APS Parent - incredibly disappointed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The Op says they are disappointed with an entire school system, when what they really meant is they are disappointed with a teacher.

For some reason teachers have to be flawless individual professionals with no room for error, growth or anything that doesn't result in the parent feeling justified for thinking their taxes are actually a tuition payment. After all, teachers take a vow of poverty for their livelihood and should be treated as such.

You got a shitty teacher OP. You'll have more. Every profession has people who are bad at their job.

It's a sin here, but those people preach also take zero follow through responsibility. Maybe the ratio of crappy teachers to shitty parents is 1:1.

There’s no proof OP’s teacher is shitty. Seriously. OP’s teacher is working in a shitty situation and OP is dIsSaPpOiNtEd. Doesn’t mean the teacher sucks or is lazy or isn’t trying her absolute best in an impossible situation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Op says they are disappointed with an entire school system, when what they really meant is they are disappointed with a teacher.

For some reason teachers have to be flawless individual professionals with no room for error, growth or anything that doesn't result in the parent feeling justified for thinking their taxes are actually a tuition payment. After all, teachers take a vow of poverty for their livelihood and should be treated as such.

You got a shitty teacher OP. You'll have more. Every profession has people who are bad at their job.

It's a sin here, but those people preach also take zero follow through responsibility. Maybe the ratio of crappy teachers to shitty parents is 1:1.

There’s no proof OP’s teacher is shitty. Seriously. OP’s teacher is working in a shitty situation and OP is dIsSaPpOiNtEd. Doesn’t mean the teacher sucks or is lazy or isn’t trying her absolute best in an impossible situation.

NP. You are totally correct but the possibly that she got a shitty teacher is a million times more likely than the possibility that’s my teachers are taking advantage.

[Anonymous]

Lmao another thread of people being mad at teachers that a school system had to remake itself during a global pandemic unprecedented public health crisis in which their federal government did nothing.

Oh man these threads will never not be funny.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Lmao another thread of people being mad at teachers that a school system had to remake itself during a global pandemic unprecedented public health crisis in which their federal government did nothing.

Oh man these threads will never not be funny.

It’s serious this time. OP’s Arlington husband is disappointed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lmao another thread of people being mad at teachers that a school system had to remake itself during a global pandemic unprecedented public health crisis in which their federal government did nothing.

Oh man these threads will never not be funny.

It’s serious this time. OP’s Arlington husband is disappointed.

Lol comment of the day.

[Anonymous]

Hi OP. I’m sorry you are having a crappy experience. I’m an APS upper elementary teacher and want to address some of your issues:
-yes the hours are 9-2:20. This is determined by APS, not teachers.
- my class has live meetings 9-11:40, 12:30-2:30 daily
- we do a short lesson and then students do an independent assignment. That’s what we did in the classroom too. During the independent assignment there is a shared screen reminding students of the instructions (what they should do, what they should do when they finish before our next synchronous activity, who needs to finish a previous assignment, and what materials they need to get together for the next part).
-during the independent part, I am in a small group “room” open to all who need help. I am also a heck of student work as it is turned in for grading and calling individual kids who need reteaching because they didn’t do well on the assignment. My special Ed coteacher is in another “small group” room working with students with IEP’s to access the assignment and reteach as needed with those students. This generally takes the entire independent time.
-we reconvene synchronously and repeat this for each subject all day long. We have a ten minute break in the morning and usually another in the afternoon.
-our grade-level read alouds are recorded and shared because we don’t all have access to the book and we have found that what works best is to screen record the kindle version so students can both see the text and hear the text. I also have an audible account and the professional read aloud versions add so much to the listening experience so I use that too. it’s hard to do a traditional hold the book up read aloud because students need the pictures for picture books and not every teacher has a document camera.
-Mondays I have planning meetings from 9-11, 12-2, and in between I am preparing materials for the week. Most grade levels are splitting the work and preparation of digital materials, which takes a while to make because it’s a different format than we used last year in person. Everything has to be remade

I have planning meetings after school 2 days per week. I am typically at my computer 8:30-4:30/5 each day, minimum. .

[Anonymous]

Sorry, typo: “a heck of” = checking

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP,

This only means you are used to lots of hand holding, like many of your fellow Americans.

