no progress on virtual learning plan?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:i don't get the opposition to virtual school for snow days given the alternative is a bunch of half days in late June after exams/APS where it is fully known there is no learning happening. even if it's not perfect it seems far more likely to result in learning

(and i'm a psychologist and saw a high number of kids who thrived in virtual school-- and plenty who struggled and parents often discovering kids ADHD when watching them learn from home )

+1. These people who claim to speak for “all parents” and say that virtual school failed everyone must not be very familiar with modern education. It certainly wasn’t ideal in all circumstances, but for kids older than grade 4, it’s fine. And if all kids don’t show up perfectly ready to learn online, let’s not forget the MCPS has a high degree of in-person absenteeism as well.

Sometimes you have to not let the perfect be the enemy of the good. But I guess complaining about everything is a good excuse for McPS to do nothing even as the rest of the country adopts these plans to be prepared for emergencies.

And for kids below grade 4? What about them? And what about kids with special needs? They don't matter?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:i don't get the opposition to virtual school for snow days given the alternative is a bunch of half days in late June after exams/APS where it is fully known there is no learning happening. even if it's not perfect it seems far more likely to result in learning

(and i'm a psychologist and saw a high number of kids who thrived in virtual school-- and plenty who struggled and parents often discovering kids ADHD when watching them learn from home )

That's not the only alternative. We could build a calendar that has enough extra days that we can handle a snow day without either. We could use designated makeup days. That's options that are much easier to implement and more effective than virtual schooling. That's what people opposed to virtual want.

That’s ideal but cannot happen this year.

We're ultimately talking about next year. We can't do virtual days this year, either.

There's plenty of time to fix the calendar for next year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:i don't get the opposition to virtual school for snow days given the alternative is a bunch of half days in late June after exams/APS where it is fully known there is no learning happening. even if it's not perfect it seems far more likely to result in learning

(and i'm a psychologist and saw a high number of kids who thrived in virtual school-- and plenty who struggled and parents often discovering kids ADHD when watching them learn from home )

+1. These people who claim to speak for “all parents” and say that virtual school failed everyone must not be very familiar with modern education. It certainly wasn’t ideal in all circumstances, but for kids older than grade 4, it’s fine. And if all kids don’t show up perfectly ready to learn online, let’s not forget the MCPS has a high degree of in-person absenteeism as well.

Sometimes you have to not let the perfect be the enemy of the good. But I guess complaining about everything is a good excuse for McPS to do nothing even as the rest of the country adopts these plans to be prepared for emergencies.

And for kids below grade 4? What about them? And what about kids with special needs? They don't matter?

Gee. I guess that NYC with its student body of 1 million, and Boston and Anne Arundel and Alexandria and Baltimore must not have any kids with IEPs or kids under grade 4 since they managed to figure out a virtual learning plan.

Your ignorance isn’t cute. Other school districts make it work. Happy to contribute to a go fund me so that McPS staff can buy a bus ticket to some of these other cities to see how the other school districts do it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:i don't get the opposition to virtual school for snow days given the alternative is a bunch of half days in late June after exams/APS where it is fully known there is no learning happening. even if it's not perfect it seems far more likely to result in learning

(and i'm a psychologist and saw a high number of kids who thrived in virtual school-- and plenty who struggled and parents often discovering kids ADHD when watching them learn from home )

+1. These people who claim to speak for “all parents” and say that virtual school failed everyone must not be very familiar with modern education. It certainly wasn’t ideal in all circumstances, but for kids older than grade 4, it’s fine. And if all kids don’t show up perfectly ready to learn online, let’s not forget the MCPS has a high degree of in-person absenteeism as well.

Sometimes you have to not let the perfect be the enemy of the good. But I guess complaining about everything is a good excuse for McPS to do nothing even as the rest of the country adopts these plans to be prepared for emergencies.

And for kids below grade 4? What about them? And what about kids with special needs? They don't matter?

Gee. I guess that NYC with its student body of 1 million, and Boston and Anne Arundel and Alexandria and Baltimore must not have any kids with IEPs or kids under grade 4 since they managed to figure out a virtual learning plan.

