Virtual Learning for Elementary School-Description by Our Principal

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:“Teachers provide” 3.5 hours of instruction to include small groups. Not every kid will receive small groups on the same day apparently. This is what happened in the spring to us. NOT GOOD ENOUGH! I would push back on your principal. This seems wrong.

I am in agreement that kids should be getting more than 2.5 or 3.5 hours of instruction, although I do think it will be hard for kids to attend to computer instruction for much longer—giving choice boards and independent work gives them a chance to do some work on their own without having to try to engage constantly. Additionally, kids NEED to do work on their own; I am not just dumping knowledge in their heads, I am teaching them to apply it, so they need application opportunities. I would rather see the independent work time bracketed by lessons so they return to the teacher and can be a little more accountable.


Of course kids won’t get small groups on the same day; they don’t in the classroom, either. If I have 60 minutes for guided reading and do 20-minute groups, I can only fit in 3. The other kids have independent reading work I have assigned. Kids also need that independent time—they have to practice reading on their own to get better at it, and not just for homework.

I think 3.5 hours of live instruction is more than enough, but that’s not what the schedule posted by OP provides. It’s much less! I also agree there needs to be practice time, but that work needs to be reviewed by a teacher in small group time. That didn’t happen last year and it was awful to make our kid do all fo the assignments but never get any feedback. We don’t want to grade his work! He hates us as teachers lol. That’s your job, we are too mean.

PP- laughing at everyone here. I agree the kids need feedback on their work, they will get that with DL as work will be graded. They do NOT need to have the teaching looking at them while doing the work. I honestly wonder if most of the posters here went to school. Do you not remember working on work at your desk? That doesn’t need to be done on a camera. If your child needs that much face time with a teacher in the 6th grade, you should be looking at an IEP. Your 6th grader is either in middle school or headed there and needs to take charge of their own learning. They absolutely should be able to get directions from the teacher, attempt to follow up and be able to email the teacher or ask questions during office hours. IF they can’t, you should be concerned about middle school.

I don't want small reading groups for my 5th grader, I want discussion, Socratic seminar, book club, etc. Real instruction and real school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:“Teachers provide” 3.5 hours of instruction to include small groups. Not every kid will receive small groups on the same day apparently. This is what happened in the spring to us. NOT GOOD ENOUGH! I would push back on your principal. This seems wrong.

I am in agreement that kids should be getting more than 2.5 or 3.5 hours of instruction, although I do think it will be hard for kids to attend to computer instruction for much longer—giving choice boards and independent work gives them a chance to do some work on their own without having to try to engage constantly. Additionally, kids NEED to do work on their own; I am not just dumping knowledge in their heads, I am teaching them to apply it, so they need application opportunities. I would rather see the independent work time bracketed by lessons so they return to the teacher and can be a little more accountable.


Of course kids won’t get small groups on the same day; they don’t in the classroom, either. If I have 60 minutes for guided reading and do 20-minute groups, I can only fit in 3. The other kids have independent reading work I have assigned. Kids also need that independent time—they have to practice reading on their own to get better at it, and not just for homework.

.

I think 3.5 hours of live instruction is more than enough, but that’s not what the schedule posted by OP provides. It’s much less! I also agree there needs to be practice time, but that work needs to be reviewed by a teacher in small group time. That didn’t happen last year and it was awful to make our kid do all fo the assignments but never get any feedback. We don’t want to grade his work! He hates us as teachers lol. That’s your job, we are too mean.

PP- laughing at everyone here. I agree the kids need feedback on their work, they will get that with DL as work will be graded. They do NOT need to have the teaching looking at them while doing the work. I honestly wonder if most of the posters here went to school. Do you not remember working on work at your desk? That doesn’t need to be done on a camera. If your child needs that much face time with a teacher in the 6th grade, you should be looking at an IEP. Your 6th grader is either in middle school or headed there and needs to take charge of their own learning. They absolutely should be able to get directions from the teacher, attempt to follow up and be able to email the teacher or ask questions during office hours. IF they can’t, you should be concerned about middle school.