South Korea, which has better educational metrics by far than the USA, has no live lessons during distance learning. Neither do many of the world’s wealthiest nations, most of which do better than the USA in terms of math and literacy in international comparisons (in math, they ALL do better). Families receive recorded lessons and worksheets. They get the job down.

Stop whining.

DCUM is full of some of the planet's softest people.

ARLINGTON is full of the world’s softest people: “Open Schools Now” in the middle of a pandemic because Johnny misses his friends. The only reason he is out massless playing with dozens of boys is because school isn’t open. And he keeps leaving his desk to play video games. I blame APS.

These parents are all just too much. I have sympathy for parents of kids with disabilities or severe mental health issues. They need help and they need in person school. Also families who MUST work in person should have a facility to send their kids to. The rest of you need to grow up.

[Anonymous]

as an APS teacher, I agree with you. I really hate that all parents have to preface everything with "I know teachers are working so hard" and "you are so amazing" so they don't come off as horrible and get beaten down by the crowd. distance learning sucks. I'm a HS teacher and hate that I am only allowed to be on camera with each class for 45 minutes twice a week (I'm not an AP teacher).

I am NOT familiar with elementary, so this next thought doesn't apply to younger grades, but I'm so fed up with secondary teachers saying they are working 15+ hour days and are such martyrs. they'd have to be ridiculously incompetent to need such long hours to transfer a class online that they've been teaching for years. I very much agree that some teachers are riding the DL train because they like working from home better (who doesn't?). I'm probably just jaded from reading too much AEM where parents have to bow down to teachers before asking a question, and then teachers jump down their throats about how parents are so privileged and don't care about the lives of teachers. eye roll. while it's not feasible this week due to rising numbers, I do believe we should be back in the classrooms (and should have been since september). DL doesn't work for many, MANY students. mine are suffering, mentally if not academically.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's 2.5 months into distance learning, and my husband and I are so disappointed with the APS elementary instruction. The "live" portion of instruction amounts to roughly 12 hours/week. Mondays are teacher workdays, Tues-Fri is 9-2:20 with more than half that time spent on breaks or independent learning. Even "live teacher reading" is recorded, along with minimal grading and interaction with the teacher. We have lots of respect teachers and maybe it's just our school, but we are fed-up with the minimal effort here. Add in the 2 days of additional asynchronous learning in November for preparing for hybrid learning that was cancelled, the amount of effort put forth for our child's education right now is dismal.

I'm sorry to write this, but I feel that "some" teachers are taking advantage of this situation and a very large proportion of these teachers are also hoping to remain with DL. Teachers should be considered essential workers and the hybrid model has to become a priority for early 2021.

To be fair there is a lot of independent work when classes are face to face, too. It’s like you have some idea that teachers should be constantly lecturing.

I have a suggestion for you: stop monitoring and let the professionals do their job. You have zero standing to critique them. You are only a parent. You know nothing about pedagogy, and you don’t know what you don’t know. Take a seat.

stop monitoring? Seriously? Yeah, I should just leave my young child to his own devices all day..

It’s what I do and it’s fine. I am sorry your kid can’t be trusted. But that’s a YOU problem and a parenting fail, it’s not a school systemic problem.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The ones who you think are “taking advantage” of the distance learning format were probably crappy teachers anyway. There are always people who are unmotivated and bad at their jobs. So yeah there is no connection to the amount of in-person time our kids get and the quality of the teacher.

Also when my child is doing independent work, the teacher is usually working in small groups with other kids. Just because you don’t see the teacher on the screen doesn’t mean the teacher isn’t working!

+1 to the first part. These are the same teachers that would have the kids working on a quarter-long project, alll day long every day, and then would take months to grade it. There have always been teachers out there even in school that do nothing.

but believe me there are teachers out there that are trying to make it work. It sounds like you have one of the former.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's 2.5 months into distance learning, and my husband and I are so disappointed with the APS elementary instruction. The "live" portion of instruction amounts to roughly 12 hours/week. Mondays are teacher workdays, Tues-Fri is 9-2:20 with more than half that time spent on breaks or independent learning. Even "live teacher reading" is recorded, along with minimal grading and interaction with the teacher. We have lots of respect teachers and maybe it's just our school, but we are fed-up with the minimal effort here. Add in the 2 days of additional asynchronous learning in November for preparing for hybrid learning that was cancelled, the amount of effort put forth for our child's education right now is dismal.

