If you have an elementary age child in FCPS

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So how are some schools scheduling only 2 hours per week?

I don't know. I teach and we were told the minimum expectation was two hours synchronous Mon-Thurs. I find it hard to believe that other schools are only doing two hours total per week

I teach as well. We were told an hour a day of office hours and an hour a day of direct instruction. Direct instruction can be videos or live.

We were told one hour of live instruction is the minimum per day, and one hour of office hours. Mon-Thurs. Videos do not count for us as live instruction. Office hours can be by pre-made appointment only.

So I guess you stop doing the videos?

I honestly think my students get more out of watching my pre-recorded ~10 minute video, completing an activity and receiving feedback than they would if I tried to do it live online with an entire class.

I am a parent of two elementary school students and my kids definitely get more out of the recordings as far as actual learning goes. They do love some love interaction with the teacher and classmates, but usually have a harder time learning from the live lessons.

If the teachers are now told to start doing live lessons instead of the recorded lessons, how would you feel about that?

Not happy. I think some live interaction is important, but I liked the 3:1 recorded to live that our teacher had going.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:K - 1 hour and 30 min Monday through Thursday.

4th - 2 hours Monday through Thursday plus a ton of assignments.

Same for my 4th grader. It’s insane. I’ve basically opted out of everything but math. 2.5 hours of assigned work (which takes her longer) plus a virtual meet every day is too much. 60 slide long presentations. No

[Anonymous]

We are 4th (not AAP) and are doing 1 hour live in the morning Mon-Thurs that include math, language arts and rotates between science and social studies. We use to have office hours but the teacher said no one was coming so no longer is offering them. They haven't taped any lessons in addition to this. I do think they should have more options to jump on grade level groups. Like could the reading specialist start a read aloud and read like 10 mins of a book everyday? The AAP pullout teacher could do a math game? Could ESOL do a BINGO game, could IAs do any type of optional live kahoot? Our core specialists just upload a choice board at the beginning of week and nothing else.

[Anonymous]

3rd grade - 30 mins live; M-Th
6th grade - 30 mins live; M-Th

These are morning meeting sessions. Its great for the kids and teachers to connect, but in general, not that useful. Each grade have optional office hours if you need help with a topic.

Not a high FARMS school.

[Anonymous]

6th grade:
60 minutes live Mon-Thurs.

[Anonymous]

My kid is a kindergartner at a fairly rich FCPS school and AAP center. He is getting two 20 min live sessions per week, in small groups. That's it. Nothing recorded. And no real instruction happens during the live sessions. The rest is stuff posted on Google Classroom that he mostly finds boring. I make him do some of it to convey that school is something kids have to do, but I am finding that he is enjoying the random stuff I find on Google and Instagram a lot more (I know a lot of early childhood and elementary teachers posting stuff they're doing with their kids).

Are they really all supposed to be doing 2 hours a day? I think that would be overkill for kindergarten, but a live session each morning or some recorded lessons would be nice. This is a supposedly great school. I am not impressed with it or FCPS thus far.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So how are some schools scheduling only 2 hours per week?

I don't know. I teach and we were told the minimum expectation was two hours synchronous Mon-Thurs. I find it hard to believe that other schools are only doing two hours total per week

I teach as well. We were told an hour a day of office hours and an hour a day of direct instruction. Direct instruction can be videos or live.

We were told one hour of live instruction is the minimum per day, and one hour of office hours. Mon-Thurs. Videos do not count for us as live instruction. Office hours can be by pre-made appointment only.

So I guess you stop doing the videos?

I honestly think my students get more out of watching my pre-recorded ~10 minute video, completing an activity and receiving feedback than they would if I tried to do it live online with an entire class.

I am a parent of two elementary school students and my kids definitely get more out of the recordings as far as actual learning goes. They do love some love interaction with the teacher and classmates, but usually have a harder time learning from the live lessons.

My older ES DCs definitely get more out of recordings for the work being delivered now. Small group book/topic discussions during office hours would be more productive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So how are some schools scheduling only 2 hours per week?

I don't know. I teach and we were told the minimum expectation was two hours synchronous Mon-Thurs. I find it hard to believe that other schools are only doing two hours total per week

I teach as well. We were told an hour a day of office hours and an hour a day of direct instruction. Direct instruction can be videos or live.

We were told one hour of live instruction is the minimum per day, and one hour of office hours. Mon-Thurs. Videos do not count for us as live instruction. Office hours can be by pre-made appointment only.

So I guess you stop doing the videos?

I honestly think my students get more out of watching my pre-recorded ~10 minute video, completing an activity and receiving feedback than they would if I tried to do it live online with an entire class.

