Running thread of the disaster that is the new school year

[tbone_ 14,113]

You’ll get no sympathy from me on that issue.

[NorthLoop 14,183]

My wife is a school nurse and her first day back is Monday. First actual day of school is the 24th. Our 5th grader is going back in person on the 24th too. I fully expect all of us to have Covid by September 1st.

[CooterBrown 18,004]

3 minutes ago, NorthLoop said:

My wife is a school nurse and her first day back is Monday. First actual day of school is the 24th. Our 5th grader is going back in person on the 24th too. I fully expect all of us to have Covid by September 1st.

I read this in your avatar's voice.

 

[Superhero 8,828]

33 minutes ago, Hawndoh said:

In our school most teachers are at campus conducting their remote lessons from their empty classrooms.

My biggest issue so far is that our building's AC is set in a way that assumes there are 1000 more bodies walking around than there are, so I'm freezing my butt off.

First world problems.

[Hawndoh 2,386]

I know right? How am I supposed to work in these conditions!?!?

It's like the opposite of a sweat shop.

[Brisketexan 105,083]

24 minutes ago, Hawndoh said:

I know right? How am I supposed to work in these conditions!?!?

It's like the opposite of a sweat shop.

A sweater shop?

[High Plains Drifter 11,035]

 

On 8/13/2020 at 11:39 AM, slorch said:

Had volleyball Tuesday night.  I am not a volleyball parent, but have a direct connection to faculty.  Good percentage of parents/ fans, 15-20%,  thought they weren't going to wear masks.

First the coaches implored them to mask up.  Then the Superintendent tells em if they don't wear masks during the games, they'll stop playing and remove the fans.

Regardless of your political views, and this is just part of the damned discussion; if the rules are that fans wear the fucking mask while on school property, then don the damned thing.  Things are already precarious enough.   If you give a fuck about the activities happening, then do it.  Don't air your political grievances at this venue. 

 

God help me, I'm with Slorch on this one.

I'll give the TechTard a "hook'em" for this post.

[The Royal We 3,069]

We started back on Wednesday and took the option of remote learning for the first three weeks to see how things went.  My 5th grader was one of 4 in his class that started remotely, but his teacher was not in school this morning and they sent his whole class home at lunch today.  There hasn't been any communication about what happened yet, but they've been really good on communication so far and I bet we'll find out what is going on this evening.  Maybe she had a family emergency and couldn't come in this morning or something, but sending the kids home mid-day too seems a little odd.

[HornOnTheBayou 8,919]

I teach high school and our district went back this week with virtual learning until September. On the first day, some kid took over the Spanish teacher's screen during a zoom meeting and blasted porn on there (to all the high schoolers out there, the porn thing has been done; come up with something original). So the district sends out a ton of e-mails about setting up a waiting room, make sure students are using their real names on the screen, etc. Today, I'm letting students into my zoom meeting and I come across a name that would have been perfect for Bart to use when he called Moe's Tavern. I was just about to click the deny entry button, when I did a double-check of my roster. Lo and behold this kid is on my roster and just has a really unfortunate name. I wish I could tell you his name, but I don't want to doxx the poor kid. I'm just glad I let the kid in, because that would have been a tough discussion to have with my admin about why I didn't let a student into class. I thought about asking the other teachers on his schedule if they had the same problem, but bringing up this kid's name in a professional conversation could lead to HR forcing me to take some kind of sexual harassment training so I'm just not going to mention it to anyone on campus. 

Edited August 14, 2020 by HornOnTheBayou

[justhookit 4,191]

1 hour ago, HornOnTheBayou said:

I teach high school and our district went back this week with virtual learning until September. On the first day, some kid took over the Spanish teacher's screen during a zoom meeting and blasted porn on there (to all the high schoolers out there, the porn thing has been done; come up with something original). So the district sends out a ton of e-mails about setting up a waiting room, make sure students are using their real names on the screen, etc. Today, I'm letting students into my zoom meeting and I come across a name that would have been perfect for Bart to use when he called Moe's Tavern. I was just about to click the deny entry button, when I did a double-check of my roster. Lo and behold this kid is on my roster and just has a really unfortunate name. I wish I could tell you his name, but I don't want to doxx the poor kid. I'm just glad I let the kid in, because that would have been a tough discussion to have with my admin about why I didn't let a student into class. I thought about asking the other teachers on his schedule if they had the same problem, but bringing up this kid's name in a professional conversation could lead to HR forcing me to take some kind of sexual harassment training so I'm just not going to mention it to anyone on campus. 

