Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm a K teacher and can back up that YT is blocked on student logins but not staff. My students watch several YouTube videos a day--Sesame Street and other while kid-friendly shorts for phonics and counting, and sometimes footage for science or social studies. For transition I might play a fun video while students are cleaning up and coming to the carpet. They're not spending hours in a vegetative state.

If it bothers you, I would reach out to the teachers for clarity and find out what and when they are actually watching. Older elementary can figure out how to get around blocking YT, in which case you should be having serious talks with your kid about integrity.

K teacher, I can't even get my _college_ students to care about integrity. When there is a glowing screen nearby, kids are drawn to it like moths. Even if you tell your own kid that YouTube at school is against the rules or bad for their brain or represents some kind of moral failing, they will inevitably be standing over the next kid streaming a bootleg movie at the MS lunch table. I'd much prefer to have all Chromebooks live in classrooms rather than in student hands.

So I guess we just give up then? Kids won't listen to parents so... that's it.

DP

I think PP's point is YouTube and other social media are intentionally addictive for kids, to the point where the people who created them do not let their kids near them. Would you expect a parent to be able to stop a teenager from using heroin just by telling them not to do it?

FYI my kid is in 1st grade and what you describe doing in your classroom absolutely does bother me. Yet, if I spoke to you about it, it doesn't sound like you would change your behavior but I'd be labeled the problem parent.

What bothers you about what I described? Songs and an occasional video clip for ss/science? Before boxlights and Promethean boards, I did the same thing with CDs. We watched videos and film strips in school in the 80s. A completely screen-free education experience is not really reasonable.

The teacher is correct. The problem is not the short videos that teachers are using for lessons. The problem is that other parts of education use screens as well (testing, gamification of lessons or practice). Then parents give screens everytime children go out to restaurants or are sitting in the back of the car. It’s the cumulative load of screens.

Two different issues. Teachers use screens as it’s easier than teaching. We have multiple teachers providing videos and assignments and they just answer questions.

+1 Honestly, we need to all work together to get rid of screens. They are designed to be addictive and edtech is just a massive scam. It's not going to be easy. Right now, the onus is entirely on parents to limit and monitor their kids' screen use. It's clearly not working. There are no rules preventing social media companies from marketing to kids and profiting off of purposefully addictive devices and apps that have massive negative effects on their brains.

And part of the problem is that adults are also addicted. How often are parents at the playground staring at their phones? I'll admit, I've been that parent. I want to get rid of my smartphone and stop constantly scrolling, but I also use my smartphone for so many things that it feels impossible to get rid of. Having internet connected massive screens in classrooms doesn't help either. Yes, teaching is hard, but having that big screen there is a constant reminder to teachers that they can just show a video and the kids will calm down! Except that's terrible for the kids too, honestly. And individual Chrome books for kids that they have access to all day is also a problem. It's not necessary and it's harmful. We're banning cell phones but require kids to stare at a screen all day? How does this make any sense?

But there is SO MUCH money in edtech. It's useless to try and fight it. The county spends millions and millions of dollars yearly on the 'latest' and greatest tech crap just to watch our kids' test scores go down further and further.

Anonymous wrote:Just to concur with OP that kids can easily spend too much time watching you tube even if it is officially blocked. They have tons of work around that they exchange.

I agree that the primary control is on the parent, to explain the rules and remind their kid not to do the stupid things other kids are doing BUT it is impossible to police from afar. My kids do not have unsupervised access to you tube at home. They know it is not allowed and we only go on you tube together for specific projects or questions.

I have discussed this with my son who is still young enough as a 4th grader to be painfully honest (and will come home full of guilt and crying once every 2 weeks and offer “ I am sorry mom, today I failed and I went on YouTube but just for 5 min I promise” - btw I am not stupid, I know in those instances it would have been more than 5 min). He is the one who alerted me of it, meaning tons of parents have no clues their kids spend time on you tube.

And that’s where I am mad at the teacher (and the subs are the worse offenders). It takes 2 seconds to do a lap around the class and check kids’ screen. You can see from the back of the class right away who is on you tube. Good teachers would enforce the rule. It would take 3 random corrections in the class “Larlo, Larla, you are on you tube, you don’t get math game breaks anymore for 2 weeks you are assigned to the real book reading breaks instead” and all the non defiant kids would already stop going there.

But no. There seems to be absolutely zero control.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm a K teacher and can back up that YT is blocked on student logins but not staff. My students watch several YouTube videos a day--Sesame Street and other while kid-friendly shorts for phonics and counting, and sometimes footage for science or social studies. For transition I might play a fun video while students are cleaning up and coming to the carpet. They're not spending hours in a vegetative state.

