Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I sent an email out on Tuesday just checking in on them. 3 out of 120 students opened the email so far

This is why virtual school is a delusional myth. It doesn't work because kids aren't motivated to do it and if you're not standing in front of their faces, they will ignore and procrastinate. The data already told us this, but too many parents are in denial.

The you fail them. It doesn’t work because of parents like you. Kids don’t check emails. They get too many. You need to email parents and post on canvas.

I teach High School students. I don't teach parents. Its the student's responsibility to care about their grades and future. Personally, I will not take action on anything unless I hear it directly from a student. A parent can e-mail me all they want about whatever they want and I will politely and professionally respond to them that if it's important to the student, they can tell me themself. It's like when I worked in the Marines as a payroll specialist, I refused to take calls and answer questions from spouses calling about their husbands pay. If he cared, he'd call.

This isn't the marines and some kids are struggling for what ever reason. And, you cannot discuss payroll with spouses. Students are minors and yes, you deal with the parents too. Many military men are busy at work and work long hours and don't have an easy desk job like you so us, as the spouses take care of a lot of it. Making an medical appointment can take hours to get ahold of the clinic and the right person. Don't complain if you don' tmaek it easy for them to see the assignments as they get tons of email a day. If its not on canvas, they will not see it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I sent an email out on Tuesday just checking in on them. 3 out of 120 students opened the email so far

This is why virtual school is a delusional myth. It doesn't work because kids aren't motivated to do it and if you're not standing in front of their faces, they will ignore and procrastinate. The data already told us this, but too many parents are in denial.

The you fail them. It doesn’t work because of parents like you. Kids don’t check emails. They get too many. You need to email parents and post on canvas.

Kids learning to check and manage email is a life skill. Yes, there are a lot of emails, but this is part of their "job" as students. If you grew up in the pre-digital world, did your parents micromanage your assignments and contact teachers for everything and anything? Mine certainly didn't.

100%. I tell all of my students that the 3 most important things they will learn in school are the following:

1. How to follow a schedule. No matter what you do in life, you are going to need to learn to be somewhere and do something on a fairly rigid time frame. In the real world you don't get extended time and tardies. You just get fired. Learn to handle it now while the stakes are low.
2. How to follow simple instructions. Again, no matter what you do in life, you likely are not going to be the first person to figure out how to get it done. Someone is going to give you directions and it is your job to follow them no matter how much you may disagree with them.
3. How to respect authority. 99.9% of you will end up working for someone else at some point in your life and you aren't always going to like them but you are going to have to respect them to an extent. Treat your teachers the same way. I tell my students that when you have a job, you do what the boss says because he signs your paycheck. As a student, treat your grade like a paycheck. Do what the teacher says because they assign your grade.

Everything else in school is great but without those 3 fundamental lessons, you'll never be successful as an adult.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I sent an email out on Tuesday just checking in on them. 3 out of 120 students opened the email so far

This is why virtual school is a delusional myth. It doesn't work because kids aren't motivated to do it and if you're not standing in front of their faces, they will ignore and procrastinate. The data already told us this, but too many parents are in denial.

The you fail them. It doesn’t work because of parents like you. Kids don’t check emails. They get too many. You need to email parents and post on canvas.

Kids learning to check and manage email is a life skill. Yes, there are a lot of emails, but this is part of their "job" as students. If you grew up in the pre-digital world, did your parents micromanage your assignments and contact teachers for everything and anything? Mine certainly didn't.

Anonymous wrote:My kid logged in yesterday and found that an AP teacher had posted an assignment (Tuesday, during snowday), that was due 24 hours later (Wednesday, during snowday) and claimed kids not submitting by the deadline would get a zero. At first, I assumed it was something pre-programmed top 'open' and 'close' that week but no. The instructions specifically reference that it's due during the snow days.

I assured ds that wasn't enforceable and the teacher would make accommodations later once they're back in person. But he FREAKED OUT. He's never met the teacher (new teacher for spring semester). And he's thinking he's going in to a new semester with a zero AT grade.