Your ignorance isn’t cute. Other school districts make it work. Happy to contribute to a go fund me so that McPS staff can buy a bus ticket to some of these other cities to see how the other school districts do it.

Some schools "make it work" by screwing over a large portion of students.

Many other schools choose not to do that, instead incorporating an appropriate number of days to their calendars from the start while also implementing make-up days. That's the better option for more students. But that's not your concern- you just don't want your vacation plans interrupted.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:i don't get the opposition to virtual school for snow days given the alternative is a bunch of half days in late June after exams/APS where it is fully known there is no learning happening. even if it's not perfect it seems far more likely to result in learning

(and i'm a psychologist and saw a high number of kids who thrived in virtual school-- and plenty who struggled and parents often discovering kids ADHD when watching them learn from home )

+1. These people who claim to speak for “all parents” and say that virtual school failed everyone must not be very familiar with modern education. It certainly wasn’t ideal in all circumstances, but for kids older than grade 4, it’s fine. And if all kids don’t show up perfectly ready to learn online, let’s not forget the MCPS has a high degree of in-person absenteeism as well.

Sometimes you have to not let the perfect be the enemy of the good. But I guess complaining about everything is a good excuse for McPS to do nothing even as the rest of the country adopts these plans to be prepared for emergencies.

And for kids below grade 4? What about them? And what about kids with special needs? They don't matter?

Gee. I guess that NYC with its student body of 1 million, and Boston and Anne Arundel and Alexandria and Baltimore must not have any kids with IEPs or kids under grade 4 since they managed to figure out a virtual learning plan.

Your ignorance isn’t cute. Other school districts make it work. Happy to contribute to a go fund me so that McPS staff can buy a bus ticket to some of these other cities to see how the other school districts do it.

And you’re more than welcome to make to Anne Arundel county and enroll your kids there.

With a large public school system, you can’t control everything. You just can’t. The decisions won’t be right for everyone and sometimes it will be wrong for your child. You just have to accept that life isn’t fair and move on. I’m a teacher and an MCPS parent. My kids are almost done with MCPS and it hasn’t been “ideal” every step of the way, but it’s been pretty damn good for a free public education. I work with a very poor population of students and virtual schooling was so incredibly difficult for them. It’s very different for the privileged.

[Anonymous]

As a teacher, I have trouble understanding how DCUM is so antiscreens, and yet also wants a plan where we go back to 1:1 devices that travel with kids.

Similarly, I have trouble believing that DCUM is up in arms that school, and school based closings present challenges for working parents, and is now advocating something that would be impossible for many families using group childcare or working from home while supervising to manage.

The costs of virtual days would be high. To say that schools should do it because it might yield a tiny bit of learning, is absurd because it ignores those costs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As a teacher, I have trouble understanding how DCUM is so antiscreens, and yet also wants a plan where we go back to 1:1 devices that travel with kids.

Similarly, I have trouble believing that DCUM is up in arms that school, and school based closings present challenges for working parents, and is now advocating something that would be impossible for many families using group childcare or working from home while supervising to manage.

The costs of virtual days would be high. To say that schools should do it because it might yield a tiny bit of learning, is absurd because it ignores those costs.

Different posters. There's a small, but vocal, contingent of rich, SAHP/WFHPs who don't want to see their European vacations impacted by school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As a teacher, I have trouble understanding how DCUM is so antiscreens, and yet also wants a plan where we go back to 1:1 devices that travel with kids.

Similarly, I have trouble believing that DCUM is up in arms that school, and school based closings present challenges for working parents, and is now advocating something that would be impossible for many families using group childcare or working from home while supervising to manage.

The costs of virtual days would be high. To say that schools should do it because it might yield a tiny bit of learning, is absurd because it ignores those costs.

I lean towards the anti screens side and also support virtual learning during long snow closures. Just because you ensure that the fraction of kids whose parents don't own computers have a school computer to bring home before a big storm, doesn't at all mean that those kids need to be using computers on a daily basis in the classroom. Totally separate issues.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a teacher, I have trouble understanding how DCUM is so antiscreens, and yet also wants a plan where we go back to 1:1 devices that travel with kids.

