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Currently in quarantine overseas, waiting for our 14-day period to be up so the kids can enter the local elementary school full-time. Their grandparents are retired teachers and got them special permission to attend. We get out a couple of days before school starts.
They are still "enrolled" in their school in the USA, which is 100% distance-learning. I am SO glad it is not their only option, because it is a complete disaster so far. Their loaner tablets don't work. Tech support is swamped and incompetent. This is supposed to be their "2nd" week of school, but they've only seen 30 minutes of their teacher live. The paper packets we picked up before we left are missing lots of materials. The school wants us to log in to about 4 different websites/apps to access learning materials, emails, communications, etc, but only 1 or 2 of those sites are working/set-up. The teacher is regularly late to her own meetings. Very nice and succinct emailed questions (where is the video/cirriculum you asked us to complete?) go unanswered. My list of complaints goes on and on.
Even stuck in a AirBnB all day with nothing better to do, it's difficult-to-impossible to unwind the morass of websites and emails. That's with just 2 kids and 2 fairly tech-savvy parents able to spend all day on it. I have no idea how a single working parent of 2 or more kids can possibly get ANYTHING done.
Also, it seems like our school district is okay with teachers spending just 1 hour a day doing in-person remote instruction for a full-sized classroom. Not sure what they're doing with the other 5 hours they would normally be teaching. From our contacts in other districts, their teachers are spending 4-5 hours per day teaching (splitting classrooms for smaller ZOOM sessions, etc). If that ends up being the case, we'll be switching school districts when we return. For now we're trying to keep them current.
Looking forward to going to real school full-time. It's going to be difficult for the kids, since they'll be learning in their secondary language, but they're fluent enough to keep up with their peers. They're also on-par with their peers here in math and science and WAY advanced in English, of course. Most kids here do regular school 730AM-330PM, and then cram school until 7PM or so. We'll use that 4PM-7PM period to keep them current on their US schoolwork, if it seems worthwhile.
Before we left, we noticed that our street and our town were full of groups of kids in "learning pods" in people's homes, and "daycare/tutoring" from every gymnastics, dance, and martial arts studio. Apparently the only people who can get COVID-19 from children are school teachers, and the only place children can spread the virus is at a school with regular sanitation and janitorial staff. Those occasionally-lightly-disinfected (if ever) dance studios are totally safe.
On a slightly-less-negative note; with COVID cases falling off, I'm seeing a lot of news stories and social media pressure to reopen schools. People back home are saying the private and charter schools are champing at the bit to reopen so they can boost enrollment. That will probably force the public schools to reopen as soon as possible as well, otherwise they'll lose a big chunk of their students (and funding).
So far I like the hybrid model that my daughter’s district is doing. Two days in person, two days of homework and just one short day of online. I kind of wish school was always like this. There have been some kinks but hoping they smooth out over time.
Today is day one of 100% remote schooling. He was all set up with his markers and his crayons and pencils and a new notebook and his laptop and eager to learn everything 1st grade has to offer. He loves school and learning and always wants to answer questions. Hes very outgoing and smart.
4 hours into day 1 he is sitting in his chair as far from the computer as possible red faced and teary eyed because his brand new teacher that doesnt know him hasnt responded a single time to his raised hand. Hes frustrated and grumpy. And these are the years that are incredibly important to getting children wanting to learn and nurturing that hunger for knowledge. Hopefully it gets better.
Today is day one of 100% remote schooling. He was all set up with his markers and his crayons and pencils and a new notebook and his laptop and eager to learn everything 1st grade has to offer. He loves school and learning and always wants to answer questions. Hes very outgoing and smart.
4 hours into day 1 he is sitting in his chair as far from the computer as possible red faced and teary eyed because his brand new teacher that doesnt know him hasnt responded a single time to his raised hand. Hes frustrated and grumpy. And these are the years that are incredibly important to getting children wanting to learn and nurturing that hunger for knowledge. Hopefully it gets better.
I’m so sorry. That’s a really long day on the computer for a little one and I totally understand his frustration. I’m sure its hard for you as a parent to watch. I hope it gets better.