I guess the teacher is trying to set some expectations, but it's really, really bad for mental health to play such games. I don't mind at all if a teacher assigns work this week. I applaud it-- they'll need to cover a set of material before May; better to do some this week. But they can't have a tight deadline when school is closed and then tell kids they'll get a harsh penalty if they weren't checking Canvas every snow day, particularly students who are new to the class and don't know the teacher's processes and expectations.

Yeah this is ridiculous. As a teacher, I'm probably not assigning anything during snow days and if I did, it wouldn't be a graded All Task assignment.

My kid logged in yesterday and found that an AP teacher had posted an assignment (Tuesday, during snowday), that was due 24 hours later (Wednesday, during snowday) and claimed kids not submitting by the deadline would get a zero. At first, I assumed it was something pre-programmed top 'open' and 'close' that week but no. The instructions specifically reference that it's due during the snow days.

I assured ds that wasn't enforceable and the teacher would make accommodations later once they're back in person. But he FREAKED OUT. He's never met the teacher (new teacher for spring semester). And he's thinking he's going in to a new semester with a zero AT grade.

I guess the teacher is trying to set some expectations, but it's really, really bad for mental health to play such games. I don't mind at all if a teacher assigns work this week. I applaud it-- they'll need to cover a set of material before May; better to do some this week. But they can't have a tight deadline when school is closed and then tell kids they'll get a harsh penalty if they weren't checking Canvas every snow day, particularly students who are new to the class and don't know the teacher's processes and expectations.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I sent an email out on Tuesday just checking in on them. 3 out of 120 students opened the email so far

This is why virtual school is a delusional myth. It doesn't work because kids aren't motivated to do it and if you're not standing in front of their faces, they will ignore and procrastinate. The data already told us this, but too many parents are in denial.

The you fail them. It doesn’t work because of parents like you. Kids don’t check emails. They get too many. You need to email parents and post on canvas.

I teach High School students. I don't teach parents. Its the student's responsibility to care about their grades and future. Personally, I will not take action on anything unless I hear it directly from a student. A parent can e-mail me all they want about whatever they want and I will politely and professionally respond to them that if it's important to the student, they can tell me themself. It's like when I worked in the Marines as a payroll specialist, I refused to take calls and answer questions from spouses calling about their husbands pay. If he cared, he'd call.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I sent an email out on Tuesday just checking in on them. 3 out of 120 students opened the email so far

This is why virtual school is a delusional myth. It doesn't work because kids aren't motivated to do it and if you're not standing in front of their faces, they will ignore and procrastinate. The data already told us this, but too many parents are in denial.

The you fail them. It doesn’t work because of parents like you. Kids don’t check emails. They get too many. You need to email parents and post on canvas.

My kid's backpack is still in the backseat of my truck. Has been since I picked them up on Friday.

Anonymous wrote:Can you please email the students what the next chapter will be to cover, and maybe the link to the study guide? Everyone is gojng to have so much work to make up next week, I’m really worried about sleep/health as they try to catch up on the missed time. I’m sure you’re all stressed about covering the material prior to May 4 or whatever.

I can guarantee you my two freshmen (one in AP Gov) have not opened a school app or email all week.

My kid is in 4 APs and has received nothing, nor should he. They’ll catch up.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can you please email the students what the next chapter will be to cover, and maybe the link to the study guide? Everyone is gojng to have so much work to make up next week, I’m really worried about sleep/health as they try to catch up on the missed time. I’m sure you’re all stressed about covering the material prior to May 4 or whatever.

Did you not get a course syllabus? My 9th grader knows exactly what to read and prepare for.

No, we don’t. That would be really great. We get week to week assignments in basically all the classes.

Weird. My school mandates we post a semester long syllabus in the first week. We have the option to posting the assignments in weekly modules and keeping them locked until we are ready to assign them.

I have the same mandate. I post my quarterly syllabus (with daily reading and assignments for the whole quarter) as well as a more detailed weekly plan that I post each Friday for the following week. I also email out all of this information in calendar format. My students can already check to see what we are doing 2/4 or 3/19.

And yet I still get the emails:
“Are we doing anything important in class today?”

One of my favorite professors in college gave us a complete schedule of exactly what we were doing each day of the class for the entire semester. He also posted all of the lectures for each lesson online at the beginning of the semester(he recorded himself one year and just reused that recording and did the same lecture live each year). He told us that anyone who e-mailed him asking what they missed or will miss got an automatic 10% deduction in their classroom participation grade for not being able to follow simple schedules and instructions.

