Virtual learning if shutdown goes on?

[Anonymous]

Teacher here too - I love that we are getting information at the same time as our school community! I'm all for reconnecting with my kids but how about a heads up regarding what this will look like next Monday. Do we have trainings this week? My laptop is slowly dying at home so I guess I better try and get one this week.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone have a sense or inside information if virtual classrooms with student's teachers will happen if this goes past the two weeks? My 6th grader has almost finished the materials provided by MCPS. I'm trying to find other resources but I also need to work. Plus it would be great for kids to see their teachers and classmates, even if just through a computer screen for a couple of hours a day. Hoping it's in the works...

I was told by someone in MCPS that they don’t want to do virtual classrooms because they can’t guarantee that every kid would have access, and it’s an equity problem.

MCPS is afraid of being sued. This well only exacerbate the achievement gap because families who can will homeschool or hire tutors. Have other local public schools moved to online learning or is it just MCPS choosing to avoid litigation and let those rest & willing to learn flounder?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s not that hard! Use zoom to have a class with the kids everyday. What’s the freakin’ problem??

Equity. 1% of students may not have access to this (lack of computer or internet access); or unable to use it (blind, for example).

Way more than 1% of kids in Moco don't have a device or internet or an IEP

Aren't they already giving them free food, what the hell

[Anonymous]

Honestly, I think that parents are mistaken and are hopeful that the virtual learning will keep their kids occupied so they don’t have to. I think they’re in for a rude awakening because it will be so discombobulated that it will require more parental involvement than what we’ve been doing this past week (online field trips, Epic, Prodigy etc). I don’t think it’s going to be the respite that most are assuming it will be.

Honestly, I wish they weren’t rushing to get online learning up and running by the 30th. The teachers have heard nothing about what they’re expected to do and it will take time to get them up to speed. There’s so much uncertainty and stress around us (that kids certainly feel and internalize) that we need to prioritize our physical and mental health—not when your kids can go back to completing math problems and reading comprehension questions. I think this will just be an additional source of stress and there will be complaints galore and parental frustration that they still have to be involved.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Teacher here too - I love that we are getting information at the same time as our school community! I'm all for reconnecting with my kids but how about a heads up regarding what this will look like next Monday. Do we have trainings this week? My laptop is slowly dying at home so I guess I better try and get one this week.

My laptop is on its last legs as well. I can’t afford a new one now though. Maybe we can get a Chromebook from school too??

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If schools are closed the rest of the year, they will have no choice but to go online. There is no way the state will waive that many days.

I can count TEN teachers in MCPS who are properly trained in online instruction.

ain't happenin'

If PG and DC can do it, so can MCPS. And PG and DC have waaay more low income students than MCPS does.

And what does it look like?

Tell me, and I'll let you know if it's done correctly.

With effective online instruction, there are multiple training tiers. Kids need training as well, as not all LMS formats are intuitive. And each teacher does it differently. Teaching is hard enough face-to-face. Do you think online is a magical answer?

been there - it ain't!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If schools are closed the rest of the year, they will have no choice but to go online. There is no way the state will waive that many days.

I can count TEN teachers in MCPS who are properly trained in online instruction.

ain't happenin'

If PG and DC can do it, so can MCPS. And PG and DC have waaay more low income students than MCPS does.

And what does it look like?

Tell me, and I'll let you know if it's done correctly.

With effective online instruction, there are multiple training tiers. Kids need training as well, as not all LMS formats are intuitive. And each teacher does it differently. Teaching is hard enough face-to-face. Do you think online is a magical answer?

been there - it ain't!

Nothing is going to be perfect. Never said it would be "magical". No one stated that. It doesn't mean something shouldn't be done. Better than hand wringing, and saying "it's just too hard..". Great attitude. Hope you are not a teacher.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Honestly, I think that parents are mistaken and are hopeful that the virtual learning will keep their kids occupied so they don’t have to. I think they’re in for a rude awakening because it will be so discombobulated that it will require more parental involvement than what we’ve been doing this past week (online field trips, Epic, Prodigy etc). I don’t think it’s going to be the respite that most are assuming it will be.

Honestly, I wish they weren’t rushing to get online learning up and running by the 30th. The teachers have heard nothing about what they’re expected to do and it will take time to get them up to speed. There’s so much uncertainty and stress around us (that kids certainly feel and internalize) that we need to prioritize our physical and mental health—not when your kids can go back to completing math problems and reading comprehension questions. I think this will just be an additional source of stress and there will be complaints galore and parental frustration that they still have to be involved.

+1. I feel like parents think virtual learning will occupy their kids for hours of the day. It's not going to be like that.

[Anonymous]

I think it’s great they are getting it up and running on the 30th. They’ll have one week to pilot it before Spring Break when they can work out some of the kinks. Those of us with office jobs had to get our online stuff working overnight.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If schools are closed the rest of the year, they will have no choice but to go online. There is no way the state will waive that many days.

