Disparities in quantity/quality of distance learning
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Anonymous
It also depends on the teacher resources. Our charter gave out computers to students that needed them. Last I heard they did not do the same for teachers. I heard dcps did not offer them to teachers either. Not every teacher has their own computer, fast internet etc. They may be sharing with their own children or partner, everyone trying to do their work. I know I have a laptop and my spouse has a work issued laptop. I share my with our child for school learning so it limits our schedule. My spouse laptop is not allowed to be used by anyone else, has lots of restrictions for websites. so we basically have 1 computer for school, my job and any person work we need to do. Wouldn't surprise me if some teachers are in the same boat or worse. If distance education is going to be a on going possiblity DCPS and Charters all need to issue the proper equipment computers and wiifi hot spots to all their teachers too! |
Anonymous
Yes to the 1st half. Now that we are 2 months in it shouldn't be a crisis management situation. Going into month two knowing what science was saying about the long haul of this situation we should have shift from crisis to manitance then to progress. We also know it is highly unlikely we will return to a normal August to June, 5 days a week, 25 kids in a classroom. We know it will likely include some or even all distance learning. By now schools and the powers that be should be switching over to actually teaching kids through distance learning. A plan to offer in person support to students that need it. There are dozens of online learning programs that DC schools could be following taking a lot of pressure off teachers. Limiting the need for a half dozen website and the like. |
Anonymous
My public school kid's class uses Google Meet. Works pretty well. |
Anonymous
Ha ha. All your posts say the same thing. And it’s not even true! That’s amazing. I hope you don’t teach at my kid’s school. |
Anonymous
You are painting with too broad a brush. Lots of middle class kids who already meet all above and thus can still do and keep up with grade level content that some schools provide as an option, not as requirements. DC is healthy. DC is mentally and emotionally healthy. Still happy kid that he always was. FaceTimes with friends to keep in contact. He has maintained his school skills and keeping up with grade level content thanks to a school that believes in providing quality content for progress. It’s not required but it’s there if your kid has the ability. I realize not all kids and families are capable of it but many families we know are. |
Anonymous
I hope they're not going rouge. That sounds pretty 80s. |
Anonymous
Former DCPS parent here, currently with an 8yo in a private that is not doing long hours on video calls. They say that since focus and engagement will not be the same as in-person learning, they're limiting workload to no more than 2 hours of work per day for elementary students (different amounts for preschool and upper school). Our kid has 1-2 30-min video calls per day. Realistically, another 1-2 hours of work on a school-loaned iPad (although if unfocused can take much longer). It's working...okay. Curious to know how Deal feeders (incl. our old IB) are doing. Have heard from a couple folks that they're happy. |
Anonymous
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Distance learning is here to stay folks. It’s not going away this summer, fall, or winter. It’s just a matter of what percentage it will make up of the next school year.
Here is the bottom line folks. Leadership and teachers at a school know their kids best. If everyone (admin, teachers, parents) all have the same goal of working together in optimizing distance learning for their kids in this challenging environment, they will do well. They will provide good content and curriculum. School leadership should always be assessing what is going well and what is not with surveys, zoom meeting for parent inputs, etc.. They are also flexible to make changes quick if needed. Schools that are not doing as well with distance learning, who realize and acknowledge that, will have time to step up their game and make changes and modifications for the needs of their families. Schools that just don’t care or poorly run as a cohesive group of administrators, teachers, and parents will just continue to fail in DL. The less bureaucracy and red tape the school/organization, the more successful and adaptive a school will be in rapidly making changes in this environment. That is why some privates and charters are doing well with DL and got it up and going shortly after school closed down. The more bureaucracy and larger the organization, the more effort and harder it will be to make fast changes and implementation. This is how I see DCPS. Too much decision making at the highest central level on top down basis and not at the local school leadership. Too much mentality of 1 size fits all when some schools are as different as night and day. It just won’t work or be effective. |
Anonymous
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Anonymous
You wish you were in boundary at my school. You sound bitter. |
Anonymous
That quoted thread never provided an accurate source. I work at a nwdc dcps school. Zoom is banned at my school. I understand that charters have not banned zoom but dcps has. Show me source on a dcps website that says otherwise. |
Anonymous
Seriously? Now we've had enough dead people to get used to it, so we should just be ticking along? |
Anonymous
I don't think that's what they are saying. I think they are saying that we need to start assuming that DL will be part of our routine in the fall and proactively adjust to that reality. Everyone is on edge. There has been a lot of confusion. Teachers don't know what parents have been doing and parents don't know what the teachers have been doing. The oppositional and holier than thou crap from both sides needs to stop. Neither group is the other group's servant. Both groups have the same goal. |
Anonymous
Okay, I think that's fair. (And thank you for de-escalating.) I think there's a difference between what distance learning looks like for the next three weeks and what a more principled and thought-out version of it might look like in fall. And I really don't believe it's reasonable to expect dramatic changes to practices before the end of the school year. I'm reacting to what I see as pretty vocal criticisms of educators who are (like all of us), doing their best, and I wish we could cut them some slack. When I think about what's "good enough" I'm also thinking about it from the perspective of the teacher with three kids who is juggling a full time job with childcare and figuring out how to do that in a small space with limited resources. And I think if parents DO want to speak up about improvements to distance learning, they also need to speak up about ensuring educators have resources to do it -- if that means hiring technology support for the district, or providing teachers with more equipment, supplementing teaching staff to accommodate folks who have caregiver roles (in a way that is fair to everyone). |
Anonymous
Below is a quote from an email sent April 4th from DCPS: Video Conferencing Security & Zoom While DCPS continues to recommend the use of Teams for video conferencing, we want to be responsive to schools’ needs. DCPS staff who wish to use Zoom may do so but must follow Zoom’s recommended security practices to secure your conferences |