Anonymous wrote:There probably won’t be live learning so all these teachers can double dip and teach in pods.

It seems like you don’t think much about DCPS teachers. Why even bother with hybrid or virtual learning with these teachers you see as opportunist, double dipping, and lazy with a desire to only teach in pods?

At our WOTP elementary school, we are hoping for a few hours of instruction this fall. We only got one hour each week in the spring. And yes we are also a Hearst family.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The guidance will likely be a 1 hr live minimum each day and the rest up to schools to add more.

I highly highly doubt they’ll give a blanket time, just a minimum.

How can they in good conscience set a 1 hr live minimum?! That is nuts. If elementary level, the teachers should be actively engaging with the children at least two hours a day. That seems like a bare minimum. The in-person school day is 61/2 hours long...how do they propose providing replacement instruction with one hour live instructions. Absurd.

For MS and HS the students still need periods...maybe not 6 or 7 but definitely 3 or 4.

Because teachers will be on longer than that. Let’s say a class has 25 students and let’s say only 6 small 30 minutes groups.

That’s already 3 hours of the teachers time. Then maybe a 30 min whole group for everyone. And then a pre-recorded 30 min lesson.


That’s 4 hours. The rest is the time for lunch, planning, specials, students lunch/recess.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The guidance will likely be a 1 hr live minimum each day and the rest up to schools to add more.

I highly highly doubt they’ll give a blanket time, just a minimum.

How can they in good conscience set a 1 hr live minimum?! That is nuts. If elementary level, the teachers should be actively engaging with the children at least two hours a day. That seems like a bare minimum. The in-person school day is 61/2 hours long...how do they propose providing replacement instruction with one hour live instructions. Absurd.

For MS and HS the students still need periods...maybe not 6 or 7 but definitely 3 or 4.

What was distance learning high school like in the spring? Any insight as to what distance learning they’re planning for high school in the fall?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Schools in Asia and Europe are all re-opening. There are strict protocols in place with masking and distancing. They are making it happen. They are prioritizing their kids.

They’re also providing adequate supplies for their students in non-COVID times, and necessary cleaning supplies, etc. I saw a photo of a school in Singapore where they’d installed plexi shields around every desk, like we have to protect cashiers at the grocery stores. And it doesn’t take 2 weeks to get test results.

The protocols are not just masking and distancing. It’s a comprehensive approach throughout the community of testing and tracing and providing the means to achieve the protocols.

Hell yeah they’re prioritizing their kids. The US isn’t doing that, but that isn’t new with COVID.

I am also starting to think that public school teachers are just going to reject the notion that they're essential workers, which is a bit upsetting. Eventually teachers are going to have to accept that teaching means facing additional risk that people who can telework won't face ...

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow, I guess we had an amazing experience with Cleveland, 2nd grade. We had live instruction for more than an hour a day, maybe it was 1.5 hours, plus daily homework, apps, and twice a week reading groups. This is dual language. We just had phenomenal teachers, I guess.

This is the problem that DCPS has created by not instituting a robust distance learning program in the spring. Each school did their own thing. And some schools really sucked at it and a lot of teachers slacked off, doing the bare minimum, due to lack of leadership. And some schools and teachers did a lot.

The result is that one student receives a great educational experience and others received close to nothing. There's the real inequity.

Funny- that’s kinda the definition of what happens at WOTP schools with fundraising PTAS and EOTP schools. But that inequity we are cool with. Y’all are too funny!!!!

Parents have had months to also figure out how to set up their kids for distance learning within their home. I've picked up a couple desks that folks were giving away and created partitions between the desks for my kids. They have headphones and we are all set up for distance learning this fall. Just waiting for DCPS to roll out the red carpet plan! LOL

Anonymous wrote:The teachers had 6 days to turn to distance learning in the spring, and if you recall, we kept being strung along with “we are reopening April 1, April 15, no May 1...” etc. Difficult to develop something robust when you keep being told different things. And everyone bitching and moaning here needs to go take a long look at how Fairfax, with its much-vaunted school system, handled distance learning. Their kids were out for FIVE WEEKS before they figured out any of it (so everyone complaining about how DCPS shut 3 weeks early, could habe been five weeks.)

I HOPE the summer has been a time for DCPS to evaluate what worked and didn’t work and what worked at different levels of school and didn’t work. Deal did a great job with distance learning for my middle schooler; elementary was much less satisfactory (although yesterday I was talking to a mom of three ES students and she said having three synchronous learning events at the same time was awful! So everyone who wants hours of live instruction maybe needs to think about how it looks when your 5th grader and 2nd grade twins are all online in class at the same time. (And bear in mind that not everyone lives in a home where the kids and adults can physically be separated away from each other either.)

PP here. Yes, I agree. But it was the massively disparate experiences people had that scare the pants off them about DL this fall. I am hopeful things will be an order of magnitude better.

