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[quote=Anonymous]Observations from Days 1 and 2. This is for 3rd Grade.

Our Charter did no fewer than 4 meetings in the 2 weeks leading up the start of school (some with the administration, some with the classroom teachers) to set expectations, explain how they intended things to work and to solicit feedback. One of the things the school did was announce that the first 2 weeks of school were not going to dive headlong into education topics and that instead they would spend 2 weeks working on building an online community, doing deep dives into the technology at play, tech tips (e.g., how to bookmark pages, how to use Clever, Google Classroom, email and other 3rd party resources.) When I first saw the plan I was a bit annoyed that they planned to waste 2 whole weeks; I was so very wrong and they were right. Because they are building the technological building blocks the kids are being set up to be independent with respect to technological hurdles. Their "homework" this week is about learning the technology that will underpin future learning. Some of the "work" this week involved how to set up a successful workstation, and one of the assignments was to take a picture of their dedicated learning station and send it to the teacher by email. This was a creative way for the teachers to get a better understanding of kids that might not be getting ideal levels of support at home and allow for early intervention. Much like last spring, they are not playing around. Cameras on, kids focused on the teacher, muted microphones unless they are speaking, etc. We get emails every Sunday night with the plan for the week, a summary email every day with what was assigned through Google classroom, and we have a QR code to be able to log into their accounts to see what was assigned, completed, returned with comments, etc. This allows me to passively monitor the progress of the day and (for instance) ask the kid why I can see 3 unread emails from the teacher when they think they are done for the day. And when the kid comes into my office to ask a question, I can open up their school experience on my system, quickly address and send them away.

I'm confident that this approach will yield a level of independence that will allow spouse and me to work while kid does school. This past spring most of my parental intervention was desktop support and technology confusion. I think this will eliminate a lot of that effort.

I was really happy with my charter school before this year. Now I'm just madly in love.

P.S. Nothing is perfect. There will be hurdles. But this school is so very nimble and responsive that I have every confidence that they will adapt as needed and support the teachers and families as best they can. [/quote]

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