How bad is your APS back to school experience?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:JFC. What a bunch of whiners most of you are. One of my kids has been back since last week and has a couple of virtual teachers. He's fine with all of it. My other kid is still all virtual and he's fine with that too. We are still in a pandemic, you know, and we are still early in the return to in-person learning stage. How about giving them a chance to get their sea legs before jumping on them? Is this the grace, compassion and resiliency you are teaching your children?

Every school is doing its own things and some have made decisions that are not taking student learning into account. It's not about giving teachers grace for tech hiccups. It's parents realizing that APS administration has decided that it will not be offering some students in person education in certain core subjects at all this year, when many kids are struggling mightily with virtual learning.

Some kids got lucky in the APS model. Others are SOL for no safety reason.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At Wakefield, the Principal said he was able to honor all requests from teachers who wanted to stay home. DC has 2/7 classes virtual. I know another friend whose DC has 3/7 classes virtual. This is just the first week, so I am ready to give it time, and grateful for the 5 teachers who came back. But DC said sitting in the cold, stinky, crowded gym yesterday to listen to a teacher on a computer screen was not that fun, and I think that's a fair reaction. Wakefield also only had 40% of kids come back, so some classes have 2 kids in them.

As much as people predicted it would be harder for the schools with higher percentages of hybrid to manage the return, I suspect reality may be the opposite. When 70% of your school is back hybrid, it is easy to justify putting an aide in a dedicated classroom for 17 kids while the teacher is teaching remotely. When only two kids in the class are hybrid, it's a lot harder to justify those kinds of staffing levels (especially when APS is short on aides and subs generally), so secondary schools with lower hybrid percentages pretty much have to do what you described, moving a bunch of kids from different classes into a large common space that can be monitored by fewer aides.

The other part of this is one of the main benefits of being back is social interaction. I'm willing to be patient, but I want this to work at Wakefield, and I think having more kids in the building is a part of this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kids are having a great experience. Elementary kid is being taught by a live teacher and barely uses her iPad all day (it comes back with 90+% charge each school day). 6th grader is having a great experience too. One class is taught virtually, but that’s because it’s taught by an elderly retired teacher who’s a long-term sub while the regular teacher is on parental leave. I’d rather have one virtual long-term sub than a random rotation of in-person subs.

This is really nice to hear. You seem to be the exception, but I am happy for your kids.

I think we are hearing disproportionately from the people who will whine no matter what. APS approved very few requests to teach virtually, so there simply is no way that the experiences reported here are representative of all of APS. But you can tell from the posts across threads that there are a handful of people complaining about the same talking points over and over again.

The OP of this thread deliberately posted a loaded question. It’s a pathetic attempt to convince people that bad experiences are the norm.

[Anonymous]

It's better than I was expecting. This will be our first week of having both kids attend and we opted for different days so only 1 kid is at home at a time Tues-Fri.

I am not wild about the teachers using Teams/virtually teaching from inside the building (I have a kid at Glebe) but my kid wasn't really bothered by it. I think it's a violation of the APS policy but it does not appear that there's any room for discussion on the point, so, I'm letting it go.

So far none of my MS kid's teachers are remote so I think it's interesting that this is so disproportional (i.e. sounds like a lot at WMS and very few everywhere else).

Do I wish this was all going differently? Absolutely, yes! Has the last year sucked and drained any faith I had in APS as a system? Pretty much! But is this a crucial stepping stone after a full year-plus to get kids back into schools? It is! I am counting my blessing and focusing on the may ways this is even a slight improvement over full-time virtual.

[Anonymous]

It's quite clear that OP is the same dad who is ranting about this on AEM, joined in by his APE friends.

APE will keep complaining until they get complete normal which you just can't have in a pandemic.

I think it's disgusting to complain about teachers who need to teach from home due to a private medical reason.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's quite clear that OP is the same dad who is ranting about this on AEM, joined in by his APE friends.

APE will keep complaining until they get complete normal which you just can't have in a pandemic.

I think it's disgusting to complain about teachers who need to teach from home due to a private medical reason.

Absolutely THIS!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's quite clear that OP is the same dad who is ranting about this on AEM, joined in by his APE friends.

APE will keep complaining until they get complete normal which you just can't have in a pandemic.

I think it's disgusting to complain about teachers who need to teach from home due to a private medical reason.

Absolutely THIS!

Do you know that the teachers have an ADA claim? Our principal has made a school decision that many teachers don't have to teach in person unless they want to do so. There is no ADA issue. It's solely teacher preference.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's quite clear that OP is the same dad who is ranting about this on AEM, joined in by his APE friends.

APE will keep complaining until they get complete normal which you just can't have in a pandemic.

I think it's disgusting to complain about teachers who need to teach from home due to a private medical reason.

Absolutely THIS!

Do you know that the teachers have an ADA claim? Our principal has made a school decision that many teachers don't have to teach in person unless they want to do so. There is no ADA issue. It's solely teacher preference.

I’m surprised to hear that principals are allowed that leeway. I would imagine that decision will face opposition now that kids are back.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's quite clear that OP is the same dad who is ranting about this on AEM, joined in by his APE friends.

