Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are you expecting teachers to make a house call to each student or have a 6 hour zoom conference? It’s not going to be the same. This is just the beginning. Once things get rolling, I’m sure the work will pick up. Chill out!

How long can school systems keep saying this? I've now been teleworking for over 3 weeks and rest assured we aren't just chilling out and figuring out how to get things rolling. Work couldn't wait.

This is I think why so many working parents don't understand what is taking so long across the board. I don't know of anyone else who's employer is saying "yeah, it's been a few weeks but we'll get there. Don't worry about delivering your work product."

+1. This. Teachers can break kids into small groups and send parents assigned times. They could have one on ones with kids for 10 minutes, once a week if they’re not happy with the big groups. And yes, a lot of us are working from home and figuring it out. There just needs to be willingness on the part of the teacher and McPS. This isn’t a snow day. School probably won’t open again until the fall.

Teachers can do what they are told they can do.

So McPS is actively stopping teachers from engaging with their students? Or teachers are teaching for 45 minutes because MCPS told them that was the minimum and most teachers prefer to do the minimum?

Maybe you can look at schedules on the email that MCPS released last night which explains the rationale and then consult the schedule that your school’s admin team developed. Yes, teachers are prohibited from going outside those parameters.

There you go.

Pp what I'm saying is that teachers are told how this is happening.

Maybe the lessons you are seeing take 45 mins without the factors that happen in a classroom.?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are you expecting teachers to make a house call to each student or have a 6 hour zoom conference? It’s not going to be the same. This is just the beginning. Once things get rolling, I’m sure the work will pick up. Chill out!

How long can school systems keep saying this? I've now been teleworking for over 3 weeks and rest assured we aren't just chilling out and figuring out how to get things rolling. Work couldn't wait.

This is I think why so many working parents don't understand what is taking so long across the board. I don't know of anyone else who's employer is saying "yeah, it's been a few weeks but we'll get there. Don't worry about delivering your work product."

Because teaching is different you idiot

No, at the most fundamental, it’s not.

-Former teacher

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I can't believe our taxes are paying for this.

Well, I can't believe someone is complaining about our taxes paying for the teachers when: there are people dying all around, with the lockdown just in the third week, and the whole model of teaching changing drastically, where the teachers are still trying to figure out how to go about their work.

Unless you are in NYC, there are not "people dying all around." In Maryland, we've had 53 deaths in state of 6 million. Please don't use this as your argument.

Anonymous wrote:I'm an educator for MCPS. What I think some critics don't realize is that we had to have a starting point. We are literally reshaping what education looks like in our country after 200+ years of doing the same old thing. We are slowly ramping up because the writing is on the walls and we are going to be in this for the long haul. Most of us realize by now that we probably won't be back this year. Once we get these tech issues figured out we can begin layering in SS and Science content. From there, more small group instruction for literacy. We can't launch all of this at one time and it be even remotely effective. I live in Frederick county and our kids are just getting assignments on their Google Classrooms Monday morning and it's all due by Friday. For parents of elementary students it's all on us. There is NO contact from the teachers. We will get there with the instruction but please be patient.

I'm guessing (or at least hoping) that you aren't a history teacher.

I’m an MCPS elementary music teacher trying to upload my lesson plans in Canvas but hitting one roadblock after another.
I realized today at 6:30 am that the Chrombook supplied to me by my school is unable to read any external drive. I should have checked it but with only 30 minutes to grab items from school I didn’t.
I switched to my a think-pad, opening and copying audio files Canvas, hit student view and found out that Canvass cannot read the type of MP3 files I have. I asked several teachers, even contacted a friend with a home studio , who guided me in converting the files to a different format ... only to have a distorted sound.
I have been trying to solve this problem for over 8 hours at no avail. I’m not sure what the problem is as I’m not a sound technician. I’ve been in recording studios as a performer.
I’m not complaining. It’s just that all this new way of doing things was thrown to us at once just a few days ago. We need to have accessible content published and ready to be viewed by Monday morning.
We are trying to do a good job. Please be patient.

Anonymous wrote:I can't believe our taxes are paying for this.

Well, I can't believe someone is complaining about our taxes paying for the teachers when: there are people dying all around, with the lockdown just in the third week, and the whole model of teaching changing drastically, where the teachers are still trying to figure out how to go about their work.

Thank you, teachers.

All I can say is after trying to teach my child and help her the past few weeks - I have nothing but respect for her teachers. They aren't paid enough.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PARENTS:

You might want to listen during the zoom call. Several kids commented that their parents were still asleep during my kid’s 9am zoom call this morning.

I cal total BS on this post. With as pathetic as the Zoom technology has been in MCPS has been and as hard as it’s been to actually log on and find a teacher on the other side, no kid is navigating that solo. Parents are awake and working hard.

Sad the contempt so many teachers have for parents.
You know, the people who pay their salaries.

You know, teachers also pay taxes that pay teachers’ salaries. As do single 20-something’s and childless couples and people with adult children. You don’t own teachers. MCPS teachers were told by MCPS that the first two weeks were like snow days and that they were not supposed to be working. Because those days may be made-up during or at the end of the school year. This week, teachers were working but they didn’t have the two previous weeks to prep because they were told not to work and given very little explanation of what would be expected once distance learning started.

