Another school day of video games

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP sounds like the sort of parent who doesn't let their kid play video games at home. It makes sense that their kid would binge on games at school whenever he has the chance.

NP here and when I complain the school blames me for allowing video games at home. You blame parents for not allowing them.

It’s almost like what parents do at home doesn’t matter and the Chromebooks themselves are the problem.

+1. It's much easier to blame parents than deal with the rot in the system, but parents aren't the problem.

The pivot to screen use in elementary is the root of the problem, everyone knows it, but it will take years for public schools to go back to pen and paper, if they ever do. So in the meantime, parents need to adjust expectations. Video games in school are going to happen to a certain extent, depending on the teacher and the kid. What are you going to do outside of school, as the parent? Before screen use in schools, it's not like schools taught more stuff. It's just that kids wasted their time in other ways...

Bullshit. If you look at the results, schools obviously taught more and taught more effectively before the introduction of Chromebooks.

And maybe I'll be tilting at windmills, but I'm not going to "adjust my expectation" that schools provide effective instruction and not video games.

This. Encouraging to hear from PP that Pyle is going in the right direction; we should encourage other MCPS schools to follow.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP sounds like the sort of parent who doesn't let their kid play video games at home. It makes sense that their kid would binge on games at school whenever he has the chance.

NP here and when I complain the school blames me for allowing video games at home. You blame parents for not allowing them.

It’s almost like what parents do at home doesn’t matter and the Chromebooks themselves are the problem.

+1. It's much easier to blame parents than deal with the rot in the system, but parents aren't the problem.

The pivot to screen use in elementary is the root of the problem, everyone knows it, but it will take years for public schools to go back to pen and paper, if they ever do. So in the meantime, parents need to adjust expectations. Video games in school are going to happen to a certain extent, depending on the teacher and the kid. What are you going to do outside of school, as the parent? Before screen use in schools, it's not like schools taught more stuff. It's just that kids wasted their time in other ways...

Bullshit. If you look at the results, schools obviously taught more and taught more effectively before the introduction of Chromebooks.

And maybe I'll be tilting at windmills, but I'm not going to "adjust my expectation" that schools provide effective instruction and not video games.

Ha ha ha. No. My two children had different chromebook experiences in MCPS due to their age difference. There was ZERO difference in their curriculum. If anything, my second child, who was handed a chromebook as soon as she started school, learned more because she doesn't have ADHD, whereas my oldest, who did not have a chromebook until 5th grade, learned less because of his inattention. They attended the same elementary, shared some teachers, the administration was the same, and the instructional content was the same.

Don't lie, PP. Some people on DCUM will catch you.

So PP lied because you had a different personal experience with an n of 2 kids and 1 school? -NP

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP sounds like the sort of parent who doesn't let their kid play video games at home. It makes sense that their kid would binge on games at school whenever he has the chance.

NP here and when I complain the school blames me for allowing video games at home. You blame parents for not allowing them.

It’s almost like what parents do at home doesn’t matter and the Chromebooks themselves are the problem.

+1. It's much easier to blame parents than deal with the rot in the system, but parents aren't the problem.

The pivot to screen use in elementary is the root of the problem, everyone knows it, but it will take years for public schools to go back to pen and paper, if they ever do. So in the meantime, parents need to adjust expectations. Video games in school are going to happen to a certain extent, depending on the teacher and the kid. What are you going to do outside of school, as the parent? Before screen use in schools, it's not like schools taught more stuff. It's just that kids wasted their time in other ways...

Bullshit. If you look at the results, schools obviously taught more and taught more effectively before the introduction of Chromebooks.

And maybe I'll be tilting at windmills, but I'm not going to "adjust my expectation" that schools provide effective instruction and not video games.

This. Encouraging to hear from PP that Pyle is going in the right direction; we should encourage other MCPS schools to follow.

Yes but another example of Bethesda kids getting a much better education! Highly educated parents want their kids to learn and demand things. Sad other kids won’t get the same !!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP sounds like the sort of parent who doesn't let their kid play video games at home. It makes sense that their kid would binge on games at school whenever he has the chance.

NP here and when I complain the school blames me for allowing video games at home. You blame parents for not allowing them.

It’s almost like what parents do at home doesn’t matter and the Chromebooks themselves are the problem.

+1. It's much easier to blame parents than deal with the rot in the system, but parents aren't the problem.

The pivot to screen use in elementary is the root of the problem, everyone knows it, but it will take years for public schools to go back to pen and paper, if they ever do. So in the meantime, parents need to adjust expectations. Video games in school are going to happen to a certain extent, depending on the teacher and the kid. What are you going to do outside of school, as the parent? Before screen use in schools, it's not like schools taught more stuff. It's just that kids wasted their time in other ways...

