How bad is your APS back to school experience?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Is this Glebe? Just go talk to the principal already.

This isn't the case for the vast majority of APS elementary schools. Stop acting like it's a universal issue.

You think parents haven't spoke to the principal? She doesn't care. APS won't respond to attempts at contact. You literally get an email back from APS stating that they've receive too many emails and won't be replying. There is no option but to try to raise public notice to try to get APS to take action.

Maybe so, but STOP making it sound like ALL APS schools are this way, and that everyone is having a bad experience. It simply isn't true.

So because you don't have this issue it's not important? This is a universal issue because APS isn't getting guidelines for any school. Some aren't offering handouts so kids can work on paper. Some aren't offering outdoor lunch. Some aren't offering in person instruction, while others are. APS needs to provide guidance and oversight rather than letting APS principals make public health decisions with zero oversight and accountability.

Different poster, but for those of you talking about Glebe, can you just mention that it’s Glebe when you’re posting? The issues are not a secret. Some parents may be coming here and concerned that they’re unaware of something happening at their own school.

[Anonymous]

Yorktown here. 2/7 classes virtual -- DD happens to love those teachers, so no complaints from her. Came home last week (9th grade) with the hugest smiles.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Middle school. We have several of my child's teachers teaching from home. WTF. They have to type their questions into their laptop even with the in person teachers. Again. WTF.

It is almost like they set it all up out of spite. The kids are still looking at the screens. But, they are enjoying being around other kids.

Sadly I agree with the spite intent. I think APS is trying very hard to get more kids to commit to virtual. It would solve a lot of their problems and alleviate them from actually making the effort to do their job the right way. ridiculous

GMAFB. If they didn’t do concurrent they’d have to change the teacher assignments - again. Or have three asynchronous days for the hybrid kids.

It’s not a great solution but the best one we have given the circumstances. And it’s disgusting that some parents are trying to vilify teachers/APS for doing their best during a deadly pandemic. Truly disgusting.

PP here - I wasn't vilifying teachers, my response was directed at APS. I personally love most of my children's teachers and know they are doing the best with the hand they are dealt. APS is to blame for the horrific rollout.

Like I said, it’s disgusting that some parents are trying to vilify APS for doing their best during a deadly pandemic. Truly disgusting.

What do you want - you want them to swap around the teachers again?

I’m not pp, but if it is true that principals are allowed to let their teachers continue teaching from home just because they want to, that is a massive failure that needs to be corrected quickly. That’s not APS “doing their best.”

Deciding which teachers work from home vs. school is an APS decision. It's not a "failure".

The PPs were complaining about concurrent. The point was that the decision to go with concurrent was NOT made out of spite - they were trying to avoid reshuffling class assignments again.

Concurrent is a necessity, not a failure. Agreed. Allowing teachers to choose for whatever reason they want (not necessarily health related) to teach concurrently from home while kids are physically back in buildings, if true, is a charade and a failure.

I think retaining good teachers is a good thing. You'd rather have them quit?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm so glad I don't teach at APS and I'm going to try to remember to thank my kid's APS teachers whenever I see them and send them gifts at end of the year. APS parents are so high maintenance and exhausting. Take a deep breath and get over yourselves and your tiny problems.

This goes way beyond "thankless".

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's quite clear that OP is the same dad who is ranting about this on AEM, joined in by his APE friends.

APE will keep complaining until they get complete normal which you just can't have in a pandemic.

I think it's disgusting to complain about teachers who need to teach from home due to a private medical reason.

Absolutely THIS!

Do you know that the teachers have an ADA claim? Our principal has made a school decision that many teachers don't have to teach in person unless they want to do so. There is no ADA issue. It's solely teacher preference.

At WMS (where the AEM rant dad is from), our principal said teachers who are virtual are only temporary until a permanent sub can be found; they're required to take a leave of absence but agreed to work virtually until sub is found. NO one was approved to work from home. However given the sub shortage, its very likely the teachers will remain in place at home. (last sentence is my opinion, not what WMS has said).

This makes sense. Of course Rant Dad will have an even bigger tantrum when his kids are taught by a sub.

It makes sense, but it's not great.

It's rants like this that are forcing teachers to leave. APE complained so loudly about teachers teaching virtually to their in person snowflakes, so now these experienced teachers will have to quite or take LOAs. So that's bad for them and bad for the students. I'd much rather have my in person kid be taught by their great teacher virtually instead of a long term sub or brand new teacher.

Agree completely. We would much rather stick with excellent teachers virtually than switch to someone else in-person.

This. My two middle schoolers at WMS have one virtual teacher each. It’s completely fine. Two weeks in for my 6th grader. I hope these 2 get to stay virtual because they are great teachers and 10x better than some sub hired out of desperation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

WTAF, since when do you need to departmentalize 1st grade curriculum. What school is this? I have two kids in k-2. They are getting their teacher for half a day for each in person day and an aide (repurposed Extended Day staff) for the other half of the day (teacher moves to the 2nd room). My kids are so happy to be back in the building and with their friends, but this isn't challenging from an educational perspective. We need to get back to 5 days in person this fall!

Calm your tits. Your kids are going to be fine if you stop having tantrums. And yeah, this is DCUM, but there is no change they don't know your attitude.