I'm sorry to write this, but I feel that "some" teachers are taking advantage of this situation and a very large proportion of these teachers are also hoping to remain with DL. Teachers should be considered essential workers and the hybrid model has to become a priority for early 2021.

When the world is in the middle of a pandemic that leaves many dead or with long term issues, teachers are NOT essential employees.

People like doctors, nurses, scientists, grocery employees, food factory workers, etc. ARE essential.

Making sure people are in good health, have food, have water, and have shelter are the priorities. You know, things that help keep your fellow humans alive.

I have been saying this for months. Teachers are not essential employees. Essential employees are those that are needed to sustain life. Teachers are just trying to do their job like everybody else. It would be easier for parents if they were deemed essential, but that's not the way it is.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:as an APS teacher, I agree with you. I really hate that all parents have to preface everything with "I know teachers are working so hard" and "you are so amazing" so they don't come off as horrible and get beaten down by the crowd. distance learning sucks. I'm a HS teacher and hate that I am only allowed to be on camera with each class for 45 minutes twice a week (I'm not an AP teacher).

I am NOT familiar with elementary, so this next thought doesn't apply to younger grades, but I'm so fed up with secondary teachers saying they are working 15+ hour days and are such martyrs. they'd have to be ridiculously incompetent to need such long hours to transfer a class online that they've been teaching for years. I very much agree that some teachers are riding the DL train because they like working from home better (who doesn't?). I'm probably just jaded from reading too much AEM where parents have to bow down to teachers before asking a question, and then teachers jump down their throats about how parents are so privileged and don't care about the lives of teachers. eye roll. while it's not feasible this week due to rising numbers, I do believe we should be back in the classrooms (and should have been since september). DL doesn't work for many, MANY students. mine are suffering, mentally if not academically.

+10000 Thank you for voicing this and not berating the posters with concerns over how DL is being handled. I find it interesting how quickly folks are to attack parent posters who are frustrated. They can dish it out, but they can't take it

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's 2.5 months into distance learning, and my husband and I are so disappointed with the APS elementary instruction. The "live" portion of instruction amounts to roughly 12 hours/week. Mondays are teacher workdays, Tues-Fri is 9-2:20 with more than half that time spent on breaks or independent learning. Even "live teacher reading" is recorded, along with minimal grading and interaction with the teacher. We have lots of respect teachers and maybe it's just our school, but we are fed-up with the minimal effort here. Add in the 2 days of additional asynchronous learning in November for preparing for hybrid learning that was cancelled, the amount of effort put forth for our child's education right now is dismal.

I'm sorry to write this, but I feel that "some" teachers are taking advantage of this situation and a very large proportion of these teachers are also hoping to remain with DL. Teachers should be considered essential workers and the hybrid model has to become a priority for early 2021.

When the world is in the middle of a pandemic that leaves many dead or with long term issues, teachers are NOT essential employees.

People like doctors, nurses, scientists, grocery employees, food factory workers, etc. ARE essential.

Making sure people are in good health, have food, have water, and have shelter are the priorities. You know, things that help keep your fellow humans alive.

there seems to be some discrepancy on essential, seeing that bars, restaurants and even gyms are open but schools are not..

I have been saying this for months. Teachers are not essential employees. Essential employees are those that are needed to sustain life. Teachers are just trying to do their job like everybody else. It would be easier for parents if they were deemed essential, but that's not the way it is.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The Op says they are disappointed with an entire school system, when what they really meant is they are disappointed with a teacher.

For some reason teachers have to be flawless individual professionals with no room for error, growth or anything that doesn't result in the parent feeling justified for thinking their taxes are actually a tuition payment. After all, teachers take a vow of poverty for their livelihood and should be treated as such.

You got a shitty teacher OP. You'll have more. Every profession has people who are bad at their job.

It's a sin here, but those people preach also take zero follow through responsibility. Maybe the ratio of crappy teachers to shitty parents is 1:1.

Yep, what A lot of these parents have yet to realize is the s***** teachers are still ahead of them. My DD had a lot more of those lackluster teachers in high school than she ever had an elementary or middle school combined.