Anonymous wrote:Also, it's much easier to switch to DL when the teachers already know the students in person, even if it's not 5 days a week every week. Starting an elementary class from scratch online would be so hard, for both practical and emotional reasons.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I get no one likes these plans, but what is your solution? They are trying to get kids back in school the best way they can. They can’t just open up schools with 500 kids and act like nothing happened. I don’t know what the right answer is but most people here won’t be happy with any solution

It's really not that hard to come up with ideas. If you're trying to minimize the number of kids present in school, we should be investing heavily in some full year virtual education options--like guided home schooling. In the other thread, I suggested reallocating principals and teachers with health concerns to a new 'virtual school'. Maybe stand up and Elementary, Middle, and High. If 10-20% of families opt into this, it opens up more possibilities for bringing kids back closer to full time at in-person schools.

Additionally, I'd like to see the city planning in lockdown periods to coincide for both school and elsewhere. We know the virus is likely to come back strong in the fall. Why not plan for a citywide cycle of something like 6 weeks on and 3 weeks off to contain the spread before it gets out of control. Right now, we're assuming there will be some unspecified trigger condition. But that's still going to come up on us more quickly than we would like. If we're proactive and go ahead and have occasional strict social distancing periods, we can keep everything from getting bad and hopefully better deal with the lockdown periods.

You can’t compare the U.S. to Taiwan. Taiwan has been a leader in how to handle this pandemic, and they actually follow proper social distancing protocols. We can’t even get people to wear masks in public here.
I like this. The problem is it can't just be the schools - everything woudl have to shut down for 3 weeks. What gets me is that it is JUST our children that are paying the price. THEY will be DL or in a school 2 days a week but the bars and coffee shops and restaurants and spas and dog groomers and acupuncturists and churches will be oopen 7 days a week.

When’s the last time you went to a restaurant/bar/coffee shop/salon/groomer/church and a sick person sneezed on you, coughed all over your table, picked their nose and wiped it on your table, sucked their thumb and then handed you something, chewed a marker and then gave it to you...kids are gross. That’s the difference between a business and a school.

Yes, there is. The biggest difference is that worldwide there is far more evidence of transmission in business settings than school settings. Taiwan went back to school planning to shut schools down again if necessary and there have only been ~9 cases at schools... unlike the rest of Taiwan, which they had to shut down again.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Proposal for elementary school: Eliminate PreK3 and PreK4 until Jan except for children who qualify for FARM or an IEP/504. Use the opened up classroom space, classrooms and teachers to reduce K class size. Give all K students the option of "redshirting". If a parent selects this option, the student will be eligible to start in the PreK4 class in January.

Grades 1 - 5. All students have the option of 100% distance learning for Aug - Dec (and possibly for the entire school year depending on how things unfold). For families that select this option, there will be a dedicated cohort of teachers who will focus on being experts on delivering distance learning to this targeted age group. There will be a "parent / school" commitment to learning which outlines expectations for online learning engagement.
[Level of home learning technology available, home learning environment and learning support]

For the remaining 1-5 students, create a programing alternating weeks of instruction. Week 1 - in school instruction. Week 2 - distance specials + using learning technology apps to reinforce learning. This is a short term design and not intended to be a "redesigned learning". It is purely a proposal to situation we are all currently facing.

The fact that your entire plan is premised on returning to school in January -- the month in DC where hospital bed usage tends to be the highest pre-COVID (Children's often runs at 95% of capacity as a result of RSV and flu, e.g.) -- suggests that you haven't really gamed out the public health aspects of this. We need to get back to school in August precisely because there will be rolling shutdowns in Dec-Feb irrespective of what we do now.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I get no one likes these plans, but what is your solution? They are trying to get kids back in school the best way they can. They can’t just open up schools with 500 kids and act like nothing happened. I don’t know what the right answer is but most people here won’t be happy with any solution

It's really not that hard to come up with ideas. If you're trying to minimize the number of kids present in school, we should be investing heavily in some full year virtual education options--like guided home schooling. In the other thread, I suggested reallocating principals and teachers with health concerns to a new 'virtual school'. Maybe stand up and Elementary, Middle, and High. If 10-20% of families opt into this, it opens up more possibilities for bringing kids back closer to full time at in-person schools.

Additionally, I'd like to see the city planning in lockdown periods to coincide for both school and elsewhere. We know the virus is likely to come back strong in the fall. Why not plan for a citywide cycle of something like 6 weeks on and 3 weeks off to contain the spread before it gets out of control. Right now, we're assuming there will be some unspecified trigger condition. But that's still going to come up on us more quickly than we would like. If we're proactive and go ahead and have occasional strict social distancing periods, we can keep everything from getting bad and hopefully better deal with the lockdown periods.

You can’t compare the U.S. to Taiwan. Taiwan has been a leader in how to handle this pandemic, and they actually follow proper social distancing protocols. We can’t even get people to wear masks in public here.
I like this. The problem is it can't just be the schools - everything woudl have to shut down for 3 weeks. What gets me is that it is JUST our children that are paying the price. THEY will be DL or in a school 2 days a week but the bars and coffee shops and restaurants and spas and dog groomers and acupuncturists and churches will be oopen 7 days a week.

