Not in my class!!

I'm an elementary teacher in PGCPS (taking sick leave today so I'm on DCUM) I'm a remedial specialist and have 45 students and ALL BUT ONE log on regularly to their Zooms and are doing some kind of work for their teachers -- I'm not saying all of them are doing a great job, but they are NOT missing. Our school district did a great job reaching out with technology and internet to all our kids and phoning and following up with missing kids to get them connected. It was HARD WORK though.

Anonymous wrote:I’m not reading the article, but I don’t find it the least bit surprising that 25% of kids can’t log on, considering around the same number of kids have food insecurity. Do think they can afford computers or DL tools, or have a parent able to stay home to watch them log in every day?

Who cares? Certainly not the unions who didn’t before the pandemic. They couldn’t wait to force schools/food distribution to shut down.

Social promote too, the only people who are losing out are poor, brown and black, and again no one (including Democrats) really cared before and they don’t now.

Quite frankly I’m grateful the grading and deadlines are lenient this year. We have 2 DDs in high school and they have experienced a definite heightening of depression and anxiety due to the restrictions and isolation of the pandemic, even though we try to get them out safely. They know they are missing so much, especially our senior, and it has impacted their ability to handle school workloads and deadlines. The lenient grading and deadlines for this year are helping preserve their college application GPAs from previous years and helping them have success despite all the things working against them.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Unlike the gloomy people on this thread I don't think DL will fail an entire generation. I think schools, colleges, and jobs will adapt... for the better.

Certain people will definitely benefit from this. Greatly. They're the people who benefit from winning the ovarian lottery anyways, but as long as you're cool with growing inequality, cool.

+100

And school districts are trying to address inequality but making the grading policy so leniant it’s almost impossible to fail. So instead of focusing on actual learning, they are just passing kids along. Which did happen in person school but it is much more heightened. So the message is: learning does not matter and mastery of material does not matter. Passing grades matter. It’s depressing and so unfair to those students who are not learning g.

This has always been the case.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Unlike the gloomy people on this thread I don't think DL will fail an entire generation. I think schools, colleges, and jobs will adapt... for the better.

Certain people will definitely benefit from this. Greatly. They're the people who benefit from winning the ovarian lottery anyways, but as long as you're cool with growing inequality, cool.

+100

And school districts are trying to address inequality but making the grading policy so leniant it’s almost impossible to fail. So instead of focusing on actual learning, they are just passing kids along. Which did happen in person school but it is much more heightened. So the message is: learning does not matter and mastery of material does not matter. Passing grades matter. It’s depressing and so unfair to those students who are not learning g.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I teach math in a Title I middle school here in the DMV. It is unusual for me to have more than 1 or 2 students miss class. The 1 or 2 students who miss my classes always tell me why either by email beforehand or the next time we're in class via chat (oh, how they love the chat, private to me or otherwise!). Usually the absence is entirely understandable and unusual.

I agree with the high school teacher above that very few students in our school are negatively impacted by technology access. Our school system has done an outstanding job with ensuring that all children have ChromeBooks and Kajeets for hot spot access to the internet.

In some ways the access via technology has been a game-changer for a few of my students. In a Title I school we obviously have some families that have difficult living situations. Some of my students with the most difficult home and family situations are the first ones to pop in to my Office Hours and open class time to connect with me and get some positive feedback and support.

The current situation isn't ideal by any means but it also isn't the absolute worst thing to ever happen. We are so fortunate in this country to have the resources that we do and the ability to use them. I wish that some of the negative mindset people here on DCUM would start to recognize that. We certainly have challenges but we would be better off banding together to solve problems and overcome perceived obstacles. This continued negative harping does much more harm than good.

This doesn't seem consistent with the press coverage or stats reported by schools themselves, which is that significant numbers of students (and a disproportionate number of kids who are poor or who are not white) are simply not showing up. I am glad you are an outlier, but that isn't the norm.

Have you considered that the "press coverage" is negative because negative sells and positive doesn't? Have you considered that the "stats reported by schools themselves" haven't changed much from prior years? In other words, no one is looking at what is working because people like you can't or don't want to deal with it. You'd rather be the Negative Nellie and constantly scream and shout like the 99% here on DCUM. The posters who post positive stuff are shot down because the unhinged can't take it. Face it - until we go back to the old "normal" and most of you learn what happens in an epidemic when you're dumb, we'll continue to see the bashing and trashing. At the end the rest of us will still be standing because we 1) wear our masks, 2) practice social distancing, and 3) don't do stupid things like push for schools to open because we're tired of our kids being at home.

(DP)

Anonymous wrote:Unlike the gloomy people on this thread I don't think DL will fail an entire generation. I think schools, colleges, and jobs will adapt... for the better.

Certain people will definitely benefit from this. Greatly. They're the people who benefit from winning the ovarian lottery anyways, but as long as you're cool with growing inequality, cool.

Unlike the gloomy people on this thread I don't think DL will fail an entire generation. I think schools, colleges, and jobs will adapt... for the better.

