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Old 04-16-2020, 12:08 PM
 
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Can you clarify-- did Fort Bend end the school year all together? Or just decide that it's all online through the end of the school year?
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Old 04-16-2020, 12:19 PM
 
Location: Texas
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Texascrude View Post

What should have happened: on day 1 the district superintendent should have met with a team and put together a common approach for each grade on a common set of platforms. They should send out weekly emails with the work for the week. The teachers should have standard “office hours” to do instruction through zoom 2 hours per day for the kids that need “live learning”.
Quote:
Originally Posted by NTexas2010 View Post

From a student perspective, our kindergartner is being overloaded with too many assignments across too many web portals. There is an assignment for every subject matter for every day that takes anywhere from a couple of minutes to an hour per assignment; in essence, the 6 year old is being asked to sit on a computer for 4-6 hours/day completing assignments and modules, while we as parents are trying to work from home remotely. I can't imagine the headache it must be for parents who aren't as educational web-portal savvy as my teacher wife, trying to navigate the various links and student profiles to keep track of assignments and due dates. In short, we are not setup to function as a "home-school" family.
I feel for you guys about how it's been implemented in your districts. In ours, everything is on the same common platform that the kids use in school as well, so they are very familiar with how everything is supposed to work. And assignments for the entire week are sent out on Monday and due Friday.

And the time my kids actually spend working is only about an hour per day for my 3rd grader and maybe 2 hours per day for the 6th grader. I think the 3rd grader can, and should, be doing slightly more, but what you describe above in bold, NTexas2010, seems just crazy for a kid that age.
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Old 04-16-2020, 12:23 PM
 
Location: Sugar Land, TX
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Quote:
Originally Posted by houston-nomad View Post
Can you clarify-- did Fort Bend end the school year all together? Or just decide that it's all online through the end of the school year?
Online through the end of the school year. Although, having three kids in FBISD- elementary, middle, and high- online school is really hard. I am a SAHM, and my kids (and I) and doing online school all day, every day. Some teachers even assigned work on the days school was closed last Friday and this Monday. We are honestly miserable. It is our biggest source of stress. I just wish we could stop- and my kids were all straight A students before this.
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Old 04-16-2020, 12:33 PM
 
Location: Houston, TX (Bellaire)
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HISD remote learning is going really well at least at my son's school (Lanier Middle). They run everything though Microsoft teams and its been very smooth. I think it would put parents in a real bind if they try to reopen because you have to pick between pulling your kid from school and potentially putting your life in danger if you are in a high risk group. It just doesn't make sense to try and reopen with 1 month before summer break.
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Old 04-16-2020, 12:53 PM
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Texas Ag 93 View Post
I feel for you guys about how it's been implemented in your districts. In ours, everything is on the same common platform that the kids use in school as well, so they are very familiar with how everything is supposed to work. And assignments for the entire week are sent out on Monday and due Friday.

And the time my kids actually spend working is only about an hour per day for my 3rd grader and maybe 2 hours per day for the 6th grader. I think the 3rd grader can, and should, be doing slightly more, but what you describe above in bold, NTexas2010, seems just crazy for a kid that age.
Honestly, this whole experience has shown me how much wasted time goes into the education process. Even with the platform issues, none of our kids take more than an hour or two per day to finish their work. We also make them read for about an hour or so, and we’re done learning by lunch. Not sure why they need to be in school from 8 to 3 every day.
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Old 04-16-2020, 01:12 PM
 
Location: Sugar Land, TX
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Texascrude View Post
Honestly, this whole experience has shown me how much wasted time goes into the education process. Even with the platform issues, none of our kids take more than an hour or two per day to finish their work. We also make them read for about an hour or so, and we’re done learning by lunch. Not sure why they need to be in school from 8 to 3 every day.
Daycare. That’s why.
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Old 04-16-2020, 01:19 PM
 
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Our elementary experience in FBISD has been pretty great. The teachers being excellent, pro-active, and responsive has a great deal to do with it. They are on top of it from assignments to platforms to availability to teaching and helping on assignments. Our kids do get through their work in max 2 hours a day and we have time to supplement for another hour on work we can find on khan academy or similar for next grade concepts. In addition to that they get to play outside for about 4-5 hours a day which is a lot more than they get during a school day (during which time we both get a lot of our work work done). Additionally, being able to get up as they naturally wake has been a positive for their mood.

We've found that having to be on top of their assignments and progress allows us to be better attuned to where they are weaker and focus on improving their skill level. The school workload being manageable is key in that.

