Virtual Learning - Why Not MCPS?

[Anonymous]

Everyone with high schoolers can scream all you want, but virtual doesn't work for younger elementary kids. They don't have chromebooks. They don't have textbooks. Lessons aren't available to parents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Everyone with high schoolers can scream all you want, but virtual doesn't work for younger elementary kids. They don't have chromebooks. They don't have textbooks. Lessons aren't available to parents.

You’re adorable. My high schooler was actually a 3rd grader when the pandemic started and we used our own devices in the beginning. They didn’t issue Chromebooks and teachers didn’t know how to set up documents so we were printing out worksheets emailed by the central office, scanning them in and uploading them. Now teachers at least know how to set this stuff up and your kids definitely know how to use zoom.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Everyone with high schoolers can scream all you want, but virtual doesn't work for younger elementary kids. They don't have chromebooks. They don't have textbooks. Lessons aren't available to parents.

You’re adorable. My high schooler was actually a 3rd grader when the pandemic started and we used our own devices in the beginning. They didn’t issue Chromebooks and teachers didn’t know how to set up documents so we were printing out worksheets emailed by the central office, scanning them in and uploading them. Now teachers at least know how to set this stuff up and your kids definitely know how to use zoom.

+1. Your kids must be too young for you to have experienced the pandemic. My kid started kindergarten during the pandemic and yes, they did in fact do virtual learning. MCPS is capable of doing this. Certainly for a few days and it’s a better idea than adding some BS days in end June and telling kids they don’t need to show up, if you care about kids getting educated.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How can so many other school systems implement virtual learning when there are long-predicted prolonged absences.

Every student has a Chromebook.

Is it ideal? No.

Will there be complete equitable participation? No.

Will it prevent school from going well into the summer? Yes.

I just don’t get it.

What? No, every student does not have a Chromebook. Neither of mine does. Do you mean that every HS kid has a Chromebook? That is different.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How can so many other school systems implement virtual learning when there are long-predicted prolonged absences.

Every student has a Chromebook.

Is it ideal? No.

Will there be complete equitable participation? No.

Will it prevent school from going well into the summer? Yes.

I just don’t get it.

What? No, every student does not have a Chromebook. Neither of mine does. Do you I
mean that every HS kid has a Chromebook? That is different.

HS kids have Chromebooks, MS kids have Chromebooks. 4th and 5th graders have Chromebooks assigned even though they don’t bring them back and forth the way older kids do.

k-3 teachers could send asynchronous assignments to parents for younger kids the way they did during parts of the Covid period.


If central office has planned better, they could have made sure all kids went home with Chromebooks on the Friday before the storm.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How can so many other school systems implement virtual learning when there are long-predicted prolonged absences.

Every student has a Chromebook.

Is it ideal? No.

Will there be complete equitable participation? No.

Will it prevent school from going well into the summer? Yes.

I just don’t get it.

What? No, every student does not have a Chromebook. Neither of mine does. Do you I
mean that every HS kid has a Chromebook? That is different.

HS kids have Chromebooks, MS kids have Chromebooks. 4th and 5th graders have Chromebooks assigned even though they don’t bring them back and forth the way older kids do.

k-3 teachers could send asynchronous assignments to parents for younger kids the way they did during parts of the Covid period.


If central office has planned better, they could have made sure all kids went home with Chromebooks on the Friday before the storm.

This, younger teachers could send home a packet or assign pages in the workbook - email parents about the assignments. MS and HS can email/put on canvas. Some of our teachers are.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How can so many other school systems implement virtual learning when there are long-predicted prolonged absences.

Every student has a Chromebook.

Is it ideal? No.

Will there be complete equitable participation? No.

Will it prevent school from going well into the summer? Yes.

I just don’t get it.

Because virtual learning was a disaster. Because many 3rd and forth graders (and older ones too) will be providing child care for their young siblings and unable will be unable login. Because some families have a family of 4 or 6 or more in a one bed room apartment, and there's no way for virtual learning to take place.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Everyone with high schoolers can scream all you want, but virtual doesn't work for younger elementary kids. They don't have chromebooks. They don't have textbooks. Lessons aren't available to parents.

You’re adorable. My high schooler was actually a 3rd grader when the pandemic started and we used our own devices in the beginning. They didn’t issue Chromebooks and teachers didn’t know how to set up documents so we were printing out worksheets emailed by the central office, scanning them in and uploading them. Now teachers at least know how to set this stuff up and your kids definitely know how to use zoom.

This is a lie and MCPS issued chromebooks to anyone who wanted it before starting virtual school. You using your own devices was your choice. We used our own too. Teachers have had years to learn canvas and should be using it for all assignments in MS and HS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Everyone with high schoolers can scream all you want, but virtual doesn't work for younger elementary kids. They don't have chromebooks. They don't have textbooks. Lessons aren't available to parents.

Of ourse it does. But, parents have to support it. They can upload assignments/books - most textbooks are online. And, aren't they using standard math curriculum now, Eurika or something else that if you google you can find the books for free.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How can so many other school systems implement virtual learning when there are long-predicted prolonged absences.

