Anyone want to discuss the closed schools' school work?

[SKL]

Any thoughts about our normally non-homeschooled kids and their school work?  Did your school do a good job of assigning work for the duration?  What about guidance?  What if your kids have questions you can't answer because you aren't inside the teacher's brain?  If you have silly questions, but don't want to annoy the teacher, what do you do?  Are your kids doing the work quietly or being butts about it?  Is this stuff graded or pass/fail?  How are you monitoring whether they are on track?

[Storygirl]

Three of my kids are enrolled in public school, and the oldest (a senior) is in private school, so it will interest me to see how others respond. But I won't be able to add much to the discussion for quite awhile. We are on an extended two week spring break, and online classes won't start up for my kids until 3/30.

[Tap]

My daughter is in 7th grade. Her school closed for 5 weeks. They did not give them work to do.

[Sneezyone]

DD is in 9th grade and her core courses are continuing as scheduled with textbook readings and problem sets assigned for each day. She only has two to worry about - Geometry and history. DS is working on holding activities for core classes too - English, science, and math until his teachers' actual class content goes online later today. Basically, we're homeschooling again.

[lispy]

My kids attend a small private school. I doubt their plan would be feasible with a larger school, and I very much acknowledge the privilege involved. But the plan is in motion to have school as close to normal as possible. Teachers will do live online classes  at the same times as their normal schedules. So the will go through their normal daily schedule, just online at home instead of at the school. This will be the case for all core classes. Electives, other than required ones like foreign language, are being "put on hold" for the time being. This is supposed to all start on Thursday, so it's yet to be seen how it will play out in practise. We shall see.

[LarlaB]

Charter school here....  they have to login in from 9:30-12:30 and keep to a 4 block schedule... Attendance is taken for each class.

So far its been a small amount of instruction or taped lecture and then homework.  Very pared down workload but keeping up with study schedule.

Officially, they only have relearning this week and then regular Spring break. Nothing official has been posted beyond that although other Denver schools are cancelled they April 7 already- no instruction.

[Arcadia]

My district 

“There will be no school work assigned to students during the three week closure. Beginning Monday, March 16, optional learning opportunities will be available for students through our district website at *************. While our special education centers will also close, students and families will continue to have access to services from the regional centers they currently rely on.

While our schools are closed, teachers will be working on compacting their educational plans for the remainder of the school year to ensure all students receive essential learning this school year.”

DS15 is dual enrolled at community college and classes are in session as usual, just online instead at the same time slot as their original in-person class.

[vonfirmath]

32 minutes ago, SKL said:

Any thoughts about our normally non-homeschooled kids and their school work?  Did your school do a good job of assigning work for the duration?  What about guidance?  What if your kids have questions you can't answer because you aren't inside the teacher's brain?  If you have silly questions, but don't want to annoy the teacher, what do you do?  Are your kids doing the work quietly or being butts about it?  Is this stuff graded or pass/fail?  How are you monitoring whether they are on track?

 

We haven't been given any work yet. This week is spring break. I expect teachers will spend next week working on work going forward

 

However, since my daughter's teacher (3rd grade) hasn't shown up for work since before Valentine's Day I don't know what to expect for her. I don't even HAVE A teacher to email and ask questions of!

This is my plan for her:

Work on multiplication fluency. See if I can find a book of logic games to work on other math skills. Work in the Reading Comprehension book we have to work on making sure she's understanding what she reads and read a lot otherwise. Finish her Australian Desert diorama (Needs at least 3 plants, 3 animals and she chose Kangaroo, Dingo, and Thorny Devil   -- she's written the plant part of the report and needs to write up the animals part and figure out what inanimate objects there are she needs to identify and write about.). Maybe start Jay Wile's "Science in the Beginning" book I've got sitting on my desk.  Running around the backyard for PE. Lunch Doodles with Mo for art.  Writing letters to pen pals, etc for writing.

