Virtual Learning for Elementary School-Description by Our Principal

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This actually sounds about right. People who thinks it is a straight 2.5 or 3.5 hours don't know how the kids are learning in school. Most of the time is spent doing independent/center work while the teacher works with different groups on different things. HS will look different because of their schedules and kids are already split based on specific classes. But ES has always been like this in regular times when kids were in school. Independent work is considered instruction time in the school, regardless of how you feel about it. Yeah, teachers could give feedback in the "small group" days that your child gets, but that also takes time. I mean, your kid is not the only kid in the class. The teacher can go over the activities in the small group and give all student feedback, but all this does is ensure that your particular small group will be seen maybe once a week, possibly once every 2 weeks depending on how many kids are in the class.

Except the material put out by FCPS stated there would be 3.5 hours of direct instruction from a teacher for upper grades. If this was their plan, they should have not promised 2.5-3.5 hours of *direct virtual instruction*.

[Anonymous]

Sounds like another year lost.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think the main issue with this schedule is the principal was trying to duplicate virtually what happens in an ES classroom during the day, instead of re-imagine what a virtual classroom could and should look like. Kids in the ES classroom are working in groups, moving around, doing stations, conferring with the teacher, socializing, etc. This schedule keeps the bare-bones nature of the direct instruction in the modern classroom, but just deletes all the other stuff without trying to do something new and different to replace it.

It's online school what do you expect? They just cut all the fluff out and leave what is necessary in. There's no replacing the human component for kids this young.

[Anonymous]

The DL is not trying to mimic a school day. They are trying to mimic 1/2 a school day since the hybrid kids are also only getting 1/2 (or less.)

The pacing will be identical - the grades will still work as “teams” - you watch.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This actually sounds about right. People who thinks it is a straight 2.5 or 3.5 hours don't know how the kids are learning in school. Most of the time is spent doing independent/center work while the teacher works with different groups on different things. HS will look different because of their schedules and kids are already split based on specific classes. But ES has always been like this in regular times when kids were in school. Independent work is considered instruction time in the school, regardless of how you feel about it. Yeah, teachers could give feedback in the "small group" days that your child gets, but that also takes time. I mean, your kid is not the only kid in the class. The teacher can go over the activities in the small group and give all student feedback, but all this does is ensure that your particular small group will be seen maybe once a week, possibly once every 2 weeks depending on how many kids are in the class.

You are making pp's point that 100% virtual school day needs to be thought about differently. You can't recreate the in person school day online, and just cut out all the interactive parts. You have to be more creative.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think the main issue with this schedule is the principal was trying to duplicate virtually what happens in an ES classroom during the day, instead of re-imagine what a virtual classroom could and should look like. Kids in the ES classroom are working in groups, moving around, doing stations, conferring with the teacher, socializing, etc. This schedule keeps the bare-bones nature of the direct instruction in the modern classroom, but just deletes all the other stuff without trying to do something new and different to replace it.

It's online school what do you expect? They just cut all the fluff out and leave what is necessary in. There's no replacing the human component for kids this young.

I expected 100% virtual school experience with 2.5 hours of direct instructional time with a teacher. Why do you think a completely bare-bones education is OK? Why not just fire all the teachers and give kids logins for ELA and math I-ready programs?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This was a sample schedule for upper grades released by our principal, with a total listed as 4 hours of synchronous instruction.

10:00-11:15: Morning Meeting/LA
11:15-12:00 Science/Social Studies
LUNCH
12:30-1:30 Math instruction
BREAK
1:45-2:45 or 2:50-3:50 Specials

The assumption was that kids would do assignments after their synchronous time had completed as well.

OP, sounds like your school is choosing to do less than they could.

I thought one of FCPS's "lessons learned" from the spring was there had to be clear standards regarding the amount and quality of the distance learning since there were SO many complaints in the spring about schools not doing the required amount of time. Now they are just going to let the principals do their own thing again? OMG.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This actually sounds about right. People who thinks it is a straight 2.5 or 3.5 hours don't know how the kids are learning in school. Most of the time is spent doing independent/center work while the teacher works with different groups on different things. HS will look different because of their schedules and kids are already split based on specific classes. But ES has always been like this in regular times when kids were in school. Independent work is considered instruction time in the school, regardless of how you feel about it. Yeah, teachers could give feedback in the "small group" days that your child gets, but that also takes time. I mean, your kid is not the only kid in the class. The teacher can go over the activities in the small group and give all student feedback, but all this does is ensure that your particular small group will be seen maybe once a week, possibly once every 2 weeks depending on how many kids are in the class.

Except the material put out by FCPS stated there would be 3.5 hours of direct instruction from a teacher for upper grades. If this was their plan, they should have not promised 2.5-3.5 hours of *direct virtual instruction*.

Your idea of "direct virtual instruction" doesn't include independent work, theirs does. Office hours also counts as direct virtual instruction. People don't like it, but I can see why they counted it. Your kid could be asking questions during office hours, which makes it direct instruction.

