Anonymous
04/11/2021 09:56
Subject: How can kids go 5 days in the fall when school can’t allow 4 days a week now?
Anonymous wrote:To add, I’m the PP who said my friend was told at a meeting by Brabrand the fall plan includes concurrent. It is 5 days. But the current plan, as my friend was told, is that there is not a separate virtual plan/system being stood up. Virtual kids will be taught concurrently by in person teachers. Which would be a disaster, which is why I sincerely hope that plan changes. The only reason for this I can see is the funds/logistics/staffing isn’t there for a county as big as FCPS to stand up a separate virtual option.
A comment on this - some of the local catholic schools have been doing this all year. The big difference is usually there is only 1 or 2 kids zooming in from home, so it has not been a huge burden on the teachers and has not had a negative impact on home or in person learners from what I have heard. Class sizes at some catholic schools are smaller to, making this less cumbersome.
If there is only 1 or 2 students zooming in from home, concurrent might be more easily achieved with no detriment to any party (teachers, in person learners, home learners). I think the issue is - once again - the sheer size of FCPS and liklihood it is more then 1 or 2 kids per class, which makes it MUCH harder for teachers.
Anonymous
04/11/2021 09:53
Subject: Re:How can kids go 5 days in the fall when school can’t allow 4 days a week now?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:I have been chill this year because this is a new and fluid situation. I will lose my shit next year if they do concurrent. There is no reason for it. Use Virtual Virginia or home school. Adults and teenagers will be vaccinated. There is no reason to not send kids to school.
No concurrent. Just no. Nope. Nope. Nope.
I did some part time virtual teaching this year. I wAnt to be back in the classroom next year. But this is giving me pause. I’m a little nervous to apply for jobs and then find concurrent to be happening. Wondering if other people feel the same.
Brabrand needs to come out and say FOR SURE that there will be no concurrent. That was a temporary solution many schools used but not sustainable for regular education.
A teacher friend of mine in Fairfax said Brabrand said it will be concurrent. The hope apparently is if the choice for virtual is concurrent fewer families will pick it. My friend is freaking out because they don’t know if they can do concurrent again. Hoping the board overrides if that’s indeed the plan. It is not ok to do concurrent for another year. Teachers nor parents think so.
He can't say no to it all together. They do t have enough plannedbfor the fall to eliminate it completely.
I’m saying this as a teacher and a parent, every single resource needs to be going to the plan that ensures concurrent doesn’t have to happen. It is not effective. It isn’t sustainable. And when MOST kids are in person and only a couple are at home but we have to teach them too, they will be forgotten and left behind. It isn’t possible to balance 20+ in person kids’ needs and supervision AND equitably teach a few on the device. It NEEDS to be separate.
I agree, but they haven't surveyed the families or asked for documentation. We have no idea how large or small the group will be.
The virtual group will be small, very small next year.
Tye only reason it ended up this size was the idotic 2 day and concurrent model with vaccinated teachers phoning it in from home.
How can you assume it will be small, when we know nothing about it? I think it's unrealistic to believe that the numbers will from 50% this year down to less than 5% next year.
Anonymous
04/11/2021 09:52
Subject: Re:How can kids go 5 days in the fall when school can’t allow 4 days a week now?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:I have been chill this year because this is a new and fluid situation. I will lose my shit next year if they do concurrent. There is no reason for it. Use Virtual Virginia or home school. Adults and teenagers will be vaccinated. There is no reason to not send kids to school.
No concurrent. Just no. Nope. Nope. Nope.
I did some part time virtual teaching this year. I wAnt to be back in the classroom next year. But this is giving me pause. I’m a little nervous to apply for jobs and then find concurrent to be happening. Wondering if other people feel the same.
Brabrand needs to come out and say FOR SURE that there will be no concurrent. That was a temporary solution many schools used but not sustainable for regular education.
A teacher friend of mine in Fairfax said Brabrand said it will be concurrent. The hope apparently is if the choice for virtual is concurrent fewer families will pick it. My friend is freaking out because they don’t know if they can do concurrent again. Hoping the board overrides if that’s indeed the plan. It is not ok to do concurrent for another year. Teachers nor parents think so.
They aren’t letting just anyone pick virtual. It will be based on medical need.
That’s obviously ideal but with 188k students it could still be a sizable enough number that Brabrand doesn’t seem to think it will be possible for virtual students to be run separately from the in person classes. Only sharing what my friend did, hopefully it changes. Because a year of concurrent with maybe only 2-3 kids online you’re trying to juggle with a full on person class is a nightmare.