 

My son already has access to google classroom and several classes post things there so I expect they will continue to do it and he can email them for clarifications. We are lucky to have checked out an algebra book at the beginning of the year so he can work through that (and again, contact his teacher through email. Though my husband has a masters in Math and I still remember my ALgebra so I expect we'll be fine) He'll continue to practice trumpet. Maybe we can figure out a way to do some skype lessons to keep him from learning bad habits. IF nothing else, Grandpa was a semi-professional trumpet player. Kickstart is probably just over (Karate).

Edited March 17, 2020 by vonfirmath

[SKL]

Our school had the teachers all put together work for all the subjects.  We picked up the packets yesterday.  We are off for 3 weeks (unless they extend it), so some teachers gave the whole 3 weeks of work, and others only part of it.  Some of the work is online, some on paper.

Last night I looked over the paper stuff.  It seems fairly reasonable so far.  I don't think we got any math assignments yet, other than what was assigned before the break.  I'm sure that will change.

I did have some questions.  I am sure the teachers thought they were being very clear, but not really.  😛  I hate to bother the teacher over a dumb question though, so I think we will just assume and move forward.  (Talking more about non-core subjects like music and art.)

Part of me wants to just push through it and get it done.  However, my kids will not go along with that.  😛  So I will be working with them to pace the work.  Today is more of an organizing day.  I am making them write down everything that's due (including online stuff) and check off with the date when they finish it.

I'm somewhat uncomfortable with the online stuff since I will probably not have a chance to review it.  Without ongoing teacher guidance, I can see them making mistakes and not getting the most out of the work.  Not sure what I should do about that.

[Guest]

Nothing has come home here yet for K-12, but most schools are on Spring Break, and are only closed through the rest of the month. My guess is that this may end up changing next week.

 

In our homeschool/college world, one of DD's profs has stuff online already, one doesn't, and about 3/4 of her Spanish sessions have been cancelled, so I am insisting that she continue work in subjects without content posted on her own, at minimum for the time she would have spent on it each day if the class were in session. At her college, most are NOT planning to livestream or do actual online classes due to bandwidth concerns. It's probably good in that many of her classmates will have kids home from school, and are likely to have to get their schoolwork in around the edges.

Edited March 17, 2020 by dmmetler

[SounderChick]

Ours is so weird we use a parent partnership they buy our curriculum have fun workshops and track your progress.  You would think business as usual except no in person classes.  They said they are not requiring or doing anything. They are open by appointment to pickup anything you left behind or want from the library but that's it. 

[Arctic Bunny]

Our public schools are cancelled until September. At the moment there is no work being sent home. The other school system sent the kids home with all the belongings. Ours have left their things in their desks. I’m taking younger DS back to get his library books, and his math text if I can talk the teacher into it.

DS’s private school decided to have a last official day of classes today, and he was downloading Zoom meetings by 8:30. His English teacher was handing out the books for their novel study. They will be doing a lot on Classroom.

[Hilltopmom]

I’m a teacher- every district in our state is doing something different because we got no guidance from state Ed about what is expected or required. 
some districts are teaching living lessons for 4 hours a day. Kids need devices and internet to access that. Our district told us review work only and we sent home packets and a novel to read plus links to educational sites we typically use at school if they want to do more. We are answering parent emails and checking in once a week by phone.

my high school kid is expected to keep up using google classroom and they are moving on with instruction. My first grader is getting a packet- bus delivering them later

[Sherry in OH]

Child enrolled in public charter school - log in at the beginning of each class period.  Some classes my son is online for the entire 90-minute class period (4 periods per day, excluding lunch break), others he gets an assignment to complete and post before the next class period.    

Child enrolled in regular public middle school - log in to Google Classroom each day.  Teachers post video lessons and assignments.  Students may access the classroom at any time during the day, but if they are online after school hours they will need to wait until the next school day for teacher response.  The child will be recorded as present for each class in which assignments have been completed and posted by the due date.  Due dates range from due today to due Friday.  Today is his first day.   So far, he seems to be spending about  1 1/2 hours per class.

