Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m a high school teacher. That ship sailed long ago. Even the best students do it. I’m not happy about it from a “future of humanity” perspective but teachers made their peace with this pre pandemic.

Gonna be rough for all those kids when they get to college or grad school with the "no laptops allowed in class" professors.

That doesn’t happen. In college your learning is entirely on you. Those Professors do not care if you come, if you like the content, if you’re engaged. They’re teaching what and how they teach and it’s on the students to get it or not. In this sense we do high school kids a huge disservice because if they don’t learn or engage or do the default is “how did the teacher fail to grab them.” The reality is the best teacher still can’t compete with the phone. I swear some kids aren’t even consciously aware they’re picking it up and scrolling it. You call them out and they’re genuinely surprised.

I was speaking from the recent experience of multiple friends enrolled in college courses who were told no laptops allowed in class.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m a high school teacher. That ship sailed long ago. Even the best students do it. I’m not happy about it from a “future of humanity” perspective but teachers made their peace with this pre pandemic.

Why aren't you designing your teaching so that students don't have much time/opportunity to be sitting on their devices?

There is no teaching that is more exciting to a kid determined to be on or addicted to their phone. There just isn’t. I have had parents email me and say “he gets so distracted by his iPad/phone can you just take it in your class?” and I have flat out responded your job is to tell him to leave it at home, not to ask me to confiscate it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:“ If your kid is determined to screw off and play games or watch youtube at home, then guess what: they will do it at school too.”

Which is why theirs should be on FCPS to block their laptops from accessing YouTube and other sites. Allow teachers to access it and they can show what is needed.

Again, the school networks DO block most of those. Kids who are determined not to work will just play that dinosaur game on google or look at their phone or look out the window or ask to go to the bathroom for 20 minutes or put their head down or ask to go to the nurse.

Also there is a workaround to watch YouTube even when blocked, and many kids know it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m a high school teacher. That ship sailed long ago. Even the best students do it. I’m not happy about it from a “future of humanity” perspective but teachers made their peace with this pre pandemic.

Gonna be rough for all those kids when they get to college or grad school with the "no laptops allowed in class" professors.

That doesn’t happen. In college your learning is entirely on you. Those Professors do not care if you come, if you like the content, if you’re engaged. They’re teaching what and how they teach and it’s on the students to get it or not. In this sense we do high school kids a huge disservice because if they don’t learn or engage or do the default is “how did the teacher fail to grab them.” The reality is the best teacher still can’t compete with the phone. I swear some kids aren’t even consciously aware they’re picking it up and scrolling it. You call them out and they’re genuinely surprised.

Anonymous wrote:I’m a high school teacher. That ship sailed long ago. Even the best students do it. I’m not happy about it from a “future of humanity” perspective but teachers made their peace with this pre pandemic.

Why aren't you designing your teaching so that students don't have much time/opportunity to be sitting on their devices?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I really wish schools would start seriously thinking about ways to detox students from excessive technology. There is an over reliance on it that I fear will be exacerbated after this past year. Now would be a great time to return to pen, pencil and paper. I’m wondering if younger kids even know how to properly use scissors, hold a writing instrument, etc. All my first grader does is tap, tap, tap on his iPad during virtual school. Let’s get back to the basics and reevaluate the use of screens in schools, especially for the k-2nd graders. Get these kids unplugged and outside more too!

+1. I'm homeschooling my kindergartener but even after things are back to normal and she can go to school 5 days a week, I'm nervous about the excessive tech use. I was given a laptop by my school in 7th grade and it was a huge distraction. Everyone would be playing games or messaging each other on AIM. Students accidentally accessed pornography. It was a mess.

We moved our first grader to Catholic school this year and one of things I really like is that they use workbooks and have them writing with a pencil all the time. No personal screens in the classroom. His handwriting was not good last year. He was definitely behind. I have seen a huge improvement this year and the teacher has noted it too.

We were doing virtual K with FCPS at the end of last year and I did not like all the reliance on apps... watch this YouTube video, do this Dreambox math, go to MyOn and have it read you a story. Let alone the god awful hyperdocs where he had to click and drag things and attempt to peck out sentences on a keyboard. It was painful. I think this whole "we are preparing them for modern world we live in" is a bunch of BS. Young elementary students have plenty of time to develop computer skills AFTER they have learned how to write. And even after that point we need to be careful about how much is being done on screens instead of paper. We are going to have a generation of people who lack the fine motor skills we need for things like certain types of surgery. This issue is already being noticed in med students: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/30/well/live/surgeons-hobbies-dexterity.html.

Anonymous wrote:I’m a high school teacher. That ship sailed long ago. Even the best students do it. I’m not happy about it from a “future of humanity” perspective but teachers made their peace with this pre pandemic.

Gonna be rough for all those kids when they get to college or grad school with the "no laptops allowed in class" professors.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Mark my words, the way these kids use the laptops during school time is going to be a major problem.

Kids are going to surf the web and youtube etc.

It's going to be a major problem and the schools have no recourse because online learning in person is not part of the education curriculum or agreed upon method of teaching as per VDOE guidelines.

It's easy for the schools to block that.

They don't. They can't since teachers use it every day.

They refuse to block it and find a different way for teachers to do stuff. Absurd but there it is.

They don’t block the entire site but they block a LOT of the videos. Pretty much any music video and a lot of stuff that would legitimately be deemed educational. I BOUGHT The Crucible on YouTube to show scenes to kids and the district internet wouldn’t allow me to play it

I feel like some of you have only JUST realized this year after seeing it in your own homes that we only have so much control over kids who want to screw around. They will find a way. Yes we remind them a few times but honestly, even my kids with IEP goals to stay on task have 2-3 prompts to do that. Why? Because anything beyond that is absurd, ineffective, and taking time away from kids actually trying.