If fcps won't do virtual VA, then they need to disenroll all of the virtual holdout families from their zoned elementary school, and put them in mixed classes from kods around the entire district.
So 5th graders from a dozen or so elementary schools could be compined into an online class of 30 or so students, onljne with a random teacher not necessarily from their base school.
Everyone else is in person at their zoned school.
Yes. This is the ONLY reasonable way to do it!!!
Actually, to maximize space allocation for in-person, they should suspend boundaries for next year. Even out the density a bit and maximize in-person opportunities.
Anonymous
04/11/2021 09:49
Subject: Re:How can kids go 5 days in the fall when school can’t allow 4 days a week now?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:I have been chill this year because this is a new and fluid situation. I will lose my shit next year if they do concurrent. There is no reason for it. Use Virtual Virginia or home school. Adults and teenagers will be vaccinated. There is no reason to not send kids to school.
No concurrent. Just no. Nope. Nope. Nope.
I did some part time virtual teaching this year. I wAnt to be back in the classroom next year. But this is giving me pause. I’m a little nervous to apply for jobs and then find concurrent to be happening. Wondering if other people feel the same.
Brabrand needs to come out and say FOR SURE that there will be no concurrent. That was a temporary solution many schools used but not sustainable for regular education.
A teacher friend of mine in Fairfax said Brabrand said it will be concurrent. The hope apparently is if the choice for virtual is concurrent fewer families will pick it. My friend is freaking out because they don’t know if they can do concurrent again. Hoping the board overrides if that’s indeed the plan. It is not ok to do concurrent for another year. Teachers nor parents think so.
He can't say no to it all together. They do t have enough plannedbfor the fall to eliminate it completely.
I’m saying this as a teacher and a parent, every single resource needs to be going to the plan that ensures concurrent doesn’t have to happen. It is not effective. It isn’t sustainable. And when MOST kids are in person and only a couple are at home but we have to teach them too, they will be forgotten and left behind. It isn’t possible to balance 20+ in person kids’ needs and supervision AND equitably teach a few on the device. It NEEDS to be separate.
Seriously, separate but at the same time, equal.
Anonymous
04/11/2021 09:47
Subject: How can kids go 5 days in the fall when school can’t allow 4 days a week now?
Anonymous wrote:To add, I’m the PP who said my friend was told at a meeting by Brabrand the fall plan includes concurrent. It is 5 days. But the current plan, as my friend was told, is that there is not a separate virtual plan/system being stood up. Virtual kids will be taught concurrently by in person teachers. Which would be a disaster, which is why I sincerely hope that plan changes. The only reason for this I can see is the funds/logistics/staffing isn’t there for a county as big as FCPS to stand up a separate virtual option.
The teacher associations need to change their tune to finally do some good this time around and push back on concurrent. Maybe drive around in honk lines with broken Zoom screens strapped to their cars.
Anonymous
04/11/2021 09:44
Subject: Re:How can kids go 5 days in the fall when school can’t allow 4 days a week now?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:I have been chill this year because this is a new and fluid situation. I will lose my shit next year if they do concurrent. There is no reason for it. Use Virtual Virginia or home school. Adults and teenagers will be vaccinated. There is no reason to not send kids to school.
No concurrent. Just no. Nope. Nope. Nope.
I did some part time virtual teaching this year. I wAnt to be back in the classroom next year. But this is giving me pause. I’m a little nervous to apply for jobs and then find concurrent to be happening. Wondering if other people feel the same.
Brabrand needs to come out and say FOR SURE that there will be no concurrent. That was a temporary solution many schools used but not sustainable for regular education.
A teacher friend of mine in Fairfax said Brabrand said it will be concurrent. The hope apparently is if the choice for virtual is concurrent fewer families will pick it. My friend is freaking out because they don’t know if they can do concurrent again. Hoping the board overrides if that’s indeed the plan. It is not ok to do concurrent for another year. Teachers nor parents think so.
Jesus, I just don’t know if I can do it. They will definitely need to keep to a 4 day schedule if it’s concurrent. I feel like I have been hit by a truck come Friday afternoon.
There is no way Mondays will be off again next year.
If they keep the concurrent model, they won’t go to 5 days.
