Anonymous wrote:Schools should resume in the fall. period. If teachers can't handle it, then FCPS has all summer to find people that can handle it.

One of my friends is an FCPS teacher and she said there is a lot of talk that they won't be going back to school in the fall.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Parent here. I think this time should be spent to fine tune online instruction, August is a long way but if the need be then online instruction can continue. However, at that point instead of 1 hr, at least 5 hr should be the norm. This is a serious situation and you can’t expect teachers and rest of the school staff to risk their lives.

At that point nobody will be sympathetic to the fact that teachers have their own kids at home to take care of, that’s the case for all is us. I am sure most reasonable teachers will try to do whatever they can to make online instruction work in August.

Do you think it is reasonable appropriate to have young kids sit in front of their computers for 5 hours per day?

Please, please, please let's just open the schools back up. If parents are not comfortable sending their kids, then they can use Virtual Virginia or instructional videos and assignments posted on a Google Classroom site.

Sure. Especially if they don’t do it for 5 hours straight.

So something like this?

8-9am: Computer lesson
9-9:20am: Break
9:20-10:20am: Computer lesson
10:20-10:40am: Break
10:40-11:40am: Computer lesson
11:40-12:20pm: Lunch break
12:20-1:20pm: Computer lesson
1:20-1:40pm: Break
1:40-2:40pm: Computer lesson

If by "young kids" you mean in grades K-2, this schedule is so developmentally wrong I can't believe anyone would think it'd be okay. Maybe for college kids??? For kids in grades K-2, this *might* work for some:
8-8:30 whole group lesson online
8:30-9 independent work of some kind
9-9:30--play
Then small group work for 15-30 minutes between 9:30-10
10-10:30 independent work
10:30-12 break and lunch
12-12:30 whole group lesson online
then independent work for 15-20 minutes.

For distance learning, this is enough for young kids. More than enough. And that's assuming there's a parent at home to help ensure that a) the kid sits and listens to the teacher teaching and b) the kid has help with independent work. Given that most kids do not have this, even the above schedule is very ambitious.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Parent here. I think this time should be spent to fine tune online instruction, August is a long way but if the need be then online instruction can continue. However, at that point instead of 1 hr, at least 5 hr should be the norm. This is a serious situation and you can’t expect teachers and rest of the school staff to risk their lives.

At that point nobody will be sympathetic to the fact that teachers have their own kids at home to take care of, that’s the case for all is us. I am sure most reasonable teachers will try to do whatever they can to make online instruction work in August.

Do you think it is reasonable appropriate to have young kids sit in front of their computers for 5 hours per day?

Please, please, please let's just open the schools back up. If parents are not comfortable sending their kids, then they can use Virtual Virginia or instructional videos and assignments posted on a Google Classroom site.

Sure. Especially if they don’t do it for 5 hours straight.

So something like this?

8-9am: Computer lesson
9-9:20am: Break
9:20-10:20am: Computer lesson
10:20-10:40am: Break
10:40-11:40am: Computer lesson
11:40-12:20pm: Lunch break
12:20-1:20pm: Computer lesson
1:20-1:40pm: Break
1:40-2:40pm: Computer lesson

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I see sooo many teachers commenting in various places that they’re worried about getting the virus so don’t think schools should resume in person.

Ok fine. If that happens? How many math teachers does a school really need? One per grade to put together the content. The online programs like Khan Academy do everything else including teaching and grading. This goes for the programs that my kids’ science and Spanish teachers are using as well.

If school continues online for the next however many years, won’t there be a massive lay off of teachers? Why are they not more worried about their jobs?

They'll need more than one math teacher per grade. Non-educators think this process is so easy. Picking a Khan Academy video and posting it online is not teaching. If you think it is, please pull your student from school and homeschool them (for real).

Actually, my DC's math teacher in Pre-Calc Honors (FCPS) which features project-based learning rarely actually teaches--she tells students to figure out the concepts within their assigned group or to use Khan Academy. We've had to hire a math tutor to actually provide math instruction to my DC.

The way you described what the teacher does is most likely not accurate. It’s important for students to be able to problem solve and figure things out. Teachers should be facilitators or learning, meaning once students have engaged in productive struggle, they can reinforce the most important concepts learned through investigation.

How does your child’s math teacher use PBL with the students? I’m a math teacher, and I can’t imagine using PBL to teach math. With math, almost all kids need a lot of direct instruction and practice.

NP. Most secondary math teachers do not use PBL. That’s for elementary school.