DH teaches in public school in an affluent area in the Midwest. Families have had the option to be in person or DL 5 days a week since early November; all DL before then. Classes are concurrent DL and in person. When in person became an option, approximately 2/3 of kids were in person. Now, in many of his classes it is only 1/3 of the kids at most on any given day. Yesterday 4 kids were removed from school in the middle of one of his classes to quarantine at home. This is not atypical. It is extremely stressful for all involved—healthy kids are anxious given the sudden disappearances and appearances of classmates and often end up opting to go back to DL.

And how is DL + in person working? 40-60% of kids in the district are not turning in work or participating in class regularly with as many as 20-30% of the high school age kids essentially dropping out—just not participating. The problems gets worse as kids get older. These are not kids whose families are lacking in economic resources. The levels of anxiety affecting all kids—even those who are in person— is tremendously high. Simply getting kids back to in person is not enough given the constant churn of kids who quarantine (DL), come back to in person, quarantine again (DL) with another exposure, go into isolation if they get COVID, etc. One of the students who was pulled out for quarantine yesterday had literally been back to in person class for one day before having to quarantine again due to another exposure.

I don’t know what the answer is, but I think encouraging families to repeat a given school year without stigma when things are a little more normal might be a good start.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m not reading the article, but I don’t find it the least bit surprising that 25% of kids can’t log on, considering around the same number of kids have food insecurity. Do think they can afford computers or DL tools, or have a parent able to stay home to watch them log in every day?

Bogus statistic.

NP. The USDA estimates 1 in 6 kids, 18%, live in food insecure households. That's...still a lot.

School funding is tied to enrollment and attendance. Believe me, administrators and teachers WANT students showing up. They are communicating through grade books, emails, and calls home. In some cases, they are scheduling translators to assist in communicating with home. Whether with in-person school or virtual school, family members need to find a way to deliver the kid to class.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, at least 25% of kids never study, never do their homework, never tried to keep up with school even in-person school. This is no surprise.

The difference its at least they were sitting in class before this

Being present at your desk doesn't mean you're actually doing anything.

But at least you can sit in a warm building and have a meal away from the chaos of a dysfunctional household while under the supervision of caring adults. Don't give me the examples from your Arlington classrooms to say that there is not a qualitative difference for populations of vulnerable children between distance learning and in-person learning. Because hey...these kids weren't doing anything of worth in school anyways. Do you know how depressing that sounds coming from teachers?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m not reading the article, but I don’t find it the least bit surprising that 25% of kids can’t log on, considering around the same number of kids have food insecurity. Do think they can afford computers or DL tools, or have a parent able to stay home to watch them log in every day?

Read the article. They were given free laptops.

Free laptops do not equal free broadband. The article said that they would have to sign up for “low cost internet” through a local provider. If you’re not sure how you’re going to make rent, you’re not signing up for low cost anything. And I wonder what “low cost” means to companies like Verizon or Comcast.

How much FREE stuff do you want?

Free stuff? Seriously? Broadband is a HUGE issue in both rural and urban areas. That low cost internet does not give you much bandwidth so you could have it and still not be able to log on.

We are the richest country in the world and we can't provide free internet? Really?

There is no “we.” Be accountable for your own life and needs.

And there it is. American "exceptionalism" on display at its best. God, we are a country of selfish assholes.

Anonymous wrote:I teach math in a Title I middle school here in the DMV. It is unusual for me to have more than 1 or 2 students miss class. The 1 or 2 students who miss my classes always tell me why either by email beforehand or the next time we're in class via chat (oh, how they love the chat, private to me or otherwise!). Usually the absence is entirely understandable and unusual.

I agree with the high school teacher above that very few students in our school are negatively impacted by technology access. Our school system has done an outstanding job with ensuring that all children have ChromeBooks and Kajeets for hot spot access to the internet.

In some ways the access via technology has been a game-changer for a few of my students. In a Title I school we obviously have some families that have difficult living situations. Some of my students with the most difficult home and family situations are the first ones to pop in to my Office Hours and open class time to connect with me and get some positive feedback and support.

The current situation isn't ideal by any means but it also isn't the absolute worst thing to ever happen. We are so fortunate in this country to have the resources that we do and the ability to use them. I wish that some of the negative mindset people here on DCUM would start to recognize that. We certainly have challenges but we would be better off banding together to solve problems and overcome perceived obstacles. This continued negative harping does much more harm than good.

This doesn't seem consistent with the press coverage or stats reported by schools themselves, which is that significant numbers of students (and a disproportionate number of kids who are poor or who are not white) are simply not showing up. I am glad you are an outlier, but that isn't the norm.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our district gives out hotspots. The library does too. If you can’t log on at all ever with your free device and hotspot....

Look, if the SAHM upthread who presumably has the time and ability to help her kid thought it was teachers'/school's job to do it, then what do we expect from busy WOTH families many of whom also don't know/understand the school system well.

"But kids don't have enough internet."
"Kids in our district have hotspots."
"Did I say internet? Hold on. Let me think of the next excuse."

You really need to bend your brain around the idea to come to the conclusion that distance learning is disproportionately harder on poor families?

Public school failed you, I see.

Regular school is disproportionately harder for poor families. That is also a fact.

But it’s hard in ways that can’t be used to force issues that DCUM cares about like schools opening