Anonymous wrote:My kid has 2 zoom meetings scheduled this afternoon -- same time (2 different subjects). Middle school.

Email the teachers. They may have scheduled yesterday before today’s schedule came out.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Well that seems eminently reasonable. Kids need to eat!

Having a 2 hour slot of time blocked off for lunch seems excessive. An hour would be sufficient.

You do realize that not everyone has the food in their kitchen, right?
Your lack of awareness is showing.

Anonymous wrote:Our principal said that they are blocking certain times for certain levels so that kids in a family can share computers. Elementary in the morning; HS in the afternoon; not sure about MS.

MS is also afternoon.

My kid has 2 zoom meetings scheduled this afternoon -- same time (2 different subjects). Middle school.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Well that seems eminently reasonable. Kids need to eat!

Having a 2 hour slot of time blocked off for lunch seems excessive. An hour would be sufficient.

Not for kids who don’t have any food at home and have to go to meal sites to pick up their lunches. They need time to go pick up the food and eat. Some kids have to walk to the meal sites which can take some time. I appreciate the effort and thought that they are putting into this because not everybody has the same circumstances.

Our principal said that they are blocking certain times for certain levels so that kids in a family can share computers. Elementary in the morning; HS in the afternoon; not sure about MS.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Elementary MCPS teacher here. We can't hold meeting between 11:00 and 1:00 because that is the time for students to pick up food.

We are working so hard to make this work for everyone. It is exhausting on this end, too.

This is just another example of how it will be impossible to make this work for everyone in such a large school system.

MCPS is simply too large an diverse to meet the needs of all kids. It’s just too big to run effectively.

Smaller districts (town-based) and private schools have had a much easier time implementing distance learning an have been doing so for weeks. This will be incredibly difficult to do in any meaningful way, in MCPS.

In terms of real-world effect, this is pretty much the same as saying, "Denver is simply at a too-high altitude to have an atmosphere that provides enough oxygen for everybody. Places at lower altitudes have a much easier time doing that. It's incredibly difficult to do that in Denver."

Nope. It’s the same as saying that Denver is at a high altitude and we need to make some changes in how we bake a cake, in order to bake that cake effectively.

MCPS is too large, and it would benefit all students if it was divided up into smaller, more manageable chunks. If things are not working well, you try to change things so that the system works more efficiently and productively.

Local government in Maryland, including school districts, is based on the county. If you want to try to change that, have at it, I guess.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Elementary MCPS teacher here. We can't hold meeting between 11:00 and 1:00 because that is the time for students to pick up food.

We are working so hard to make this work for everyone. It is exhausting on this end, too.

This is just another example of how it will be impossible to make this work for everyone in such a large school system.

MCPS is simply too large an diverse to meet the needs of all kids. It’s just too big to run effectively.

Smaller districts (town-based) and private schools have had a much easier time implementing distance learning an have been doing so for weeks. This will be incredibly difficult to do in any meaningful way, in MCPS.

In terms of real-world effect, this is pretty much the same as saying, "Denver is simply at a too-high altitude to have an atmosphere that provides enough oxygen for everybody. Places at lower altitudes have a much easier time doing that. It's incredibly difficult to do that in Denver."

Nope. It’s the same as saying that Denver is at a high altitude and we need to make some changes in how we bake a cake, in order to bake that cake effectively.

MCPS is too large, and it would benefit all students if it was divided up into smaller, more manageable chunks. If things are not working well, you try to change things so that the system works more efficiently and productively.

My guess (as a parent -- maybe a teacher who knows more can respond) is that the new schedule is starting next week. My elementary kid has a Zoom in the afternoon today, which was set up through email yesterday. But we heard from the school yesterday that the longer-term plan is for elementary students to have lessons in the morning in banded times, so K-1 at one time, 2-3 at another time, and 4-5 at another, which allows for families with multiple students in different grades to stagger access. They said middle/high schoolers would have classes in the afternoon. My middle schooler had a morning zoom yesterday, but just received a school schedule for next week from a teacher that shows online class periods running from 12:45 to 4:15 on Tuesday and Wednesday (periods 1-4 on Tuesday and periods 5-8 on Wednesday), with Monday being a chance for all classes to send instructions, content, etc. to students via other methods (not live video meetings). I don't know if this will be a system-wide schedule or is just for this one school.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Elementary MCPS teacher here. We can't hold meeting between 11:00 and 1:00 because that is the time for students to pick up food.

We are working so hard to make this work for everyone. It is exhausting on this end, too.

This is just another example of how it will be impossible to make this work for everyone in such a large school system.

MCPS is simply too large an diverse to meet the needs of all kids. It’s just too big to run effectively.

Smaller districts (town-based) and private schools have had a much easier time implementing distance learning an have been doing so for weeks. This will be incredibly difficult to do in any meaningful way, in MCPS.

In terms of real-world effect, this is pretty much the same as saying, "Denver is simply at a too-high altitude to have an atmosphere that provides enough oxygen for everybody. Places at lower altitudes have a much easier time doing that. It's incredibly difficult to do that in Denver."

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Well that seems eminently reasonable. Kids need to eat!

Having a 2 hour slot of time blocked off for lunch seems excessive. An hour would be sufficient.

Because everybody has such a busy schedule, appointments all day long all over the place, running hither thither and yon from the living room to the dining room to the kitchen to the bathroom to the basement?

The people who are supposed to be home are supposed to be home. If you're not someone out picking up food, what difference does it make to you if there are no class meetings between 11 am and 1 pm?

Well our meeting today is at 11 in ES

Anonymous wrote:Elementary MCPS teacher here. We can't hold meeting between 11:00 and 1:00 because that is the time for students to pick up food.

We are working so hard to make this work for everyone. It is exhausting on this end, too.

This is just another example of how it will be impossible to make this work for everyone in such a large school system.

MCPS is simply too large an diverse to meet the needs of all kids. It’s just too big to run effectively.

Smaller districts (town-based) and private schools have had a much easier time implementing distance learning an have been doing so for weeks. This will be incredibly difficult to do in any meaningful way, in MCPS.

This is one of the most disgusting and entitled threads I have ever read on here. Parents complaining about a couple hours of no formal online lesson time so desperately hungry and impoverished children have time to go get the meals they rely on.

Here's an idea: take responsibility for your own kids. YOU give them work to do. Have them read a book. Watch some educational TV. Get a freaking workbook from Amazon. They literally have them for every single subject. Count your blessings that your family is safe and fed. People are literally dying. Every day parents have to choose between taking their kids into a public space to get them food or to let them go hungry. And you are on here complaining that someone else isn't teaching your kids for two hours. Pathetic.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My school said no live lessons or office hours before 1 pm. Teachers plan and meet virtually in PLCs from 8 to 12:30. Lunch from 12:30 to 1. Work with students 1-3.

That sucks.

Actually, it is better than I had hoped. The only issue for me is that my household has two teachers and a middle schooler who will all need privacy and strong WiFi in the same two hours. We just learned yesterday that our internet provider will not install a hookup for a wifi booster. DD’s bedroom is the dead zone and there’s nothing back there to hook the booster to. No cable hook up or phone jack. Our provider says it is not an emergency and offered us an appointment at the end of April.

Get a WiFi extender that plugs into an outlet.

Can you recommend one? The ones that we found that had good ratings must go into a phone outlet or cable jack.