Similarly, I have trouble believing that DCUM is up in arms that school, and school based closings present challenges for working parents, and is now advocating something that would be impossible for many families using group childcare or working from home while supervising to manage.

The costs of virtual days would be high. To say that schools should do it because it might yield a tiny bit of learning, is absurd because it ignores those costs.

I lean towards the anti screens side and also support virtual learning during long snow closures. Just because you ensure that the fraction of kids whose parents don't own computers have a school computer to bring home before a big storm, doesn't at all mean that those kids need to be using computers on a daily basis in the classroom. Totally separate issues.

So tired of people on their high horses acting as if a short period of virtual learning after a huge ice storm will harm their kids. Good grief. Virtual learning in that scenario needs to meet a minimal threshold; it needs to be superior to adding days at the end of the school where a large percentage of the student population will be absent. It meets that requirement. Done!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:i don't get the opposition to virtual school for snow days given the alternative is a bunch of half days in late June after exams/APS where it is fully known there is no learning happening. even if it's not perfect it seems far more likely to result in learning

(and i'm a psychologist and saw a high number of kids who thrived in virtual school-- and plenty who struggled and parents often discovering kids ADHD when watching them learn from home )

That's not the only alternative. We could build a calendar that has enough extra days that we can handle a snow day without either. We could use designated makeup days. That's options that are much easier to implement and more effective than virtual schooling. That's what people opposed to virtual want.

That’s ideal but cannot happen this year.

We're ultimately talking about next year. We can't do virtual days this year, either.

There's plenty of time to fix the calendar for next year.

Sure. But years of experience suggests they won't. They will play ignorant, stall, and fail to plan.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:i don't get the opposition to virtual school for snow days given the alternative is a bunch of half days in late June after exams/APS where it is fully known there is no learning happening. even if it's not perfect it seems far more likely to result in learning

(and i'm a psychologist and saw a high number of kids who thrived in virtual school-- and plenty who struggled and parents often discovering kids ADHD when watching them learn from home )

+1. These people who claim to speak for “all parents” and say that virtual school failed everyone must not be very familiar with modern education. It certainly wasn’t ideal in all circumstances, but for kids older than grade 4, it’s fine. And if all kids don’t show up perfectly ready to learn online, let’s not forget the MCPS has a high degree of in-person absenteeism as well.

Sometimes you have to not let the perfect be the enemy of the good. But I guess complaining about everything is a good excuse for McPS to do nothing even as the rest of the country adopts these plans to be prepared for emergencies.

And for kids below grade 4? What about them? And what about kids with special needs? They don't matter?

Gee. I guess that NYC with its student body of 1 million, and Boston and Anne Arundel and Alexandria and Baltimore must not have any kids with IEPs or kids under grade 4 since they managed to figure out a virtual learning plan.

Your ignorance isn’t cute. Other school districts make it work. Happy to contribute to a go fund me so that McPS staff can buy a bus ticket to some of these other cities to see how the other school districts do it.

Some schools "make it work" by screwing over a large portion of students.

Many other schools choose not to do that, instead incorporating an appropriate number of days to their calendars from the start while also implementing make-up days. That's the better option for more students. But that's not your concern- you just don't want your vacation plans interrupted.

You are presenting us with two plans, but MCPS is doing neither of them. They are neither building in an appropriate number of makeup days nor are they pivoting to virtual like many other large school districts.

The biggest issue with MCPS to my mind is the total failure to plan ahead. They seem to constantly be in reaction mode, and I'm absolutely at a loss as to how all of these folks claim to have PhDs in administration specifically, and yet not a single person in the central office appears capable of sitting down with a Gantt chart and figuring out whose job it is to do what when.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a teacher, I have trouble understanding how DCUM is so antiscreens, and yet also wants a plan where we go back to 1:1 devices that travel with kids.

Similarly, I have trouble believing that DCUM is up in arms that school, and school based closings present challenges for working parents, and is now advocating something that would be impossible for many families using group childcare or working from home while supervising to manage.

The costs of virtual days would be high. To say that schools should do it because it might yield a tiny bit of learning, is absurd because it ignores those costs.

