I'm an MCPS elementary school teacher...AMA

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does parent advocacy have any chance of reducing the use of screens in schools or even in an individual classroom?

Zero chance. And a question to ponder..... Does teacher advocacy have any chance of reducing the use of screens at home????

Also...my students are rarely on their Chromebooks. Is that where the parent concerns are? Are you all going to fight for their to be less screen use in college too? Teaching students how to properly utilize screens is important. It's part of life.

I use the Boxlight to teach with bc it's efficient and engaging. I'm not showing them YouTube videos all day long on it or anything....

School is supposed to be where they are getting education so of course it should be less screen use than home.

By college, they should have the critical thinking skills to use technology more as an aid than a crutch. But the won’t get there if they overuse Chromebooks and games.

Where are all of you getting this impression that screen use at school is more than at home?? Have you asked your child's teacher how much they use their Chromebooks daily? I would say my students use their Chromebooks maybe 40 minutes to an hour a day (if that). That's it. If there is a research project, we use books and online tools like Pebble Go Next so they practice research skills. They use it to type up the final copy of their writing pieces. They create a Google Slides presentation and rehearse it and present it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MoCo parents do a lot of outside of school math supplementation with tutors and classes.

At what age do you recommend starting this? (Since you agree that it's impossible to do differentiation in math classes with a wide range of student abilities.)

Start supplementing by 2nd grade.

Honestly, I would start in K.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:MoCo parents do a lot of outside of school math supplementation with tutors and classes.

At what age do you recommend starting this? (Since you agree that it's impossible to do differentiation in math classes with a wide range of student abilities.)

I would say 3rd grade. Because the MAPM scores and math grades in school and MCAP scores will determine if they are in the compacted math class in 4th grade. Have tutors focus a lot on written responses to explain their math thinking. So many students can do algorithms all day long....but they can't explain how they used math reasoning to solve a word problem.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I teach in a Title I school with a huge population of EMLs. Eureka is good, CKLA is fine but not great for many them, but it’s actually the pacing guide that MCPS requires us to follow is how our kids end up with gaps. It moves too fast. And I know this is controversial, but I think classes should be grouped by ability and they should switch for different subjects. If a kid is good at math then they go to a higher math classroom at math time. The way it’s divided that there is a big range of abilities in each class means that none of the kids are really getting what they need.

I completely agree that classes should be ability grouped.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does parent advocacy have any chance of reducing the use of screens in schools or even in an individual classroom?

Zero chance. And a question to ponder..... Does teacher advocacy have any chance of reducing the use of screens at home????

Also...my students are rarely on their Chromebooks. Is that where the parent concerns are? Are you all going to fight for their to be less screen use in college too? Teaching students how to properly utilize screens is important. It's part of life.

I use the Boxlight to teach with bc it's efficient and engaging. I'm not showing them YouTube videos all day long on it or anything....

DP it is not my imagination that my kids' teacher used YouTube videos instead of reading books to kids in kindergarten. My kid memorized the sound effects.

This sounds like two different issues. Screen use in school for educational purposes (like research projects) and screen use in schools for unnecessary purposes.

Teachers absolutely should read books to children and not use YouTube. Occasionally I am overstimulated from talking all day long and my voice hurts, so I will rely on a YouTube read aloud of a text to give me a short break. We are humans too. However, I do have issues with teachers only playing YouTube videos of books. Complain to the teacher and to admin.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I teach in a Title I school with a huge population of EMLs. Eureka is good, CKLA is fine but not great for many them, but it’s actually the pacing guide that MCPS requires us to follow is how our kids end up with gaps. It moves too fast. And I know this is controversial, but I think classes should be grouped by ability and they should switch for different subjects. If a kid is good at math then they go to a higher math classroom at math time. The way it’s divided that there is a big range of abilities in each class means that none of the kids are really getting what they need.

I completely agree. I student taught years ago in a 3rd grade classroom. The three classroom teachers gave pre-tests for each math unit and then they sent kids who had mastered that topic to one teacher. The other two teachers had the kids who still needed more practice and the very low students who still had gaps. The lowest class was the smallest one and had the special ed teacher (and me) in it. It wasn’t always the same exact kids in each group. It depended on their prior knowledge of the math topic. It worked out well for everyone.