I wish I could do that! The best I can do is email back, telling the student to check the several resources online that would answer the question.

Oh I do it. I just don't make it obvious. Might read an assignment a little more carefully and detect a few more errors

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can you please email the students what the next chapter will be to cover, and maybe the link to the study guide? Everyone is gojng to have so much work to make up next week, I’m really worried about sleep/health as they try to catch up on the missed time. I’m sure you’re all stressed about covering the material prior to May 4 or whatever.

Did you not get a course syllabus? My 9th grader knows exactly what to read and prepare for.

No, we don’t. That would be really great. We get week to week assignments in basically all the classes.

Weird. My school mandates we post a semester long syllabus in the first week. We have the option to posting the assignments in weekly modules and keeping them locked until we are ready to assign them.

I have the same mandate. I post my quarterly syllabus (with daily reading and assignments for the whole quarter) as well as a more detailed weekly plan that I post each Friday for the following week. I also email out all of this information in calendar format. My students can already check to see what we are doing 2/4 or 3/19.

And yet I still get the emails:
“Are we doing anything important in class today?”

One of my favorite professors in college gave us a complete schedule of exactly what we were doing each day of the class for the entire semester. He also posted all of the lectures for each lesson online at the beginning of the semester(he recorded himself one year and just reused that recording and did the same lecture live each year). He told us that anyone who e-mailed him asking what they missed or will miss got an automatic 10% deduction in their classroom participation grade for not being able to follow simple schedules and instructions.

I wish I could do that! The best I can do is email back, telling the student to check the several resources online that would answer the question.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can you please email the students what the next chapter will be to cover, and maybe the link to the study guide? Everyone is gojng to have so much work to make up next week, I’m really worried about sleep/health as they try to catch up on the missed time. I’m sure you’re all stressed about covering the material prior to May 4 or whatever.

Did you not get a course syllabus? My 9th grader knows exactly what to read and prepare for.

No, we don’t. That would be really great. We get week to week assignments in basically all the classes.

Weird. My school mandates we post a semester long syllabus in the first week. We have the option to posting the assignments in weekly modules and keeping them locked until we are ready to assign them.

I have the same mandate. I post my quarterly syllabus (with daily reading and assignments for the whole quarter) as well as a more detailed weekly plan that I post each Friday for the following week. I also email out all of this information in calendar format. My students can already check to see what we are doing 2/4 or 3/19.

And yet I still get the emails:
“Are we doing anything important in class today?”

One of my favorite professors in college gave us a complete schedule of exactly what we were doing each day of the class for the entire semester. He also posted all of the lectures for each lesson online at the beginning of the semester(he recorded himself one year and just reused that recording and did the same lecture live each year). He told us that anyone who e-mailed him asking what they missed or will miss got an automatic 10% deduction in their classroom participation grade for not being able to follow simple schedules and instructions.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can you please email the students what the next chapter will be to cover, and maybe the link to the study guide? Everyone is gojng to have so much work to make up next week, I’m really worried about sleep/health as they try to catch up on the missed time. I’m sure you’re all stressed about covering the material prior to May 4 or whatever.

Did you not get a course syllabus? My 9th grader knows exactly what to read and prepare for.

No, we don’t. That would be really great. We get week to week assignments in basically all the classes.

Weird. My school mandates we post a semester long syllabus in the first week. We have the option to posting the assignments in weekly modules and keeping them locked until we are ready to assign them.

I have the same mandate. I post my quarterly syllabus (with daily reading and assignments for the whole quarter) as well as a more detailed weekly plan that I post each Friday for the following week. I also email out all of this information in calendar format. My students can already check to see what we are doing 2/4 or 3/19.

And yet I still get the emails:
“Are we doing anything important in class today?”

Anonymous wrote:I sent an email out on Tuesday just checking in on them. 3 out of 120 students opened the email so far

This is why virtual school is a delusional myth. It doesn't work because kids aren't motivated to do it and if you're not standing in front of their faces, they will ignore and procrastinate. The data already told us this, but too many parents are in denial.