I can count TEN teachers in MCPS who are properly trained in online instruction.

ain't happenin'

If PG and DC can do it, so can MCPS. And PG and DC have waaay more low income students than MCPS does.

And what does it look like?

Tell me, and I'll let you know if it's done correctly.

With effective online instruction, there are multiple training tiers. Kids need training as well, as not all LMS formats are intuitive. And each teacher does it differently. Teaching is hard enough face-to-face. Do you think online is a magical answer?

been there - it ain't!

Howard County is doing the same basically nothing as MoCo

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s not that hard! Use zoom to have a class with the kids everyday. What’s the freakin’ problem??

Equity. 1% of students may not have access to this (lack of computer or internet access); or unable to use it (blind, for example).

Way more than 1% of kids in Moco don't have a device or internet or an IEP

Aren't they already giving them free food, what the hell

Oh look, Mr. Bumble is posting on DCUM.

[Anonymous]

-MCPS needs to train the teachers first;
-MCPS needs to manually adjust chromebooks for those who do not have access at home. My limited understanding is they are connected to the chargers and MCPS System at the school, not as simple as take it home and use a hotspot. Each one that goes home needs a manual adjustment first;
-Figure out how to get special ed services online for those who need them. Won't be as good as in person, but neither will the education the non 504/IEP kids are getting.
-Continue to improve as time goes on. Don't give up, don't quit, keep on getting better!

We all know MCPS doesn't roll things out well. I don't expect this to go any better, but hopefully it will get better as time goes on and teachers and students become more comfortable with the new normal of online education. We ALL need to be patient. I am one of MCPS biggest critics, and I want them to get this right. They won't, and we, the parent community, need to give them a chance to fix as they go. It will take time and a lot of effort from our teachers, who may have children of their own to work with in addition to the 166,000 public school students.

[Anonymous]

I am a teacher. I've been working on things for next week. Because I teach early primary, with the exception of one online math program where I'll assign regular work (kids can work independently for 15 minutes per day), every single lesson will have to be supervised by an adult, just like in the classroom. Online teaching is necessary to ensure kids don't lose more progress, but it won't be something kids can do on their own. K-2 takes full adult supervision nearly 100% of the time, 3-4th, about 50% supervision, and 5-8th about 25% supervision. Even high schoolers need some amount of help. No one wanted this, but here we are. I wish every parent the best regardless of whether their kids' teacher provides work or not, though I truly hope they do. We need to you sit next to your kid a few hours each day to help them learn. That's what we do each day and now that we can't be there, we need you to be there. Good luck!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:-MCPS needs to train the teachers first;
-MCPS needs to manually adjust chromebooks for those who do not have access at home. My limited understanding is they are connected to the chargers and MCPS System at the school, not as simple as take it home and use a hotspot. Each one that goes home needs a manual adjustment first;
-Figure out how to get special ed services online for those who need them. Won't be as good as in person, but neither will the education the non 504/IEP kids are getting.
-Continue to improve as time goes on. Don't give up, don't quit, keep on getting better!

We all know MCPS doesn't roll things out well. I don't expect this to go any better, but hopefully it will get better as time goes on and teachers and students become more comfortable with the new normal of online education. We ALL need to be patient. I am one of MCPS biggest critics, and I want them to get this right. They won't, and we, the parent community, need to give them a chance to fix as they go. It will take time and a lot of effort from our teachers, who may have children of their own to work with in addition to the 166,000 public school students.

The Chromebooks are stored in carts and the chargers are in those carts, but can be removed and sent home with the Chromebooks. It will take some time to “free” the chargers, but all you need is a screwdriver.

Every student has a school email account, so they have access as long as they have an internet connection. Some ISPs are offering free two-month connections.

Teachers want to get moving on this, but we too are awaiting instructions.

Hogan is going to order a lockdown, like NY, on Monday, I believe. Press conference is scheduled.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Honestly, I think that parents are mistaken and are hopeful that the virtual learning will keep their kids occupied so they don’t have to. I think they’re in for a rude awakening because it will be so discombobulated that it will require more parental involvement than what we’ve been doing this past week (online field trips, Epic, Prodigy etc). I don’t think it’s going to be the respite that most are assuming it will be.

Honestly, I wish they weren’t rushing to get online learning up and running by the 30th. The teachers have heard nothing about what they’re expected to do and it will take time to get them up to speed. There’s so much uncertainty and stress around us (that kids certainly feel and internalize) that we need to prioritize our physical and mental health—not when your kids can go back to completing math problems and reading comprehension questions. I think this will just be an additional source of stress and there will be complaints galore and parental frustration that they still have to be involved.

Winner winner chicken dinner.

my prediction is that when mcps rolls out distance learning we will have twice as many complaints about how terrible it is and how parents could do better or are supplementing w/lessons on underwater basket weaving and baroque music appreciation.