Love this model.

MCPS has ruined everything. They have taken away the art of teaching. In trying to standardize everything to make it "fair" they have ruined education. We used to have the freedom to do things like this to meet our students' needs. Not anymore.

[Anonymous]

Leveled classes would help so much for all students and teachers. Why MCPS won’t allow it is beyond me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does parent advocacy have any chance of reducing the use of screens in schools or even in an individual classroom?

Zero chance. And a question to ponder..... Does teacher advocacy have any chance of reducing the use of screens at home????

Also...my students are rarely on their Chromebooks. Is that where the parent concerns are? Are you all going to fight for their to be less screen use in college too? Teaching students how to properly utilize screens is important. It's part of life.

I use the Boxlight to teach with bc it's efficient and engaging. I'm not showing them YouTube videos all day long on it or anything....

School is supposed to be where they are getting education so of course it should be less screen use than home.

By college, they should have the critical thinking skills to use technology more as an aid than a crutch. But the won’t get there if they overuse Chromebooks and games.

Where are all of you getting this impression that screen use at school is more than at home?? Have you asked your child's teacher how much they use their Chromebooks daily? I would say my students use their Chromebooks maybe 40 minutes to an hour a day (if that). That's it. If there is a research project, we use books and online tools like Pebble Go Next so they practice research skills. They use it to type up the final copy of their writing pieces. They create a Google Slides presentation and rehearse it and present it.

I consider 40+ minutes a day a lot! I could understand 30 mins once or twice a week.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Leveled classes would help so much for all students and teachers. Why MCPS won’t allow it is beyond me.

I was friends with an admin (not this district) who was responsible for making the classes and asked exactly what goes into it. She said "certain students are harder to teach, maybe for behavioral reasons or because theyre behind academically. So we want to make sure those students are divided evenly between the classes so no one teacher gets too many in their roster. The same with the easy kids, it wouldnt be fair if one teacher got a class of little angels who are advanced. It would be bad for everyone's morale."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does parent advocacy have any chance of reducing the use of screens in schools or even in an individual classroom?

Zero chance. And a question to ponder..... Does teacher advocacy have any chance of reducing the use of screens at home????

Also...my students are rarely on their Chromebooks. Is that where the parent concerns are? Are you all going to fight for their to be less screen use in college too? Teaching students how to properly utilize screens is important. It's part of life.

I use the Boxlight to teach with bc it's efficient and engaging. I'm not showing them YouTube videos all day long on it or anything....

School is supposed to be where they are getting education so of course it should be less screen use than home.

By college, they should have the critical thinking skills to use technology more as an aid than a crutch. But the won’t get there if they overuse Chromebooks and games.

Where are all of you getting this impression that screen use at school is more than at home?? Have you asked your child's teacher how much they use their Chromebooks daily? I would say my students use their Chromebooks maybe 40 minutes to an hour a day (if that). That's it. If there is a research project, we use books and online tools like Pebble Go Next so they practice research skills. They use it to type up the final copy of their writing pieces. They create a Google Slides presentation and rehearse it and present it.

I consider 40+ minutes a day a lot! I could understand 30 mins once or twice a week.

It ebbs and flows with whatever writing projects etc that we are working on. Sometimes it is only 10 minutes a day or not at all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Leveled classes would help so much for all students and teachers. Why MCPS won’t allow it is beyond me.

I was friends with an admin (not this district) who was responsible for making the classes and asked exactly what goes into it. She said "certain students are harder to teach, maybe for behavioral reasons or because theyre behind academically. So we want to make sure those students are divided evenly between the classes so no one teacher gets too many in their roster. The same with the easy kids, it wouldnt be fair if one teacher got a class of little angels who are advanced. It would be bad for everyone's morale."

+1

[Anonymous]

So teachers you won't go silently apeshit when you see me letting my kid play starfall for 20 minutes at Cava?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does parent advocacy have any chance of reducing the use of screens in schools or even in an individual classroom?

