Teacher here, ready to throw in the towel...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

I also work for a large district. I am in NoVa. I see the first poster's point. I think you're making this harder for yourself than it needs to be. At this point the schools in the DMV are 1:1. Use that to your advantage. Use Kami or Nearpod for delivery of materials that you've either printed in the past years or that you used last year. Stop digging such a deep hole. No one in our school system (no coach, no principal and no one from "central office") is telling people to start from scratch or to avoid using materials from prior years. That would be dumb.

My students need direct instruction in math in order to be able to complete the work that is being assigned to the rest of the class. Certainly I can dredge up some past worksheets for busy work; that's not the issue. But students who miss 2 full weeks of math instruction on 4th grade aren't going to be able to just do the worksheets that have been assigned for that week, unless they have instruction in the concepts. And since students will be absent on a rolling basis, it isn't as simple as just assigning a 2 week "review" unit.

I do not have any prerecorded videos of these math lessons because we didn't record videos last year. And I don't think my students will just watch a Khan academy video either. They need direct instruction.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I also work for a large district. I am in NoVa. I see the first poster's point. I think you're making this harder for yourself than it needs to be. At this point the schools in the DMV are 1:1. Use that to your advantage. Use Kami or Nearpod for delivery of materials that you've either printed in the past years or that you used last year. Stop digging such a deep hole. No one in our school system (no coach, no principal and no one from "central office") is telling people to start from scratch or to avoid using materials from prior years. That would be dumb.

My students need direct instruction in math in order to be able to complete the work that is being assigned to the rest of the class. Certainly I can dredge up some past worksheets for busy work; that's not the issue. But students who miss 2 full weeks of math instruction on 4th grade aren't going to be able to just do the worksheets that have been assigned for that week, unless they have instruction in the concepts. And since students will be absent on a rolling basis, it isn't as simple as just assigning a 2 week "review" unit.

I do not have any prerecorded videos of these math lessons because we didn't record videos last year. And I don't think my students will just watch a Khan academy video either. They need direct instruction.

You are insisting on missing the point. Why aren't you pulling up your Nearpods or Kami documents from last year and using them this year? You don't need them recorded. But you can easily use those and make modifications based on your experiences last year with what worked and what did not work.

To my knowledge no public school system in the DMV has the expectation that teachers will be distributing, collecting and grading paper documents. You need to use the electronic documents that you used last year.

At this point I believe that you are either being deliberately obstructive to making this year work or deliberately obtuse in how to make this year work. Either way I am done with your nonsense. Good luck to your students because it sounds like they're going to need every bit of luck they can get with you as their teacher.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

DP. You should be using, either in whole or in part, what you used last year during DL or hybrid/concurrent. You should not be starting from scratch each time. Just sayin'. If I were your evaluator and you told me you were planning on starting from scratch every time this year then I would be doing a serious reevaluation of whether you were in the right assignment.

Different poster. We can't just do that. If you work for a large school district, you need to follow their plans. I can't tell you the number of times last year the plans changed on us. We can't just use "in whole or in part" what we used last year during Distance learning. That was distance learning. We were told which portions of the day had to be asynchronous learning and what those assignments were to be, and how they matched up with the curriculum, and how much time they should take students to do. And how much should be synchronous learning (Zoom and/or in class instruction) with assignments completed on Google Classroom, etc.

This year, so far, we are not doing distance learning. We aren't doing Zoom and Room lessons and posting work online. So far as we have been told, we are back to our usual, in school only classroom instruction (including a lot of small group instruction). Having students out for 1 to 2 days per illness is usually and normal and we deal with that all the time. Usually they complete a few worksheets we did in class, or a journal assignment, or make up a quiz. Or the work is simply excused.

But having multiple students out, not for illness, but for quarantine, for 10-14 days, on and off all Sept-November, missing 2- 3 weeks of instruction, is not the same thing. We aren't going to be turning on our cameras and doing hybrid instruction again, because that would allow all the parents who wanted to request virtual instruction with the classroom teacher, and the school district isn't allowing it. (If you wanted virtual you had to select it already and it isn't through your child's own school.).

I also work for a large district. I am in NoVa. I see the first poster's point. I think you're making this harder for yourself than it needs to be. At this point the schools in the DMV are 1:1. Use that to your advantage. Use Kami or Nearpod for delivery of materials that you've either printed in the past years or that you used last year. Stop digging such a deep hole. No one in our school system (no coach, no principal and no one from "central office") is telling people to start from scratch or to avoid using materials from prior years. That would be dumb.

Many schools are 1:1, but
1) the equipment differs greatly —sometimes even within systems. DD was issued a crappy old school Chromebook to take back and forth. DS was issued a top of the line touch screen one. They are both rising 10th.
2) devices matter less than the school or district purchased software
3) students are at varying levels of comfort with the technology (hardware or software). Add the stress of being positive to Covid and unexpectedly out of school and it’s not going to plug and play for 100% of kids.