When’s the last time you went to a restaurant/bar/coffee shop/salon/groomer/church and a sick person sneezed on you, coughed all over your table, picked their nose and wiped it on your table, sucked their thumb and then handed you something, chewed a marker and then gave it to you...kids are gross. That’s the difference between a business and a school.

Yes, there is. The biggest difference is that worldwide there is far more evidence of transmission in business settings than school settings. Taiwan went back to school planning to shut schools down again if necessary and there have only been ~9 cases at schools... unlike the rest of Taiwan, which they had to shut down again.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I get no one likes these plans, but what is your solution? They are trying to get kids back in school the best way they can. They can’t just open up schools with 500 kids and act like nothing happened. I don’t know what the right answer is but most people here won’t be happy with any solution

It's really not that hard to come up with ideas. If you're trying to minimize the number of kids present in school, we should be investing heavily in some full year virtual education options--like guided home schooling. In the other thread, I suggested reallocating principals and teachers with health concerns to a new 'virtual school'. Maybe stand up and Elementary, Middle, and High. If 10-20% of families opt into this, it opens up more possibilities for bringing kids back closer to full time at in-person schools.

Additionally, I'd like to see the city planning in lockdown periods to coincide for both school and elsewhere. We know the virus is likely to come back strong in the fall. Why not plan for a citywide cycle of something like 6 weeks on and 3 weeks off to contain the spread before it gets out of control. Right now, we're assuming there will be some unspecified trigger condition. But that's still going to come up on us more quickly than we would like. If we're proactive and go ahead and have occasional strict social distancing periods, we can keep everything from getting bad and hopefully better deal with the lockdown periods.

I like this. The problem is it can't just be the schools - everything woudl have to shut down for 3 weeks. What gets me is that it is JUST our children that are paying the price. THEY will be DL or in a school 2 days a week but the bars and coffee shops and restaurants and spas and dog groomers and acupuncturists and churches will be oopen 7 days a week.

When’s the last time you went to a restaurant/bar/coffee shop/salon/groomer/church and a sick person sneezed on you, coughed all over your table, picked their nose and wiped it on your table, sucked their thumb and then handed you something, chewed a marker and then gave it to you...kids are gross. That’s the difference between a business and a school.

Anonymous wrote:Proposal for elementary school: Eliminate PreK3 and PreK4 until Jan except for children who qualify for FARM or an IEP/504. Use the opened up classroom space, classrooms and teachers to reduce K class size. Give all K students the option of "redshirting". If a parent selects this option, the student will be eligible to start in the PreK4 class in January.

Grades 1 - 5. All students have the option of 100% distance learning for Aug - Dec (and possibly for the entire school year depending on how things unfold). For families that select this option, there will be a dedicated cohort of teachers who will focus on being experts on delivering distance learning to this targeted age group. There will be a "parent / school" commitment to learning which outlines expectations for online learning engagement.
[Level of home learning technology available, home learning environment and learning support]

For the remaining 1-5 students, create a programing alternating weeks of instruction. Week 1 - in school instruction. Week 2 - distance specials + using learning technology apps to reinforce learning. This is a short term design and not intended to be a "redesigned learning". It is purely a proposal to situation we are all currently facing.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At my school before we left, we had a huge bullying issue that surrounded Asian children. Kids wouldn’t go near them, they would call them
Names and insist they had the virus. This also included kids who showed up and were coughing. The schools and parents are going to have to do some serious work surrounding this to make all children feel safe when they are back in the building.

Holy shit. What school was this?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Also, distance learning is not working at all for my kids (all under age 7). They aren't learning anything despite our attempts. So while I guess something is better than nothing, I am not sure how long we can just ignore kids really not learning anything (and I realize my kids have a lot of advantages that many other kids do not).

Then you need to talk to your teacher & school. Find out how you could better impalement the lesson more effectively. As well as all the ways your child can learn through intentional play. If that doesn't work then you could find a program, apps, video lessons designed for distance learning. There are a BUNCH out there. The Prk- Elementary can learn a lot from PBS, Khan Kids, Smithsonian lesson, Dollar store work books.

Of course there are ways to homeschool effectively. But maybe PP has a full-time job and can't spend hours a day overseeing it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:i think the ralith is that many parents are going to have to sacrifice to pay for childcare for school aged kids during this time. Stop retirement savings if needed for the year, stop college savings. That or we leave our kids home alone. Most jobs will be back in person by fall but kids won't.

I think this is right. I just hope there are enough good nannies/babysitters out there that we can all find someone to hire to provide childcare. Since group care doesn't seem likely to be a smart choice.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Also, distance learning is not working at all for my kids (all under age 7). They aren't learning anything despite our attempts. So while I guess something is better than nothing, I am not sure how long we can just ignore kids really not learning anything (and I realize my kids have a lot of advantages that many other kids do not).

Then you need to talk to your teacher & school. Find out how you could better impalement the lesson more effectively. As well as all the ways your child can learn through intentional play. If that doesn't work then you could find a program, apps, video lessons designed for distance learning. There are a BUNCH out there. The Prk- Elementary can learn a lot from PBS, Khan Kids, Smithsonian lesson, Dollar store work books.

Anonymous wrote:Also, distance learning is not working at all for my kids (all under age 7). They aren't learning anything despite our attempts. So while I guess something is better than nothing, I am not sure how long we can just ignore kids really not learning anything (and I realize my kids have a lot of advantages that many other kids do not).