daily schedule for your charter school?

[Anonymous]

Are you happy with your school's virtual plan?

If so, what is it?

I am very unhappy with my school's plan and assumed all working parents would be too but know assuming makes and ass out of me. So, I wanted a gut check.

[Anonymous]

Why are you unhappy?

[Anonymous]

I feel like a good assumption is that whatever schools come up with some people won't like it. For all the big districts, there seem to be parents who feel that what is offered is far too much, and that what is offered is far too little. I expect charter schools will be the same.

I also think we need to get things going, and see how it feels then. I don't think you can look at a schedule on paper and know whether it will work, there are too many factors.

[Anonymous]

OP what grade? My charter kid is in high school and I am fine with the schedule.

[Anonymous]

I'm unhappy with the (initial) plan I saw for my dcps school because it looks like WAY too much screen time. But I know that from talking to other parents that some people basically want their child to be engaged via the screen all day. I wish that the schools could offer a few different options (i.e. low screen for those of us who want that, high screen for people who prefer that), but I know that logistically that may not be possible.

[Anonymous]

My initial feeling when I saw our schedule for K at our charter was overwhelmed by the amount of time logged in. I felt a bit better after the parent meetings they held over zoom to explain their process but I'm still not sure it will be workable or valuable for my kid.

[Anonymous]

Very happy with our school’s plan but it’s for middle and high school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why are you unhappy?

Because the in-person learning time (where the kids will be online with their teachers) are spread across the entire day with lots of weird chunky gaps. I like that they won't be online for 2 hours with up to 30 kids like spring but don't like that there will be a 3 hour offline gap smack in the middle of the day. So, if we wanted a baby sitter etc. it would be impossible unless that person was willing to do their distance learning (which I think is too big an ask knowing my kids).

[Anonymous]

Should the school be building the schedule around what's best for the students or what's the for you and your work schedule? What's your solution? Cramming all the live sessions into the morning? Wouldn't the students just get burnt out?

Is your charter requiring attendance at all of the sessions? If not, why not just do what you can? The schools are in no-win situation. Making you happy is probably going to tick off someone else.

What's your IB doing? If you're really unhappy, just vote with your feet and go to your IB.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why are you unhappy?

Because the in-person learning time (where the kids will be online with their teachers) are spread across the entire day with lots of weird chunky gaps. I like that they won't be online for 2 hours with up to 30 kids like spring but don't like that there will be a 3 hour offline gap smack in the middle of the day. So, if we wanted a baby sitter etc. it would be impossible unless that person was willing to do their distance learning (which I think is too big an ask knowing my kids).

They didn't take what you want into consideration?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Should the school be building the schedule around what's best for the students or what's the for you and your work schedule? What's your solution? Cramming all the live sessions into the morning? Wouldn't the students just get burnt out?

Is your charter requiring attendance at all of the sessions? If not, why not just do what you can? The schools are in no-win situation. Making you happy is probably going to tick off someone else.

What's your IB doing? If you're really unhappy, just vote with your feet and go to your IB.

I guess you missed the part where the original post asked what other parents might like to see if, indeed, my idiosyncratic preferences where off?

Everyone is so defensive and keyed up all the time! I was just curious what families I'm not already friends with might like, since there are lots of families at my school I don't talk to about this kind of stuff.

[Anonymous]

Wait, who is getting defensive?

I'll bite. I love that my kids won't have to sit for a zoom call for hours and that they'll get to participate in small groups. But nothing about this is easy. I'm a working parent with no plans to hire outside help. The only way this will be easier is if they went back to school. Until then, we'll do the best we can.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm unhappy with the (initial) plan I saw for my dcps school because it looks like WAY too much screen time. But I know that from talking to other parents that some people basically want their child to be engaged via the screen all day. I wish that the schools could offer a few different options (i.e. low screen for those of us who want that, high screen for people who prefer that), but I know that logistically that may not be possible.

I haven’t hear from any parent of a younger elementary child (3rd on down) that they like the all-day schedule.

It’s a literallt impossible schedule for working parents to oversee. My plan is to just make sure my child logs in in the morning, and then tell the school it’s up to them to make sure he logs in 5 more times a day on time. Their schedule, their responsibility.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wait, who is getting defensive?

I'll bite. I love that my kids won't have to sit for a zoom call for hours and that they'll get to participate in small groups. But nothing about this is easy. I'm a working parent with no plans to hire outside help. The only way this will be easier is if they went back to school. Until then, we'll do the best we can.

That’s a false dilemma. The schools could have designed a schedule where instruction was focused on a shorter time period, but in small groups and without super long zoom sessions. Or record and give an asynchronous option. They are clearly chosing a model that mimics the in-person school day, which only works if you have an autonomous kid.

[Anonymous]

But they didn't. Why is that? If they focus on the morning, what about the families that could only participate in the afternoon?