I lean towards the anti screens side and also support virtual learning during long snow closures. Just because you ensure that the fraction of kids whose parents don't own computers have a school computer to bring home before a big storm, doesn't at all mean that those kids need to be using computers on a daily basis in the classroom. Totally separate issues.

The question is who do we prioritize? The fraction of kids for whom a few extra days of school lunch matters? The fraction of kids who would be with grandparents or going to work with a parent or in a group childcare situation where virtual doesn’t work? The fraction of kids with disabilities for whom virtual doesn’t work?

Or the fraction of kids in homes with extra computers and SAHP or WFH parents with jobs with enough flexibility to be able to help, or jobs that let them take annual leave, who have been so helicoptered that they can’t occupy themselves productively, and whose parents don’t want to be the bad guy and tell them to read a book, so they need virtual learning to learn anything?

If you don’t want days tacked on, then don’t send your kids those days.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:i don't get the opposition to virtual school for snow days given the alternative is a bunch of half days in late June after exams/APS where it is fully known there is no learning happening. even if it's not perfect it seems far more likely to result in learning

(and i'm a psychologist and saw a high number of kids who thrived in virtual school-- and plenty who struggled and parents often discovering kids ADHD when watching them learn from home )

That's not the only alternative. We could build a calendar that has enough extra days that we can handle a snow day without either. We could use designated makeup days. That's options that are much easier to implement and more effective than virtual schooling. That's what people opposed to virtual want.

That’s ideal but cannot happen this year.

We're ultimately talking about next year. We can't do virtual days this year, either.

There's plenty of time to fix the calendar for next year.

--------------------------
The law needs to be changed effective July 1 so it doesn't reward MC not using virtual when they had the chance but only to punish those who need it. Students and teachers should not be punished although the April 15 thing is silly. Just split the grading time into multiple days possibly with a 1 hour early dismissal for students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a teacher, I have trouble understanding how DCUM is so antiscreens, and yet also wants a plan where we go back to 1:1 devices that travel with kids.

Similarly, I have trouble believing that DCUM is up in arms that school, and school based closings present challenges for working parents, and is now advocating something that would be impossible for many families using group childcare or working from home while supervising to manage.

The costs of virtual days would be high. To say that schools should do it because it might yield a tiny bit of learning, is absurd because it ignores those costs.

I lean towards the anti screens side and also support virtual learning during long snow closures. Just because you ensure that the fraction of kids whose parents don't own computers have a school computer to bring home before a big storm, doesn't at all mean that those kids need to be using computers on a daily basis in the classroom. Totally separate issues.

1000%- no reason why they need to be conflated. And this is for snow days when school is already closed and childcare already non existent. I don't get the argument that all these other md counties and nyc do it but not mcps- currently texting with friends in Lutherville who had laptops sent home with them in case, and friends in NYC who during last storm had virtual days- it was a few hours and plenty of time to still play outside

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a teacher, I have trouble understanding how DCUM is so antiscreens, and yet also wants a plan where we go back to 1:1 devices that travel with kids.

Similarly, I have trouble believing that DCUM is up in arms that school, and school based closings present challenges for working parents, and is now advocating something that would be impossible for many families using group childcare or working from home while supervising to manage.

The costs of virtual days would be high. To say that schools should do it because it might yield a tiny bit of learning, is absurd because it ignores those costs.

I lean towards the anti screens side and also support virtual learning during long snow closures. Just because you ensure that the fraction of kids whose parents don't own computers have a school computer to bring home before a big storm, doesn't at all mean that those kids need to be using computers on a daily basis in the classroom. Totally separate issues.

So tired of people on their high horses acting as if a short period of virtual learning after a huge ice storm will harm their kids. Good grief. Virtual learning in that scenario needs to meet a minimal threshold; it needs to be superior to adding days at the end of the school where a large percentage of the student population will be absent. It meets that requirement. Done!

Yes - this isn't for a full school year or months- but let's also be real having virtual school in 2021 was better than having no school. Don't let perfect be the enemy of the good. And plenty of childcare centers and grandparents supervised virtual learning then too...there are very few sahm parents. In a true snow day in most families one parent is often forced to miss work anyway as getting safely elsewhere isn't possible