to send home, and to pass out devices, and to figure out what to do with our students who don’t have a device (in elementary school is quite a few) I and of course we had activities planned for Monday through Thursday of this week that did not use the Internet or virtual materials. I have a lot of lessons with manipulatives for example, that the students will not be able to use now. So the idea that we are going to simply switch to seamless instruction on Monday is a bit far-fetched. If we’re going to have to just make up all these days at the end of June I’d rather just stay home instead of dragging myself into school to teach my students virtually.

The state of Maryland is not going to except school days or make any move to close schools on a state level. They’ve made it pretty clear they believe that mitigation methods are priority over virtual.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
The state of Maryland is not going to except school days or make any move to close schools on a state level. They’ve made it pretty clear they believe that mitigation methods are priority over virtual.

PP, I *thought* that but apparently not.

"A spokesperson for the Maryland State Department of Education said while the state prioritizes in-person learning, school systems have full flexibility to shift to virtual learning if they feel it is in the best interest of their community."

https://wtop.com/prince-georges-county/2021/12/prince-georges-county-public-schools-shifts-to-virtual-learning-due-to-uptick-in-covid-cases

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yet sports stadiums are full and bars are open. These poor kids are being screwed because no one wants to do the difficult things.

Well then why doesn’t the government close sports stadiums and bars instead of schools?

They should close both.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Appalling and shameful. I certainly hope they are required to add days on to the school year to make up for the days school closed in January.

No. That is not in the teachers' contract. If they want to even consider that (which they probably can't, because again, contract), then teachers need to be 100% off and doing no school related work for any time kids are not in buildings.