Zero chance. And a question to ponder..... Does teacher advocacy have any chance of reducing the use of screens at home????

Also...my students are rarely on their Chromebooks. Is that where the parent concerns are? Are you all going to fight for their to be less screen use in college too? Teaching students how to properly utilize screens is important. It's part of life.

I use the Boxlight to teach with bc it's efficient and engaging. I'm not showing them YouTube videos all day long on it or anything....

My kids are zero screens so throwing it back to the family doesn’t work in this case, the problem is schools.

We are an extremely low-screen family (no phones or personal tablets at all, just some limited TV time with family plus a typing class on the computer and that's about it) and I agree with the teacher that the problem is in the homes. My kids are not being destroyed by screen time at school -- they get some limited Chromebook time during solo work time and the teachers often use a smart board to teach. This does not in any way undo our low screen approach and my kids have great attention spans, are comfortable with books and pencil and paper, and aren't being exposed to inappropriate content.

The issue is that other parents allow liberal screen use at home, are sending even elementary kids to school with phones and tablets, and dont' seem to care. These kids have all this exposure to garbage content, especially on YouTube and TikTok (don't even get me started with elementary age kids having access to TikTok, it is absolutely rotting their brains). They are coming to school with info about that content, plus have awful attention spans, are disruptive, try to abuse the use of Chromebooks in class, never read outside school. These kids are actively diminishing the educational experience and the teachers can't do anything about it.

Your beef is with other parents, but there's nothing you can do about it. They don't care and think people like you and I are crazy and condescending.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So teachers you won't go silently apeshit when you see me letting my kid play starfall for 20 minutes at Cava?

Teacher here. One that despises how much screen time kids get in school. I limit it as much as I humanly can.

And I’m also a parent who didn’t give my kids my iPhone at cava when they were little. I brought little books or coloring sheets. They were not always perfectly behaved, it was not easy, it took a LOT of work to get them to be where they are now and yes I was exhausted.

I’m not going apeshit over you, no, but I’ll be honest that I feel sad when I see so many little ones on screens. Think about it this way—every time you hand your kid the phone you’re taking away an opportunity for them to learn how to self regulate, you’re taking away an opportunity for them to be okay with the discomfort of boredom. This is why so many of them are fidgety in school. I can’t tell you how often I hear a kid whine that they’re bored. And I know that I don’t know your daily situation—if you were at the hospital night with your sick husband or whatnot, so that’s why I’m not going apeshit in my head, this may be the rare time in a week your kid gets the phone. But…seeing how many are on phones at the grocery store, at restaurants, in line waiting for something, in waiting rooms…it’s too pervasive to just attribute it to one hard day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So teachers you won't go silently apeshit when you see me letting my kid play starfall for 20 minutes at Cava?

Teacher here. One that despises how much screen time kids get in school. I limit it as much as I humanly can.

And I’m also a parent who didn’t give my kids my iPhone at cava when they were little. I brought little books or coloring sheets. They were not always perfectly behaved, it was not easy, it took a LOT of work to get them to be where they are now and yes I was exhausted.

I’m not going apeshit over you, no, but I’ll be honest that I feel sad when I see so many little ones on screens. Think about it this way—every time you hand your kid the phone you’re taking away an opportunity for them to learn how to self regulate, you’re taking away an opportunity for them to be okay with the discomfort of boredom. This is why so many of them are fidgety in school. I can’t tell you how often I hear a kid whine that they’re bored. And I know that I don’t know your daily situation—if you were at the hospital night with your sick husband or whatnot, so that’s why I’m not going apeshit in my head, this may be the rare time in a week your kid gets the phone. But…seeing how many are on phones at the grocery store, at restaurants, in line waiting for something, in waiting rooms…it’s too pervasive to just attribute it to one hard day.

So it's not okay for parents to let kids use the same apps that teachers make kids use daily in school? Why? Because Cava is some special place where screen time is extra harmful? You'll have to understand why my take on your response above is f u you fing POS