The PP had a great response. By Precalc the information is not spoon fed and excepted to be mimicked. It is more about problem solving and the teacher is a facilitator.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I see sooo many teachers commenting in various places that they’re worried about getting the virus so don’t think schools should resume in person.

Ok fine. If that happens? How many math teachers does a school really need? One per grade to put together the content. The online programs like Khan Academy do everything else including teaching and grading. This goes for the programs that my kids’ science and Spanish teachers are using as well.

If school continues online for the next however many years, won’t there be a massive lay off of teachers? Why are they not more worried about their jobs?

They'll need more than one math teacher per grade. Non-educators think this process is so easy. Picking a Khan Academy video and posting it online is not teaching. If you think it is, please pull your student from school and homeschool them (for real).

Actually, my DC's math teacher in Pre-Calc Honors (FCPS) which features project-based learning rarely actually teaches--she tells students to figure out the concepts within their assigned group or to use Khan Academy. We've had to hire a math tutor to actually provide math instruction to my DC.

The way you described what the teacher does is most likely not accurate. It’s important for students to be able to problem solve and figure things out. Teachers should be facilitators or learning, meaning once students have engaged in productive struggle, they can reinforce the most important concepts learned through investigation.

I think this is hard for students who have never before had to engage in productive struggle. Their parents do everything for them from toddlerhood and they think hard means I’m not smart or the teacher is doing this wrong.

Anonymous wrote:If they decide that schools should be year round or longer days or whatever plan they come up with, many of the aspects of teaching that I find attractive would be gone. I would leave the field. Being around kids all day is exhausting. I already wake up at 5am and leave my house by 6 every day for my teaching job. If I’m getting out at 6pm then my day has become unmanageable and I have no time to plan or to live my own life. The quality of instruction would go way down.

One of the reasons I became a teacher and not a lawyer or a doctor is that I want to be home to make dinner. I want to go to yoga in the evenings. I want to play with my kids in the summer time. People choose certain career paths for money and certain career paths for other reasons. Everyone doesn’t have to run themselves into the ground just because you choose to do so to make $200,000 a year. I’m happy to live a simpler life so I can actually enjoy my time.

I’m also a teacher. I wouldn’t mind the longer days as I think they are envisioned, which is supposed to be longer blocks of the 4 core subjects, but the specials or electives can be kept because 2-3 hours have been tacked on. So instead of my 5 classes running 45 min each, they would run 90 min. I would have 7.5 hours of instruction and a half hour lunch. Then, one day a week is set aside for planning, grading, and meetings. As long as they don’t get crazy with the meetings we should be fine for planning time.

However, I don’t think they’ll go with the longer days around here. It’s already bonkers traffic-wise with dismissals at 3 pm. 6 would be impassible.

The longer year would be an issue for me health wise. When I revised to switch careers at 30, my mom did not want me to become a teacher. She was very worried about the impact on my health. Turns out that I have really suffered from burning the candle at both ends. I also developed an autoimmune condition that is difficult to manage in a classroom teaching position. Once an administrator told me that she had the same disorder and it wasn’t hard for her to be at school during a flare. I forgot myself and gave her a 5 min rant about specific ways how her job and my job were fundamentally different in regards to the disorder. She had really never considered it. After that, she was much more considerate of the staff with chronic illnesses. Anyway, the summer is when I rest, see my out of town specialist, and get any really gnarly procedures done. The typical year-round school breaks of three weeks here or there won’t work for me. I don’t even start to feel better until late July after about 5 weeks off.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Parent here. I think this time should be spent to fine tune online instruction, August is a long way but if the need be then online instruction can continue. However, at that point instead of 1 hr, at least 5 hr should be the norm. This is a serious situation and you can’t expect teachers and rest of the school staff to risk their lives.

At that point nobody will be sympathetic to the fact that teachers have their own kids at home to take care of, that’s the case for all is us. I am sure most reasonable teachers will try to do whatever they can to make online instruction work in August.

My sister is an ES teacher and says many of her kids can barely handle 15 minutes. It’s not a great teaching method for young kids.

These same kids can’t handle sitting down in class for 15 minutes either, and are generally a distraction to other students.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Parent here. I think this time should be spent to fine tune online instruction, August is a long way but if the need be then online instruction can continue. However, at that point instead of 1 hr, at least 5 hr should be the norm. This is a serious situation and you can’t expect teachers and rest of the school staff to risk their lives.

At that point nobody will be sympathetic to the fact that teachers have their own kids at home to take care of, that’s the case for all is us. I am sure most reasonable teachers will try to do whatever they can to make online instruction work in August.

Do you think it is reasonable appropriate to have young kids sit in front of their computers for 5 hours per day?

