What to do if school/teacher does a bad job with DL?

[Anonymous]

I’m still waiting to get the schedule and class assignment for my rising first grader but am extremely worried DL will be subpar. If I can’t go the pod/tutor route what options do I really have, especially if we end up doing DL for the entire year?

[Anonymous]

The issue with saying subpar is that it is difficult for individual parents to tell if their child’s experience really is below the average or not meeting the district’s expectations during this pandemic. You would need to know clearly what the teacher is expected or even allowed to do first and then work from there to identify and document incidents in which the teacher is falling short. Otherwise, you risk coming across as unreasonable if you complain that the teacher is not doing X when it turns out that the districts wants teachers to do Y or Z instead.

[Anonymous]

My expectation is that it's going to suck.

I'm going to do the bare minimum to not get in trouble from the school (e.g. sign on when there's synchronous learning) and homeschool the rest.

[Anonymous]

If SOLs aren't waived parents will know if their kid has a bad teacher

[Anonymous]

I'm a public school teacher, so definitely not anti-school, but I expect helping my kids with DL during the exact hours when I need to be attending to my kids will be a disaster, so we're homeschooling this year. For the youngest, who is a first grader, she'll do an hour of homeschooling with Dad before work (he can shift his hours and start working later in the day), and then an hour with me when my school day finishes. She'll also do some 1:1 reading as part of her bedtime routine, and we'll do some things as a whole family on Saturdays and Sundays. My other kids will do more, because they do things more independently, but that should be plenty for a little one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If SOLs aren't waived parents will know if their kid has a bad teacher

I'm pretty sure that a test taken in 2023 (the first time OP's kid will be old enough to participate) won't help OP decide how to help her kid in 2020.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If SOLs aren't waived parents will know if their kid has a bad teacher

DL is a wet dream for bad teachers, as literally nothing will happen to them no matter what. They'll get away with murder and still get paid. Even if confronted (which won't happen), they can just blame it on a bad internet connection, unruly kids, how their dog ate their lesson plan, etc etc. Look at home many corners were already cut this spring.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If SOLs aren't waived parents will know if their kid has a bad teacher

I'm pretty sure that a test taken in 2023 (the first time OP's kid will be old enough to participate) won't help OP decide how to help her kid in 2020.

I just realized what forum this is in. I'm pretty sure that a test taken by kids in a different grade in another state, won't give OP any helpful information about her teacher at all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m still waiting to get the schedule and class assignment for my rising first grader but am extremely worried DL will be subpar. If I can’t go the pod/tutor route what options do I really have, especially if we end up doing DL for the entire year?

Think about what specific complaints you have, then talk to the principal. In the spring I fielded many complaints from parents when I was doing more than anyone else in the school. I was going against DCPS policy doing live lessons. The principal can explain what we are and aren’t allowed to do. If a teacher isn’t doing what’s expected that’s the person who can take action. But you should be specific. “Live lessons don’t work for my kid” won’t get you far. “The teacher lectures too long without giving kids time to respond/practice so my kid zones out” is more helpful.

[Anonymous]

It is first grade. If your home is language rich -- singing, tons of reading of books -- she will be just fine.

Do not panic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m still waiting to get the schedule and class assignment for my rising first grader but am extremely worried DL will be subpar. If I can’t go the pod/tutor route what options do I really have, especially if we end up doing DL for the entire year?

Think about what specific complaints you have, then talk to the principal. In the spring I fielded many complaints from parents when I was doing more than anyone else in the school. I was going against DCPS policy doing live lessons. The principal can explain what we are and aren’t allowed to do. If a teacher isn’t doing what’s expected that’s the person who can take action. But you should be specific. “Live lessons don’t work for my kid” won’t get you far. “The teacher lectures too long without giving kids time to respond/practice so my kid zones out” is more helpful.

But even this is so subjective and doesn't mean the teacher is doing a bad job. The fact that something in particular doesn't work for one child or a small subset doesn't mean it's a subpar teaching effort. OP, first step if something isn't working is to talk with the teacher. If it's a significant problem, talk to the principal. Plan to supplement. Worst case, pull your child and homeschool.

Our child is older. We are having her participate fully but also anticipate supplementing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m still waiting to get the schedule and class assignment for my rising first grader but am extremely worried DL will be subpar. If I can’t go the pod/tutor route what options do I really have, especially if we end up doing DL for the entire year?

Think about what specific complaints you have, then talk to the principal. In the spring I fielded many complaints from parents when I was doing more than anyone else in the school. I was going against DCPS policy doing live lessons. The principal can explain what we are and aren’t allowed to do. If a teacher isn’t doing what’s expected that’s the person who can take action. But you should be specific. “Live lessons don’t work for my kid” won’t get you far. “The teacher lectures too long without giving kids time to respond/practice so my kid zones out” is more helpful.

