What’s your elementary school plan?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Those of you who say teachers on zoom - does that mean no teacher will be in the classroom? Just a random monitor? And schools think parents will be ok with that?

Everyone I know who selected to return in person did it with the assumption that the teacher would be there. If schools are planning monitors around the numbers from the survey they're going to have a big issue...

What exactly are parents going to do about? About the only thing they can do is switch to DL and, frankly, I bet the schools would be thrilled if more people switched to DL.

More conspiratorial people out there might think that they are making in-person as unappealing as possible to reduce the number of people actually doing it.

What if the teachers WANT to be in person? What happens then? I know a lot of teachers of younger kids who are dying to be back in person.

Not to mention the inequity of why it's safe to have a monitor in class but not a teacher. What school wants to deal with those questions? Not to mention why should teachers be vaccinated if [b]they're staying home?

I've been wondering this all along.

Both this, and the idea that monitors are somehow allowed in but teachers arent, are going to cause riots especially at the wealthier schools.

It is super strange.

Will the monitors then be prioritized for vaccines?

Even if they are prioritized, it would take a long time for them to get vaccinated. Teachers have been eligible for a while and plenty of them still haven't gotten appointments.

Low paid, unvaccinated, aides who will likely be almost exclusively POC will be sent to the classroom in lieu of teachers.

[Anonymous]

to cave to the teacher

[Anonymous]

Listening to the plan from my kid's ES now.
K-3rd kids who return will have direct instruction by teachers in the classroom; classrooms are being re-assigned to accommodate this.
4th and 5th grade are doing "support to virtual"; teachers will teach from home and paraeducators/other staff will monitor the classes.
Specials are all virtual.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Listening to the plan from my kid's ES now.
K-3rd kids who return will have direct instruction by teachers in the classroom; classrooms are being re-assigned to accommodate this.
4th and 5th grade are doing "support to virtual"; teachers will teach from home and paraeducators/other staff will monitor the classes.
Specials are all virtual.

What School?

I just sat through Somerset Elementary's plan and it was a confusing mess. Kids are probably zooming, maybe with headphones, most likely with their teacher, but not certain...recess hasn't been thought out yet (something about cones and using equipment, but "thats crazy")...its like the push to reopen from both the new Presidential Administration and the MD Governor caught everyone off guard and everyone is scrambling to figure out what to do...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Listening to the plan from my kid's ES now.
K-3rd kids who return will have direct instruction by teachers in the classroom; classrooms are being re-assigned to accommodate this.
4th and 5th grade are doing "support to virtual"; teachers will teach from home and paraeducators/other staff will monitor the classes.
Specials are all virtual.

What School?

I just sat through Somerset Elementary's plan and it was a confusing mess. Kids are probably zooming, maybe with headphones, most likely with their teacher, but not certain...recess hasn't been thought out yet (something about cones and using equipment, but "thats crazy")...its like the push to reopen from both the new Presidential Administration and the MD Governor caught everyone off guard and everyone is scrambling to figure out what to do...

This is really unacceptable, because based on the county's own metrics, in-person school could start as soon as next week.

Bottom line: Schools with strong principals will have in-person instruction for kids are in schools in-person. Other schools will have support to virtual.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Listening to the plan from my kid's ES now.
K-3rd kids who return will have direct instruction by teachers in the classroom; classrooms are being re-assigned to accommodate this.
4th and 5th grade are doing "support to virtual"; teachers will teach from home and paraeducators/other staff will monitor the classes.
Specials are all virtual.

What School?

I just sat through Somerset Elementary's plan and it was a confusing mess. Kids are probably zooming, maybe with headphones, most likely with their teacher, but not certain...recess hasn't been thought out yet (something about cones and using equipment, but "thats crazy")...its like the push to reopen from both the new Presidential Administration and the MD Governor caught everyone off guard and everyone is scrambling to figure out what to do...

This is really unacceptable, because based on the county's own metrics, in-person school could start as soon as next week.

Bottom line: Schools with strong principals will have in-person instruction for kids are in schools in-person. Other schools will have support to virtual.

They must be extremely strong principals, to singlehandedly build the extra classrooms and drag all the new teachers off the streets and into the school to make that direct in-person instruction happen!

The fact is, every school has to go the best they can with the circumstances they’re given.

[Anonymous]

Some of you seem to think that teachers will be alone in a classroom while the kids are in another room with a monitor/paraeducator. That’s not my understanding based on what our MS said (haven’t heard from ES yet). The reason they need monitors/paras is that some teachers will have more students in person on a given day than they are able to have in the clasroom due to distancing. So, if they can have 12 students in a classroom but 16 students go in person in Group A, they would split them into 2 groups - 8 in the classroom with the teacher and 8 in a different classroom with a monitor. MS has each class twice a week, so a group would be with the teacher one day and with a monitor the other day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Listening to the plan from my kid's ES now.
K-3rd kids who return will have direct instruction by teachers in the classroom; classrooms are being re-assigned to accommodate this.
4th and 5th grade are doing "support to virtual"; teachers will teach from home and paraeducators/other staff will monitor the classes.
Specials are all virtual.

What School?