I am a parent of two elementary school students and my kids definitely get more out of the recordings as far as actual learning goes. They do love some love interaction with the teacher and classmates, but usually have a harder time learning from the live lessons.

I agree - I posted about this last week. My child thrived when she had recorded lessons and a daily optional 20-30 minute "chat" session with her class. After an hour of live lessons, she doesn't want to do any additional work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So how are some schools scheduling only 2 hours per week?

I don't know. I teach and we were told the minimum expectation was two hours synchronous Mon-Thurs. I find it hard to believe that other schools are only doing two hours total per week

I teach as well. We were told an hour a day of office hours and an hour a day of direct instruction. Direct instruction can be videos or live.

We were told one hour of live instruction is the minimum per day, and one hour of office hours. Mon-Thurs. Videos do not count for us as live instruction. Office hours can be by pre-made appointment only.

So I guess you stop doing the videos?

I honestly think my students get more out of watching my pre-recorded ~10 minute video, completing an activity and receiving feedback than they would if I tried to do it live online with an entire class.

I am a parent of two elementary school students and my kids definitely get more out of the recordings as far as actual learning goes. They do love some love interaction with the teacher and classmates, but usually have a harder time learning from the live lessons.

My daughter is getting so much out of the live classes. I can’t imagine the same level of interaction or thoughtful questions from something prerecorded.

I'm sure age has something to do with this - first graders aren't asking thoughtful questions (plus, that's what office hours are for).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:4th grader in a 35% (IIRC) FARMS school.

10 minutes of morning meeting, 30 minutes of LA, and 30 minutes of Math, Monday -Thursday. 1 hour of office hours those days. Plus the LA teacher reads to the kids daily (but DD already read the book and isn’t participating).

This week, DD has 15 minutes of book club and 15 minutes of small groups for math. She had 30 minutes of lunch bunch and another invite she did not take up.

The kids are getting a ton of assignments and quizzes on Google Classroom. Easily 3-4 hours worth of work daily, longer on some days (tomorrow is one of them). LA instruction is commingled with Social Studies and Science as well. They are apparently getting a Horizon assessment on Monday.

Overall, DD assesses that they are doing A LOT more work now than they were doing in school, since there are no distractions.

The kids have specials too; we’re ignoring them for now.

Wow, this sounds really fantastic, and like a lot of work for the teacher. Sounds like your DD has a great teacher and school environment! Our teachers refuse to do reading groups - we've asked and other parents have asked too. In first grade, reading is so important, I don't know why they wouldn't focus on that. They'll have a bunch of second graders who are very behind.

[Anonymous]

Our third grader is getting an hour and ten minutes a day, four days a week, plus two 30 minute small groups.

[Anonymous]

We have a K student in relatively well-off, non AAP center elem school in Woodson pyramid. They have 100 K students, the entire grade, in one daily 60 minute session from M thru Thurs., as if these kids are doing an online college lecture hall.

Then teachers are available for 30 mins of office hours every afternoon.

It's a joke.

[Anonymous]

Why isn’t each teacher just teacher her own class?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:4th grader in a 35% (IIRC) FARMS school.

10 minutes of morning meeting, 30 minutes of LA, and 30 minutes of Math, Monday -Thursday. 1 hour of office hours those days. Plus the LA teacher reads to the kids daily (but DD already read the book and isn’t participating).

This week, DD has 15 minutes of book club and 15 minutes of small groups for math. She had 30 minutes of lunch bunch and another invite she did not take up.

The kids are getting a ton of assignments and quizzes on Google Classroom. Easily 3-4 hours worth of work daily, longer on some days (tomorrow is one of them). LA instruction is commingled with Social Studies and Science as well. They are apparently getting a Horizon assessment on Monday.

Overall, DD assesses that they are doing A LOT more work now than they were doing in school, since there are no distractions.

The kids have specials too; we’re ignoring them for now.

Wow, this sounds really fantastic, and like a lot of work for the teacher. Sounds like your DD has a great teacher and school environment! Our teachers refuse to do reading groups - we've asked and other parents have asked too. In first grade, reading is so important, I don't know why they wouldn't focus on that. They'll have a bunch of second graders who are very behind.

We’re immensely grateful for her teachers, who are so on the ball. And it absolutely is a lot of work for them. A lot of the work is also getting graded and returned quickly, with detailed comments and feedback. I’m only sad that just when she got some fantastic teachers, the school year went sideways.

[Anonymous]

Our 6th grader is having one hour a day, mon-thurs. No live specials or small group meetings. I thought this was the absolute minimum.