Reply to Howard County remote until April 2021.

Forum Index » MD Public Schools other than MCPS

Reply to "Howard County remote until April 2021. "

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]As another Howard County resident and parent to two students in HCPSS, I am also proud of the board and their handling of the situation.  As we have seen over the last 10 months, the situation changes every month.  In addition to the changing infection, hospitalization and death rates, there is also a change in what the science is telling us about the efficacy of masks, how the virus is transmitted, what sanitation is required, what surfaces are likely transmissions.

I like how HCPSS closed for the first two quarters and then said that discussion about 3rd quarter would begin on a certain date (I believe it was 10/22).  The discussion then began with the knowledge of what the current state of the pandemic was and the current thoughts on what was safe.  If they had used metrics, when there was a lull in the summer, they would have spent a lot of BoE time discussing metrics and preventative measures which would have been outdated and not necessarily comprehensive by October, let alone January and they would have to go back and revise the recommendations for January anyways.  What's the point?

The schools and teachers did a lot or work to redesign the teaching curriculum for distance learning.  I heard from friends who have children in other states who were in hybrid mode, then had to convert to full DL when there was an infection and several classrooms of teachers and students who were in the contact tracing circle had to quarantine, but then the teachers were not prepared for converting to completely DL (they barely had time to prepare lessons and assignments for hybrid without preparing for both hybrid and full DL) and the classes were off-track and makeshift as the teachers redesigned the lesson plans for fully on-line.

Making the decision per quarter was significantly smarter.  It allows the teachers to commit to a mode of teaching and to design the curriculum, assignments and lesson plans around the teaching model in use for the entire quarter.  And at the start of each quarter, the BoE can start to decide based on the current status and situation what mode of teaching the following quarter will be.  So, at the start of the 2nd quarter, the discussion began and ended with remaining closed for 3rd quarter.  In January, the BoE can discuss based on the state of pandemic, whether it is safe to consider going into an in-person or hybrid model for the 4th quarter.

I think this is the best way to compromise between analyzing the safety and giving teachers the time to design the lesson plans and assignments to the teaching model in use.[/quote]
+1000[/quote]

Too bad the decision was so great for the safety of teachers and so terrible for a significant amount of the students trying to learn. You can have all the great lesson plans and assignments you want, but without unpaid teaching assistants called parents this year - as well as supplementing - you do not have quality education. The kids without parental support will be falling behind at a significantly higher rate. So +1000 for teachers and privilege, I guess. Stay safe if you can?[/quote]

Privilege? You think this  is about teacher privilege ? Good God. What is it  about this pandemic that you don’t understand.

We might  have kids fall behind, but more people will live. Try to understand. [/quote]

You don't understand.  These people DON'T CARE.  They care about no one and nothing except and exclusively getting their kids into school buildings at all costs.

Then we start the idiotic rants about how since minimum wage cashiers at Chipotle can't sell burritos via Zoom (and the government has completely failed at providing any opportunity for them to not starve or be homeless while not doing so during a pandemic), that teachers cannot (even though they ARE and have been for MONTHS and MONTHS) teach remotely because these people don't like it and they want their kids in buildings.

Insane.[/quote]

The schools needed to stop 100% for the year. No DL. If you want to save lives and keep the buildings closed, I'm all for it. If you want to keep an even playing field and keep kids on the same level without needing to tax ever stretched thin families and stressed kids with the extra weight of managing DL at home, close. Completely close. No DL. Just close.  Only families with stay at home parents or ones with very flexible lives or independent kids are managing this well with student actually learning.  If you are doing great with DL, congrats. I don't think it's the vast majority. 
Why keep this up another semester or two and stretch stressed out families? To widen the gap? Why? 
Close and reopen when it's safe. 
[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics