Running thread of the disaster that is the new school year

[Hawndoh 2386]

I believe I'm all ready to go for kids returning to my classroom tomorrow. About 60% of our school is staying remote.

We are doing one way halls and stairs, classroom desks are spread out but no barriers or plexiglass. Lunch tables are spread way out and limit numbers at tables. Different entrance/exit procedures, etc.

Everyone in masks the whole time. 

I have as few as 4 in a class and as much as 14. Everyone else online.

[MNLonghornFUKM 8817]

1-1!

Our k-12 district in MN is hybrid tho. Some kids go 3 days then go 2 the next.

Classes are half capacity right now. Still tho, went pretty good for day 1

[Guest]

wife ran 3 weeks' progress report for her school, a junior high, 6-7-8grade.

1/3 of students failing are on the remote learning list.

Over 90% of the students on remote learning list are failing.

 

Who saw that coming?

[Guest Lobo]

^
 I don't get those maths.  Unless for the last three weeks, your wife's school has had a substantial data set for both remote AND in-person.  Otherwise, whuh? 

All I do know is this is gonna be a wonderful kick in the nuts for the Jeff Sandefers of the world.  And his asshole minion that used to scour the old site looking for trouble.  

[Guest]

26 minutes ago, Lobo said:

^
 I don't get those maths.  Unless for the last three weeks, your wife's school has had a substantial data set for both remote AND in-person.  Otherwise, whuh? 

All I do know is this is gonna be a wonderful kick in the nuts for the Jeff Sandefers of the world.  And his asshole minion that used to scour the old site looking for trouble.  

1/3 of all students failing at least one class are on the remote learning.

Over 90% of the students doing remote learning are failing at least one class.

Perhaps it's  not the math kicking your ass, as much as the reading...  That prospect aside,  one could surmise that the bulk of the grades 3 weeks in are daily grades.  The remote learning kids are fucking off... generally speaking.

Edited September 8, 2020 by slorch

[RexWilson 1348]

40 minutes ago, slorch said:

3 minutes ago, slorch said:

 

Perhaps it's  not the math kicking your ass, as much as the reading...

1/3 of students failing are on the remote learning list.

 

 

The way you wrote it would mean the other 2/3rds on the failing list would be the in school, non remote learners.

[Guest Lobo]

The way you wrote it, a reasonable person could assume (because tens of thousands of school districts are the same way right now), that it was only remote learning.  In the post I quoted, you never mentioned classroom learning.  Just remote.  Hence my confusion, plus the 2/3rds in person deal doing a fail.  Not knocking it, just sounded like it was different stats for the same group of remote learners.  you may have mentioned the overall dynamics and stats for your wife's school before, my bad.  In fact, we should all probably get in the habit of quoting where in the F2F cycle our schools are before we start going down the stats rabbit hole.  If my district zoom call with administrators today had said, "90% of remote learners are failing at least one class"  to me...that means everybody is failing at least one class basically.  We're in a different place than others right now it seems.  

Edited September 8, 2020 by Lobo

[Brisketexan 105158]

5 minutes ago, Lobo said:

The way you wrote it, a reasonable person could assume (because tens of thousands of school districts are the same way right now), that it was only remote learning.  In the post I quoted, you never mentioned classroom learning.  Just remote.  Hence my confusion, plus the 2/3rds in person deal doing a fail.  Not knocking it, just sounded like it was different stats for the same group of remote learners.  you may have mentioned the overall dynamics and stats for your wife's school before, my bad.  In fact, we should all probably get in the habit of quoting where in the F2F cycle our schools are before we start going down the stats rabbit hole.  If my district zoom call with administrators today had said, "90% of remote learners are failing at least one class"  to me...that means everybody is failing at least one class basically.  We're in a different place than others right now it seems.  

I think the big picture here is that for school-age kids (that is, not college students)....remote learning is not good.  It's worst for those who are the most marginalized -- poor, few electronic resources, don't have parents who can be hands-on shepherding them through the process.  We're going to have an entire cohort of school kids take a brutal punch to their education.

We really need to do all we can to figure out how to get back to in-person school in some way, shape, or form.  There are risks, we have to balance them, and I think that what we're learning rather quickly is that we've erred on a side that is going to have some huge negative outcomes for millions of kids.

[Guest Lobo]

8 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

I think the big picture here is that for school-age kids (that is, not college students)....remote learning is not good.  It's worst for those who are the most marginalized -- poor, few electronic resources, don't have parents who can be hands-on shepherding them through the process.  We're going to have an entire cohort of school kids take a brutal punch to their education.