 

 

 

[Farrar]

These are interesting.

Have any of your districts announced what they're doing about grades? I've seen a lot of districts talk about ditching all spring grades and just putting kids down as pass/fail. The big problem they're running up against for high schoolers is NCAA rules - which many of you know that a P in NCAA speak is a D on your GPA. 

[Katy]

None of my kids in public school.

Was dismayed to see the curriculum of a kindergartner in Florida posted on Facebook.  It included practicing counting to 100 and practicing cursive. It is ridiculous to require that from a 5 year old, even if SOME of them are capable of it.

[Arctic Bunny]

11 minutes ago, Farrar said:

These are interesting.

Have any of your districts announced what they're doing about grades? I've seen a lot of districts talk about ditching all spring grades and just putting kids down as pass/fail. The big problem they're running up against for high schoolers is NCAA rules - which many of you know that a P in NCAA speak is a D on your GPA. 

Our schools have been caught by surprise. I think they were probably expecting to be closed until Easter break, but until September was a bit of a shock.
 

PS grade 12’s have been told that as of yesterday, they have graduated with the marks they have. That is before midterms, even, so if you had a bad start to the semester, no chance to pull your grades up.

DS15’s private school is still working with students, specifically mentioning the grade 12s in the IB program.

DS13’s PS teacher just sent an email saying he is not allowed to give out assignments at this time. So he is posting math and science questions on Classroom if they are bored 😉 

DS13 has expressed an interest in learning coding as a stay at home project, so I’m looking into that.

[MEmama]

Junior year of high school here. My of my son's teachers are using google classroom for assignments. His AP classes are on the college board, and the students already know how to access additional help. Some teachers are thinking about offering live lectures or recorded lectures available via YouTube. All his teachers are available via email during regular school hours.

I'm trying to establish a general daily routine similar to our former homeschool routine. This actually is pretty practice for college; most of his assignments for now are pretty big and open, forcing him to figure out how much time to allot each day. Due dates right now are two weeks out, the duration of the closure, although I think everyone knows the closure will end up being much longer. I can help him make checklists, but other than that he has it under control. 
 

I don’t know how grading will be determined. I don’t see why it would be different, exactly, but I guess it depends on how they might do testing. Homework assignments don’t usually count for much. 

[SKL]

31 minutes ago, Farrar said:

These are interesting.

Have any of your districts announced what they're doing about grades? I've seen a lot of districts talk about ditching all spring grades and just putting kids down as pass/fail. The big problem they're running up against for high schoolers is NCAA rules - which many of you know that a P in NCAA speak is a D on your GPA. 

Nothing said about it yet.  Things are evolving so fast.  Nobody knows when or if we will be going back to school.  My kids' school is on a trimester schedule, so they could miss several weeks and still have enough time in school to do regular grading.

[SKL]

My kids were supposed to do standardized testing next week.  I hope that has been dropped for this year ....

[Sneezyone]

Our district hasn't announced what they're doing about grades but some of DS's teachers already gave tests in Google classroom so that may continue. Our district was supposed to have SOLs in about 6 weeks so that's an issue. They may just be cancelled or suspended for this term given the minimal work the district is requiring. I feel so fortunate that DDs teachers were better prepared and she can continue to learn apace. Students are on a 4x4 block schedule here, so only half of the year's classes, 2 cores for most high school students are affected. There's not much of an effort to keep up with non-core/elective classes.

[athena1277]

What are your thought on the school systems that aren’t having the students work at home?  One of the systems here was all set to go because every kid has a school issued laptop, so they could work online at home.  But then the governor announced the statewide closure for w.t weeks and said no school work work be done because not every kid would have access to study online.  I understand trying to be fair, but I think it was shortsighted.  If they don’t go back until August, that’s 2.5 months of school they missed.