So what did his name sound like? That’s not going to doxx him.

[Superhero 8,828]

Harold Butt?

[FORTY NINE TO ZERO 2,652]

Dick cummings?  I knew a kid with that name growing up... poor guy. 

Edited August 14, 2020 by Xian

[ChuckNorrisActionJeans 2,663]

I went to school with an Igor Fuksman 

[Fudge Nuggets 19,189]

13 minutes ago, Xian said:

Dick cummings?  I knew a kid with that name growing up... poor guy. 

I went to school with Harold Dick.  He went by his middle name though.

No idea why.

[Hefeweizen 5,310]

Doug McKockiner

[justhookit 4,191]

Y’all aren’t much help.

[Grade of D as in David 13,253]

9 hours ago, HornOnTheBayou said:

I teach high school and our district went back this week with virtual learning until September. On the first day, some kid took over the Spanish teacher's screen during a zoom meeting and blasted porn on there (to all the high schoolers out there, the porn thing has been done; come up with something original). So the district sends out a ton of e-mails about setting up a waiting room, make sure students are using their real names on the screen, etc. Today, I'm letting students into my zoom meeting and I come across a name that would have been perfect for Bart to use when he called Moe's Tavern. I was just about to click the deny entry button, when I did a double-check of my roster. Lo and behold this kid is on my roster and just has a really unfortunate name. I wish I could tell you his name, but I don't want to doxx the poor kid. I'm just glad I let the kid in, because that would have been a tough discussion to have with my admin about why I didn't let a student into class. I thought about asking the other teachers on his schedule if they had the same problem, but bringing up this kid's name in a professional conversation could lead to HR forcing me to take some kind of sexual harassment training so I'm just not going to mention it to anyone on campus. 

Michael Oxafloppin is in your class this year?

[Your Mom 4,805]

I had a platoon sergeant in the Marine Corps named Harry Bush. He was a former drill instructor, looked like he was born in a gym, and it was well established that he was not to be fucked with. 

[Wally Fairway 5,541]

14 hours ago, justhookit said:

So what did his name sound like? That’s not going to doxx him.

 

14 hours ago, Superhero said:

Harold Butt?

 

14 hours ago, Xian said:

Dick cummings?  I knew a kid with that name growing up... poor guy. 

Heywood Jablome?

14 hours ago, ChuckNorrisActionJeans said:

I went to school with an Igor Fuksman 

 

4 hours ago, Your Mom said:

I had a platoon sergeant in the Marine Corps named Harry Bush. He was a former drill instructor, looked like he was born in a gym, and it was well established that he was not to be fucked with. 

Went to HS with a guy named Steve Knauf - although he hated it when we'd call him Jack

[Judge Roybeanbag 11,819]

4 hours ago, Your Mom said:

I had a platoon sergeant in the Marine Corps named Harry Bush. He was a former drill instructor, looked like he was born in a gym, and it was well established that he was not to be fucked with. 

We had a guy in our town named Harry Beavers.  Junior.  So good they used it twice!

[Hate 20,107]

I had a teacher named Harry Handz.

[Hawndoh 2,386]

This thread took a weird turn.

[Guest Lobo]

Yeah, I was gonna ask for some advice on how to cool down our garage learning Pod because bladeless fans may just disperse kids droplets around to one another, but I gotta keep the mosquitos out in the morning.  But then, it seems everybody on here had a teacher with hairy palms from jerking off too much and I think that's maybe a bigger crime against schools than insects and Covid.  I dunno.  

