MCPS Elementary School

CES 5th Grader gets the alternating schedule of math/reading, with videos that need to be watched ahead of time and then exit tickets. So it is functioning sort of like a flipped classroom, and seems to be working okay. They will start new material this week or next week, I forget.

5th grader also gets open ended projects that are common for the CES kids, and those take more or less time depending on how much time the child chooses to put into them. A self-motivated kid could make it last hours. A kid who needs more external motivation could probably finish it in a half hour.

Small school district (about 130 total graduates per year) in PA. Schools are using a platform called Schoology...each subject has a section. It was already in use—all MS and HS assignments and materials were posted even when school was in session. MS and HS kids also already had their own school laptops.

Schools in PA shut down as our spring break started and our district then took an extra week to get set up before we started.

No mandatory live sessions—teachers are posting videos (either they made themselves or Kahn academy or from the curriculum company). Then the kids do the assignment and participate in discussion boards.

MS alternates Math/science one day and ELA/social studies next and one weekly lesson/assignment for each elective.

ES alternates math/ELA, but on the “off” day they have to work on ELA or math online in a program called IXL. They also have one special each day and one science and one social studies lesson per week.

Schools are saying they will be able to give the kids all the core content by the end of the school year. I think it’s going pretty well...kids work on school stuff 3-4 hours a day (which seems about right).

i have a kid at a big3 private and honestly it's been a bit of a joke too. the kid has maybe 2 hours of work a day and really hasn't learned anything new (middle school). We're paying $45k for this which is painful.

2 in MCPS HS. It is a joke, little to no work the last 2 weeks of the third quarter (review only, no new learning), and with the announcement Sunday that the fourth quarter will only be credit or no credit, there will be even less work for the remainder of the school year.

PGCPS. They have one platform that the kids log into with a school issued email address and password. Core classes have recorded lessons by the teacher and assignments posted M- Th in the morning. In the afternoon the teacher has office hours and scheduled one on one meetings. The class meets live a few times per week. On Fridays all assignments are due and assignments for specials are posted. My child is in elementary. It doesn't replace school, but we are happy with the assignments and the effort the teachers are putting into making this work.

2nd grader in Anne Arundel public:
Google classroom for all assignments
So far no synchronous/live lessons.
County has said live meets can’t be mandatory, but teachers are allowed to do them. dD’s teacher seems a little techno-phobic so I’m not expecting many live meetings. She’s available for office hours every afternoon but we haven’t used them.

She has posted several lessons via google meet, and the county posts several lessons and videos within the google classroom assignments.

A-day is LA and SS, B day is Math and Science
All specials post assignments on Monday that are due Sunday.
Assignments typically have a video lesson, a reading, and a worksheet or written work of some sort.

Total time spent on school (assuming reasonable focus) is 1 - 2 hours depending on length of videos for the day.

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DS in middle school at a small private

Google classroom for all classes. Assignments in all core classes every day.
Required Zoom meetings once per week for core classes. From what I’ve heard these are a combination of real teaching and chatting/checking/social time.
Optional zoom meetings once per week for specials which have been vaguely-class-related fun stuff.

School work is usually 3-4 hours per day, and he’s clearly moving forward with the curriculum.

MCPS, its a waste of time. They get 3 days a week of math zoom and 2 days reading for 30 minutes. Its usually a 10 minute say hi, send them to watch a video and MCPS provided worksheets. No science or history. Specials are a video too. Not sure why we need to do the zoom, just have us do the worksheets. We don't even submit the worksheets for grading as teacher said she's too "busy" (with the 10 minute zoom a day) to grade them.

We are at a private - kids grades K-3 - they have live zoom from 8:30 AM to 1:15 PM daily - they have language arts and math everyday. The other two periods (the periods are 45 mins a piece with a break between) - they mix in the specials of language, computers, PE, social studies, science, and music. They have some assignments outside of class too - reading for 20 mins a day, journaling and uploading it, language worksheets, etc. They work is uploaded in google classroom - class is on zoom.

Anonymous wrote:MCPS high school:
7 teachers posting assignments through email, or Google classroom or myMCPS classroom. Many students can’t handle managing 3 sources of information to collate the assignments and due dates. It’s an executive functioning challenge. No live classes, but live Zoom office hours if students need them.

MCPS magnet elementary (CES): live Zoom class daily for core subjects, students are attentive. Assignments are on Google and my MCPS classroom, but they only have one main teacher and she tells them where to find stuff and when it’s due, and tells them what to write in their planner. Specials are posted online, no live classes.

If only MCPS could consolidate to ONE platform, it would be perfect.

We're in FCPS and we constantly lament the fact that we have SIS for grades, Classroom for work, Blackboard for some teachers who post info but not work but sometimes work depending on the teacher. It truly is an Exec Function disaster in normal times.

DCPS middle and high schools. Using Microsoft 365 Teams as the main communication platform. Also using Canvas. I have been nearing for several years that Office 365 is the official platform for DCPS because of its security and that teachers were to stop using Google classroom. We are now on about week 3 or 4 of learning at home. (I’ve lost track.) First week was a little rocky but once they got going it has seems pretty smooth. I know that they have had to move mountains to get hardware to many students and that not every DCPS school is in the same place, but all in all I think the district is doing a good job. There are lots of limitations to learning at home so I expect my kids are learning a lot less than they would be in the classroom (especially in MS which seems to have less instruction overall) but overall DCPS seems to have been relatively well prepared from an infrastructure perspective.

I do think there is a significant range of level of comfort by DCPS teachers with using online platforms. Even though the software platforms are in place and available, there is still a wide range in individual teachers’ abilities to deploy it. It is a pretty big ask for teachers to pivot from in person classroom instruction to online instruction and I do believe that all of my kids teachers have been working really hard at this.

APS elementary school (2nd grade)
Daily activities from Learning plan
Reflection sheet from Teacher
Weekly checkins pn Microsoft teams
1-2x/week activities from various specials teachers, counselor, librarian

I'm very happy. It's low stress and with reading is about an hour of work each day. I do not need to supervise, no technical glitches. He "sees" classmates on zoom or messenger kids

MCPS high school:
7 teachers posting assignments through email, or Google classroom or myMCPS classroom. Many students can’t handle managing 3 sources of information to collate the assignments and due dates. It’s an executive functioning challenge. No live classes, but live Zoom office hours if students need them.

MCPS magnet elementary (CES): live Zoom class daily for core subjects, students are attentive. Assignments are on Google and my MCPS classroom, but they only have one main teacher and she tells them where to find stuff and when it’s due, and tells them what to write in their planner. Specials are posted online, no live classes.

If only MCPS could consolidate to ONE platform, it would be perfect.

MCPS elem. it’s okay but not amazing. He has a live lesson each day on Zoom, follow up work, specials are prerecorded and the kids can watch them anytime throughout week. Each teacher has 2 hours of office hours a week on Zoom and a lunch bunch also on Zoom.

I’m asking this because FCPS is having issues. That’s why I am asking for comments only from parents of children in other public school districts or private schools.

What is your school doing for distance learning right now? What platform are they using? What materials is the school providing? Are your kids in elementary, middle, or high school? Public or private? Are you happy with distance learning right now?

This question is only for parents with kids who are not in FCPS.