If your kid is determined to screw off and play games or watch youtube at home, then guess what: they will do it at school too. I am not there to personally babysit and monitor one off task kid. I will redirect and then say “you’re making a choice to not engage in learning and there are consequences to your choices.” Work on self regulation and impulse control if your kid can’t manage this.

Here we are, blaming 2nd graders for having lousy impulse control on a laptop.

Because we all would have done so much better using a laptop then? Parents are complaining because it's inappropriate. Whether or not laptops are inappropriate for HS students is one question. For ES? There's no question.

+1. We're getting treatment for my child's ADHD and working on impulse control, etc, but DL is a disaster and so are laptops in class.

I’m a high school teacher. That ship sailed long ago. Even the best students do it. I’m not happy about it from a “future of humanity” perspective but teachers made their peace with this pre pandemic.

Anonymous wrote:You don't want screens?

News flash: Your children have a screen at their disposal the moment you get them a phone and are on them constantly. There isn't a whole lot the teachers can do about it.

Get over yourselves.

Yeah that would be why my kid doesn't have a smartphone and won't be getting one...

Anonymous wrote:I really wish schools would start seriously thinking about ways to detox students from excessive technology. There is an over reliance on it that I fear will be exacerbated after this past year. Now would be a great time to return to pen, pencil and paper. I’m wondering if younger kids even know how to properly use scissors, hold a writing instrument, etc. All my first grader does is tap, tap, tap on his iPad during virtual school. Let’s get back to the basics and reevaluate the use of screens in schools, especially for the k-2nd graders. Get these kids unplugged and outside more too!

+1. I'm homeschooling my kindergartener but even after things are back to normal and she can go to school 5 days a week, I'm nervous about the excessive tech use. I was given a laptop by my school in 7th grade and it was a huge distraction. Everyone would be playing games or messaging each other on AIM. Students accidentally accessed pornography. It was a mess.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Mark my words, the way these kids use the laptops during school time is going to be a major problem.

Kids are going to surf the web and youtube etc.

It's going to be a major problem and the schools have no recourse because online learning in person is not part of the education curriculum or agreed upon method of teaching as per VDOE guidelines.

It's easy for the schools to block that.

They don't. They can't since teachers use it every day.

They refuse to block it and find a different way for teachers to do stuff. Absurd but there it is.

They don’t block the entire site but they block a LOT of the videos. Pretty much any music video and a lot of stuff that would legitimately be deemed educational. I BOUGHT The Crucible on YouTube to show scenes to kids and the district internet wouldn’t allow me to play it

I feel like some of you have only JUST realized this year after seeing it in your own homes that we only have so much control over kids who want to screw around. They will find a way. Yes we remind them a few times but honestly, even my kids with IEP goals to stay on task have 2-3 prompts to do that. Why? Because anything beyond that is absurd, ineffective, and taking time away from kids actually trying.

If your kid is determined to screw off and play games or watch youtube at home, then guess what: they will do it at school too. I am not there to personally babysit and monitor one off task kid. I will redirect and then say “you’re making a choice to not engage in learning and there are consequences to your choices.” Work on self regulation and impulse control if your kid can’t manage this.

Here we are, blaming 2nd graders for having lousy impulse control on a laptop.

Because we all would have done so much better using a laptop then? Parents are complaining because it's inappropriate. Whether or not laptops are inappropriate for HS students is one question. For ES? There's no question.

No “we” are not blaming 2nd graders for anything. Not one thing I said at all references 2nd grade.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Mark my words, the way these kids use the laptops during school time is going to be a major problem.

Kids are going to surf the web and youtube etc.

It's going to be a major problem and the schools have no recourse because online learning in person is not part of the education curriculum or agreed upon method of teaching as per VDOE guidelines.

It's easy for the schools to block that.

They don't. They can't since teachers use it every day.

They refuse to block it and find a different way for teachers to do stuff. Absurd but there it is.

They don’t block the entire site but they block a LOT of the videos. Pretty much any music video and a lot of stuff that would legitimately be deemed educational. I BOUGHT The Crucible on YouTube to show scenes to kids and the district internet wouldn’t allow me to play it

I feel like some of you have only JUST realized this year after seeing it in your own homes that we only have so much control over kids who want to screw around. They will find a way. Yes we remind them a few times but honestly, even my kids with IEP goals to stay on task have 2-3 prompts to do that. Why? Because anything beyond that is absurd, ineffective, and taking time away from kids actually trying.

If your kid is determined to screw off and play games or watch youtube at home, then guess what: they will do it at school too. I am not there to personally babysit and monitor one off task kid. I will redirect and then say “you’re making a choice to not engage in learning and there are consequences to your choices.” Work on self regulation and impulse control if your kid can’t manage this.

Here we are, blaming 2nd graders for having lousy impulse control on a laptop.

Because we all would have done so much better using a laptop then? Parents are complaining because it's inappropriate. Whether or not laptops are inappropriate for HS students is one question. For ES? There's no question.

You don't want screens?

News flash: Your children have a screen at their disposal the moment you get them a phone and are on them constantly. There isn't a whole lot the teachers can do about it.

Get over yourselves.

Anonymous wrote:“ If your kid is determined to screw off and play games or watch youtube at home, then guess what: they will do it at school too.”

Which is why theirs should be on FCPS to block their laptops from accessing YouTube and other sites. Allow teachers to access it and they can show what is needed.

Again, the school networks DO block most of those. Kids who are determined not to work will just play that dinosaur game on google or look at their phone or look out the window or ask to go to the bathroom for 20 minutes or put their head down or ask to go to the nurse.