Every student has a Chromebook.

Is it ideal? No.

Will there be complete equitable participation? No.

Will it prevent school from going well into the summer? Yes.

I just don’t get it.

What? No, every student does not have a Chromebook. Neither of mine does. Do you I
mean that every HS kid has a Chromebook? That is different.

HS kids have Chromebooks, MS kids have Chromebooks. 4th and 5th graders have Chromebooks assigned even though they don’t bring them back and forth the way older kids do.

k-3 teachers could send asynchronous assignments to parents for younger kids the way they did during parts of the Covid period.


If central office has planned better, they could have made sure all kids went home with Chromebooks on the Friday before the storm.

This, younger teachers could send home a packet or assign pages in the workbook - email parents about the assignments. MS and HS can email/put on canvas. Some of our teachers are.

Yes a few of my kids’ MS teachers started to put assignments up today although they were careful to phrase them as voluntary and due a few days after school starts up again in person. I felt like they knew they were supposed to be “code red” but were trying to be quiet about assignments because they knew their kids are getting so far behind schedule on what they need to cover in the curriculum.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How can so many other school systems implement virtual learning when there are long-predicted prolonged absences.

Every student has a Chromebook.

Is it ideal? No.

Will there be complete equitable participation? No.

Will it prevent school from going well into the summer? Yes.

I just don’t get it.

What? No, every student does not have a Chromebook. Neither of mine does. Do you I
mean that every HS kid has a Chromebook? That is different.

HS kids have Chromebooks, MS kids have Chromebooks. 4th and 5th graders have Chromebooks assigned even though they don’t bring them back and forth the way older kids do.

k-3 teachers could send asynchronous assignments to parents for younger kids the way they did during parts of the Covid period.


If central office has planned better, they could have made sure all kids went home with Chromebooks on the Friday before the storm.

This, younger teachers could send home a packet or assign pages in the workbook - email parents about the assignments. MS and HS can email/put on canvas. Some of our teachers are.

+1. DCPS had asynchronous learning today. mCPS is just lazy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Everyone with high schoolers can scream all you want, but virtual doesn't work for younger elementary kids. They don't have chromebooks. They don't have textbooks. Lessons aren't available to parents.

You’re adorable. My high schooler was actually a 3rd grader when the pandemic started and we used our own devices in the beginning. They didn’t issue Chromebooks and teachers didn’t know how to set up documents so we were printing out worksheets emailed by the central office, scanning them in and uploading them. Now teachers at least know how to set this stuff up and your kids definitely know how to use zoom.

My kids have never used zoom. And my son certainly isn't going to sit at a laptop without a paraeducator.

They don't have textbooks. We don't even get lessons for how to do the homework they send home now, nor do the teachers respond to questions about how to it (other than saying to just skip it). Virtual would be a disaster if they tried to cover anything new.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Everyone with high schoolers can scream all you want, but virtual doesn't work for younger elementary kids. They don't have chromebooks. They don't have textbooks. Lessons aren't available to parents.

Of ourse it does. But, parents have to support it. They can upload assignments/books - most textbooks are online. And, aren't they using standard math curriculum now, Eurika or something else that if you google you can find the books for free.

Teachers don't follow the Eureka strategies as described in the books, which just creates more confusion. And the books available online don't match the version MCPS uses now. I've spent *A LOT* of time going through them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Everyone with high schoolers can scream all you want, but virtual doesn't work for younger elementary kids. They don't have chromebooks. They don't have textbooks. Lessons aren't available to parents.

You’re adorable. My high schooler was actually a 3rd grader when the pandemic started and we used our own devices in the beginning. They didn’t issue Chromebooks and teachers didn’t know how to set up documents so we were printing out worksheets emailed by the central office, scanning them in and uploading them. Now teachers at least know how to set this stuff up and your kids definitely know how to use zoom.

My kids have never used zoom. And my son certainly isn't going to sit at a laptop without a paraeducator.

They don't have textbooks. We don't even get lessons for how to do the homework they send home now, nor do the teachers respond to questions about how to it (other than saying to just skip it). Virtual would be a disaster if they tried to cover anything new.

None of our kids had used zoom before the pandemic. They learned because they had to, and no, no one sent a paraeducator to our houses to teach them.

Every single kid in MCPS did virtual learning for a year. It’s not a big flex to do it for a few snow days as an imperfect alternative to having no educational opportunities at all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How can so many other school systems implement virtual learning when there are long-predicted prolonged absences.

Every student has a Chromebook.

Is it ideal? No.

Will there be complete equitable participation? No.

Will it prevent school from going well into the summer? Yes.

I just don’t get it.

You already figured it out. As you identified, virtual is a poor substitute for school, and many kids would be unable to meaningfully participate.

That sounds like an awful tradeoff just to preserve for summer vacation plans. The potential make up days were put in the calendar in advance. You should have known we would need an extend a week. Though, really we should use the earlier days, but that's going to require a lot of pressure on the BoE to make happen.