I’m so sorry. That’s a really long day on the computer for a little one and I totally understand his frustration. I’m sure its hard for you as a parent to watch. I hope it gets better.
Im sure the teachers are struggling too, seeing their faces on the screens confused and struggling and not able to have 1 on 1. In a classroom if a little guy is sitting teary eyed at his desk the teacher can go over and check on him and see what the problem is. In a virtual classroom that just doesnt exist.
And I know school is important, I want him to succeed and do well. But expecting 5 and 6 year olds to sit in front of a computer from 830-130 5 days a week is asking a lot. I am making not promises that I wont end his day early if hes struggling particularly bad. I want him to want to do school, its too early to have to force it. These kids are definitely going to get the short end on this virtual thing.
Im concerned that this years kindergartners and 1st and 2nd graders are going to be a lost generation of kids./
Im sure the teachers are struggling too, seeing their faces on the screens confused and struggling and not able to have 1 on 1. In a classroom if a little guy is sitting teary eyed at his desk the teacher can go over and check on him and see what the problem is. In a virtual classroom that just doesnt exist.
And I know school is important, I want him to succeed and do well. But expecting 5 and 6 year olds to sit in front of a computer from 830-130 5 days a week is asking a lot. I am making not promises that I wont end his day early if hes struggling particularly bad. I want him to want to do school, its too early to have to force it. These kids are definitely going to get the short end on this virtual thing.
Im concerned that this years kindergartners and 1st and 2nd graders are going to be a lost generation of kids./
My daughter is in high school and is starting to struggle with the at home portion. It’s very confusing and there are a ton of assignments and it’s not all that organized. She could certainly use more instruction, face to face with her teachers for some of her classes like math. I too worry that she will lose out this year due to that and fall behind. This is the worst part of the pandemic for me, the impact on my kids and how all of this will impact their future.
Last edited by MissTerri; 09-09-2020 at 07:13 AM..
Today is day one of 100% remote schooling. He was all set up with his markers and his crayons and pencils and a new notebook and his laptop and eager to learn everything 1st grade has to offer. He loves school and learning and always wants to answer questions. Hes very outgoing and smart.
4 hours into day 1 he is sitting in his chair as far from the computer as possible red faced and teary eyed because his brand new teacher that doesnt know him hasnt responded a single time to his raised hand. Hes frustrated and grumpy. And these are the years that are incredibly important to getting children wanting to learn and nurturing that hunger for knowledge. Hopefully it gets better.
Wow! That's a long time for a 1st grader to sit and listen!
Our kids are in real school overseas now, but we still get/keep them up to attend the minimum zoom classes to keep them enrolled in the USA. They get about 1.5 hours of live instruction per day, and I that's about right, since it is ALL screen time. Unfortunately, it occurs at midnight here, so they've got a really weird schedule.
Contrary to my prior post, our teacher is doing at least 4 live hours of interaction. She's hosting 2 1-hour 1/2 class sessions (about 10 kids show up), then an additional 2 hours worth of 20-minute small-group sessions. Those are groups of 6 or less. In the hour-long session, every kid gets called on at least a couple of times, and every raised hand is addressed within a minute or two. In the small group short sessions, they get lots of attention.
Last semester, the whole-class (20-ish students) meetings were frustrating for our kids as well. 6-10 young elementary kids is about the most that any zoom session should have. Otherwise it might as well be a recorded lecture.
Give it a few days or maybe a week or two to shake out, then maybe contact your child's teacher and ask if she can possibly modify her lessons to teach smaller classes for shorter periods. Our kids are well-behaved, but I can't imagine them sitting in place staring at a screen for 4 straight hours!
Our lessons don't cover a lot of material, since there's only 90 total instructional minutes, but I think--until all kids can go back to real school--the best solution is short periods with smaller groups. Online learning is just so inferior to in-person schooling for elementary school kids.
Yeah its about 4.5 hours of instruction with a half hour lunch break at 11. Its kind of insane. But they are figuring it out and our kids are the guinea pigs. Hopefully they nail down the best way to ensure everyone is getting what they need out of school without such a long day in front of a screen
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