We really need to do all we can to figure out how to get back to in-person school in some way, shape, or form.  There are risks, we have to balance them, and I think that what we're learning rather quickly is that we've erred on a side that is going to have some huge negative outcomes for millions of kids.

Almost categorically agree.  But the upper middle-class, highly educated white people on here that want to reopen all schools, en masse, immediately, need to stop and remember.  Those underperforming schools with parents who have to work and can't usher the kids through the whole digital classroom each day for 7 hours, with shitty broadband and crappy access to tablets?  Guess who is coming into those homes, or who already live there, to help the parents and kids out during this remote learning semester/year?  Abuelitas and Abuelitos.  Black Grandpa and Black Grandma.  The kids that need to be put back into the classroom the most because of other at-risk factors?  They're the ones with the people back at home most likely to die from Covid-19 infection.  

All I ever read on this board is how many people of color are effected disproportionately by the virus.  All I ever read on this board is how many elderly people are effected by the virus.  Brisket-You're part Hispanic like me, you know the drill.  Grandmas and Aunties and Uncles live with other relatives with younger children.  The virus' burn through those households after children are exposed at school will make the spring retirement homes pandemic look like child's play.  Not everybody has a 25 year old Nanny.  

Edited September 8, 2020 by Lobo

[Guest]

 

9 minutes ago, RexWilson said:

The way you wrote it would mean the other 2/3rds on the failing list would be the in school, non remote learners.

correct, but the overall  percentage of classroom learners overall is 84% ish.  The percentage of classroom learners failing a class is 14% ish

 

Could very well be an anomaly.  I bet it's not.

[Guest Lobo]

Of course, there's only a 10% chance of that.   /LTfrankdreben

Edited September 8, 2020 by Lobo

[Brisketexan 105158]

5 minutes ago, Lobo said:

Almost categorically agree.  But the upper middle-class, highly educated white people on here that want to reopen all schools, en masse, immediately, need to stop and remember.  Those underperforming schools with parents who have to work and can't usher the kids through the whole digital classroom each day for 7 hours, with shitty broadband and crappy access to tablets?  Guess who is coming into those homes, or who already live there, to help the parents and kids out during this remote learning semester/year?  Abuelitas and Abuelitos.  Black Grandpa and Black Grandma.  The kids that need to be put back into the classroom the most because of other at-risk factors?  They're the ones with the people back at home most likely to die from Covid-19 infection.  

All I ever read on this board is how many people of color are effected disproportionately by the virus.  All I ever read on this board is how many elderly people are effected by the virus.  Brisket-You're part Hispanic like me, you know the drill.  Grandmas and Aunties and Uncles live with other relatives with younger children.  The virus' burn through those households after children are exposed at school will make the spring retirement homes pandemic look like child's play.  Not everybody has a 25 year old Nanny.  

I definitely get it.  What we all need to accept is that if we're looking for a good answer.....we won't find one.  There aren't any.  The same families we're talking about, they're going to see their kids, their future, fall behind and be seriously harmed as a result of the current path.  They are suffering the most under EITHER scenario -- creating greater risk of failure and long-term educational harm to the kids, vs. greater risk of COVID transmission.

As we learn more about COVID transmission among kids, and as we understand some effective measures we can take (reports seem to be that kids, even young ones, do pretty well with mask-wearing), we have to be thoughtful about how we can get kids back in the classroom.  More than any other facet of our society, that's the one where we're seeing really harmful consequences of aggressive virus mitigation measures.

I am always for doing what we can to strike the right balance.  Pushing one way or the other doesn't mean I'm "okay with kids falling irrevocably behind" or I'm "okay with a kid killing grandma with COVID."  The brutal truth is that no matter what we do, EACH of those things is going to happen to some degree.  Our job as a society (and we count on our leadership for this) is to strike the right balance, and to make hard calls.

[Guest]

or let the parents make better decisions...

 

Solutions don't necessarily emanate from the government.  Stop blaming them as such.

[Fudge Nuggets 19206]

37 minutes ago, slorch said:

1/3 of all students failing at least one class are on the remote learning.

Over 90% of the students doing remote learning are failing at least one class.

Perhaps it's  not the math kicking your ass, as much as the reading...  That prospect aside,  one could surmise that the bulk of the grades 3 weeks in are daily grades.  The remote learning kids are fucking off... generally speaking.

If any sub group is failing at a 90% clip, that’s a teacher admin problem, not a student problem.