Sigh. All devices have the same software and, frankly, it doesn't really matter if it is an old Chromebook or a new one. Students who have a low comfort level with technology in the 10th grade have bigger problems than their equipment if they have reached 10th grade and cannot use the basic school software.

(DP)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Someone's experience is different from yours and they are a troll?

NP and we've made seating arrangements to facilitate contact tracing, but there has been no conversation about what will happen if/when students are out for a long time or classes get pushed virtual. We luckily have lots of mitigation strategies in place (mandated masking and distancing). But it feels like "well, let's see what happens with Delta because all this worked well last year."

+1

School districts vary so much both in resources and in their ability to pivot. I teach in a large aircraft carrier type district (slow to course correct). I also teach a course that is only taught to highly gifted learners at my school and one other magnet in the district. No one is giving us either premade asynchronous materials or time off to make them. I can’t just go online to download whatever worksheet that I can link to a video.

DP. You should be using, either in whole or in part, what you used last year during DL or hybrid/concurrent. You should not be starting from scratch each time. Just sayin'. If I were your evaluator and you told me you were planning on starting from scratch every time this year then I would be doing a serious reevaluation of whether you were in the right assignment.

+1

[Anonymous]

Teachers are moved around frequently at my school. 2-3 years at one grade level and then boom! Time for a new grade level. It's almost like being a new teacher every few years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I also work for a large district. I am in NoVa. I see the first poster's point. I think you're making this harder for yourself than it needs to be. At this point the schools in the DMV are 1:1. Use that to your advantage. Use Kami or Nearpod for delivery of materials that you've either printed in the past years or that you used last year. Stop digging such a deep hole. No one in our school system (no coach, no principal and no one from "central office") is telling people to start from scratch or to avoid using materials from prior years. That would be dumb.

My students need direct instruction in math in order to be able to complete the work that is being assigned to the rest of the class. Certainly I can dredge up some past worksheets for busy work; that's not the issue. But students who miss 2 full weeks of math instruction on 4th grade aren't going to be able to just do the worksheets that have been assigned for that week, unless they have instruction in the concepts. And since students will be absent on a rolling basis, it isn't as simple as just assigning a 2 week "review" unit.

I do not have any prerecorded videos of these math lessons because we didn't record videos last year. And I don't think my students will just watch a Khan academy video either. They need direct instruction.

And if the kids had textbooks they could get direct instruction that way. I Realize that is not in teachers’ hands but it never ceases to amaze me how the districts just pretend there is no benefit to textbooks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I also work for a large district. I am in NoVa. I see the first poster's point. I think you're making this harder for yourself than it needs to be. At this point the schools in the DMV are 1:1. Use that to your advantage. Use Kami or Nearpod for delivery of materials that you've either printed in the past years or that you used last year. Stop digging such a deep hole. No one in our school system (no coach, no principal and no one from "central office") is telling people to start from scratch or to avoid using materials from prior years. That would be dumb.

My students need direct instruction in math in order to be able to complete the work that is being assigned to the rest of the class. Certainly I can dredge up some past worksheets for busy work; that's not the issue. But students who miss 2 full weeks of math instruction on 4th grade aren't going to be able to just do the worksheets that have been assigned for that week, unless they have instruction in the concepts. And since students will be absent on a rolling basis, it isn't as simple as just assigning a 2 week "review" unit.

I do not have any prerecorded videos of these math lessons because we didn't record videos last year. And I don't think my students will just watch a Khan academy video either. They need direct instruction.

+1 to direct instruction being key for some students to grasp new math concepts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I also work for a large district. I am in NoVa. I see the first poster's point. I think you're making this harder for yourself than it needs to be. At this point the schools in the DMV are 1:1. Use that to your advantage. Use Kami or Nearpod for delivery of materials that you've either printed in the past years or that you used last year. Stop digging such a deep hole. No one in our school system (no coach, no principal and no one from "central office") is telling people to start from scratch or to avoid using materials from prior years. That would be dumb.

My students need direct instruction in math in order to be able to complete the work that is being assigned to the rest of the class. Certainly I can dredge up some past worksheets for busy work; that's not the issue. But students who miss 2 full weeks of math instruction on 4th grade aren't going to be able to just do the worksheets that have been assigned for that week, unless they have instruction in the concepts. And since students will be absent on a rolling basis, it isn't as simple as just assigning a 2 week "review" unit.

I do not have any prerecorded videos of these math lessons because we didn't record videos last year. And I don't think my students will just watch a Khan academy video either. They need direct instruction.

And if the kids had textbooks they could get direct instruction that way. I Realize that is not in teachers’ hands but it never ceases to amaze me how the districts just pretend there is no benefit to textbooks.

No, textbooks are no more direct instruction than a video is.

