In the end, this could be healthier for our system.

Anonymous wrote:I think it’s great they are getting it up and running on the 30th. They’ll have one week to pilot it before Spring Break when they can work out some of the kinks. Those of us with office jobs had to get our online stuff working overnight.

I think they will ease into it, introduce some pieces the week of the 30th to get kids and teachers familiar with the platform and start more "meaningful" instruction after spring break. Kind of a bummer for parents - start and then stop, because clearly no one is going away for break. Hard to set a home routine when the available materials keep changing.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am a teacher. I've been working on things for next week. Because I teach early primary, with the exception of one online math program where I'll assign regular work (kids can work independently for 15 minutes per day), every single lesson will have to be supervised by an adult, just like in the classroom. Online teaching is necessary to ensure kids don't lose more progress, but it won't be something kids can do on their own. K-2 takes full adult supervision nearly 100% of the time, 3-4th, about 50% supervision, and 5-8th about 25% supervision. Even high schoolers need some amount of help. No one wanted this, but here we are. I wish every parent the best regardless of whether their kids' teacher provides work or not, though I truly hope they do. We need to you sit next to your kid a few hours each day to help them learn. That's what we do each day and now that we can't be there, we need you to be there. Good luck!

I don't think that the complainers on DCUM have fully realized this.

Seriously. When I think about how much hand-holding my 7th grade classes need, I really am sympathetic for parents who are about to become home-school teachers for every subject. It's even going to be painful getting kids to be able to access and navigate instruction on the various apps teachers will be using to make good lessons, and then they'll have to complete the actual activities. I hope we can just provide feedback on what kids produce instead of assigning grades. Kids can continue learning now, but the idea of evaluating work completed under these circumstances is absurd.

Hello, 7th grade teacher PP. I am a parent of a 7th grader and I like your idea of no grades but focussing on feedback. My kid is pretty self-directed and doing the instructional materials, and in fact wants me to butt out. (I chalk this up to typical 13yo attitudes.) The aspect of remote learning that most worries me is my child not getting any personalized feedback about how they could be thinking on their own. I've discovered dozens of online learning resources but most are automated or simply one-sided (e.g., watch this video). Without the teacher feedback I don't think my child is really using their brain as much. I wouldn't mind grades for my child on individual assignments since they are motivated by them. Maybe one way to address it is to allow students to do do-overs if they need to...it could help address frustration kids will have in fully learning via remote. Just a couple of thoughts there.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am a teacher. I've been working on things for next week. Because I teach early primary, with the exception of one online math program where I'll assign regular work (kids can work independently for 15 minutes per day), every single lesson will have to be supervised by an adult, just like in the classroom. Online teaching is necessary to ensure kids don't lose more progress, but it won't be something kids can do on their own. K-2 takes full adult supervision nearly 100% of the time, 3-4th, about 50% supervision, and 5-8th about 25% supervision. Even high schoolers need some amount of help. No one wanted this, but here we are. I wish every parent the best regardless of whether their kids' teacher provides work or not, though I truly hope they do. We need to you sit next to your kid a few hours each day to help them learn. That's what we do each day and now that we can't be there, we need you to be there. Good luck!

I don't think that the complainers on DCUM have fully realized this.

Seriously. When I think about how much hand-holding my 7th grade classes need, I really am sympathetic for parents who are about to become home-school teachers for every subject. It's even going to be painful getting kids to be able to access and navigate instruction on the various apps teachers will be using to make good lessons, and then they'll have to complete the actual activities. I hope we can just provide feedback on what kids produce instead of assigning grades. Kids can continue learning now, but the idea of evaluating work completed under these circumstances is absurd.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

We need a full on lockdown. He's not learning from Europe. Each day hundreds of Italians are dying b/c they didn't take proactive measures. I speak to family and friends weekly.

We need to shelter in place. He will regret this decision - as will we. I am 99.99% certain we're already screwed.

Meaning what, specifically?

Have any of you been following Europe? Italy is done b/c they took late action. We're next unless they put the entire country on lockdown.

Maybe you should talk directly to my friends and family members in Italy. I'll translate . . .

Meaning what, specifically?

PP is being a bit mean but I imagine what they mean is what they have done in other countries, like imposing fines on people who go out and congregate in groups.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

We need a full on lockdown. He's not learning from Europe. Each day hundreds of Italians are dying b/c they didn't take proactive measures. I speak to family and friends weekly.

We need to shelter in place. He will regret this decision - as will we. I am 99.99% certain we're already screwed.

Meaning what, specifically?

Have any of you been following Europe? Italy is done b/c they took late action. We're next unless they put the entire country on lockdown.

Maybe you should talk directly to my friends and family members in Italy. I'll translate . . .

Meaning what, specifically?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

We need a full on lockdown. He's not learning from Europe. Each day hundreds of Italians are dying b/c they didn't take proactive measures. I speak to family and friends weekly.

We need to shelter in place. He will regret this decision - as will we. I am 99.99% certain we're already screwed.

Meaning what, specifically?

Have any of you been following Europe? Italy is done b/c they took late action. We're next unless they put the entire country on lockdown.

Maybe you should talk directly to my friends and family members in Italy. I'll translate . . .

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And yet again not a damn thing about schools. Every district and every parent in the state is waiting for guidance, and NOTHING. I've been generally pleased with Hogan's response to the crisis but this is extremely irritating.

PP, the governor just shut down "non-essential businesses" (see the list for definitions). Is he going to do that and also re-open the schools? No.

I know that. Everybody knows that. So why doesn't he just SAY it? The messages from MCPS and things I'm seeing on Twitter from other districts indicate that they want something concrete from him, that for whatever reason, they need this. So why doesn't he just give it already? That's the frustrating thing.

Anonymous wrote:

We need a full on lockdown. He's not learning from Europe. Each day hundreds of Italians are dying b/c they didn't take proactive measures. I speak to family and friends weekly.

We need to shelter in place. He will regret this decision - as will we. I am 99.99% certain we're already screwed.

Meaning what, specifically?

Anonymous wrote:And yet again not a damn thing about schools. Every district and every parent in the state is waiting for guidance, and NOTHING. I've been generally pleased with Hogan's response to the crisis but this is extremely irritating.

PP, the governor just shut down "non-essential businesses" (see the list for definitions). Is he going to do that and also re-open the schools? No.

Anonymous wrote:

If we don't shelter in place, schools may not open in the fall. This virus mutates and it's very "smart" in how it attacks. Don't bank on MCPS providing good instruction. Find the learning objectives. Visit the MSDE CC site and begin homeschooling your kids. If teachers are willing to facetime your kids, reach out. At this point, we need to use technology at the community level.

This virus is unearthing the ills in both healthcare and education. not bad necessarily - But we have to work through this in order to get to the other side.

The virus is not "smart" - it's a virus. That's it.