FCPS Summer School program for ES and MS-are they really sticking the kids on laptops to do ST math?

[Anonymous]

Is there a summer school curriculum put out by FCPS that schools are supposed to follow?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kids are liking SOAR. One hasn't used her computer at all. THey have been doing a decent amount of independent reading which I'm not sure about since my DD is ADHD and tends to check out. Hopefully she is reading and not staring at the birds out the window. She has mentioned doing MAth games that are not computer games which is good for her. She is a rising 4th grader. My youngest rising 2nd grader has used it a bit but I Know her teacher well and it seems that use it while the teacher has a small group and then they switch. Really hard to get information especially since came at the same school drops off and picks up for me.

the school day is only about 2.5 hours long. using that time for independent reading seems ridiculous.

Are the kids doing it at home? For some kids, this may be the only reading that they do at all during the summer.

[Anonymous]

The Independent reading might be helpful for my child if the teacher is actively checking on them and maybe encourages fiction reading. My DC is fixated on non-fiction, I have little to no luck encouraging fiction as they are very interested. It's hard to say. I'm a bit annoyed that so little information was given to us about SOAR.

[Anonymous]

At least at some schools they are reading paper books. My friend's dd at Cub Run spent all last week on Myon and some other reading program on the computer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The Independent reading might be helpful for my child if the teacher is actively checking on them and maybe encourages fiction reading. My DC is fixated on non-fiction, I have little to no luck encouraging fiction as they are very interested. It's hard to say. I'm a bit annoyed that so little information was given to us about SOAR.

They don't like parents to know what is going on because they know people will complain. I asked for the curriculum for my child's grade and the site manager said its not public information. LOL.

[Anonymous]

Is the summer school curriculum on line anywhere?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is the summer school curriculum on line anywhere?

Yes, it was given to the teachers. (By the way, FCPS doesn't use a "curriculum" for their grades/subjects. It is just a Google HyperDoc with a list of state standards with miscellaneous files and websites listed as "resources". It has been this way for a very long time.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is the summer school curriculum on line anywhere?

Yes, it was given to the teachers. (By the way, FCPS doesn't use a "curriculum" for their grades/subjects. It is just a Google HyperDoc with a list of state standards with miscellaneous files and websites listed as "resources". It has been this way for a very long time.)

Not sure what all the people on gatehouse are doing if thats all they can come up with.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:930-arrival
945-1015-morning meeting
1015-12:00 actual time for learning
12-130 (lunch and recess)

so less than two hours a day for academics for two whole weeks of summer school, and they are wasting 30 minutes of it mindlessly clicking on JiiJii?

I’m subbing for summer school tomorrow so we’ll see, but the student hours at this school are 8:55-12:55. Lunch is 30 minutes and recess is 20, not an hour and a half.
Doesn’t FCPS provide summer curriculum?

Regardless, that's still less than three hours of time for academics. 8:55-9:30 would be arrival/morning meeting, 9:30-noon actual school, then lunch and recess. So 2.5 hours of learning, of which 30 is spent doing nothing on a laptop. Seems like a huge chunk of time to me.

I’ll let you know, but I’m pretty sure 12:55 is the start time after arrival. I don’t know how much time will be spent on laptops, but again I’ll report back tomorrow.

I’m back. I covered a rising first grade class. The students didn’t use laptops. I didn’t even see any. Recess and lunch were each 20 minutes long. We started with a morning meeting that did not take very long. There was a phonics/spelling lesson, a read aloud with a lesson tied into seasons, the math coach came in and did a lesson and then the students worked in pairs practicing what the coach introduced. Those who finished early had independent math work to do and an IA went around doing some 1:1 check in assessments. It was obvious to me that there would normally be some reading small group work if the regular teacher was there.

[Anonymous]

Just picked up my rising 5th grader. She didn't go last week due to vacation.

She said they did ST Math, the SOL Pass website, and Imagine Reading. There were no actual books to read in the classroom. Her teacher last year way overused ST Math and the online reading programs. Not sure I'll send her back tomorrow. Doesn't seem worth the hassle.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just picked up my rising 5th grader. She didn't go last week due to vacation.