[Sneezyone]

36 minutes ago, athena1277 said:

What are your thought on the school systems that aren’t having the students work at home?  One of the systems here was all set to go because every kid has a school issued laptop, so they could work online at home.  But then the governor announced the statewide closure for w.t weeks and said no school work work be done because not every kid would have access to study online.  I understand trying to be fair, but I think it was shortsighted.  If they don’t go back until August, that’s 2.5 months of school they missed.

 

I get wanting to be 'fair' but I moved to this district, in part, because the teachers and staff are savvy enough to use digital resources well. My DD's history teacher was told to take down any assignments b/c the lack of resources couldn't be held against students. I agree with that (not holding against students in terms of grades). Still, bless his heart, he left up his course plans and syllabus so the students could follow the daily work expectations anyway. I don't think we should be preventing students who *can* learn from doing so.

Edited March 17, 2020 by Sneezyone

[Sherry in OH]

6 minutes ago, athena1277 said:

What are your thought on the school systems that aren’t having the students work at home?  One of the systems here was all set to go because every kid has a school issued laptop, so they could work online at home.  But then the governor announced the statewide closure for w.t weeks and said no school work work be done because not every kid would have access to study online.  I understand trying to be fair, but I think it was shortsighted.  If they don’t go back until August, that’s 2.5 months of school they missed.

 

I think it is unfortunate that no work is expected.  I also think that the divide the governor was trying to avoid will occur anyway.  Students in families with resources,  Internet access, a home library, or someone able to teach, will do schoolwork.  Khan Academy is free, Coursera is free, there are numerous other free sites.  Amazon and other online booksellers are still in business.   

If my sons' schools were not e-schooling, I would resume homeschooling.  We have resources at home and the ability to acquire more as needed.  For my youngest, especially,  I am more worried about social skill regression than academic regression.  

[Sneezyone]

6 minutes ago, Medicmom2.0 said:

Our school district has not sent home any instructional materials or assignments.  There was some discussion of elearning, but 30% of the kids in school live so rurally there is no high speed internet available.  The libraries have shut down too, so they can’t complete assignments there.  The superintendent is clear that the worksheet packets sent home are to prevent regression, not to further educate.  As the CDC is now recommending 8 week school closures, I suspect my kid’s public school year is essentially over. 
So I am once again purchasing curriculum and materials and preparing to homeschool.
 

 

That's unfortunate. My son doesn't have a computer but he uses my old cell phone to access Google Classroom and flipgrid (which is where his music teacher is posting and accepting assignments). I can even access Google Classroom on my cell phone. That's how I first got word of the district constraints on go-getter teachers. Our schools were also closed so suddenly that both kids have all of their textbooks. We're using those as well.

Edited March 17, 2020 by Sneezyone

[athena1277]

14 minutes ago, Sherry in OH said:

 

I think it is unfortunate that no work is expected.  I also think that the divide the governor was trying to avoid will occur anyway.  Students in families with resources,  Internet access, a home library, or someone able to teach, will do schoolwork.  Khan Academy is free, Coursera is free, there are numerous other free sites.  Amazon and other online booksellers are still in business.   

If my sons' schools were not e-schooling, I would resume homeschooling.  We have resources at home and the ability to acquire more as needed.  For my youngest, especially,  I am more worried about social skill regression than academic regression.  

There will definitely be some division.  The local private schools are all doing e-learning, while the public schools can’t.  That will be significant by itself, before you even get to families that try to do some learning vs those who do nothing.

[Soror]

My son is in 9th public school, the girls are all at home still. Ds was on spring break  and that was just extended an extra two weeks. I am hoping that at the end of that they will be switching to online learning. Every highschool student here is issued a chromebook and they do a fair amount already online. It won't be the same but that's ok considering. For the elementary kids I have no clue what they will do and would be much less concerned, some math worksheets for practice and reading books would be sufficient, IMO. 