Bullshit. If you look at the results, schools obviously taught more and taught more effectively before the introduction of Chromebooks.

And maybe I'll be tilting at windmills, but I'm not going to "adjust my expectation" that schools provide effective instruction and not video games.

Ha ha ha. No. My two children had different chromebook experiences in MCPS due to their age difference. There was ZERO difference in their curriculum. If anything, my second child, who was handed a chromebook as soon as she started school, learned more because she doesn't have ADHD, whereas my oldest, who did not have a chromebook until 5th grade, learned less because of his inattention. They attended the same elementary, shared some teachers, the administration was the same, and the instructional content was the same.

Don't lie, PP. Some people on DCUM will catch you.

So PP lied because you had a different personal experience with an n of 2 kids and 1 school? -NP

Yes because all of MCPS implements the same curriculum.

Honestly this thread sounds like a ridiculous witch hunt. Yes, too much screentime is bad for young children. But don’t claim that kids were taught more before schools introduced laptops. They weren’t. They threw paper planes from the back of the room instead and created chaos in their classroom - I can understand that teachers might find it better for the whole class concentration to let some students use screens when their work is done, rather than have disruptive behaviors. I am not prepared to let teachers fo back to those days - some of them suffered terribly.

The solution is to pay more taxes to build more schools so that classes can be smaller, and teachers don’t lose their minds dealing with 30 kids in first grade. Are you OK paying millions more for public school? Each new school costs tens of millions. Then there’s expensive maintenance down the road.

Before you criticize and point fingers, understand what the root problems are and how much they would cost to fix.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How was school son?

It was great we play video games on our Chromebooks almost all the day.

This keeps happening - we complain and get some nice words and then it happens again. Does no one care?

The kids do the minimum work and required and then back to games!

ARGGHHHHH

Reason number 263,262,945 your kids need to be in private or parochial schools or even homeschooling is better than this.

Our parochial has this problem too.

[Anonymous]

I am a teacher here in MCPS and I think Chromebooks shouldn’t be issued until like 10th grade at the earliest. I can’t issue pencil and paper work anymore in 9th grade because 80% of the kids are incapable of writing small and neat enough to fit more than 4 words into a space designed for like three sentences. Probably 50% cant write anything actually legible.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Have you met with the principal about it?

How many parents are really willing to speak up about this?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This again? You post this every month.

Teachers in the MCPS system have the option of blocking any internet site they want, and can look at the screens of any students in their class, from their desk computer.

If your kid does the work and then has free time, the teacher might not care what they get up to. My second kid is in 10th grade and has always read books on Sora, the MCPS online library, instead of playing games.
There were times in middle school when the teachers blocked game sites for other students, but let her
read her books in class. Her chemistry teacher in 9th grade would block every website except a few scientific ones, and told her to read a science textbook when she was done with her work. This year, she was incensed that the English teacher briefly blocked her from reading, but he realized she had already read the assigned book they were discussing in class, and let her back into Sora.

Talk to your child's teachers if you are unhappy with their website access policy, OP.

I agree that teachers should block the websites. However, I also know it is hard to block one website at a time. It is like wack a mole and just keeps going.

Maybe better to go back to books, at least in classes where appropriate, so Chromebook is not even out?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP sounds like the sort of parent who doesn't let their kid play video games at home. It makes sense that their kid would binge on games at school whenever he has the chance.

NP here and when I complain the school blames me for allowing video games at home. You blame parents for not allowing them.

It’s almost like what parents do at home doesn’t matter and the Chromebooks themselves are the problem.

+1. It's much easier to blame parents than deal with the rot in the system, but parents aren't the problem.

Agreed. Kids in our district have 1:1 devices still, starting in PreK. At our school, Chromebooks go home everyday, and must be charged! I’m curious to know what the usage is like outside of school, especially in early elementary, if teachers are constantly reminding parents to charge devices.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP sounds like the sort of parent who doesn't let their kid play video games at home. It makes sense that their kid would binge on games at school whenever he has the chance.

NP here and when I complain the school blames me for allowing video games at home. You blame parents for not allowing them.

It’s almost like what parents do at home doesn’t matter and the Chromebooks themselves are the problem.

+1. It's much easier to blame parents than deal with the rot in the system, but parents aren't the problem.

The pivot to screen use in elementary is the root of the problem, everyone knows it, but it will take years for public schools to go back to pen and paper, if they ever do. So in the meantime, parents need to adjust expectations. Video games in school are going to happen to a certain extent, depending on the teacher and the kid. What are you going to do outside of school, as the parent? Before screen use in schools, it's not like schools taught more stuff. It's just that kids wasted their time in other ways...