She said they did ST Math, the SOL Pass website, and Imagine Reading. There were no actual books to read in the classroom. Her teacher last year way overused ST Math and the online reading programs. Not sure I'll send her back tomorrow. Doesn't seem worth the hassle.

For me, that wouldn't be worth leaving work from home, driving the kid to school, packing a lunch, and then leaving work to pick back up.

[Anonymous]

SOL Pass? My poor child spent a full month of school staring at that website. That's pathetic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is the summer school curriculum on line anywhere?

Yes, it was given to the teachers. (By the way, FCPS doesn't use a "curriculum" for their grades/subjects. It is just a Google HyperDoc with a list of state standards with miscellaneous files and websites listed as "resources". It has been this way for a very long time.)

Not sure what all the people on gatehouse are doing if thats all they can come up with.

That's part of what makes FCPS a good school district. Each school, each principal, and each teacher/team of teachers has a lot of autonomy to teach as they think best. All of these people complaining that teachers are (or are not) robots who do everything that Gatehouse tells them to do - it doesn't work like that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:930-arrival
945-1015-morning meeting
1015-12:00 actual time for learning
12-130 (lunch and recess)

so less than two hours a day for academics for two whole weeks of summer school, and they are wasting 30 minutes of it mindlessly clicking on JiiJii?

I’m subbing for summer school tomorrow so we’ll see, but the student hours at this school are 8:55-12:55. Lunch is 30 minutes and recess is 20, not an hour and a half.
Doesn’t FCPS provide summer curriculum?

Regardless, that's still less than three hours of time for academics. 8:55-9:30 would be arrival/morning meeting, 9:30-noon actual school, then lunch and recess. So 2.5 hours of learning, of which 30 is spent doing nothing on a laptop. Seems like a huge chunk of time to me.

I’ll let you know, but I’m pretty sure 12:55 is the start time after arrival. I don’t know how much time will be spent on laptops, but again I’ll report back tomorrow.

I’m back. I covered a rising first grade class. The students didn’t use laptops. I didn’t even see any. Recess and lunch were each 20 minutes long. We started with a morning meeting that did not take very long. There was a phonics/spelling lesson, a read aloud with a lesson tied into seasons, the math coach came in and did a lesson and then the students worked in pairs practicing what the coach introduced. Those who finished early had independent math work to do and an IA went around doing some 1:1 check in assessments. It was obvious to me that there would normally be some reading small group work if the regular teacher was there.

A lot of the computer use is school and grade specific. I taught SOAR a couple times and they only passed out computers for grades 3 and above, lower elementary didn’t get them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:930-arrival
945-1015-morning meeting
1015-12:00 actual time for learning
12-130 (lunch and recess)

so less than two hours a day for academics for two whole weeks of summer school, and they are wasting 30 minutes of it mindlessly clicking on JiiJii?

I’m subbing for summer school tomorrow so we’ll see, but the student hours at this school are 8:55-12:55. Lunch is 30 minutes and recess is 20, not an hour and a half.
Doesn’t FCPS provide summer curriculum?

Regardless, that's still less than three hours of time for academics. 8:55-9:30 would be arrival/morning meeting, 9:30-noon actual school, then lunch and recess. So 2.5 hours of learning, of which 30 is spent doing nothing on a laptop. Seems like a huge chunk of time to me.

I’ll let you know, but I’m pretty sure 12:55 is the start time after arrival. I don’t know how much time will be spent on laptops, but again I’ll report back tomorrow.

I’m back. I covered a rising first grade class. The students didn’t use laptops. I didn’t even see any. Recess and lunch were each 20 minutes long. We started with a morning meeting that did not take very long. There was a phonics/spelling lesson, a read aloud with a lesson tied into seasons, the math coach came in and did a lesson and then the students worked in pairs practicing what the coach introduced. Those who finished early had independent math work to do and an IA went around doing some 1:1 check in assessments. It was obvious to me that there would normally be some reading small group work if the regular teacher was there.

A lot of the computer use is school and grade specific. I taught SOAR a couple times and they only passed out computers for grades 3 and above, lower elementary didn’t get them.

Grades 3 and above shouldn't be using them either, though.