[Hilltopmom]

Part of why we are not grading and just doing review is not just lack of internet access for some students but also FAPE for special Ed students- very difficult to give iep accommodations. Plus grading things done at home- how to prove who did them

[Terabith]

14 minutes ago, Hilltopmom said:

Part of why we are not grading and just doing review is not just lack of internet access for some students but also FAPE for special Ed students- very difficult to give iep accommodations. Plus grading things done at home- how to prove who did them

I was wondering how special ed/ IEP services were going to work.  

[QueenCat]

3 hours ago, SKL said:

Our school had the teachers all put together work for all the subjects.  We picked up the packets yesterday.  We are off for 3 weeks (unless they extend it), so some teachers gave the whole 3 weeks of work, and others only part of it.  Some of the work is online, some on paper.

Last night I looked over the paper stuff.  It seems fairly reasonable so far.  I don't think we got any math assignments yet, other than what was assigned before the break.  I'm sure that will change.

I did have some questions.  I am sure the teachers thought they were being very clear, but not really.  😛  I hate to bother the teacher over a dumb question though, so I think we will just assume and move forward.  (Talking more about non-core subjects like music and art.)

Part of me wants to just push through it and get it done.  However, my kids will not go along with that.  😛  So I will be working with them to pace the work.  Today is more of an organizing day.  I am making them write down everything that's due (including online stuff) and check off with the date when they finish it.

I'm somewhat uncomfortable with the online stuff since I will probably not have a chance to review it.  Without ongoing teacher guidance, I can see them making mistakes and not getting the most out of the work.  Not sure what I should do about that.

 

Elementary teacher here... long-term sub in a 4th grade classroom. We had 8 hours to create our plans so that they could be printed over the weekend for pick up yesterday. The packets aren't perfect but we did our best. We have to have 2 hours per day of office hours, where we can respond to parents/students questions about the work. We can also demonstrate work to students on Microsoft Teams or via our class Bloomz account. We did not send home specific art, music, drama, pe or library lessons. All parents were sent home a list of supplementary online sites for those if they choose to use them. All of our work is review from the year except for the social studies packet. Parents are encouraged to assist as needed. Note that all the required work is pencil/paper, the online is supplementary. All kids in a grade got the same thing, no matter who their teacher is... Our middle school and high school teachers are doing things differently, but do have required office hours to help students.

[Guest]

I really think that for high school and college students, this semester should be credit/no credit and not count on the GPA at all. There is just too much variability as to what schools can offer, what students can access from home, and just plain stability for everyone to be able to grade fairly, and GPA is too important to college admissions, transfer admissions, NCAA eligibility, grad school/professional school admissions, and scholarship eligibility to let factors beyond everyone (student, teacher, school, university, and school systems) torpedo students’ future. Just give students credit for what they can do, and assume that whatever a student has gotten the other 7 semesters of their high school or college career is likely indicative of their typical level. 
 

Similarly, don’t count student performance against schools or teachers, or student evaluations, which are likely to be very based on how good zoom or moodle or blackboard are at handling the situation against teachers. I would also suggest just extending all teacher licenses up for renewal by a year, because doing professional development is going to be hard to manage.

Edited March 17, 2020 by dmmetler

[Sneezyone]

9 minutes ago, dmmetler said:

I really think that for high school and college students, this semester should be credit/no credit and not count on the GPA at all. There is just too much variability as to what schools can offer, what students can access from home, and just plain stability for everyone to be able to grade fairly, and GPA is too important to college admissions, transfer admissions, NCAA eligibility, grad school/professional school admissions, and scholarship eligibility to let factors beyond everyone (student, teacher, school, university, and school systems) torpedo students’ future. Just give students credit for what they can do, and assume that whatever a student has gotten the other 7 semesters of their high school or college career is likely indicative of their typical level. 