[Anonymous]

Not so excited about the one teacher who tends to ignore the virtual kids


The rest have been great

[Anonymous]

Our Kindergartener at Claremont is LOVING it. They seem to be doing an amazing job -- outside very frequently; very little iPad use. I've been really impressed. It's not "normal" by any means but the kids definitely seem happy. I don't know how the teachers are doing -- I can only imagine how exhausting it is for them -- but we're grateful they are making it work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Is this Glebe? Just go talk to the principal already.

This isn't the case for the vast majority of APS elementary schools. Stop acting like it's a universal issue.

You think parents haven't spoke to the principal? She doesn't care. APS won't respond to attempts at contact. You literally get an email back from APS stating that they've receive too many emails and won't be replying. There is no option but to try to raise public notice to try to get APS to take action.

Maybe so, but STOP making it sound like ALL APS schools are this way, and that everyone is having a bad experience. It simply isn't true.

So because you don't have this issue it's not important? This is a universal issue because APS isn't getting guidelines for any school. Some aren't offering handouts so kids can work on paper. Some aren't offering outdoor lunch. Some aren't offering in person instruction, while others are. APS needs to provide guidance and oversight rather than letting APS principals make public health decisions with zero oversight and accountability.

Different schools have different percentages of virtual/hybrid kids, different staffing levels, different volunteer/PTA supports, different needed accommodations. There isn’t a way for every school to address every issue exactly the same. And WTF at departmentalizing subjects for K-2. Our school only does this for grades 4-5, and stopped doing that this year due to Covid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

WTAF, since when do you need to departmentalize 1st grade curriculum. What school is this? I have two kids in k-2. They are getting their teacher for half a day for each in person day and an aide (repurposed Extended Day staff) for the other half of the day (teacher moves to the 2nd room). My kids are so happy to be back in the building and with their friends, but this isn't challenging from an educational perspective. We need to get back to 5 days in person this fall!

Calm your tits. Your kids are going to be fine if you stop having tantrums. And yeah, this is DCUM, but there is no change they don't know your attitude.

You calm your tits. I'm not complaining about my situation. Our ES is doing a great job, I'm just trying to say this isn't something that I will be OK with them continuing in the fall. If I was at Glebe and my kids were getting one hour of live instruction, I would be unhappy. Our ES and our teachers are doing amazing job. But all the effort is giving really marginal educational benefit, that is a fact, not a complaint. I don't fault the teachers for the crappy situation.

[Anonymous]

Two kids at Claremont. They are both happy. My 3rd grader is a little sad he hasn't been able to play on the playground yet (the younger kids have) but he was counting down the days on Saturday when he could go back.

My kinder kid also loves it, although 99% of that love may be the bus ride lol. Yesterday he asked me how many more days until he can ride the bus again ha ha. Anyway, he has minimal ipad time (comes back at about 70% full) and has a blast.

[Anonymous]

My third grader is very happy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid were fine.

This is not going to be as good as school NOT during a pandemic. Nothing is.

But if Catholic school appeals to you, go for. I'd rather have my kids educated by professionals.

You do realize that a lot of the Catholic schools in this area have very good educators? And at least this year have shown that they were true professionals because they (unlike public school teachers) did their jobs.

Oh, give it a rest. You people are so absurd. Teachers' employers, not you, set the conditions of their jobs, which teachers indeed did do for the past year.

So. Much. Whining.

[Anonymous]

Maybe so, but STOP making it sound like ALL APS schools are this way, and that everyone is having a bad experience. It simply isn't true.


So because you don't have this issue it's not important? This is a universal issue because APS isn't getting guidelines for any school. Some aren't offering handouts so kids can work on paper. Some aren't offering outdoor lunch. Some aren't offering in person instruction, while others are. APS needs to provide guidance and oversight rather than letting APS principals make public health decisions with zero oversight and accountability.

No, you do not have the right to tar all the APS schools, and teachers, with the same brush. And no, not all schools do things exactly the same way, nor should they. There is a reason that states and localities dictate the needs of their students...different populations have different needs, and the principals DO have the right to make decisions about the needs of students in their own schools. For you to think that there should be an APS-wide policy about such things who gets paper copies of schoolwork is ridiculous.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Maybe so, but STOP making it sound like ALL APS schools are this way, and that everyone is having a bad experience. It simply isn't true.


So because you don't have this issue it's not important? This is a universal issue because APS isn't getting guidelines for any school. Some aren't offering handouts so kids can work on paper. Some aren't offering outdoor lunch. Some aren't offering in person instruction, while others are. APS needs to provide guidance and oversight rather than letting APS principals make public health decisions with zero oversight and accountability.

No, you do not have the right to tar all the APS schools, and teachers, with the same brush. And no, not all schools do things exactly the same way, nor should they. There is a reason that states and localities dictate the needs of their students...different populations have different needs, and the principals DO have the right to make decisions about the needs of students in their own schools. For you to think that there should be an APS-wide policy about such things who gets paper copies of schoolwork is ridiculous.

I agree, although I maintain there should be some uniformity on health things like outdoor lunch. That one really annoys me. But the principals and teachers having autonomy over the rest is generally ok with me.