For everyone who says “my company adapted quicker” I’d like to ask if all your clients and online meetings and communications happen with children? Because it is completely different to deal with other adults than to deal with children. Other adults also know how to use and can figure out how to use technology. Other adults use email and can type. Other adults have adult attention spans and adult abilities not to interrupt a meeting with irrelevant content. It’s completely different than dealing with kids and just not comparable.

Anonymous wrote:I'm a college professor. I didn't go from a full teaching load to 30 minutes of nothing. Have to prepare for and record full-length lectures, Zoom for discussion sections and seminars. Office hour phone calls. Grading huge numbers of midterms.

Not at all sympathetic when I see my school district supervisors and teachers posting on social media photos of their kids with them in their gardens. WTF

You can’t compare a lecture-based course for ADULTS to teaching primary grades over zoom. My 2nd grader’s normal school day is broken up into 15-20 minutes blocks in which they are moving around, switching activities, doing projects, specials, etc. these little kids do not have the attention span to sit and listen to a 45 minute lecture. They can barely type, if at all, so written “chat” based questions/commenting doesn’t work well. They talk over each other and aren’t used to how to raise a hand or signal they want to talk over zoom. It’s a mess. Primary teachers “lecture” for like a max of 10 minutes on any given topic, and then kids do activities to practice the skill or whatever.

There’s experience with online learning for older kids and college students/adults. I’m not aware of models like that for ES. It’s completely different than how our ES are focused - on group work and interaction and moving from activity to activity without a lot of lecturing. It’s a really hard transition for teachers, and honestly there should probably be different approaches for primary (K-2) and upper elementary (3-5). Attention spans and ability to keep comments on topic are different for those age groups.

I have a lot of respect for my kids’ teachers and I don’t doubt they are working hard. Are they working exactly the same number of hours as before? I have no idea. But they are working and trying to get instruction to our kids. My 5th grader has lots of substantive assignments, and she and her classmates are capable of a focused zoom “class” and a lot of independent work and written feedback, e-mails, etc. My second grader has never used e-mail and cannot receive instructions from her teacher that way. She can barely type and gets confused when the online platforms automatically spell check. There’s just only so much they can do with the little kids and if they manage to complete the year’s math curriculum I will be satisfied with that. At least now they’re getting to see their teacher and reconnect with their classmates.

I'm an educator for MCPS. What I think some critics don't realize is that we had to have a starting point. We are literally reshaping what education looks like in our country after 200+ years of doing the same old thing. We are slowly ramping up because the writing is on the walls and we are going to be in this for the long haul. Most of us realize by now that we probably won't be back this year. Once we get these tech issues figured out we can begin layering in SS and Science content. From there, more small group instruction for literacy. We can't launch all of this at one time and it be even remotely effective. I live in Frederick county and our kids are just getting assignments on their Google Classrooms Monday morning and it's all due by Friday. For parents of elementary students it's all on us. There is NO contact from the teachers. We will get there with the instruction but please be patient.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I for one would like to thank all the teachers out there who are attempting to make the best of terrible situation. The rude and insulting comments from the parents on here are truly disgusting. These teachers are clearly not in this profession for the money. They spend more time with your kids than you do and in the midst of a pandemic you feel it’s the best time to criticize their work ethic and attack their character.

That is because they cannot deal with the brats THEY chose to have during a time when there is NO CONTROL over ANYTHING. You had them now deal with it. I am hispanic and feel a lot of white parents view teachers or daycare or other public positions as slaves for their brats. We are in an emergency. People are dying and you want other's to put their neck out and work for your brats to your specifications?? Typical white privilege.

I pray to God that you don't work with children. Or as you prefer to call them, "brats".

Those of you comparing teleworking to teaching a classroom of 30 kids via Zoom are just plain stupid.

Most you have likely been teleworking for years. Are you spending 8 hours per day on Zoom interacting with co-workers and clients?

Did you have to change your entire business model to accommodate teleworking?

Let's be honest, teleworking for most of us is essentially no different than our normal day to day. Only difference is we use a VPN to access files. E-mail is same, office phones can be forwarded to cell phones, conference call still occur.

Anonymous wrote:More proof that teachers are seen as nothing more than educated babysitters by most parents.

I'm seeing complaint post after complaint post from parents on FB about how they can't "handle" teaching their 1-3 kids. Throwing in the towel and giving up after one or two difficult days. Now try doing that but with 20+ kids.

I wouldn't be so fast to knock them. First of all, they are not professional educators. Second of all, most of them are trying to hold down a full-time job at the same time.

We're all in this together, aren't we?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are you expecting teachers to make a house call to each student or have a 6 hour zoom conference? It’s not going to be the same. This is just the beginning. Once things get rolling, I’m sure the work will pick up. Chill out!

How long can school systems keep saying this? I've now been teleworking for over 3 weeks and rest assured we aren't just chilling out and figuring out how to get things rolling. Work couldn't wait.

This is I think why so many working parents don't understand what is taking so long across the board. I don't know of anyone else who's employer is saying "yeah, it's been a few weeks but we'll get there. Don't worry about delivering your work product."

Because teaching is different you idiot