Edited August 15, 2020 by Lobo

[utee94 15,808]

Hinoder Titzoff

 

 

[millhouse 2,603]

I worked with a guy named Phat Cao. He wanted to be called Phil. Like we were going let that happen.

[troph 24,781]

Posted this on the AISD board but here’s what we landed on:

Our schedule doesn't fill up for another couple of weeks although it's started for sure.  when it kicks in for all of them the most classes any one child has in a day is 4 hours.  some days it's 2 hours and on occasion it's only 1 hour.  there is a LOT of unstructured time.  We will use that to guide study habits.  I'm cautiously optimistic that this will be freaking awesome.  

Course load:

10th Grader:  Algebra II, English, World History, Chemistry I, Computer Science: Hacking and Coding, Sociology, African American History, 3D Modeling, Spanish II.  Graded classes:  Algebra II, English, World History, Chemistry I and Spanish II.  PE:  Tennis, possibly sailing.  Spring may include golf.

7th Grader:  Algebra I, Literature, Introduction to Chemistry, Study of the Central Nervous System, World War II, Psychology, Ukulele, African American History, Introduction to Conversational Spanish.  Graded classes:  Algebra I, Literature, Chemistry, Central Nervous System, and WWII. PE:  Baseball, possibly sailing. Spring may include golf.

5th Grader:  Sixth Grade Math, Sixth Grade Writing and Grammar, Sixth Grade Reading, Planes of WWII, Tanks of WWII, African American History, Ancient Monsters of the Sky and Sea (Dinosaurs), Introduction to Photography, Lego Challenge (short class), Biology (Cells, Tissues, Organs, Systems), Introduction to Conversational Spanish.  Graded classes:  Math, Writing/Grammar, Reading, Biology, history class later (Planes and Tanks are short classes and for fun). PE: Baseball, possibly sailing. Spring may include golf.

Seems like a lot, but several are short burst classes (8 weeks, once a week) and others are participation grades (from us) the others are core and matter.  Some classes that are participation we may not even require homework depending on the quality of the class.  Sociology for my 10th grader has already started, but it's fun so he's decided to do the work.  

All Kids:  We will probably take a Texas history trip in our Fifth Wheel for the 7th Grader.  Probably some missions, battle sites and maybe some border culture if COVID calms down, and of course some fishing along the way.  We will also take a civil rights trip in the trailer for Thanksgiving through the South.   For both of the trips we will utilize documentaries and audible books to learn a bit extra.

Goal:  Cover core classes, learn some cool shit, integrate with some learning oriented travel and forget this COVID bullshit.

Unintended Consequence:  Unknown, we may not go back to LTISD ever.  

[troph 24,781]

And this weekend we are building work stations for them to keep new laptops, head phones with microphones and new key boards, nice and big ass monitors. Will show the final but here’s some WIP:

 

 

Finished !!

 

 

 

Set up (2 out of 3 shown):

 

(Disregard the Greek revival/Corinthian light fixture /vomit emoji)

 

[Superhero 8,828]

Troph, that is amazing work!

 

Not being as ambitious, I just bought my daughter a new laptop computer over the weekend. It doesn't have the best specs (Ryzen 3 and 8MB RAM), but it'll be enough for her until middle school. I'm just thankful that a $500 computer for us is just another purchase, but I am sad for those families where even a $200 computer is out of the question.

 

As for new hiccups. My son's teacher has professional development classes today and Tuesday. Why she couldn't do it DURING the summer is a complete mystery. It sucks because my son is now taking classes online with 24 kids instead of the regular 12.

Just before I left the house, my daughter's teacher had technical issues on her part, and couldn't hear the students...

This is gonna be a long ass year.

[dingleberryswitzer 2,724]

3 hours ago, Superhero said:

 

As for new hiccups. My son's teacher has professional development classes today and Tuesday. Why she couldn't do it DURING the summer is a complete mystery. It sucks because my son is now taking classes online with 24 kids instead of the regular 12.

Could be a new hire.  But 99% chance it's not the teachers choice.  

[Guest Lobo]

On 8/16/2020 at 8:56 AM, troph said:

And this weekend we are building work stations for them to keep new laptops, head phones with microphones and new key boards, nice and big ass monitors. Will show the final but here’s some WIP:

 

 

Finished !!