I didn’t say the work needs to be done on camera. I said it needs to be reviewed, preferable in small groups so the child actually gets feedback on areas where they might struggle. Also we are talking about elementary school, not middle school. At least in my case, 3rd grade. 3.5 hours is plenty, like I said. 3 is okay, I’m assuming the office hours make up the extra 30 in the sample. I don’t think it’s a bad schedule if each kid gets one small group and access to office hours every day.

This is way less than 3 hours though?

Is it, looks like about 3 including 1.5 hours of specials, one small group (either math or reading), and 30 minutes of office hours. Did I miss something?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:“Teachers provide” 3.5 hours of instruction to include small groups. Not every kid will receive small groups on the same day apparently. This is what happened in the spring to us. NOT GOOD ENOUGH! I would push back on your principal. This seems wrong.

I am in agreement that kids should be getting more than 2.5 or 3.5 hours of instruction, although I do think it will be hard for kids to attend to computer instruction for much longer—giving choice boards and independent work gives them a chance to do some work on their own without having to try to engage constantly. Additionally, kids NEED to do work on their own; I am not just dumping knowledge in their heads, I am teaching them to apply it, so they need application opportunities. I would rather see the independent work time bracketed by lessons so they return to the teacher and can be a little more accountable.


Of course kids won’t get small groups on the same day; they don’t in the classroom, either. If I have 60 minutes for guided reading and do 20-minute groups, I can only fit in 3. The other kids have independent reading work I have assigned. Kids also need that independent time—they have to practice reading on their own to get better at it, and not just for homework.

.

I think 3.5 hours of live instruction is more than enough, but that’s not what the schedule posted by OP provides. It’s much less! I also agree there needs to be practice time, but that work needs to be reviewed by a teacher in small group time. That didn’t happen last year and it was awful to make our kid do all fo the assignments but never get any feedback. We don’t want to grade his work! He hates us as teachers lol. That’s your job, we are too mean.

PP- laughing at everyone here. I agree the kids need feedback on their work, they will get that with DL as work will be graded. They do NOT need to have the teaching looking at them while doing the work. I honestly wonder if most of the posters here went to school. Do you not remember working on work at your desk? That doesn’t need to be done on a camera. If your child needs that much face time with a teacher in the 6th grade, you should be looking at an IEP. Your 6th grader is either in middle school or headed there and needs to take charge of their own learning. They absolutely should be able to get directions from the teacher, attempt to follow up and be able to email the teacher or ask questions during office hours. IF they can’t, you should be concerned about middle school.

I didn’t say the work needs to be done on camera. I said it needs to be reviewed, preferable in small groups so the child actually gets feedback on areas where they might struggle. Also we are talking about elementary school, not middle school. At least in my case, 3rd grade. 3.5 hours is plenty, like I said. 3 is okay, I’m assuming the office hours make up the extra 30 in the sample. I don’t think it’s a bad schedule if each kid gets one small group and access to office hours every day.

This is way less than 3 hours though?

Is it, looks like about 3 including 1.5 hours of specials, one small group (either math or reading), and 30 minutes of office hours. Did I miss something?

No, there is no guarantee that your child will have a small group that day. Your child might have reading group tuesday and math group thursday. Personally, I wouldn't count the time when the children log off and work on homework as "instructional time" either. Or teacher office hours. YMMV.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:“Teachers provide” 3.5 hours of instruction to include small groups. Not every kid will receive small groups on the same day apparently. This is what happened in the spring to us. NOT GOOD ENOUGH! I would push back on your principal. This seems wrong.

I am in agreement that kids should be getting more than 2.5 or 3.5 hours of instruction, although I do think it will be hard for kids to attend to computer instruction for much longer—giving choice boards and independent work gives them a chance to do some work on their own without having to try to engage constantly. Additionally, kids NEED to do work on their own; I am not just dumping knowledge in their heads, I am teaching them to apply it, so they need application opportunities. I would rather see the independent work time bracketed by lessons so they return to the teacher and can be a little more accountable.


Of course kids won’t get small groups on the same day; they don’t in the classroom, either. If I have 60 minutes for guided reading and do 20-minute groups, I can only fit in 3. The other kids have independent reading work I have assigned. Kids also need that independent time—they have to practice reading on their own to get better at it, and not just for homework.

