Distance learning going well

[Anonymous]

I'm a teacher who was dreading distance learning and teaching. Once we got past all the pointless stuff from the district and past the first few days, it's been great. I've been surprised. My families are amazing and the kids are too. I have to force kids to leave because they don't want to leave class. Go figure. Kids are learning so quickly.

[Anonymous]

And then the alarm clock went off and you awoke from your dream.

[Anonymous]

Right. Great for YOU. A disaster for families trying to juggle work, small kids left alone all day while parents work, etc.

[Anonymous]

That's super. DL is going fairly well in our house, too. I can tell that the teachers are putting in a lot of work, and my kid's homeroom teacher has a ton of enthusiasm. It's not ideal, but better than expected. We are looking forward to returning in person, but this is far from a disaster for my kid's education.

[Anonymous]

It's going OK here to for high school.

I'm an elementary ESOL teacher and it is pretty hard for my K and 1st grade students. 2nd is getting better. 3rd-5th is going fine.

[Anonymous]

It's a dream come true for high school. No bullying, no waking up at the crack of dawn, no more corridors so crowded that kids can't push their way to their next class in time, no adolescent distractions.

It's even working for my elementary kid too!

The teachers are GREAT. It's going to be an excellent year for my kids. I hope they don't go back until fall 2021.

[Anonymous]

The DCPS drive to streamline access to platforms has been a marked improvement over last spring. Last spring, my K and 2nd grade kids needed all-day guidance just to figure out what they were supposed to be doing on a given day, and how to access each lesson.

I appreciate the shift toward mandatory attendance and an all-day, mostly-live schedule. Relative to the self-scheduled approach, the mostly-live schedule creates momentum and forces a discipline that helps kids stay on track throughout the day.

It's still hard for parents to balance work and school, but once again, and I know that a lot of the best elements of my kids' school simply won't translate to distance ed, but I am again impressed by DCPS' adaption to circumstances and responsiveness to parent concerns.

What remains to be seen: How will the new, software-based programs like Zearn for math compare to predecessor curriculum Eureka math? Will teachers provide the same level of paper correction and specific feedback that they were able to provide without the added barrier of uploading and downloading written work? The latter was one of my only complaints about the spring session.

[Anonymous]

Teacher here and it’s a disaster, don’t kid yourself. My noticings; parents are doing the individual work, students are not held accountable for their behavior online (I can make them sit for the lesson), kids can not type, kids have a hard time working technology, too much for students to multi task with various browsers open, kids are not learning..,,

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Teacher here and it’s a disaster, don’t kid yourself. My noticings; parents are doing the individual work, students are not held accountable for their behavior online (I can make them sit for the lesson), kids can not type, kids have a hard time working technology, too much for students to multi task with various browsers open, kids are not learning..,,[/quote
Speak for yourself. My students are learning. And we're enjoying each other. I'll be glad if or when we go back of course, but its still pretty good. I do feel sorry for parents who are struggling. Covid has certainly been hard on every one.

[Anonymous]

OP, there is 0% chance you have a first grader.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm a teacher who was dreading distance learning and teaching. Once we got past all the pointless stuff from the district and past the first few days, it's been great. I've been surprised. My families are amazing and the kids are too. I have to force kids to leave because they don't want to leave class. Go figure. Kids are learning so quickly.

My kid is one of those kids who doesn’t want to leave. She’s so happy to be back in school.

[Anonymous]

This is like when Amazon sellers pay people to give them good reviews.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm a teacher who was dreading distance learning and teaching. Once we got past all the pointless stuff from the district and past the first few days, it's been great. I've been surprised. My families are amazing and the kids are too. I have to force kids to leave because they don't want to leave class. Go figure. Kids are learning so quickly.

My kid is one of those kids who doesn’t want to leave. She’s so happy to be back in school.

+1 We have 3 who are back-to-school already via DL. They are happy! They like the variety, the teachers have been very upbeat and enthusiastic, they are diving into content, there is a lot of focus on class dynamics so that all the kids are participating. It has been very good!

[Anonymous]

I suspect my kid's teacher thinks it's going fine too. I mean, how would she know if it's not? Unless the kids can type super fast into chat (they are in 5th grade, they can't) then they can't possibly communicate anything to her. Cameras are off, mics are muted, she's sitting there in her tranquil home office without a care in the world, just going through her slides and droning on in a monotone voice, and she has no way to know that her students are falling asleep or have long since gotten up from the computer. To her no doubt this seems like a wonderfully organized and streamlined lesson, all very smooth....but she fails to realize it's just her and two or three overachievers in the class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm a teacher who was dreading distance learning and teaching. Once we got past all the pointless stuff from the district and past the first few days, it's been great. I've been surprised. My families are amazing and the kids are too. I have to force kids to leave because they don't want to leave class. Go figure. Kids are learning so quickly.

My kid is one of those kids who doesn’t want to leave. She’s so happy to be back in school.

+1 We have 3 who are back-to-school already via DL. They are happy! They like the variety, the teachers have been very upbeat and enthusiastic, they are diving into content, there is a lot of focus on class dynamics so that all the kids are participating. It has been very good!

I very much want to know what school this is. Our experience is the exact opposite.