Please, please, please let's just open the schools back up. If parents are not comfortable sending their kids, then they can use Virtual Virginia or instructional videos and assignments posted on a Google Classroom site.

Sure. Especially if they don’t do it for 5 hours straight.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I see sooo many teachers commenting in various places that they’re worried about getting the virus so don’t think schools should resume in person.

Ok fine. If that happens? How many math teachers does a school really need? One per grade to put together the content. The online programs like Khan Academy do everything else including teaching and grading. This goes for the programs that my kids’ science and Spanish teachers are using as well.

If school continues online for the next however many years, won’t there be a massive lay off of teachers? Why are they not more worried about their jobs?

They'll need more than one math teacher per grade. Non-educators think this process is so easy. Picking a Khan Academy video and posting it online is not teaching. If you think it is, please pull your student from school and homeschool them (for real).

Actually, my DC's math teacher in Pre-Calc Honors (FCPS) which features project-based learning rarely actually teaches--she tells students to figure out the concepts within their assigned group or to use Khan Academy. We've had to hire a math tutor to actually provide math instruction to my DC.

The way you described what the teacher does is most likely not accurate. It’s important for students to be able to problem solve and figure things out. Teachers should be facilitators or learning, meaning once students have engaged in productive struggle, they can reinforce the most important concepts learned through investigation.

How does your child’s math teacher use PBL with the students? I’m a math teacher, and I can’t imagine using PBL to teach math. With math, almost all kids need a lot of direct instruction and practice.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I see sooo many teachers commenting in various places that they’re worried about getting the virus so don’t think schools should resume in person.

Ok fine. If that happens? How many math teachers does a school really need? One per grade to put together the content. The online programs like Khan Academy do everything else including teaching and grading. This goes for the programs that my kids’ science and Spanish teachers are using as well.

If school continues online for the next however many years, won’t there be a massive lay off of teachers? Why are they not more worried about their jobs?

They'll need more than one math teacher per grade. Non-educators think this process is so easy. Picking a Khan Academy video and posting it online is not teaching. If you think it is, please pull your student from school and homeschool them (for real).

Actually, my DC's math teacher in Pre-Calc Honors (FCPS) which features project-based learning rarely actually teaches--she tells students to figure out the concepts within their assigned group or to use Khan Academy. We've had to hire a math tutor to actually provide math instruction to my DC.

+1

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Schools should resume in the fall. period. If teachers can't handle it, then FCPS has all summer to find people that can handle it.

Nope

yup

so you don't value Teacher's concern or Teachers at all for that matter, I guess any warm body will do to watch your kids

So all of this nonsense about how you want your kids to go back because you’re so concerned about their education is BS-you just want your free childcare back, at the expense of however many lives it takes. Got it! I know your vacation home and third car are important to you, but teachers are not martyrs for your economic ambitions.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Schools should resume in the fall. period. If teachers can't handle it, then FCPS has all summer to find people that can handle it.

I'm sure there are plenty of people who will fill those positions but they will probably leave as soon as they find something else so this will be an ongoing issue.

Actually if you have people who can't teach because they have disabilities etc they mean they'd be in danger if they are exposed it would be illegal to fire them. There are unions and the Americans with disabilities act etc

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Schools should resume in the fall. period. If teachers can't handle it, then FCPS has all summer to find people that can handle it.

Nope

yup

so you don't value Teacher's concern or Teachers at all for that matter, I guess any warm body will do to watch your kids

So you don't think much of teachers I guess any warm body do to watch your kids all day

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I see sooo many teachers commenting in various places that they’re worried about getting the virus so don’t think schools should resume in person.

Ok fine. If that happens? How many math teachers does a school really need? One per grade to put together the content. The online programs like Khan Academy do everything else including teaching and grading. This goes for the programs that my kids’ science and Spanish teachers are using as well.

If school continues online for the next however many years, won’t there be a massive lay off of teachers? Why are they not more worried about their jobs?

They'll need more than one math teacher per grade. Non-educators think this process is so easy. Picking a Khan Academy video and posting it online is not teaching. If you think it is, please pull your student from school and homeschool them (for real).

Actually, my DC's math teacher in Pre-Calc Honors (FCPS) which features project-based learning rarely actually teaches--she tells students to figure out the concepts within their assigned group or to use Khan Academy. We've had to hire a math tutor to actually provide math instruction to my DC.

The way you described what the teacher does is most likely not accurate. It’s important for students to be able to problem solve and figure things out. Teachers should be facilitators or learning, meaning once students have engaged in productive struggle, they can reinforce the most important concepts learned through investigation.