The teachers had 6 days to turn to distance learning in the spring, and if you recall, we kept being strung along with “we are reopening April 1, April 15, no May 1...” etc. Difficult to develop something robust when you keep being told different things. And everyone bitching and moaning here needs to go take a long look at how Fairfax, with its much-vaunted school system, handled distance learning. Their kids were out for FIVE WEEKS before they figured out any of it (so everyone complaining about how DCPS shut 3 weeks early, could habe been five weeks.)

I HOPE the summer has been a time for DCPS to evaluate what worked and didn’t work and what worked at different levels of school and didn’t work. Deal did a great job with distance learning for my middle schooler; elementary was much less satisfactory (although yesterday I was talking to a mom of three ES students and she said having three synchronous learning events at the same time was awful! So everyone who wants hours of live instruction maybe needs to think about how it looks when your 5th grader and 2nd grade twins are all online in class at the same time. (And bear in mind that not everyone lives in a home where the kids and adults can physically be separated away from each other either.)

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow, I guess we had an amazing experience with Cleveland, 2nd grade. We had live instruction for more than an hour a day, maybe it was 1.5 hours, plus daily homework, apps, and twice a week reading groups. This is dual language. We just had phenomenal teachers, I guess.

This is the problem that DCPS has created by not instituting a robust distance learning program in the spring. Each school did their own thing. And some schools really sucked at it and a lot of teachers slacked off, doing the bare minimum, due to lack of leadership. And some schools and teachers did a lot.

The result is that one student receives a great educational experience and others received close to nothing. There's the real inequity.

Agree, it was SO teacher dependent. I have twins. One had 3+ hours a week of live instruction in math alone. The other had 30-45 minutes a week.

I am hopeful that there will be much more consistent standards for teachers in the new year, with clear structure and expectations. While the crappy teachers will still be crappy, a stronger framework will help everyone.

Anonymous wrote:Wow, I guess we had an amazing experience with Cleveland, 2nd grade. We had live instruction for more than an hour a day, maybe it was 1.5 hours, plus daily homework, apps, and twice a week reading groups. This is dual language. We just had phenomenal teachers, I guess.

This is the problem that DCPS has created by not instituting a robust distance learning program in the spring. Each school did their own thing. And some schools really sucked at it and a lot of teachers slacked off, doing the bare minimum, due to lack of leadership. And some schools and teachers did a lot.

The result is that one student receives a great educational experience and others received close to nothing. There's the real inequity.

Wow, I guess we had an amazing experience with Cleveland, 2nd grade. We had live instruction for more than an hour a day, maybe it was 1.5 hours, plus daily homework, apps, and twice a week reading groups. This is dual language. We just had phenomenal teachers, I guess.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It better be more than last time. We got less than two hours of live teaching a week.

Our school had two, 25-min live sessions per week. Insane. It all fell to the parents. We’ve already been engaging the chancellor’s office to make sure our principal doesn’t pull this stunt again.

Was this Hearst?

I’m a NP, my kids go to Hearst and this sounds like what they got! It was really horrific and better not happen again.

That is just unacceptable. Every classroom teacher should be checking in on the students in their class every day, just like if in-person. Shame on anyone thinking two, 25-min live sessions per week was even remotely close to being enough.

Same thing happened with our 4th grade class at Stoddert. Two 15-20 minutes opportunities a week to hear from the (normally amazing) teacher live. It was so nuts. I'm not sure on what level she thought it was remotely adequate. I didn't complain because all the teachers and schools and students and parents were having to shift and adjust expectations very quickly because it was all new. And besides, they had gotten 2/3 of the way through the year, so most of the teaching had been done. But if we're potentially looking at a full year of DL DCPS must be much, much better. I will not be quiet again. There is too much at stake. If central office or the principals set ridiculous bare minimums for live instruction, I hope we as parents will demand more.

Anonymous wrote:The guidance will likely be a 1 hr live minimum each day and the rest up to schools to add more.

I highly highly doubt they’ll give a blanket time, just a minimum.

How can they in good conscience set a 1 hr live minimum?! That is nuts. If elementary level, the teachers should be actively engaging with the children at least two hours a day. That seems like a bare minimum. The in-person school day is 61/2 hours long...how do they propose providing replacement instruction with one hour live instructions. Absurd.

For MS and HS the students still need periods...maybe not 6 or 7 but definitely 3 or 4.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hope I don't see any of our teachers at the grocery store or any store for that matter. You know, because they are so scared for their health.

I’m a teacher and you don’t see me at any grocery store or any other store. I have everything delivered and I tip very generously. I haven’t been to a store since March 13th.

But I guess we could turn it around and say I hope we see all these parents back at work in the office since it was a-okay to open schools. We wouldn’t want people to think it isn’t safe to ride metro and you just wanted your kid out of the house.....right?

Actually I never left work. I'm a doctor at a local hospital.

So is my husband! Which is why I am so so careful as we are already at an increased risk.

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