Anonymous wrote:My understanding was the in school day was mostly for advisory, social emotional programming and support. It seemed like all content would be delivered remotely. If kids only go 1 day a week it seems like teachers would not need to supervise every day. So maybe a teacher supervised 1-2 cohorts (days) and remotely teaches the other days?

Teachers would be the ones delivering the SEL and support. The teachers are the advisors. When the town hall described that I really scratched my head to think about who would be teaching the DL portion. Hybrid just doesn’t logistically make sense in this description. Which is why I think it will be 100% DL. Because as a HS teacher who wants to be back in the classroom teaching her content I don’t want all the exposure to be an advisor in a mask to kids 4 days a week. That seems silly.

Until we know what the model will be for delivering Distance Learning, it is hard to make assumptions for what will or will not be the days on site.

But the specific language that was selected in communication the model for middle school and high school was that it would not be core instruction.

Let's pretend we are using Deal Middle School as an example.

100 kids in each grade select 100% DL
100 kids in each grade are in each group, A, B, C, D

On A Day, 300 students are in the building, 100 for each grade. Per DC guidelines, you need to break them into 10 groups so you are under the threshold for students per setting. But you do not need to have 7 periods.

Maybe A Day = Students enrolled in French
B Day = Chinese +no foreign language
C = 1/2 of the Spanish Students
D = other 1/2 of Spanish Students

And possibly have in person language class?

A check in for a cohort advisor to support students not falling behind and teaching executive functioning planning skills

An in person class to support art or music or PE

Anonymous wrote:Here is the problem - it all works on paper - but it does not work with actual delivery.

IMO - you should do a program for middle school similar to Colorado College where students take one class at a time for 3 weeks. Imagine if you modified this a little.
Middle school proposal:
Group 1 took math and science for 4 week.
Group 2 took ELA and the History / Geography course
All take foreign language and their special
Week between the 4 week sessions is a Intensive week of Foreign Language and the special.
Start the next marking period the same model.
The 4 weeks allows for the teachers to go deep into content, enable the students to reduce some of the switching.

This seems smart. My kid has been taking Deal’s summer math acceleration class this month, which is three hours a day over four weeks, and it’s been really effective. Intensive focus on one or two subjects for shorter periods makes a lot of sense in a remote environment.

Here is the problem - it all works on paper - but it does not work with actual delivery.

IMO - you should do a program for middle school similar to Colorado College where students take one class at a time for 3 weeks. Imagine if you modified this a little.
Middle school proposal:
Group 1 took math and science for 4 week.
Group 2 took ELA and the History / Geography course
All take foreign language and their special
Week between the 4 week sessions is a Intensive week of Foreign Language and the special.
Start the next marking period the same model.
The 4 weeks allows for the teachers to go deep into content, enable the students to reduce some of the switching.

My understanding was the in school day was mostly for advisory, social emotional programming and support. It seemed like all content would be delivered remotely. If kids only go 1 day a week it seems like teachers would not need to supervise every day. So maybe a teacher supervised 1-2 cohorts (days) and remotely teaches the other days?

As a parent I would not choose this because it seems like the worst of both worlds. You get the exposure risk, but they are only in school one day a week. Not worth it.

Anonymous wrote:watched the Town Hall and apparently if DCPS offers hybrid, MS and HS students will only have one day of in-school instruction each week. DCPS is just going to go with 100% virtual, right? One day a week seems like nonsense.

At this point, I would be fine with one day: one day to see friends, touch base in person with teachers, just be normal.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One day a week is better than none. Labs, presentations, q&a - much better in person.

yes, but if you're doing this with 25% of the class on each of the 4 days, what is the other 75% of the class doing on each of these days???
Who is teaching them at home?
Are they just doing homework?

Yeah, that's my question too. I would prefer five days of in-person school, of course, but ... if it's ONE day of in-person school with no social stuff (no recess, lunch in the classroom, no after school activities) plus four days of working on homework/tests/whatever, then I'd rather have five days where they're actually SEEING their teachers and interacting with them. Maybe it makes sense for high school - as the parent of a middle-schooler, I felt that language learning and science class were probably the least suited to distance learning, but they aren't really doing big time lab work in 6th-7th grade. (though they were doing some fun experiments! I'm trying to supplement that a little bit at home with some science kits and lots and lots of NOVA but it isn't the same of course.)

Anonymous wrote:One day a week is better than none. Labs, presentations, q&a - much better in person.

yes, but if you're doing this with 25% of the class on each of the 4 days, what is the other 75% of the class doing on each of these days???
Who is teaching them at home?
Are they just doing homework?

Did they ever say why they are cleaning on Wednesday but not between each group?

I don't see how they will have staffing for this. It will require almost 100% of the teachers to come back to teach in person. If even 10% can't teach in person because of being high risk they won't have the teachers to be able to have 25% of the kids each come in one day per week.

Also, if the teachers are teaching 25% of the kids 4 days of the week, what do the 75% who are home on each of those days do?? Are they just doing homework? They can't tune into the in-person quarter because I assume they will be taking tests, doing presentations, etc.

How in the world does staffing work for this?

None of this makes sense. It's not unique to DCPS (I'm not jumping on them). It was the problem with all the hybrid models that other districts were proposing.

One day a week is better than none. Labs, presentations, q&a - much better in person.

yes.

Anonymous wrote:watched the Town Hall and apparently if DCPS offers hybrid, MS and HS students will only have one day of in-school instruction each week. DCPS is just going to go with 100% virtual, right? One day a week seems like nonsense.

As a middle school science teacher, I’d value the one day a week. It’d would be so much easier to get to know them if I can interact with them in person. It would also allow them to do some labs.

watched the Town Hall and apparently if DCPS offers hybrid, MS and HS students will only have one day of in-school instruction each week. DCPS is just going to go with 100% virtual, right? One day a week seems like nonsense.