I think 3.5 hours of live instruction is more than enough, but that’s not what the schedule posted by OP provides. It’s much less! I also agree there needs to be practice time, but that work needs to be reviewed by a teacher in small group time. That didn’t happen last year and it was awful to make our kid do all fo the assignments but never get any feedback. We don’t want to grade his work! He hates us as teachers lol. That’s your job, we are too mean.

PP- laughing at everyone here. I agree the kids need feedback on their work, they will get that with DL as work will be graded. They do NOT need to have the teaching looking at them while doing the work. I honestly wonder if most of the posters here went to school. Do you not remember working on work at your desk? That doesn’t need to be done on a camera. If your child needs that much face time with a teacher in the 6th grade, you should be looking at an IEP. Your 6th grader is either in middle school or headed there and needs to take charge of their own learning. They absolutely should be able to get directions from the teacher, attempt to follow up and be able to email the teacher or ask questions during office hours. IF they can’t, you should be concerned about middle school.

I don't want small reading groups for my 5th grader, I want discussion, Socratic seminar, book club, etc. Real instruction and real school.

[Anonymous]

Since the Spring was a mess, my kid has been doing online classes for a couple hours a day over the summer. The classes are taught by college students. I’m really impressed by how the teachers keep the students engaged for 2 hours. There’s a lot of interaction. I don’t think more than 5 minutes go by without my kid getting called on to answer a question. They also do a lot of small breakout groups where the kids work on problems and the teacher moves from group to group and answer questions.

I don’t understand why FCPS is unable to put forward a reasonable plan to teach kids. What OP put forward looks wildly inadequate. No expects teachers to lecture for 6.5 hours a day, but there needs to be time for students to work on the concepts that are taught and ask questions, like in small groups. Expecting all the problems to be done offline without any assistance available is ridiculous.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The LCPS one is worse. A 30 minute “morning meeting” plus two 45 minute blocks “synchronous instruction.”

A block for small groups that most kids don’t qualify for, and 1 special per day that can be synchronous OR asynchronous.

That’s it. And people are lining up for it. I don’t get it.

Are many families signing up for virtual learning in LCPS?

[Anonymous]

^^^ Agree.

This is a chance for teachers and schools to be innovative and do things they wouldn't otherwise have time to do. They absolutely do need to do more to foster kids relatinoships and social skills.

Geography? Spelling? Coding? Look on outschool at all the many kinds of things that can successfully be taught online. They could have different clubs that meet on different days for different interests, etc etc. No one is expecting a teacher to clock in and drone on like Charlie Brown's teacher for 3.5 hours and then clock out but come on, this is not what you expect from a "world class" school system.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:“Teachers provide” 3.5 hours of instruction to include small groups. Not every kid will receive small groups on the same day apparently. This is what happened in the spring to us. NOT GOOD ENOUGH! I would push back on your principal. This seems wrong.

I am in agreement that kids should be getting more than 2.5 or 3.5 hours of instruction, although I do think it will be hard for kids to attend to computer instruction for much longer—giving choice boards and independent work gives them a chance to do some work on their own without having to try to engage constantly. Additionally, kids NEED to do work on their own; I am not just dumping knowledge in their heads, I am teaching them to apply it, so they need application opportunities. I would rather see the independent work time bracketed by lessons so they return to the teacher and can be a little more accountable.


Of course kids won’t get small groups on the same day; they don’t in the classroom, either. If I have 60 minutes for guided reading and do 20-minute groups, I can only fit in 3. The other kids have independent reading work I have assigned. Kids also need that independent time—they have to practice reading on their own to get better at it, and not just for homework.

.

I think 3.5 hours of live instruction is more than enough, but that’s not what the schedule posted by OP provides. It’s much less! I also agree there needs to be practice time, but that work needs to be reviewed by a teacher in small group time. That didn’t happen last year and it was awful to make our kid do all fo the assignments but never get any feedback. We don’t want to grade his work! He hates us as teachers lol. That’s your job, we are too mean.

