PGCPS virtual until 1/14/21

[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.

You hire help or take a leave of absence or if your husband can, he flexes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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

Oh, would you look at tgat.

[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.

If MCPS cannot act responsibly now, come June, I'm done and my kids will not go to an extended school year. I already paid for a camp they will not miss. (and they are in virtual so there is no excuse not to keep virtual going)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

You hire help or take a leave of absence or if your husband can, he flexes.

So people just take unpaid leave or come up with money for help if you can even find it? This is the UMC Zoom mentality.

[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.

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

They should close both.

We know that will never happen because this area is willing to cut education over literally everything else. We let the kids bear the brunt of a virus that has predominantly killed the elderly. It’s complete insanity and I question the motivations of local democrats.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

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

They should close both.

We know that will never happen because this area is willing to cut education over literally everything else. We let the kids bear the brunt of a virus that has predominantly killed the elderly. It’s complete insanity and I question the motivations of local democrats.

If Democrats do this again, they will lose and badly (signed a Democrat who is tired of ill advised closures

[Anonymous]

Public school is going to become like ready player one with virtual as the standard. They can't get enough bodies in buildings or driving the buses. my daughter isn't school age yet and I'm not counting on public option.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Public school is going to become like ready player one with virtual as the standard. They can't get enough bodies in buildings or driving the buses. my daughter isn't school age yet and I'm not counting on public option.

I'm in Maryland. I've been speaking with teachers and parents of private schools in MD and DC this weekend, and most of them have moved to virtual or an early Christmas break, too.

[Anonymous]

This is horrible. I am a teacher of PGCPS and a parent of PGCPS. My children must stay home and do virtual. I must report to my school and teach virtual. I am a single mother. I was told this on Friday, and unable to contact daycares for their care on Monday. Most aren’t even taking current drop ins. I have contacted everyone I know to see if they could watch them tomorrow. They are too young to stay home.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

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

They should close both.

We know that will never happen because this area is willing to cut education over literally everything else. We let the kids bear the brunt of a virus that has predominantly killed the elderly. It’s complete insanity and I question the motivations of local democrats.

If Democrats do this again, they will lose and badly (signed a Democrat who is tired of ill advised closures

More right wing propaganda. This is not a “Democratic” decision.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

You hire help or take a leave of absence or if your husband can, he flexes.

So people just take unpaid leave or come up with money for help if you can even find it? This is the UMC Zoom mentality.

Yup, snap your fingers or wiggle your noise and voila!

Here’s a problem with taking leave - teachers are already in short supply, and the ones working are stretched thin. But we should encourage more to leave? Healthcare workers are in short supply and already stretched thin. Should they be encouraged to take leaves of absence so they can be home with their kids all day?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

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

They should close both.

We know that will never happen because this area is willing to cut education over literally everything else. We let the kids bear the brunt of a virus that has predominantly killed the elderly. It’s complete insanity and I question the motivations of local democrats.

If Democrats do this again, they will lose and badly (signed a Democrat who is tired of ill advised closures

More right wing propaganda. This is not a “Democratic” decision.

Maybe democrats should coming out strongly against it because they’re getting that label

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is horrible. I am a teacher of PGCPS and a parent of PGCPS. My children must stay home and do virtual. I must report to my school and teach virtual. I am a single mother. I was told this on Friday, and unable to contact daycares for their care on Monday. Most aren’t even taking current drop ins. I have contacted everyone I know to see if they could watch them tomorrow. They are too young to stay home.

What horribly thought through closure. I’m sorry for you and all similarly situated people. Shameful

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is horrible. I am a teacher of PGCPS and a parent of PGCPS. My children must stay home and do virtual. I must report to my school and teach virtual. I am a single mother. I was told this on Friday, and unable to contact daycares for their care on Monday. Most aren’t even taking current drop ins. I have contacted everyone I know to see if they could watch them tomorrow. They are too young to stay home.

I’m very sorry, PP…
But what exactly were people expecting?
That covid was going away, perhaps?

I was one of the numerous doctors/scientists who wrote on these boards months ago that we would get new variants, some of them dangerous, because we were not vaccinating enough people around the world.

This is one of those variants. We need to close for a bit to avoid hospital saturation, redesign new vaccines and get them to where they’re needed most in the world.

Can you get a virtual job? There are plenty of tutors raking in the money.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

You hire help or take a leave of absence or if your husband can, he flexes.

So people just take unpaid leave or come up with money for help if you can even find it? This is the UMC Zoom mentality.

Yup, snap your fingers or wiggle your noise and voila!

Here’s a problem with taking leave - teachers are already in short supply, and the ones working are stretched thin. But we should encourage more to leave? Healthcare workers are in short supply and already stretched thin. Should they be encouraged to take leaves of absence so they can be home with their kids all day?

I mean, we had to figure it out in 2020 when schools went virtual but government offices stayed open. You can’t depend on schools for being your daycare, right?