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My kids’ elementary school is making plans for online classes with webcasts if need be. I’d honestly rather have summer school, but I get that they need to have contingency plans.
Quote:
Dear families,
As you know from our ongoing communications regarding the Coronavirus, XXXXXX is developing contingency plans should regular classes be disrupted. We are hopeful that school will continue as planned, however, we are developing ways to use digitally-connected learning to continue our teaching. To participate in our “virtual classroom,” each student would need access to a device with Internet access.
In a digital classroom, the classroom teachers would host classes and provide lessons on a specific schedule each day, and each student would need individual access. It is possible that two students in the same household would need to be online at the same time. The specialist teachers would record their lessons for students to view. Classroom and specialist teachers would provide additional opportunities for one-on-one communication with students and also engage in small group meetings.
If your family would need a device to make this digital participation possible, please contact me no later than the end of the school day on Monday, March 9, 2020 via email or phone (see contact information below). We are working to determine how we can help provide support to families to maintain our students’ learning. Thank you for your support and do not hesitate to contact me if you have any additional questions.
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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No changes here, but our local elementary had a full 1/3 of the kids (200) stay home yesterday due to parental fear.
The teachers are going to hve a full day of training on digital classroom but they are not set up for it yet. With so many parents here working at in tech Microsoft or Amazon the homes should be well prepared, and most of them are already working from home. The problem will be separating the kids learning from the parents working without distractions and possibly overloading the router.
No changes here, but our local elementary had a full 1/3 of the kids (200) stay home yesterday due to parental fear.
The teachers are going to hve a full day of training on digital classroom but they are not set up for it yet. With so many parents here working at in tech Microsoft or Amazon the homes should be well prepared, and most of them are already working from home. The problem will be separating the kids learning from the parents working without distractions and possibly overloading the router.
Sometimes events like Covid-19, here at one of the tech epicenters of the USA, and currently a 'hot spot' for the outbreak, might accelerate concepts like:
- Those who CAN work at home SHOULD, never mind irrational reasons from employers or employees why it should not be so. I've worked from home or traveled (to 40%) since mid-2017 and love it. My home office is fully setup, which wasn't all that expensive, and if done conscientiously could probably be one big tax write-off.
- It's 2020 and if public schools and other institutes of learning haven't "puzzled out" remote/digital learning, something is very wrong and/or political BS is involved. I attended business school partly online (remainder onsite in Ithaca WA) 2007-2009, for pete's sake. That tech was nowhere near as stable, but still I'd say up-time was 97% or more. Pipes are fatter today, the whole setup could literally run from a laptop whereas it took a bit more computing power back then.
Remote learning has to be one of the megatrends, next twenty to fifty years. I hope some clever and objective Master's and Ph.D students are studying this for elementary, Jr. and High School level: pitfalls, upsides, etc.
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
44,585 posts, read 81,260,275 times
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I’ll be working from home next week. I was concerned that some of my people might not have a full 8 hours of work they can do from home, but the big boss said that doesn’t matter, anyone that can work from home can, as long as we have at least one there every day for notary. As it turned out two of my people prefer to keep going in. I’ll have to go in the week after, as I have a new person starting.
My kids' district has sent information on a daily basis for the past several weeks (we are at 'ground zero' with the virus in the US) and they have decided to close. But they aren't doing formal schooling during the time away from school, it seems. I'm a little unclear. They said that they'd have "optional" learning activities.
I have to work from home for one of my jobs, but not for my other.
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
44,585 posts, read 81,260,275 times
Reputation: 57825
Update: all classes cancelled through the end of March, 30,000 students will be staying home. Same with Seattle, another 54,000 (largest and 2nd largest districts in the state).
As I thought, staff will not be paid, must report to their schools anyway, use leave days, or get no pay for the days missed.
My district (which has about 190,000 students), announced yesterday that Monday will be a teacher workday. On that teacher workday we will receive some training and will spend time planning for the possibility of distance (online) learning. I'll find out more on Monday, but current plans have students attending next Tuesday.
My understanding is any distance learning will not count as student school days. I've heard talk that teachers will report if students are out, but nothing official on that yet.
We do have the equivalent of an extra 18 students days built in that we haven't used yet.
My kids’ elementary school is making plans for online classes with webcasts if need be. I’d honestly rather have summer school, but I get that they need to have contingency plans.
*Mods - Please move to the education forum*
What makes you think the problem will be over by the summer? A vaccine won't be ready until around summer 2021, roughly. By this summer, the situation will be worse.
Update: all classes cancelled through the end of March, 30,000 students will be staying home. Same with Seattle, another 54,000 (largest and 2nd largest districts in the state).
As I thought, staff will not be paid, must report to their schools anyway, use leave days, or get no pay for the days missed.
Can you clarify the parts in bold? If staff isn't getting paid how do they not get paid for days missed?
Hearing some news that we should start working from home...not sure if the local gov would allow that or even our companies. I pity those who really need to be physically present like people who work at malls etc.
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