APE will keep complaining until they get complete normal which you just can't have in a pandemic.

I think it's disgusting to complain about teachers who need to teach from home due to a private medical reason.

Absolutely THIS!

Do you know that the teachers have an ADA claim? Our principal has made a school decision that many teachers don't have to teach in person unless they want to do so. There is no ADA issue. It's solely teacher preference.

I’m surprised to hear that principals are allowed that leeway. I would imagine that decision will face opposition now that kids are back.

Welcome to why some parents are unhappy. The APS model is wildly divergent. We're not just whiners and we're not making it up. It's like we're in an entirely different school system that is making entirely different decisions.

As far as I can tell, APS principals have zero oversight from APS. They can do whatever they please.

[Anonymous]

K - great!! in person is needed 5 days a week.

3 - teacher is still virtual, most kids not in the class, and headphones all day is uncomfortable. kid seems to still like seeing kids in class and at recess, but agrees that there is no academic benefit to being in person and is physically more uncomfortable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's better than I was expecting. This will be our first week of having both kids attend and we opted for different days so only 1 kid is at home at a time Tues-Fri.

I am not wild about the teachers using Teams/virtually teaching from inside the building (I have a kid at Glebe) but my kid wasn't really bothered by it. I think it's a violation of the APS policy but it does not appear that there's any room for discussion on the point, so, I'm letting it go.

So far none of my MS kid's teachers are remote so I think it's interesting that this is so disproportional (i.e. sounds like a lot at WMS and very few everywhere else).

Do I wish this was all going differently? Absolutely, yes! Has the last year sucked and drained any faith I had in APS as a system? Pretty much! But is this a crucial stepping stone after a full year-plus to get kids back into schools? It is! I am counting my blessing and focusing on the may ways this is even a slight improvement over full-time virtual.

Yes, it seems this way to me, too. My younger son is at DHMS, and none of his teachers are virtual except his TA. My son at H-B has only one teacher who is virtual. Strange.

[Anonymous]

My kids are having a great experience being back 2 days a week (ES and MS). Thank you, APS teachers, for doing such an outstanding job during this difficult time. Ignore the whiners - some people will never be happy and will just continue to complain no matter what you do. These whiners may be the most vocal but they are not in the majority.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's quite clear that OP is the same dad who is ranting about this on AEM, joined in by his APE friends.

APE will keep complaining until they get complete normal which you just can't have in a pandemic.

I think it's disgusting to complain about teachers who need to teach from home due to a private medical reason.

Absolutely THIS!

Do you know that the teachers have an ADA claim? Our principal has made a school decision that many teachers don't have to teach in person unless they want to do so. There is no ADA issue. It's solely teacher preference.

At WMS (where the AEM rant dad is from), our principal said teachers who are virtual are only temporary until a permanent sub can be found; they're required to take a leave of absence but agreed to work virtually until sub is found. NO one was approved to work from home. However given the sub shortage, its very likely the teachers will remain in place at home. (last sentence is my opinion, not what WMS has said).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's better than I was expecting. This will be our first week of having both kids attend and we opted for different days so only 1 kid is at home at a time Tues-Fri.

I am not wild about the teachers using Teams/virtually teaching from inside the building (I have a kid at Glebe) but my kid wasn't really bothered by it. I think it's a violation of the APS policy but it does not appear that there's any room for discussion on the point, so, I'm letting it go.

So far none of my MS kid's teachers are remote so I think it's interesting that this is so disproportional (i.e. sounds like a lot at WMS and very few everywhere else).

Do I wish this was all going differently? Absolutely, yes! Has the last year sucked and drained any faith I had in APS as a system? Pretty much! But is this a crucial stepping stone after a full year-plus to get kids back into schools? It is! I am counting my blessing and focusing on the may ways this is even a slight improvement over full-time virtual.

Yes, it seems this way to me, too. My younger son is at DHMS, and none of his teachers are virtual except his TA. My son at H-B has only one teacher who is virtual. Strange.

I think the OP is an anomaly. We are at WMS and only have one teacher remote.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kids are having a great experience. Elementary kid is being taught by a live teacher and barely uses her iPad all day (it comes back with 90+% charge each school day). 6th grader is having a great experience too. One class is taught virtually, but that’s because it’s taught by an elderly retired teacher who’s a long-term sub while the regular teacher is on parental leave. I’d rather have one virtual long-term sub than a random rotation of in-person subs.

This is really nice to hear. You seem to be the exception, but I am happy for your kids.

I think we are hearing disproportionately from the people who will whine no matter what. APS approved very few requests to teach virtually, so there simply is no way that the experiences reported here are representative of all of APS. But you can tell from the posts across threads that there are a handful of people complaining about the same talking points over and over again.

My kids are doing really well as well -- they have in person teachers, who are handling even the concurrent aspects really well. My kid in 1st grade really enjoys her day. They are mostly doing things off the ipad as far as I can tell, and their ipads come up at nearly 100% charged at the end of the day.
I think Glebe is having issues since they had departmentalization of core classes -- I'm not sure that they should have kept that policy this year though from what I heard it worked really well during distance learning.