Yes they will. VADOE will not issue the seat hour waiver for Monday and won’t need to. Probably 90% of families will pick in person. Concurrent 5 day will mean in addition to 20+ in person kids teachers would have to somehow keep track of and teach kids at home on the device at the same time. It’s hard enough now . When my in lesson class is once again full, if they stuck me with 1-2 at home kids to teach at the same time, no matter how much I wouldn’t want to, no matter how much I would want to be fair to them, I promise you I would get caught up with the in person kids and all that goes into monitoring, helping, teaching them and would absolutely forget the at home kids.
In that sense, telling parents if they stay virtual they don’t get a dedicated virtual teacher, they get a distracted in person teacher who won’t be able to teach a couple kids online very well would probably help dissuade parents from choosing virtual. The problem is, for the ones who still do, their kids are going to get crappy teaching and the teachers will be stressed trying to manage their online needs with a normal full in person schedule.
+1
It’s happening now. I teach ES students and I have 17 in person split over the 4 days. I’m trying to stay engaged with those at home but most of them don’t have their cameras on and don’t volunteer or respond. They weren’t participating when we were all virtual so nothing has changed with them. I try to keep them engaged and check with them when I realize my focus has been drawn away, but the in-person students do draw most of my focus. Students who weren’t engaged while at home are now participating when in class. I can actually see what they are or aren’t doing and address it quickly. The students who were engaged while at home are still engaged while at home, so I still have them plus those who are in person. The others I lose track of.
Anonymous
04/11/2021 09:21
Subject: How can kids go 5 days in the fall when school can’t allow 4 days a week now?
To add, I’m the PP who said my friend was told at a meeting by Brabrand the fall plan includes concurrent. It is 5 days. But the current plan, as my friend was told, is that there is not a separate virtual plan/system being stood up. Virtual kids will be taught concurrently by in person teachers. Which would be a disaster, which is why I sincerely hope that plan changes. The only reason for this I can see is the funds/logistics/staffing isn’t there for a county as big as FCPS to stand up a separate virtual option.
Anonymous
04/11/2021 09:19
Subject: Re:How can kids go 5 days in the fall when school can’t allow 4 days a week now?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:I have been chill this year because this is a new and fluid situation. I will lose my shit next year if they do concurrent. There is no reason for it. Use Virtual Virginia or home school. Adults and teenagers will be vaccinated. There is no reason to not send kids to school.
No concurrent. Just no. Nope. Nope. Nope.
I did some part time virtual teaching this year. I wAnt to be back in the classroom next year. But this is giving me pause. I’m a little nervous to apply for jobs and then find concurrent to be happening. Wondering if other people feel the same.
Brabrand needs to come out and say FOR SURE that there will be no concurrent. That was a temporary solution many schools used but not sustainable for regular education.
A teacher friend of mine in Fairfax said Brabrand said it will be concurrent. The hope apparently is if the choice for virtual is concurrent fewer families will pick it. My friend is freaking out because they don’t know if they can do concurrent again. Hoping the board overrides if that’s indeed the plan. It is not ok to do concurrent for another year. Teachers nor parents think so.
Jesus, I just don’t know if I can do it. They will definitely need to keep to a 4 day schedule if it’s concurrent. I feel like I have been hit by a truck come Friday afternoon.
There is no way Mondays will be off again next year.
If they keep the concurrent model, they won’t go to 5 days.
Yes they will. VADOE will not issue the seat hour waiver for Monday and won’t need to. Probably 90% of families will pick in person. Concurrent 5 day will mean in addition to 20+ in person kids teachers would have to somehow keep track of and teach kids at home on the device at the same time. It’s hard enough now . When my in lesson class is once again full, if they stuck me with 1-2 at home kids to teach at the same time, no matter how much I wouldn’t want to, no matter how much I would want to be fair to them, I promise you I would get caught up with the in person kids and all that goes into monitoring, helping, teaching them and would absolutely forget the at home kids.
In that sense, telling parents if they stay virtual they don’t get a dedicated virtual teacher, they get a distracted in person teacher who won’t be able to teach a couple kids online very well would probably help dissuade parents from choosing virtual. The problem is, for the ones who still do, their kids are going to get crappy teaching and the teachers will be stressed trying to manage their online needs with a normal full in person schedule.
Anonymous
04/11/2021 09:10
Subject: Re:How can kids go 5 days in the fall when school can’t allow 4 days a week now?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:I have been chill this year because this is a new and fluid situation. I will lose my shit next year if they do concurrent. There is no reason for it. Use Virtual Virginia or home school. Adults and teenagers will be vaccinated. There is no reason to not send kids to school.