I just sat through Somerset Elementary's plan and it was a confusing mess. Kids are probably zooming, maybe with headphones, most likely with their teacher, but not certain...recess hasn't been thought out yet (something about cones and using equipment, but "thats crazy")...its like the push to reopen from both the new Presidential Administration and the MD Governor caught everyone off guard and everyone is scrambling to figure out what to do...

This is really unacceptable, because based on the county's own metrics, in-person school could start as soon as next week.

Bottom line: Schools with strong principals will have in-person instruction for kids are in schools in-person. Other schools will have support to virtual.

They must be extremely strong principals, to singlehandedly build the extra classrooms and drag all the new teachers off the streets and into the school to make that direct in-person instruction happen!

The fact is, every school has to go the best they can with the circumstances they’re given.

Why do they need new classrooms? We’re sending no more than half of kids to school at a time. That’s the concession to physical space.

As far as new teachers, they don’t need those either. Some principals will cave and put the desires of staff ahead of the needs of students, and some principals will tell teachers to get in classrooms or take LWOP. All of this is in the MOU. In some ways, it’s good for principals to have the flexibility to craft solutions best suited to their communities. Looked at another way, the superintendent passed the buck and set the stage for massive inequities between schools with strong leaders and schools with weak leaders.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Listening to the plan from my kid's ES now.
K-3rd kids who return will have direct instruction by teachers in the classroom; classrooms are being re-assigned to accommodate this.
4th and 5th grade are doing "support to virtual"; teachers will teach from home and paraeducators/other staff will monitor the classes.
Specials are all virtual.

Our ES specials are also all virtual

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Listening to the plan from my kid's ES now.
K-3rd kids who return will have direct instruction by teachers in the classroom; classrooms are being re-assigned to accommodate this.
4th and 5th grade are doing "support to virtual"; teachers will teach from home and paraeducators/other staff will monitor the classes.
Specials are all virtual.

What School?

I just sat through Somerset Elementary's plan and it was a confusing mess. Kids are probably zooming, maybe with headphones, most likely with their teacher, but not certain...recess hasn't been thought out yet (something about cones and using equipment, but "thats crazy")...its like the push to reopen from both the new Presidential Administration and the MD Governor caught everyone off guard and everyone is scrambling to figure out what to do...

This is really unacceptable, because based on the county's own metrics, in-person school could start as soon as next week.

Bottom line: Schools with strong principals will have in-person instruction for kids are in schools in-person. Other schools will have support to virtual.

They must be extremely strong principals, to singlehandedly build the extra classrooms and drag all the new teachers off the streets and into the school to make that direct in-person instruction happen!

The fact is, every school has to go the best they can with the circumstances they’re given.

I agree with you. My issue is that they seem to not have spent the last 11 months planning for what happens when the schools reopen. And I'm not talking about the teachers. I'm talking about the school leadership. I'm the poster about Somerset Elementary, where 70% of parents opted for "in-person" learning and the principle was reading slides she hadn't read before. Caught herself surprised at the words she was saying outside to an audience of 170+ people. There was no real plan outside of "kids will come to school by 845. 9-1130 is zoom learning, 1130 - 1 is lunch and wellness, some possible one on one in person, but we haven thought that out yet. Lunch in the classroom. We don't know what recess will look like yet. 1 - 3 is zoom school. This isn't want you would like to hear, but is what we can do." What have you been planning for the last 11 months?? The classroom cap is 12-15 students. More than that have to go to an overflow room, with a para-educator (a new term for me) to monitor the classroom. If you in an flow room, they will try to make sure its only one grade. If you are in an overflow room, its only for a week. They will try to put you one week in overflow and one week with your teacher, but zooming.

What a mess.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I agree with you. My issue is that they seem to not have spent the last 11 months planning for what happens when the schools reopen. And I'm not talking about the teachers. I'm talking about the school leadership. I'm the poster about Somerset Elementary, where 70% of parents opted for "in-person" learning and the principle was reading slides she hadn't read before. Caught herself surprised at the words she was saying outside to an audience of 170+ people. There was no real plan outside of "kids will come to school by 845. 9-1130 is zoom learning, 1130 - 1 is lunch and wellness, some possible one on one in person, but we haven thought that out yet. Lunch in the classroom. We don't know what recess will look like yet. 1 - 3 is zoom school. This isn't want you would like to hear, but is what we can do." What have you been planning for the last 11 months?? The classroom cap is 12-15 students. More than that have to go to an overflow room, with a para-educator (a new term for me) to monitor the classroom. If you in an flow room, they will try to make sure its only one grade. If you are in an overflow room, its only for a week. They will try to put you one week in overflow and one week with your teacher, but zooming.

What a mess.

A mess indeed. The BofE keeps changing the requirements, so the schools keep changing the plans.

[Anonymous]

2 days of teacher instruction, 2 days on zoom with a monitor and Wednesdays at home virtual for everyone. Not happy about it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:2 days of teacher instruction, 2 days on zoom with a monitor and Wednesdays at home virtual for everyone. Not happy about it.

That's our set up for everything but K, which is 4 days in person. Not thrilled, but sounds like it could have been worse.

[Anonymous]

Every other week in person. Kids in class with their teacher. Teacher is teaching in person kids and DL kids at the same time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Every other week in person. Kids in class with their teacher. Teacher is teaching in person kids and DL kids at the same time.

So teaching to the camera.