I agree that specificity matters. It's not helpful for parents to just throw up their hands and say "this isn't working." What's not working? Why isn't it working? Is it a technical issue, is it your kid's personality/learning style, is it organizational, etc.? And then you can give useful feedback. In the spring, I asked the teacher if it was possible to get the week's assignments at once, rather than each day's assignments that day, because it would allow me to see the overarching plan, and also allow my kid to maybe work ahead on days that I was more flexible. She did, and it was really helpful. I think that most teachers want to do a good job, and will be receptive to constructive, respectful feedback. And don't forget to tell the teacher what things are working well! That is also useful, so they know what's working and can do more of it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If SOLs aren't waived parents will know if their kid has a bad teacher

DL is a wet dream for bad teachers, as literally nothing will happen to them no matter what. They'll get away with murder and still get paid. Even if confronted (which won't happen), they can just blame it on a bad internet connection, unruly kids, how their dog ate their lesson plan, etc etc. Look at home many corners were already cut this spring.

This is true. But most teachers aren’t bad teachers. And even a very good teacher can struggle under such different circumstances from which anyone was trained to operate. The teachers I feel worst for are the first years who will be under huge scrutiny anyway due to the evaluation process. It can be difficult to diss out what is you, what is a dysfunctional system, and what is from an unprecedented state of emergency. Many years ago, I was new to a dysfunctional county agency when the meth epidemic started in that state. The only clue the problem wasn’t me was the extremely high rate of turnover among newcomers with a lot of prior experience elsewhere. Still, I felt overwhelmed and demoralized.

[Anonymous]

When I look back on my education, I know I had some really great teachers, some adequate teachers, and some duds. That will be the same for my own kids- regardless of distance learning or in person. So this is something I have thought about before.

So far we have had great teachers and adequate teachers. Great teachers inspired my kids to push themselves. Adequate teachers covered required materials well but didn't really inspire my kids to push further. So, when we have an adequate teacher, it just has meant that we have had to be the ones to encourage our kids to push themselves. A bit more work on our part- but mostly normal parenting things like finding books, movies, resources, museums on a subject that is interesting them at the moment and/or that they are covering in school.

For a dud, I think we would do the above, plus things like tutoring, workbooks, khan academy, etc. I would let it slide for one year- again, I expect all kids encounter a dud at least once in their schooling. I would not let it slide for 2 years in a row- I think that would be too damaging. And in that instance, I would request/push for a change in teachers.

If this is the year we get a dud- I will be fine with it. Expectations are lower anyway. With no aftercare/activities, we have more time and opportunities to supplement, tutor, encourage kids to learn other things. There are a plethora of online opportunities- both free and for cost. It is tough with the parents working remotely- but the kids are also not exposed to other kids as much and are less likely to balk if we assign additional things.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m still waiting to get the schedule and class assignment for my rising first grader but am extremely worried DL will be subpar. If I can’t go the pod/tutor route what options do I really have, especially if we end up doing DL for the entire year?

Think about what specific complaints you have, then talk to the principal. In the spring I fielded many complaints from parents when I was doing more than anyone else in the school. I was going against DCPS policy doing live lessons. The principal can explain what we are and aren’t allowed to do. If a teacher isn’t doing what’s expected that’s the person who can take action. But you should be specific. “Live lessons don’t work for my kid” won’t get you far. “The teacher lectures too long without giving kids time to respond/practice so my kid zones out” is more helpful.

I agree that specificity matters. It's not helpful for parents to just throw up their hands and say "this isn't working." What's not working? Why isn't it working? Is it a technical issue, is it your kid's personality/learning style, is it organizational, etc.? And then you can give useful feedback. In the spring, I asked the teacher if it was possible to get the week's assignments at once, rather than each day's assignments that day, because it would allow me to see the overarching plan, and also allow my kid to maybe work ahead on days that I was more flexible. She did, and it was really helpful. I think that most teachers want to do a good job, and will be receptive to constructive, respectful feedback. And don't forget to tell the teacher what things are working well! That is also useful, so they know what's working and can do more of it.

But hopefully a parents would not designate a teacher as subpar if the teacher said no to this and the school didn’t expect teachers to have a week done at a time. There are many reasons other than laziness or disorganization why a teacher may do daily planning. For example, a teacher might realize that the classes need to move slower or faster through a particular topic based on Monday’s lesson and not want to be locked into activities for Tuesday through Friday already given to parents.