 

 

 

Set up (2 out of 3 shown):

 

(Disregard the Greek revival/Corinthian light fixture /vomit emoji)

 

Wood.  The desks, not Troph.  Though I am willing to learn.  So long as it was at a desk like that. 

You put the learning pod my wife and I built out in our garage to shame.  I was gonna post photos but now I'm embarrassed and ours is really fucking good.  and you just had to fucking rub it in that each kid gets their own printer, too?  And fuck you with the restoration hardware chairs.  I can't wait to hear, "and the desks are fair trade, that I sanded down from one contiguous birchwood grove."    Damn you...but much respect! 

[utee94 15,808]

3 hours ago, Superhero said:

Troph, that is amazing work!

 

Not being as ambitious, I just bought my daughter a new laptop computer over the weekend. It doesn't have the best specs (Ryzen 3 and 8MB RAM), but it'll be enough for her until middle school. I'm just thankful that a $500 computer for us is just another purchase, but I am sad for those families where even a $200 computer is out of the question.

 

As for new hiccups. My son's teacher has professional development classes today and Tuesday. Why she couldn't do it DURING the summer is a complete mystery. It sucks because my son is now taking classes online with 24 kids instead of the regular 12.

Just before I left the house, my daughter's teacher had technical issues on her part, and couldn't hear the students...

This is gonna be a long ass year.

I couldn't find anyone at any of the school districts that could manage my two PC systems that I wanted to donate, I guess the districts just aren't set up for that.  I figured they might have had something special set up for THIS schoolyear, since so many disadvantaged families are going to struggle providing the tech for the online-only experience that I expect this entire semester to end up being.  

But the good news is that we actually found a family in our area that needs the help, so I wiped the two old desktop systems and set them up with just basic Win10.  I also have two 24" displays and mice and keyboards for both systems, and a relatively new wireless router that I stopped using when I set up my mesh network last year.  I'm taking them over to install tomorrow, they do have a router and internet service so I should be able to set up everything they need.  

Just hope I don't contract the coronas whilst mucking around in their house...

 

[Rougarou 594]

Wow, so just picked up the kids. About a 1/4 of the kids opted for the virtual class until late September which meant my son had 5 kids in his class total. That's amazing. I hope they go virtual all year and we get to keep the super low student to teacher ratio.

[Superhero 8,828]

How are the teachers doing in-person AND virtual?

Will there be teachers that teach only the in-person kids? And others that teach the virtual kids? Because one teacher doing both at the same time would be a traveshamockery.

 

[Anastasis 23,464]

Nice work troph.  My wife just ordered desks off target.com for in store pick up lol.  But the kids got a nice classroom setup now. 

[Anastasis 23,464]

On bright side just learned that my employer is offering $1k to offset caregiving expenses, which includes any remote learning purchases, chromebook, etc. 

[elfenix 34,227]

39 minutes ago, Rougarou said:

About a 1/4 of the kids opted for the virtual class until late September which meant my son had 5 kids in his class total.

so otherwise the class size would have been 7?  very subtle. 

[Rougarou 594]

20 minutes ago, Superhero said:

How are the teachers doing in-person AND virtual?

Will there be teachers that teach only the in-person kids? And others that teach the virtual kids? Because one teacher doing both at the same time would be a traveshamockery.

 

Virtual is essentially like-- do you remember when someone got suspended and they got a weeks worth of work sent home with instruction on a post-it note on the outside of the book? That's the virtual process, from what I can tell. 

And the school was very adamant that a) you dont get tuition reduced and b) you must keep up with in-person instruction, none of this half-butt spring of 2020 stuff.

[dingleberryswitzer 2,724]

https://www.kens5.com/mobile/article/news/education/what-caused-the-hour-long-blackout-on-neisds-virtual-site/273-72c3cf5b-91cb-4283-a8f4-dc8571830be7

Oops.  