No concurrent. Just no. Nope. Nope. Nope.
I did some part time virtual teaching this year. I wAnt to be back in the classroom next year. But this is giving me pause. I’m a little nervous to apply for jobs and then find concurrent to be happening. Wondering if other people feel the same.
Brabrand needs to come out and say FOR SURE that there will be no concurrent. That was a temporary solution many schools used but not sustainable for regular education.
A teacher friend of mine in Fairfax said Brabrand said it will be concurrent. The hope apparently is if the choice for virtual is concurrent fewer families will pick it. My friend is freaking out because they don’t know if they can do concurrent again. Hoping the board overrides if that’s indeed the plan. It is not ok to do concurrent for another year. Teachers nor parents think so.
Jesus, I just don’t know if I can do it. They will definitely need to keep to a 4 day schedule if it’s concurrent. I feel like I have been hit by a truck come Friday afternoon.
There is no way Mondays will be off again next year.
If they keep the concurrent model, they won’t go to 5 days.
Anonymous
04/11/2021 07:45
Subject: Re:How can kids go 5 days in the fall when school can’t allow 4 days a week now?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:I have been chill this year because this is a new and fluid situation. I will lose my shit next year if they do concurrent. There is no reason for it. Use Virtual Virginia or home school. Adults and teenagers will be vaccinated. There is no reason to not send kids to school.
No concurrent. Just no. Nope. Nope. Nope.
I did some part time virtual teaching this year. I wAnt to be back in the classroom next year. But this is giving me pause. I’m a little nervous to apply for jobs and then find concurrent to be happening. Wondering if other people feel the same.
Brabrand needs to come out and say FOR SURE that there will be no concurrent. That was a temporary solution many schools used but not sustainable for regular education.
A teacher friend of mine in Fairfax said Brabrand said it will be concurrent. The hope apparently is if the choice for virtual is concurrent fewer families will pick it. My friend is freaking out because they don’t know if they can do concurrent again. Hoping the board overrides if that’s indeed the plan. It is not ok to do concurrent for another year. Teachers nor parents think so.
They aren’t letting just anyone pick virtual. It will be based on medical need.
That’s obviously ideal but with 188k students it could still be a sizable enough number that Brabrand doesn’t seem to think it will be possible for virtual students to be run separately from the in person classes. Only sharing what my friend did, hopefully it changes. Because a year of concurrent with maybe only 2-3 kids online you’re trying to juggle with a full on person class is a nightmare.
If fcps won't do virtual VA, then they need to disenroll all of the virtual holdout families from their zoned elementary school, and put them in mixed classes from kods around the entire district.
So 5th graders from a dozen or so elementary schools could be compined into an online class of 30 or so students, onljne with a random teacher not necessarily from their base school.
Everyone else is in person at their zoned school.
Yes. This is the ONLY reasonable way to do it!!!
Anonymous
04/11/2021 05:54
Subject: Re:How can kids go 5 days in the fall when school can’t allow 4 days a week now?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:I have been chill this year because this is a new and fluid situation. I will lose my shit next year if they do concurrent. There is no reason for it. Use Virtual Virginia or home school. Adults and teenagers will be vaccinated. There is no reason to not send kids to school.
No concurrent. Just no. Nope. Nope. Nope.
Are you a teacher?
+1
ES Teacher
I’m not pp, I teach 5th and I’ve already told my principal I’m quitting if they make us teach concurrently next year. I’ve been teaching for 15 years and this set up is totally inappropriate and not effective for virtual or in person students.
It is exhausting and ineffective. I hate it.
I’m a concurrent teacher. I think it’s “effective” for the in person kids since we have eyes on them and can talk to them, answer questions, really make them do the work. For the kids at home, it’s awful. Because for the kids who tried hard, our attention is now split from them, and for the kids who never tried, it’s easier to not try because I don’t have time to rush them to a breakout room for a conference or call them out for not opening an assignment anymore. For teachers it’s physically and mentally exhausting to do both.
Anonymous
04/11/2021 00:47
Subject: Re:How can kids go 5 days in the fall when school can’t allow 4 days a week now?
Anonymous wrote:Almost everyone will be vaccinated by the fall.
At least everyone who wants a vaccination will have one.
Actually the forecast is to have everyone 16+ who wants it vaccinated by June.