 

Ugh. That would totally penalize my kiddo who has worked so. stinking. hard this term and is so proud of herself. This is the first time, ever, that she's had this many As and they should count. Here, we have a block schedule for high schools so the 'semester' would have been over March 27. They had 10 instructional days left. Each 'quarter' lasts a little over a month. Losing one quarter/semester of grades...ok. Losing the equivalent of a whole year? not so much.

Edited March 17, 2020 by Sneezyone

[Terabith]

13 minutes ago, dmmetler said:

I really think that for high school and college students, this semester should be credit/no credit and not count on the GPA at all. There is just too much variability as to what schools can offer, what students can access from home, and just plain stability for everyone to be able to grade fairly, and GPA is too important to college admissions, transfer admissions, NCAA eligibility, grad school/professional school admissions, and scholarship eligibility to let factors beyond everyone (student, teacher, school, university, and school systems) torpedo students’ future. Just give students credit for what they can do, and assume that whatever a student has gotten the other 7 semesters of their high school or college career is likely indicative of their typical level. 
 

Similarly, don’t count student performance against schools or teachers, or student evaluations, which are likely to be very based on how good zoom or moodle or blackboard are at handling the situation against teachers. I would also suggest just extending all teacher licenses up for renewal by a year, because doing professional development is going to be hard to manage.

I thought the issue was NCAA pass grades are turned into a D for eligibility? 

[Farrar]

My feeling is that whenever possible teachers and systems should provide resources and instruction - especially for high schoolers. But that no one should be penalized for not working. I know that this places a bigger burden on families and puts a much bigger burden on kids to find the motivation outside of grades. And I think teachers who want to give feedback centered grades should do so. High schoolers can put that into a portfolio if they're applying to selective schools, for example, to show that their pass grade reflected real work they did from home. But I don't like the idea of the schools trying to pick through who really had health or family crisis issues or struggled to get internet access or had to watch younger siblings or whatever. Just let it go. It's not important enough.

[MEmama]

16 minutes ago, Sneezyone said:

 

Ugh. That would totally penalize my kiddo who has worked so. stinking. hard this term and is so proud of herself. This is the first time, ever, that she's had this many As and they should count. Here, we have a block schedule for high schools so the 'semester' would have been over March 27. They had 10 instructional days left. Each 'quarter' lasts a little over a month. Losing one quarter/semester of grades...ok. Losing the equivalent of a whole year? not so much.

Ugh, yeah, my DS had a really rough quarter last year that was totally atypical of his usual ability, and unfortunately his grades suffered (for him). He’s had a complete turnaround this quarter and is doing stellar. It’d be rough if it doesn’t “count” on his transcript. BUT....

8 minutes ago, Farrar said:

My feeling is that whenever possible teachers and systems should provide resources and instruction - especially for high schoolers. But that no one should be penalized for not working. I know that this places a bigger burden on families and puts a much bigger burden on kids to find the motivation outside of grades. And I think teachers who want to give feedback centered grades should do so. High schoolers can put that into a portfolio if they're applying to selective schools, for example, to show that their pass grade reflected real work they did from home. But I don't like the idea of the schools trying to pick through who really had health or family crisis issues or struggled to get internet access or had to watch younger siblings or whatever. Just let it go. It's not important enough.

This is an  excellent point. Right now most of us, I’m guessing, are looking at this through somewhat of a homeschool lens. Having our kids home for school might be rough, but we got this. HOWEVER, most of us haven’t yet been hit with reality. Will it be fair to count grades if a kid is sick for 2 months, or has their life upended when mom is in the hospital? Of course not, no. Lots to consider.

[Farrar]

11 minutes ago, Sneezyone said:

 

Ugh. That would totally penalize my kiddo who has worked so. stinking. hard this term and is so proud of herself. This is the first time, ever, that she's had this many As and they should count. Here, we have a block schedule for high schools so the 'semester' would have been over March 27. They had 10 instructional days left. Each 'quarter' lasts a little over a month. Losing one quarter/semester of grades...ok. Losing the equivalent of a whole year? not so much.