[Samson's Wig 3192]

1 hour ago, Lobo said:

^
 I don't get those maths.  Unless for the last three weeks, your wife's school has had a substantial data set for both remote AND in-person.  Otherwise, whuh? 

All I do know is this is gonna be a wonderful kick in the nuts for the Jeff Sandefers of the world.  And his asshole minion that used to scour the old site looking for trouble.  

How so?  And who was his minion?  This sounds good and I'm sorry I missed it.

[Guest]

11 minutes ago, Fudge Nuggets said:

If any sub group is failing at a 90% clip, that’s a teacher admin problem, not a student problem.

They should go to the house and hold a gun to the student's head...or to that of the parents?  Or let's be reasonable... have them arrested?

 

Here's a newsflash:  already shitty parents are going take advantage of the compromised situation.   How do we make them care?

Edited September 8, 2020 by slorch

[Message Board User 12395]

35 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

What we all need to accept is that if we're looking for a good answer.....we won't find one.  There aren't any. 

Actually, there is a good answer - send them all back to school, in person, starting yesterday.

Just about every study from Europe (where schools have been open for months) show that school is not a driver of Covid spread.  And now that we're past Labor Day, we're at the point where we have data from states.

Remember Georgia, where that infamous picture of a crowded HS was the canary in that state's coal mine and that state was going to plunge into Covid catastrophe with students spreading Covid to everybody?  Well, schools there have been open a month and...nothing.

Here too - 

Alabama too - where K-12 has been open a month and Covid is partying up in Tuscaloosa...

No evidence that students, their families, or school staff are dropping like flies to the Covid on schools that have already opened.

 

[dcar00 14274]

4 hours ago, Message Board User said:

Actually, there is a good answer - send them all back to school, in person, starting yesterday.

Just about every study from Europe (where schools have been open for months) show that school is not a driver of Covid spread.  And now that we're past Labor Day, we're at the point where we have data from states.

Remember Georgia, where that infamous picture of a crowded HS was the canary in that state's coal mine and that state was going to plunge into Covid catastrophe with students spreading Covid to everybody?  Well, schools there have been open a month and...nothing.

Here too - 

Alabama too - where K-12 has been open a month and Covid is partying up in Tuscaloosa...

No evidence that students, their families, or school staff are dropping like flies to the Covid on schools that have already opened.

 

interesting on Georgia.  was going to be a wasteland, but I'd give it 2 weeks.

[Brew 3049]

We’ve been in school for a month. At this point the number of kids who have tested positive is under 10 and all were contact traced to exposure outside of school. We’re going into week 4 of football, soccer, etc with no positives in the sports. Now, the fallacy in that argument is the number of cases with no symptoms that may have slipped through, but the positives all have been confirmed exposures from an outside source. Full social distancing is in place, multiple temperature checks, mask usage, etc. If the high school parents weren’t allowing parties the number of positives would be virtually zero at this point.

[Message Board User 12395]

8 hours ago, dcar00 said:

interesting on Georgia.  was going to be a wasteland, but I'd give it 2 weeks.

Re: Georgia...

https://mobile.twitter.com/TomTbpsolutions/status/1303664144151912453

[Rougarou 594]

Our Private School has pulled the plug on the remote learning option after a month of school and zero issues. Only about 10% were opting for remote anyways by the last week, but the path has been paved for this year it seems (barring anything crazy happening this winter and heading into spring) and the message is "get into school or go somewhere else".

Seems like just yesterday we were on spring break and skiing and watching on television the NBA shut down and now here we are past Labor Day. What a whirlwind.

[bad_teammate 13218]

So if you're teaching hybrid remote/in-person... are you coming up with two completely different lesson plans or just doing all-remote where some of the kids are on laptops in class?

Seems like it sucks hard for everyone.

[Rougarou 594]

2 minutes ago, bad_teammate said:

So if you're teaching hybrid remote/in-person... are you coming up with two completely different lesson plans or just doing all-remote where some of the kids are on laptops in class?

Seems like it sucks hard for everyone.

Our school was doing two different lesson plans which is hard and sucks and obviously the remote kids are short shrift on the care-and-feeding they were getting, so not only did the brunt go to the parents but also the school mandated that there will be no "curve" or otherwise, which essentially forces people into the school or out to somewhere else anyways.

[Message Board User 12395]

2 hours ago, Rougarou said:

Our Private School has pulled the plug on the remote learning option after a month of school and zero issues. Only about 10% were opting for remote anyways by the last week, but the path has been paved for this year it seems (barring anything crazy happening this winter and heading into spring) and the message is "get into school or go somewhere else".