Pfizer requested EUA for kids 12-16 last week. They will easily be done by fall too.
By late summer we will be back to normal. If people listen to the science that is...
Anonymous
04/10/2021 23:23
Subject: Re:How can kids go 5 days in the fall when school can’t allow 4 days a week now?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:I have been chill this year because this is a new and fluid situation. I will lose my shit next year if they do concurrent. There is no reason for it. Use Virtual Virginia or home school. Adults and teenagers will be vaccinated. There is no reason to not send kids to school.
No concurrent. Just no. Nope. Nope. Nope.
I did some part time virtual teaching this year. I wAnt to be back in the classroom next year. But this is giving me pause. I’m a little nervous to apply for jobs and then find concurrent to be happening. Wondering if other people feel the same.
Brabrand needs to come out and say FOR SURE that there will be no concurrent. That was a temporary solution many schools used but not sustainable for regular education.
A teacher friend of mine in Fairfax said Brabrand said it will be concurrent. The hope apparently is if the choice for virtual is concurrent fewer families will pick it. My friend is freaking out because they don’t know if they can do concurrent again. Hoping the board overrides if that’s indeed the plan. It is not ok to do concurrent for another year. Teachers nor parents think so.
He can't say no to it all together. They do t have enough plannedbfor the fall to eliminate it completely.
+100
I’m saying this as a teacher and a parent, every single resource needs to be going to the plan that ensures concurrent doesn’t have to happen. It is not effective. It isn’t sustainable. And when MOST kids are in person and only a couple are at home but we have to teach them too, they will be forgotten and left behind. It isn’t possible to balance 20+ in person kids’ needs and supervision AND equitably teach a few on the device. It NEEDS to be separate.
Anonymous
04/10/2021 22:26
Subject: Re:How can kids go 5 days in the fall when school can’t allow 4 days a week now?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:I have been chill this year because this is a new and fluid situation. I will lose my shit next year if they do concurrent. There is no reason for it. Use Virtual Virginia or home school. Adults and teenagers will be vaccinated. There is no reason to not send kids to school.
No concurrent. Just no. Nope. Nope. Nope.
I did some part time virtual teaching this year. I wAnt to be back in the classroom next year. But this is giving me pause. I’m a little nervous to apply for jobs and then find concurrent to be happening. Wondering if other people feel the same.
Brabrand needs to come out and say FOR SURE that there will be no concurrent. That was a temporary solution many schools used but not sustainable for regular education.
A teacher friend of mine in Fairfax said Brabrand said it will be concurrent. The hope apparently is if the choice for virtual is concurrent fewer families will pick it. My friend is freaking out because they don’t know if they can do concurrent again. Hoping the board overrides if that’s indeed the plan. It is not ok to do concurrent for another year. Teachers nor parents think so.
Jesus, I just don’t know if I can do it. They will definitely need to keep to a 4 day schedule if it’s concurrent. I feel like I have been hit by a truck come Friday afternoon.
There is no way Mondays will be off again next year.
Anonymous
04/10/2021 21:56
Subject: Re:How can kids go 5 days in the fall when school can’t allow 4 days a week now?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:I have been chill this year because this is a new and fluid situation. I will lose my shit next year if they do concurrent. There is no reason for it. Use Virtual Virginia or home school. Adults and teenagers will be vaccinated. There is no reason to not send kids to school.
No concurrent. Just no. Nope. Nope. Nope.
I did some part time virtual teaching this year. I wAnt to be back in the classroom next year. But this is giving me pause. I’m a little nervous to apply for jobs and then find concurrent to be happening. Wondering if other people feel the same.
Brabrand needs to come out and say FOR SURE that there will be no concurrent. That was a temporary solution many schools used but not sustainable for regular education.
A teacher friend of mine in Fairfax said Brabrand said it will be concurrent. The hope apparently is if the choice for virtual is concurrent fewer families will pick it. My friend is freaking out because they don’t know if they can do concurrent again. Hoping the board overrides if that’s indeed the plan. It is not ok to do concurrent for another year. Teachers nor parents think so.
Jesus, I just don’t know if I can do it. They will definitely need to keep to a 4 day schedule if it’s concurrent. I feel like I have been hit by a truck come Friday afternoon.
Both of us teach ES grades. Both of us absolutely hate concurrent instruction. Monitor 1, monitor 2, SmartBoard, document camera, microphone...ugh.