We are actually happier with this online learning arrangement than in school, aside from the lack of social development. I'm sure my tune would be different if it was for an entire year though!
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Old 04-16-2020, 01:51 PM
 
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From a public health perspective, it seems pretty clear that they won't be opening school. Even if they did it would be a logistical disaster since many parents won't send their kids back--I certainly won't. The districts should be more concerned about the fall which seems iffy at best. They should be planning for better online learning and childcare for working parents over the next couple of years. Anything less than that would be foolhardy, given what health experts are telling us. If we just pretend that this virus isn't going to be a problem in a few months (or weeks), we are setting ourselves up as educators for worse outcomes.
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Old 04-16-2020, 02:03 PM
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by NTexas2010 View Post
I have a lot of thoughts, being on both sides of the looking glass - we have two elementary aged kids and my wife is a high school teacher in LCISD.

1. Transitioning to online teaching and learning has been nothing short of a disaster. From a teaching perspective, it was mostly a lack of communication between the district and teachers as to what the plan was, and what the expectations were with respect to taking grades (and still is through the end of the year). Teachers cannot simply "pivot" to online teaching in just a few weeks. Also remember, districts were on Spring Break when the quarantines went into effect, so teachers don't even have all of their resources and materials at their disposal while remote teaching.

From a student perspective, our kindergartner is being overloaded with too many assignments across too many web portals. There is an assignment for every subject matter for every day that takes anywhere from a couple of minutes to an hour per assignment; in essence, the 6 year old is being asked to sit on a computer for 4-6 hours/day completing assignments and modules, while we as parents are trying to work from home remotely. I can't imagine the headache it must be for parents who aren't as educational web-portal savvy as my teacher wife, trying to navigate the various links and student profiles to keep track of assignments and due dates. In short, we are not setup to function as a "home-school" family. .



I feel like this is truly highlighting the inequalities in schools and districts. They should all be aligned. But some schools are doing a renegade approach, some are aligned, some are just winging it, and some are still on simply printing out 350 pages of packets for students to do to keep them busy.



Quote:
Originally Posted by Jtxg View Post
I get that - but using my argument, they would not be working right now or in May or the first part of June - so it's a wash. I'm just wondering how bad it's going to be when kids go back to school next year. I feel like teachers will be working until Christmas just to get the kids up to speed - both in curriculum and behavior. But again, I don't have kids and I'm not an educator, so I probably don't have a clue.



There's a meme going around with a quote that talks about this. This is basically the school year. August-December IS establishing routines and managing behavior. Once the new year rolls around, it's a week or so of "remember XYZ" and then they all fall in line and it's normal.



2 1/2 months of summer of free for all does take about 4-5 months of deprogramming 2 monthsfor each month off. Especially when they're finally able to be social with ALL of their friends mixed in with learning a new person or 2 and their rules and expectations.
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Old 04-16-2020, 02:16 PM
 
2,942 posts, read 4,960,668 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by houston-nomad View Post
Can you clarify-- did Fort Bend end the school year all together? Or just decide that it's all online through the end of the school year?
Quote:
Originally Posted by swopoe View Post
Daycare. That’s why.

Exactly. There are 3 kinds of parents right now:


1. Loving this and on top of their students online learning.



2. The ones barely make sure their students are online, have no devices or are even doing their part to look into how to get internet and/or a device for their child and are parked in the lines wrapped around the school for free meals and get upset if the food runs out for a bit.



3. The ones struggling, want to stay on it with their children but are either A. overwhelmed with all the online how tos or B. at least one or both parents are an essential worker and just can't be as on it like they'd like to.


Here's my take:


Parents 1 would be singing a different tune if they had to do this 100% on their own. Right now the teachers are providing the links and resources for online learning. I doubt schools will have an arsenel of "of yo pull your child out, we'll write you homeschool lesson plans like what we're dong in class for you to follow so your life is great and easy!" Nope.



If you homesechool, you do it on your own and find your own curriculum. Look up the TEKS and get to hunting for activities and such.


Parents 2 are ready for school to go back even if it's just for a week or 2. They don't have to even think about breakfast or lunch for their children because the school provides it. They may not have the means or care to look into extra assistance for their child when they could probably get it so they really want that free, 30 minutes twice a week of speech therapy rather than insurance provided pay your part where it's doing more. Either way, they need and want the school to do everything including free daycare. One less thing after another for them to worry about.


Parents 3 are on the fence. They would like their child to go back to normal, but worry about their health and they just don't know because right now there have too much to deal with and even contemplating school going back is one more stress for them.


I'm 10000000% here for parents 3. These are my neighbors. One mom is a dental assistant and dad is offshore and has been stuck since the beginning of March. She wants to be 100% with her son but they have her at the office everyday even though it's all appointments only. She's doing the best she can and is super stressed being the only parent right now.



Another set of parents are both essential - banking and engineering and they do a week in office/location, week at home and they have 3 children in school.
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