If it bothers you, I would reach out to the teachers for clarity and find out what and when they are actually watching. Older elementary can figure out how to get around blocking YT, in which case you should be having serious talks with your kid about integrity.

K teacher, I can't even get my _college_ students to care about integrity. When there is a glowing screen nearby, kids are drawn to it like moths. Even if you tell your own kid that YouTube at school is against the rules or bad for their brain or represents some kind of moral failing, they will inevitably be standing over the next kid streaming a bootleg movie at the MS lunch table. I'd much prefer to have all Chromebooks live in classrooms rather than in student hands.

So I guess we just give up then? Kids won't listen to parents so... that's it.

DP

I think PP's point is YouTube and other social media are intentionally addictive for kids, to the point where the people who created them do not let their kids near them. Would you expect a parent to be able to stop a teenager from using heroin just by telling them not to do it?

FYI my kid is in 1st grade and what you describe doing in your classroom absolutely does bother me. Yet, if I spoke to you about it, it doesn't sound like you would change your behavior but I'd be labeled the problem parent.

What bothers you about what I described? Songs and an occasional video clip for ss/science? Before boxlights and Promethean boards, I did the same thing with CDs. We watched videos and film strips in school in the 80s. A completely screen-free education experience is not really reasonable.

The teacher is correct. The problem is not the short videos that teachers are using for lessons. The problem is that other parts of education use screens as well (testing, gamification of lessons or practice). Then parents give screens everytime children go out to restaurants or are sitting in the back of the car. It’s the cumulative load of screens.

Two different issues. Teachers use screens as it’s easier than teaching. We have multiple teachers providing videos and assignments and they just answer questions.

+1 Honestly, we need to all work together to get rid of screens. They are designed to be addictive and edtech is just a massive scam. It's not going to be easy. Right now, the onus is entirely on parents to limit and monitor their kids' screen use. It's clearly not working. There are no rules preventing social media companies from marketing to kids and profiting off of purposefully addictive devices and apps that have massive negative effects on their brains.

And part of the problem is that adults are also addicted. How often are parents at the playground staring at their phones? I'll admit, I've been that parent. I want to get rid of my smartphone and stop constantly scrolling, but I also use my smartphone for so many things that it feels impossible to get rid of. Having internet connected massive screens in classrooms doesn't help either. Yes, teaching is hard, but having that big screen there is a constant reminder to teachers that they can just show a video and the kids will calm down! Except that's terrible for the kids too, honestly. And individual Chrome books for kids that they have access to all day is also a problem. It's not necessary and it's harmful. We're banning cell phones but require kids to stare at a screen all day? How does this make any sense?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:YouTube is blocked on MCPS chromebooks. Kids may have ways around it but that’s on them.

No, MCPS knows these backdoors exist and has done nothing to block them. Kids are in K-5. It is on MCPS.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm a K teacher and can back up that YT is blocked on student logins but not staff. My students watch several YouTube videos a day--Sesame Street and other while kid-friendly shorts for phonics and counting, and sometimes footage for science or social studies. For transition I might play a fun video while students are cleaning up and coming to the carpet. They're not spending hours in a vegetative state.

If it bothers you, I would reach out to the teachers for clarity and find out what and when they are actually watching. Older elementary can figure out how to get around blocking YT, in which case you should be having serious talks with your kid about integrity.

K teacher, I can't even get my _college_ students to care about integrity. When there is a glowing screen nearby, kids are drawn to it like moths. Even if you tell your own kid that YouTube at school is against the rules or bad for their brain or represents some kind of moral failing, they will inevitably be standing over the next kid streaming a bootleg movie at the MS lunch table. I'd much prefer to have all Chromebooks live in classrooms rather than in student hands.

So I guess we just give up then? Kids won't listen to parents so... that's it.

DP

I think PP's point is YouTube and other social media are intentionally addictive for kids, to the point where the people who created them do not let their kids near them. Would you expect a parent to be able to stop a teenager from using heroin just by telling them not to do it?

FYI my kid is in 1st grade and what you describe doing in your classroom absolutely does bother me. Yet, if I spoke to you about it, it doesn't sound like you would change your behavior but I'd be labeled the problem parent.

What bothers you about what I described? Songs and an occasional video clip for ss/science? Before boxlights and Promethean boards, I did the same thing with CDs. We watched videos and film strips in school in the 80s. A completely screen-free education experience is not really reasonable.

When I went to school in the 90s we didn't watch videos daily. We did watch videos sometimes, but it was a whole thing to set up the projector. It was not every day, I don't even think it was every week.

No, kids do not need to watch Sesame Street at school, that's absurd.

Sesame Street *songs.* Two minutes of the alphabet song. You really are That Parent then, eh?