Districts are purchasing some of the games.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am a teacher here in MCPS and I think Chromebooks shouldn’t be issued until like 10th grade at the earliest. I can’t issue pencil and paper work anymore in 9th grade because 80% of the kids are incapable of writing small and neat enough to fit more than 4 words into a space designed for like three sentences. Probably 50% cant write anything actually legible.

What grade are they issued in MCPS?

[Anonymous]

I have posted before that my youngest child is allowed to play games on his Chromebook when he finishes his work. He routinely tells me he races through his work so he can get on the Chromebook. He often has simple errors in his work from rushing but does very well on standardized tests like MAP. I am sure he is not the only one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am a teacher here in MCPS and I think Chromebooks shouldn’t be issued until like 10th grade at the earliest. I can’t issue pencil and paper work anymore in 9th grade because 80% of the kids are incapable of writing small and neat enough to fit more than 4 words into a space designed for like three sentences. Probably 50% cant write anything actually legible.

What grade are they issued in MCPS?

I am pretty sure they use them as early as 1st grade. I have not taught elementary so I cannot be certain. I have taught in middle school and know that middle schoolers at my school maybe used a pencil for like 5-10% of their work

[Anonymous]

Dcum is full of doublespeak on this topic.
If you give your kids a tablet/phone, you caused their screen addiction and the school isn't to blame.
If you don't give your kids a tablet/phone, you are pathetically tilting at windmills and of course your sheltered, screen-deprived child is going to turn into a screen junkie when they get that school chromebook.
The only righteous position is "we allow ipads/phones/etc but our kids are just so busy with travel sports and reading Tolstoy that they don't have a lot of time to waste on screens. Be better."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP sounds like the sort of parent who doesn't let their kid play video games at home. It makes sense that their kid would binge on games at school whenever he has the chance.

NP here and when I complain the school blames me for allowing video games at home. You blame parents for not allowing them.

It’s almost like what parents do at home doesn’t matter and the Chromebooks themselves are the problem.

+1. It's much easier to blame parents than deal with the rot in the system, but parents aren't the problem.

The pivot to screen use in elementary is the root of the problem, everyone knows it, but it will take years for public schools to go back to pen and paper, if they ever do. So in the meantime, parents need to adjust expectations. Video games in school are going to happen to a certain extent, depending on the teacher and the kid. What are you going to do outside of school, as the parent? Before screen use in schools, it's not like schools taught more stuff. It's just that kids wasted their time in other ways...

Bullshit. If you look at the results, schools obviously taught more and taught more effectively before the introduction of Chromebooks.

And maybe I'll be tilting at windmills, but I'm not going to "adjust my expectation" that schools provide effective instruction and not video games.

Ha ha ha. No. My two children had different chromebook experiences in MCPS due to their age difference. There was ZERO difference in their curriculum. If anything, my second child, who was handed a chromebook as soon as she started school, learned more because she doesn't have ADHD, whereas my oldest, who did not have a chromebook until 5th grade, learned less because of his inattention. They attended the same elementary, shared some teachers, the administration was the same, and the instructional content was the same.

Don't lie, PP. Some people on DCUM will catch you.

So PP lied because you had a different personal experience with an n of 2 kids and 1 school? -NP

Yes because all of MCPS implements the same curriculum.

Honestly this thread sounds like a ridiculous witch hunt. Yes, too much screentime is bad for young children. But don’t claim that kids were taught more before schools introduced laptops. They weren’t. They threw paper planes from the back of the room instead and created chaos in their classroom - I can understand that teachers might find it better for the whole class concentration to let some students use screens when their work is done, rather than have disruptive behaviors. I am not prepared to let teachers fo back to those days - some of them suffered terribly.

The solution is to pay more taxes to build more schools so that classes can be smaller, and teachers don’t lose their minds dealing with 30 kids in first grade. Are you OK paying millions more for public school? Each new school costs tens of millions. Then there’s expensive maintenance down the road.

Before you criticize and point fingers, understand what the root problems are and how much they would cost to fix.

It doesn't matter that everywhere uses the same curricula. It matters whether kids are sneaking onto game site, chatting with each other on Google Docs, etc, rather than paying attention and learning in school. And yes, before you say anything, kids used to get distracted writing and passing notes before Chromebooks But it certainly seems like many more kids are distracted much more of the time now that they're constantly on Chromebooks with easy Internet access. That's great that your kid wasn't, but that tells us virtually nothing about whether other kids are or not.