Seems like just yesterday we were on spring break and skiing and watching on television the NBA shut down and now here we are past Labor Day. What a whirlwind.

My guess is that most schools are going to do this eventually.

[Hawndoh 2386]

2 hours ago, bad_teammate said:

So if you're teaching hybrid remote/in-person... are you coming up with two completely different lesson plans or just doing all-remote where some of the kids are on laptops in class?

Seems like it sucks hard for everyone.

We are making the two versions as close to the same as possible so that there is less disruption when someone has to quarantine 14 days because someone in their house is positive.

It will also make the transitions easier when people start switching from remote to in person. Or if a campus has to temporarily shut down.

[HornOnTheBayou 8931]

2 hours ago, bad_teammate said:

So if you're teaching hybrid remote/in-person... are you coming up with two completely different lesson plans or just doing all-remote where some of the kids are on laptops in class?

Seems like it sucks hard for everyone.

I'm not. Right now, most of my students are online. I have around 3-5 in my classroom each period. The students in my classroom are doing the exact same thing that students at home are doing.  

[Superhero 8830]

Just want to give props to all you teachers, thanks for everything you're doing to keep our kids edumacated and safe.

It must be tough teaching in-person as well as keeping the online kids up to speed. Don't know how you're managing to stay sane, but thank you.

[bad_teammate 13218]

6 minutes ago, HornOnTheBayou said:

I'm not. Right now, most of my students are online. I have around 3-5 in my classroom each period. The students in my classroom are doing the exact same thing that students at home are doing.  

This makes sense.

Are parents complaining? Because I imagine that parents who are sending their kids to school want everything to look normal.

Props and respect to you guys!

[bad_teammate 13218]

3 minutes ago, Superhero said:

Just want to give props to all you teachers, thanks for everything you're doing to keep our kids edumacated and safe.

It must be tough teaching in-person as well as keeping the online kids up to speed. Don't know how you're managing to stay sane, but thank you.

Amen brother

[Brisketexan 105158]

8 minutes ago, Superhero said:

Just want to give props to all you teachers, thanks for everything you're doing to keep our kids edumacated and safe.

It must be tough teaching in-person as well as keeping the online kids up to speed. Don't know how you're managing to stay sane, but thank you.

Amen indeed.

[CooterBrown 18015]

Pretty pleased with how well both of our AISD school online experiences have gone so far. Kids are engaged and happy.  The 2nd grader gets a bit bored with the long breaks but we will start providing a bit of extra work for her to do to break up the off time.

 

[HornOnTheBayou 8931]

21 minutes ago, bad_teammate said:

This makes sense.

Are parents complaining? Because I imagine that parents who are sending their kids to school want everything to look normal.

Props and respect to you guys!

So far no complaints. But parents and students understand that I'm in a weird position because I'm the only person on campus who teaches my course.  For courses where there is more than one teacher, they've divided up the workload and students so that one teacher primarily teaches in the classroom and another teaches primarily online.

[hayden_horn 11362]

my 8th grade son just came in and told me that his english teacher will be calling all the parents because people were drawing penises on the zoom shared screen.

i'm not proficient with zoom, but can the teacher not just lock down who has rights to the screen? that seems like a massive fucking hole in the platform.

[Hawndoh 2386]

Nah, the teacher can lock that stuff down. The zoom whiteboard is pretty much a free for all which is why I'm not using it, there are alternatives that are better.

But zoom itself gives the teacher way more control than Google meets does. If the teacher knows how to use all the features properly. If kids were sharing their own screen and then putting inappropriate stuff on it that can be prevented through the host settings.

I wouldn't use zooms whiteboard though.

Edited September 9, 2020 by Hawndoh

[BlueGreySky 1018]

My cheap ass school won't pay for the tricked out version of Zoom so we're stuck with shitty google meet.

[Hawndoh 2386]

We are using the free zoom too and it does enough to work fine. Zoom is not enforcing the 40 minute limit to schools. The only thing we miss out on is the reports you can run with the paid versions. That would help with attendance but we have to take attendance manually 

[mdmost 43004]

Our only issue has been kids spamming the Zoom chat with stupid conversations. Not sure why the teachers don't shut the chat feature off. Older daughter also said someone had WAP (Cardi B song) playing unedited in the background. That's on the teacher for not forcing everyone on mute. 

Also, the now junior high one is very secretive about her Zoom calls because she doesn't want us embarrassing her. 