[Superhero 8,828]

6 hours ago, Superhero said:

As for new hiccups. My son's teacher has professional development classes today and Tuesday. Why she couldn't do it DURING the summer is a complete mystery. It sucks because my son is now taking classes online with 24 kids instead of the regular 12.

 

3 hours ago, dingleberryswitzer said:

Could be a new hire.  But 99% chance it's not the teachers choice.  

One of the moms asked the temp teacher about when the regular teacher is coming back, and got a non-answer. My wife called the school, and they also gave a non-answer, saying an email would go out. But sounds like they're going to split the class up among the remaining teachers. That sucks because even though it was only 1 day, my son really liked the original teacher.

[Ignatius 4,017]

On 8/15/2020 at 2:25 PM, utee94 said:

Hinoder Titzoff

 

 

Henador.  Was in the Austin phone book for at least 15 years....

[Ignatius 4,017]

3 hours ago, Lobo said:

Wood.  The desks, not Troph.  Though I am willing to learn.  So long as it was at a desk like that. 

You put the learning pod my wife and I built out in our garage to shame.  I was gonna post photos but now I'm embarrassed and ours is really fucking good.  and you just had to fucking rub it in that each kid gets their own printer, too?  And fuck you with the restoration hardware chairs.  I can't wait to hear, "and the desks are fair trade, that I sanded down from one contiguous birchwood grove."    Damn you...but much respect! 

Is that a Freud roundover bit? 

[Sbbruin 21,830]

My daughter had her first day of (virtual) HS today.  But the logins for the various classes were sent in a pdf, but the links weren't activated, so kids couldn't log in.  They had to resend, but it got off to a rocky start to say the least.

[idigTexas 2,284]

I went to school with a Mike Hunt.  I had a crush on his sister, Cindy.  

[troph 24,781]

5 hours ago, Lobo said:

Wood.  The desks, not Troph.  Though I am willing to learn.  So long as it was at a desk like that. 

You put the learning pod my wife and I built out in our garage to shame.  I was gonna post photos but now I'm embarrassed and ours is really fucking good.  and you just had to fucking rub it in that each kid gets their own printer, too?  And fuck you with the restoration hardware chairs.  I can't wait to hear, "and the desks are fair trade, that I sanded down from one contiguous birchwood grove."    Damn you...but much respect! 

habitat for humanity had 8 foot butcher block for $100.  etsy for the legs.  the rest home depot and hardly fair labor, my back hurts bad.  we estimated even with a new router and some wasted supplies that the total cost was about $320 per table.  not bad for 8 feet of solid wood and thick metal legs.

[Guest Lobo]

1 minute ago, troph said:

 thick metal legs.

We're still talking about the desks, right?  

Seriously though, those look fantastic.  And then to see the whole setup.  Wow, I thought our setup here at home for our little 4-student pod was awesome, but you're on a different level.  If I would have spent as much time staining as I did hanging load-bearing hooks to drape curtains in front of my workbench/tool areas in the garage, I'd post some pics to rival yours.  As it is, my wife made be basically "secure" all my tools because the alternative was to move it all to storage which seemed like overkill.  Anyway, just well done.  You are obviously dialed in for a great semester if you're willing to put in that kind of detail.  And yeah, I keep paying you compliments because I'm fucking pissed. 

[mulletpelini 5,210]

 

On 8/14/2020 at 12:38 PM, NorthLoop said:

My wife is a school nurse and her first day back is Monday. First actual day of school is the 24th. Our 5th grader is going back in person on the 24th too. I fully expect all of us to have Covid by September 1st.

 

[High Plains Drifter 11,035]

 

I can hear the helicopter blades whipping all the way over here.

 

 

[miguelito 11,256]

troph, do you have room in your 5th wheel for a 38th grader?

[Moby Ric 2,058]

They have left for school.  I work from home and this is the first day in 6 months I have had quiet in the house.  I had more pep in my step on my walk this morning, I feel great.  This is a day to celebrate.  

[Liquor and Poker 3,659]

23 minutes ago, High Plains Drifter said:

 

I can hear the helicopter blades whipping all the way over here.

 

 

Because of nice desks?