Parents need to demand textbooks for other reasons, but not this one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Teachers are moved around frequently at my school. 2-3 years at one grade level and then boom! Time for a new grade level. It's almost like being a new teacher every few years.

Add that to a new curriculum every 5-7 year and many teachers feel like they have just mastered a unit when it changes.

[Anonymous]

Our FCPS ES principal told us very clearly that laptop time in class would be limited and they were back to paper and pencil pre-Covid work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Someone's experience is different from yours and they are a troll?

NP and we've made seating arrangements to facilitate contact tracing, but there has been no conversation about what will happen if/when students are out for a long time or classes get pushed virtual. We luckily have lots of mitigation strategies in place (mandated masking and distancing). But it feels like "well, let's see what happens with Delta because all this worked well last year."

+1

School districts vary so much both in resources and in their ability to pivot. I teach in a large aircraft carrier type district (slow to course correct). I also teach a course that is only taught to highly gifted learners at my school and one other magnet in the district. No one is giving us either premade asynchronous materials or time off to make them. I can’t just go online to download whatever worksheet that I can link to a video.

DP. You should be using, either in whole or in part, what you used last year during DL or hybrid/concurrent. You should not be starting from scratch each time. Just sayin'. If I were your evaluator and you told me you were planning on starting from scratch every time this year then I would be doing a serious reevaluation of whether you were in the right assignment.

+1

I don’t know about for ES, but for secondary, we had two hours of synchronous and 30 min of asynchronous each week. That is starting at least 50% from scratch. Also my course is brand new curriculum this year. The first two units were released in July/early August, which tells me that I am expected to learn that on my unpaid time.

[Anonymous]

I am shocked that there are ES teachers expecting to teach in person via last year’s google shite.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

DP. You should be using, either in whole or in part, what you used last year during DL or hybrid/concurrent. You should not be starting from scratch each time. Just sayin'. If I were your evaluator and you told me you were planning on starting from scratch every time this year then I would be doing a serious reevaluation of whether you were in the right assignment.

Different poster. We can't just do that. If you work for a large school district, you need to follow their plans. I can't tell you the number of times last year the plans changed on us. We can't just use "in whole or in part" what we used last year during Distance learning. That was distance learning. We were told which portions of the day had to be asynchronous learning and what those assignments were to be, and how they matched up with the curriculum, and how much time they should take students to do. And how much should be synchronous learning (Zoom and/or in class instruction) with assignments completed on Google Classroom, etc.

This year, so far, we are not doing distance learning. We aren't doing Zoom and Room lessons and posting work online. So far as we have been told, we are back to our usual, in school only classroom instruction (including a lot of small group instruction). Having students out for 1 to 2 days per illness is usually and normal and we deal with that all the time. Usually they complete a few worksheets we did in class, or a journal assignment, or make up a quiz. Or the work is simply excused.

But having multiple students out, not for illness, but for quarantine, for 10-14 days, on and off all Sept-November, missing 2- 3 weeks of instruction, is not the same thing. We aren't going to be turning on our cameras and doing hybrid instruction again, because that would allow all the parents who wanted to request virtual instruction with the classroom teacher, and the school district isn't allowing it. (If you wanted virtual you had to select it already and it isn't through your child's own school.).

I also work for a large district. I am in NoVa. I see the first poster's point. I think you're making this harder for yourself than it needs to be. At this point the schools in the DMV are 1:1. Use that to your advantage. Use Kami or Nearpod for delivery of materials that you've either printed in the past years or that you used last year. Stop digging such a deep hole. No one in our school system (no coach, no principal and no one from "central office") is telling people to start from scratch or to avoid using materials from prior years. That would be dumb.

Many schools are 1:1, but
1) the equipment differs greatly —sometimes even within systems. DD was issued a crappy old school Chromebook to take back and forth. DS was issued a top of the line touch screen one. They are both rising 10th.
2) devices matter less than the school or district purchased software
3) students are at varying levels of comfort with the technology (hardware or software). Add the stress of being positive to Covid and unexpectedly out of school and it’s not going to plug and play for 100% of kids.

Sigh. All devices have the same software and, frankly, it doesn't really matter if it is an old Chromebook or a new one. Students who have a low comfort level with technology in the 10th grade have bigger problems than their equipment if they have reached 10th grade and cannot use the basic school software.

(DP)

The ease of using the touch screen matters for many kids. Also, my district keeps changing the software we use. What was used in 8th and 9th grade might not be used in 10th. There’s a new software for HS math this year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am shocked that there are ES teachers expecting to teach in person via last year’s google shite.

They are being told to prepare to do so when students are on rolling quarantines. If school systems wanted something better, they could have paid a team of teachers to develop district wide lessons.

[Anonymous]

Why do they need software for math? Isn’t it better to learn it by working it out on paper? Then the teacher can correct mistakes in the steps.