Reply to Has Duran gone mad? (APS)

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Very sorry PP. so angry that APS is doing this to teachers for what amounts to DL in school.  It is not a magically better instructional option. All it brings is risk.  I am keeping my kids home to protect them and teachers.  But I know that doesn’t help you. We’re at one of the crazy high hybrid middle schools.  [/quote]

What do you mean it amounts to DL in school? Privates in the area are certainly providing a much better in-person education that the DL garbage we get. (And yes teachers are working very hard, but it doesn't matter how hard you work if it isn't translating to learning. Sure, parents with fancy jobs that can work from home or SAHPs can make DL work. Congrats for you! The vast majority are flailing.) The keep APS closed crowd has not been able to point to any science or research to support their position. They are the anti-science crowd. [/quote]

Chill. Maybe you are an elementary parent, in that case then DL and hybrid will be different. But for middle and high, the concurrent plan is DL in school.   That is very clear. It’s not a debate.  Our APS principal made that clear. Privates may do it differently but our principal said in APS the only way they can do concurrent is everyone on devices with headphones.  I am a MS parent who was talking to a HS teacher. For 6-12, it will be DL at school.  [/quote]

DP.  Even if that’s what it looks like, many secondary students would benefit from being in a classroom with an aide who will make sure students stay on task.[/quote]

Aide?? In high school?? Lololol.

If kids come in, I expect them to work. I will tell them to stay on task. If they don’t, i’m too busy teaching the online kids to bother. It’s their choice if they come in and do nothing. [/quote]

If you are physically in the classroom, then it will not be the same as distance learning.[/quote]

Your kid won’t magically pay attention. It’s just you won’t be the witness any longer.[/quote]

I’ve laid out for my middle schooler the parade of horribles on what hybrid might be like, and he still really wants to go back.  When asked why, he said that even with everyone being in separate rooms with doors closed, he still sometimes hears his sister’s lesson in the next room (especially when she has music or PE) and finds it really distracting in a way that kids on separate tasks in a classroom never was.  He said he also finds his mind wanders and he gets off task far more easily sitting at a desk in our guest room (which has nothing but his school stuff in it) than he ever did in a classroom.  Even seeing all of the worst case scenarios, he firmly believes he would learn more effectively in the school building than at home.

He also thinks he would manage his time better if his independent/asynchronous work times were in the building where the expectation is that he’d sit at his desk and work during those times than he does at home when there’s accountability during those periods so it’s easy to just take a break and push off the work until after the school day.  If I see him downstairs during an asynchronous time, I’ll tell him to go back upstairs and do his schoolwork, but if I’m on a work call and can’t check on him, that doesn’t happen.

He wants to be in the building, even with everything you describe, because he believes he will still learn more effectively there, and he can point to concrete and specific reasons why.  It’s hard to argue with that he’s wrong.[/quote]

I have similar issues to your middle schooler.  I thought about going in to work from the building, but I am in one of the zip codes with a high rate of cases, and received about 5 emails last month alerting me to positive cases and quarantines at the school.  It sounds like you have taken the right steps setting up  a designated workspace for him.  Perhaps you need to make it a bit cozier and more comfortable so that it isn’t too spartan?  Could you get him fish or a pet lizard or hamster for the room?  Colorful cushions?  Or maybe you need to make it more office like with a nice office chair and a whiteboard  and calendar?  Definitely try noise canceling headphones, ear plugs, or classical music if he is noise sensitive.  
[/quote]

You really think we haven’t tried those things?  He has a desk with a chair he picked out (a jellyfish chair, because that’s the kind he’s liked the most in the classroom). He also has a regular desk chair he can swap out if needed, and a comfy couch to move to as well.  He has headphones, a few different types so he can choose what feels most comfortable depending on tasks.  He also has access to music if he wants it during asynchronous one time.  A pet in the room would just be more distraction (and would be one more set of chores to take care of when we’re already stretched too thin).

What he needs at this stage of life is another person in the room, because just knowing there’s someone else who can see if he’s goofing off is the most effective thing we’ve found for helping him stay on task, even if that person is doing their own thing.  But I can’t check out of work until 2:30 four days a week and keep the job that puts a roof over our heads.[/quote]

Look, I was just trying to offer suggestions in case he DOESN’T get to go back to the building.  Myself, I need to prepare myself for possible outcomes, and right now I have no idea whether I will be teaching in a classroom next month.  Sorry I bothered.[/quote]

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