Are your middle schooolers having online classes? Mine isn't

[Anonymous]

From reading this forum it sounds like many MCPS students are actually having online classes. I have a MS student who is just given assignments in 2 classes, plus 1 elective each day. She is supposed to do them on her own in the morning and then there's online "office hours" in the afternoon during which she can ask any questions of her teachers, which she has not needed to do. Is this what other middle schools are doing?

[Anonymous]

That is online learning. Video instruction is not a requirement.

[Anonymous]

A couple of my kid's classes have had live video full-class discussions and presentations, but most have just had check-ins to answer questions about the online work.

[Anonymous]

No live instruction for my 7th grader, but there have been assignments for every class, including PE.

[Anonymous]

Some classes don’t translate well to the teacher sitting in a completely different location than the learners. I had a great laugh at DD’s sweet, goofy, very competent PE teacher try to demonstrate a skill inside his bedroom with a crying toddler in his arms. A 10 sec video clip from YouTube would have sufficed, poor man.

[Anonymous]

No. And I find it particularly ridiculous that the foreign language teacher can't manage to run a class on zoom a few times a week. DC has basically not been provided any instruction for a month.

[Anonymous]

Seems they are uploading links to videos on instructions; having meetings to discuss what they are supposed to do; have office hours if you have questions.

To make my DC's day have more structure, I tell my DC to join the office hours even if DC has no questions. It's good to just listen in and see what other kids are asking because they may ask a question that DC did not know to ask. It's like being in a classroom, and a student asking a question. The whole class hears the q/a.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No. And I find it particularly ridiculous that the foreign language teacher can't manage to run a class on zoom a few times a week. DC has basically not been provided any instruction for a month.

My DC has french, and they've had quizes already, and other assignments on the grade portal. Not graded yet, but the teacher did grade the formative assessment for the quarter. I assume they took that a few weeks ago.

It's a hit or miss. Some teachers seem to be assigning more stuff than others. I'm unhappy at the lack of assignments from the math teacher. There's a few, but too few and far between. So I have my DC doing a singapore math book and khan academy to supplement. DC also just went back on prodigy to review some stuff DC said DC forget.

Try to create a regular schedule for your DCs. I know it's tough.

- 30 to 60min reading
-30min math online
-1 hour outside -- or some physical activity

Before they started online instruction, I didn't know what was going to happen, so I found some youtube videos that taught conversational foreign language. You could supplement with that. It does take some self discipline on the part of the child, though.

[Anonymous]

One specials teacher is having a daily class just for the kids to chat, but otherwise, it's just assignments and office hours. The math is the most challenging, I think.
My child tells me that Khan Academy doesn't really cover the geometry that the advanced track 8th graders are taking. She previously really liked Khan Academy and used it a lot. Is there an online system that covers the more advanced math?

[Anonymous]

One live class so far - math. Sixth grade.

[Anonymous]

We've had no instruction for the end of 3rd quarter in MS. There were a bunch of assignments plunked down last Monday with office hours "for questions." Then 3 tests and 2 essays due by today.

Middle school is not really a good age for office hours. The teachers should at least connect all the kids who have questions via Zoom and have a discussion.

[Anonymous]

I am not happy with my child's MS and I am an ES teacher. She is in all advanced classes and supposed to get HS credit for two of them. She has gotten virtually nothing and then all of a sudden is swamped with assignments from everything this week but NO instruction. She is finding instructional videos on her own to help her understand things she does not get. I had a routine and had her doing Khan, Duolingo and reading novels. But, now with this uneven instruction and me teaching all day, she is not centered, oscillating between rabid work and lounging on you tube watching anime.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No. And I find it particularly ridiculous that the foreign language teacher can't manage to run a class on zoom a few times a week. DC has basically not been provided any instruction for a month.

It's not that the teacher can't, it's that nobody can guarantee the kids will be available for that live time slot. What if both the Spanish class and the Algebra class are live at the same time? What if your 2nd grader needs to use zoom at the same time your 6th grader does? It's just not feasible.

Almost all my son's middle school teachers are doing half hour videos of instruction to be watched when possible, and then do work on google classroom and google docs. Teachers are available by e-mail and zoom office hours. It seems to work pretty well.

[Anonymous]

Half of the comments on this board say that online schooling is too much/too hard to manage, and half day that it’s not enough. I don’t know what people want MCPS to do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We've had no instruction for the end of 3rd quarter in MS. There were a bunch of assignments plunked down last Monday with office hours "for questions." Then 3 tests and 2 essays due by today.

Middle school is not really a good age for office hours. The teachers should at least connect all the kids who have questions via Zoom and have a discussion.

That's instruction.