[Anonymous]

I will be supplementing this with 1hr of Mathnasium 6 x weeks and Language Arts tutor 3 x week. I knew their plan will be lot of fluff and little substance. I hate this pandemic!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The schools that half-assed and gave the most pathetic and listless DL instruction in the spring will be allowed to do that again in the fall. This is all principal-driven. If your principal was OK with two 30 minute class meetings of show and tell in the spring, your principal will put out a schedule like this in the fall. It's completely unfair and inequitable but it's the truth. I bet Willow Springs will have an amazing DL schedule, based on what they apparently did in the spring. CHOOSE WISELY.

I 100% agree which is why we are choosing hybrid. Spring was a total disappointment.

Us too. We had 25 minutes of synchronous instruction per day for our 5th grader in the spring. That’s it. It was math or language arts each day. And each week my child completed all the asynchronous work for the week by about 1:00 on Monday. I asked if it would look the same in the upcoming year, and was told they “hoped” there would be a little more synchronous learning. That’s just entirely insufficient for a 6th grader. So hybrid it is.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think the main issue with this schedule is the principal was trying to duplicate virtually what happens in an ES classroom during the day, instead of re-imagine what a virtual classroom could and should look like. Kids in the ES classroom are working in groups, moving around, doing stations, conferring with the teacher, socializing, etc. This schedule keeps the bare-bones nature of the direct instruction in the modern classroom, but just deletes all the other stuff without trying to do something new and different to replace it.

It's online school what do you expect? They just cut all the fluff out and leave what is necessary in. There's no replacing the human component for kids this young.

I expected 100% virtual school experience with 2.5 hours of direct instructional time with a teacher. Why do you think a completely bare-bones education is OK? Why not just fire all the teachers and give kids logins for ELA and math I-ready programs?

I am telling you that the schedule basically mirrors what happens in a school day with the fluff taken out. Anyone who thinks they're gonna get all these extra virtual learning hours where the teacher is lecturing for the entire time in DL is misguided. It could possibly happen at the HS level because the classes are leveled. In a GENERAL education ES classroom, there are kids of varying levels of abilities. That's why there is an emphasis on "small groups." Small groups instruction is the reason why the ES schedule looks the way it does.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They only promised 2.5 hours for ES. It was 3.5 only for students who needed extra services like ESL or special ed.

Btw, thanks for sharing the schedule, it helps me compare the two options better. At least the DL teacher doesn't have to waste time repeatedly telling the K-2 age kids to keep their masks on or not fiddle with it.

No not true. It was 2.5 for K-2 and 3.5 for 3-6.

[Anonymous]

I don't like how little time there is in the schedule for kids to interact with each other. Among other issues.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think the main issue with this schedule is the principal was trying to duplicate virtually what happens in an ES classroom during the day, instead of re-imagine what a virtual classroom could and should look like. Kids in the ES classroom are working in groups, moving around, doing stations, conferring with the teacher, socializing, etc. This schedule keeps the bare-bones nature of the direct instruction in the modern classroom, but just deletes all the other stuff without trying to do something new and different to replace it.

It's online school what do you expect? They just cut all the fluff out and leave what is necessary in. There's no replacing the human component for kids this young.

I expected 100% virtual school experience with 2.5 hours of direct instructional time with a teacher. Why do you think a completely bare-bones education is OK? Why not just fire all the teachers and give kids logins for ELA and math I-ready programs?

I am telling you that the schedule basically mirrors what happens in a school day with the fluff taken out. Anyone who thinks they're gonna get all these extra virtual learning hours where the teacher is lecturing for the entire time in DL is misguided. It could possibly happen at the HS level because the classes are leveled. In a GENERAL education ES classroom, there are kids of varying levels of abilities. That's why there is an emphasis on "small groups." Small groups instruction is the reason why the ES schedule looks the way it does.

So your opinion is that virtual learning should look exactly like in-classroom learning, only with all the social interaction deleted?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This actually sounds about right. People who thinks it is a straight 2.5 or 3.5 hours don't know how the kids are learning in school. Most of the time is spent doing independent/center work while the teacher works with different groups on different things. HS will look different because of their schedules and kids are already split based on specific classes. But ES has always been like this in regular times when kids were in school. Independent work is considered instruction time in the school, regardless of how you feel about it. Yeah, teachers could give feedback in the "small group" days that your child gets, but that also takes time. I mean, your kid is not the only kid in the class. The teacher can go over the activities in the small group and give all student feedback, but all this does is ensure that your particular small group will be seen maybe once a week, possibly once every 2 weeks depending on how many kids are in the class.

Except the material put out by FCPS stated there would be 3.5 hours of direct instruction from a teacher for upper grades. If this was their plan, they should have not promised 2.5-3.5 hours of *direct virtual instruction*.

Your idea of "direct virtual instruction" doesn't include independent work, theirs does. Office hours also counts as direct virtual instruction. People don't like it, but I can see why they counted it. Your kid could be asking questions during office hours, which makes it direct instruction.

I mean, its just what the words mean in English. How is logging off and doing a worksheet alone at your house meet the dictionary definition of "direct virtual instruction"??

In the OP schedule, office hours aren't every day. IF they were held every day, and my child attended the office hour for the full 60 minutes, then yes, that would be "direct virtual instruction". But we know that's not how the office hours are designed to work. (I think--are people sending their kids to the full schedule of office hours for instruction????)