Edited September 10, 2020 by mdmost

[Hawndoh 2386]

Yeah that's on the host. You can make it so they can only chat privately to the teacher. My kids also know that chat is automatically saved every time. You can also set it to where they can not unmute themselves.

Edited September 10, 2020 by Hawndoh

[Deej 76833]

21 hours ago, hayden_horn said:

my 8th grade son just came in and told me that his english teacher will be calling all the parents because people were drawing penises on the zoom shared screen.

i'm not proficient with zoom, but can the teacher not just lock down who has rights to the screen? that seems like a massive fucking hole in the platform.

Bunch of little Thujones.

[Ghost of LL 15539]

On 9/9/2020 at 1:37 PM, CooterBrown said:

Pretty pleased with how well both of our AISD school online experiences have gone so far. Kids are engaged and happy.  The 2nd grader gets a bit bored with the long breaks but we will start providing a bit of extra work for her to do to break up the off time.

 

Our Eanes experience has so far been pretty good, too.  It's definitely harder for the 4th grader than the 6th grader, but both are doing pretty well, all things considered.

[Message Board User 12395]

 

[Deej 76833]

The world needs ditch diggers. 

[Rougarou 594]

I wonder if now is a good time to start a Mathnasium or Kumon franchise...get ahead of the huge demand that is sure to come in 9-12 months 

[MNLonghornFUKM 8817]

Week one in the hybrid books is over. Haven’t heard of any covid disruptions 4 days in. Hybrid school is the greatest thing ever, and I wish it was full time.

[Message Board User 12395]

Only a handful of ISDs have Covid dashboards up and running - I've always found them helpful and information.  Here's a few from North Texas - 

 

[ChuckNorrisActionJeans 2678]

I think what'd be a great idea to throw a wrench into in-person schooling in Austin would be for about 20,000 people to gather in a bowl, shouting, cheering, eating, and drinking, every other Saturday during a pandemic/flu season. Seems pretty cool for the rest of us who've given up a whole summer of friends, family visits, summer camps, vacations etc. so we can try and keep things under control 

[Hawndoh 2386]

I love it when I get a message from a remote learner that says "I can't finish my assignment because my school computer is too slow and it isn't working"

Then I load up his screen from my computer and he has 37 chrome tabs running, half of which are YouTube videos.

Yeah, I'm sure your computer is slow.... So I close all his tabs for him, and surprise it works now. How about that?

[DallasHorn26 586]

The ex and I opted for kids to do remote learning rather than go in person. Discovered a couple of weeks in that my son (6th grade) has a little bit of learning disabilities and is on a 504 plan, so he struggles with online learning. He easily checks out, gets up from the video chat in the middle of class, or will log off early. We've been getting an email from his math teacher at least twice a week with reports of it. We contacted the school about him possibly returning to the classroom because he will be better served there, but were informed we have to wait until the first 9 weeks have passed (started Aug 13). I'm having to work from the office 3 days a week, so cant always be there to watch him closely, plus my ex and her husband are both working remotely and can't constantly supervise. He's been staying with me the days I WFH, but even then, trying to split everything up is rather difficult. All this to say, props to you teachers, very thankful for what you do and are doing through all of this. 

[NeverMarryAStripper 21907]

Full time in person started for my son this week and I'm grateful.  He runs cross country and they were working out at the school while doing online school at home.  So my mornings were get up at 5:15 make his protein drink, get him up and drop him off at school at 5:50 for his workout, come home take a shower and get dressed, pick him up at school at 7:30, grab him breakfast, drop him back at the house, and then drive downtown.  By the time I got to the office I was ready for a nap.

[gyroprotagonist 2594]

25 minutes ago, NeverMarryAStripper said:

Full time in person started for my son this week and I'm grateful.  He runs cross country and they were working out at the school while doing online school at home.  So my mornings were get up at 5:15 make his protein drink, get him up and drop him off at school at 5:50 for his workout, come home take a shower and get dressed, pick him up at school at 7:30, grab him breakfast, drop him back at the house, and then drive downtown.  By the time I got to the office I was ready for a nap.

Kudos for getting it done.  Our kids started back in-school today and fuck, forgot what a big time sink commute and carpool line is.  Before, wake them up at 7:30, eat breakfast and log in at 8:15.  Granted, their school is ~15 miles away, but now it's wake them up at 7:00 and hop in the car at 7:30ish.  Get to the school at 8:10 and finally drop them off right before the bell at 8:30.  Back at home at 9:00ish.