PP- laughing at everyone here. I agree the kids need feedback on their work, they will get that with DL as work will be graded. They do NOT need to have the teaching looking at them while doing the work. I honestly wonder if most of the posters here went to school. Do you not remember working on work at your desk? That doesn’t need to be done on a camera. If your child needs that much face time with a teacher in the 6th grade, you should be looking at an IEP. Your 6th grader is either in middle school or headed there and needs to take charge of their own learning. They absolutely should be able to get directions from the teacher, attempt to follow up and be able to email the teacher or ask questions during office hours. IF they can’t, you should be concerned about middle school.

I didn’t say the work needs to be done on camera. I said it needs to be reviewed, preferable in small groups so the child actually gets feedback on areas where they might struggle. Also we are talking about elementary school, not middle school. At least in my case, 3rd grade. 3.5 hours is plenty, like I said. 3 is okay, I’m assuming the office hours make up the extra 30 in the sample. I don’t think it’s a bad schedule if each kid gets one small group and access to office hours every day.

This is way less than 3 hours though?

Is it, looks like about 3 including 1.5 hours of specials, one small group (either math or reading), and 30 minutes of office hours. Did I miss something?

Office hours are not going to be every day. Your child is not going to get small group time every day. It will probably be once per week per subject. If its not his day, it's 50 minutes of instruction with the teacher. That's it.

[Anonymous]

I think this is a troll.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Since the Spring was a mess, my kid has been doing online classes for a couple hours a day over the summer. The classes are taught by college students. I’m really impressed by how the teachers keep the students engaged for 2 hours. There’s a lot of interaction. I don’t think more than 5 minutes go by without my kid getting called on to answer a question. They also do a lot of small breakout groups where the kids work on problems and the teacher moves from group to group and answer questions.

I don’t understand why FCPS is unable to put forward a reasonable plan to teach kids. What OP put forward looks wildly inadequate. No expects teachers to lecture for 6.5 hours a day, but there needs to be time for students to work on the concepts that are taught and ask questions, like in small groups. Expecting all the problems to be done offline without any assistance available is ridiculous.

Who is offering these online classes?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The LCPS one is worse. A 30 minute “morning meeting” plus two 45 minute blocks “synchronous instruction.”

A block for small groups that most kids don’t qualify for, and 1 special per day that can be synchronous OR asynchronous.

That’s it. And people are lining up for it. I don’t get it.

Are many families signing up for virtual learning in LCPS?

We have no idea. The email to select only went out Monday and parents have until 7/13 to make a selection. Teachers have until 7/12.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:HAHAHAHA. What do you people think happens in school? Do you REALLY think your kid is getting constant time with the teacher??

No one is going to be focusing on science or social studies either in person or DL.

You don’t realize that more half of the school day is doing work on your own, and getting it checked?

You really want your kid to spend that much time online staring at the teacher because to you that means learning? There is a practice element too.

Thanks for posting though OP because I too find this schedule icky. There is way too much time on the computer and I don’t want my kid to do “specials” which just adds more screen time to the day. We will probably home school.

Of course that's what happens in school. But the kids are all there together, working on their worksheets and asking questions as necessary. They have to be quiet. They can't get up every 5 min for a juice box or whatever. There's an element of peer-induced discipline that I've never been able to replicate at home for my only child 7 year old.

Thanks OP, for sharing this. It really makes me feel better about my decision to go with 2 days a week, even though that's also going to be a hot mess and my kid will likely be home DL anyway by Oct.

[Anonymous]

I don't want small reading groups for my 5th grader, I want discussion, Socratic seminar, book club, etc. Real instruction and real school.

Of course it will vary for grade level and kids’ needs. Kindergarteners often get small reading groups (to, you know, learn to read) rather than Socratic seminar or book clubs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

I don't want small reading groups for my 5th grader, I want discussion, Socratic seminar, book club, etc. Real instruction and real school.

Of course it will vary for grade level and kids’ needs. Kindergarteners often get small reading groups (to, you know, learn to read) rather than Socratic seminar or book clubs.

But they should be meeting every day.

[Anonymous]

I'm a teacher in another district and would find this schedule really disappointing for my own dc.