Places that give quarter grades and were close could still give them maybe? It needs to be individual to what makes sense for districts, I think. But the general push should be to give a pass/fail credit for either the final quarter or the spring semester. I do think kids who went above and beyond can note that in their college applications. And keep graded tests and papers. I have a strong feeling a lot of colleges are going to be doing a lot of holistic admissions work for the next two years - more than they used to - and may be more open to that sort of documentation.

[Sneezyone]

5 minutes ago, Farrar said:

Places that give quarter grades and were close could still give them maybe? It needs to be individual to what makes sense for districts, I think. But the general push should be to give a pass/fail credit for either the final quarter or the spring semester. I do think kids who went above and beyond can note that in their college applications. And keep graded tests and papers. I have a strong feeling a lot of colleges are going to be doing a lot of holistic admissions work for the next two years - more than they used to - and may be more open to that sort of documentation.

 

The problem I see is that the district is not currently allowing teachers to continue providing instruction at the high school level. It is self-study or nothing at all.I just want the first 'semester' to count. After that, ok, whatevs. We will keep with our plans. I can see this really throwing off the calculations for class rank, honor society, and scholarships tho. Some kids are really counting on/needing those grades.

Edited March 17, 2020 by Sneezyone

[Farrar]

3 minutes ago, Sneezyone said:

 

The problem I see is that the district is not currently allowing teachers to continue providing instruction at the high school level. It is self-study or nothing at all.I just want the first 'semester' to count. After that, ok, whatevs. We will keep with our plans. I can see this really throwing off the calculations for class rank, honor society, and scholarships tho. Some kids are really counting on/needing those grades.

Ugh. That's doing AP students a massive disservice since the exams are probably maybe going forward.

[Sneezyone]

15 minutes ago, Farrar said:

Ugh. That's doing AP students a massive disservice since the exams are probably maybe going forward.

 

Yes, it is. Anecdotally, teachers at DD's school are leaving the course content up/available to students who want to study. They simply can't require it or penalize for non-completion.

Edited March 17, 2020 by Sneezyone

[Arcadia]

23 minutes ago, MEmama said:

Will it be fair to count grades if a kid is sick for 2 months, or has their life upended when mom is in the hospital? Of course not, no. Lots to consider.

For the sick child, it would be either medical leave of absence or home bound instruction. For a parent in hospital, student’s grades has always continued to be counted.

ETA:

I know it is unfair but many nearby school districts has been doing online iPad/Chromebook instruction in the schools for years. So for some public school kids, they are log in to school daily. 

Edited March 17, 2020 by Arcadia

[sassenach]

One teacher did a fabulous job. DD’s Spanish teacher is seriously the most organized and on top of it person I’ve ever met. She had a whole plan ready days before they closed the school. She also conducted a teacher training to get the rest of the school rolling. I love her so much. 

[Farrar]

1 minute ago, Arcadia said:

For the sick child, it would be either medical leave of absence or home bound instruction. For a parent in hospital, student’s grades has always continued to be counted.

But this is an unusual situation where the method of instruction will have been very abruptly changed and be run by people not that experienced in teaching online and with students who may have never had an online course and the parent is suddenly in the hospital and possibly there are other complications of living under the virus. I don't think we should dismissively say, well, it would have counted before.

[Arcadia]

1 minute ago, Farrar said:

But this is an unusual situation where the method of instruction will have been very abruptly changed and be run by people not that experienced in teaching online and with students who may have never had an online course and the parent is suddenly in the hospital and possibly there are other complications of living under the virus. I don't think we should dismissively say, well, it would have counted before.

Here it is decided at district level, probably going into the school profile for current juniors when they apply for college.

[Soror]

43 minutes ago, Sneezyone said:

 

Ugh. That would totally penalize my kiddo who has worked so. stinking. hard this term and is so proud of herself. This is the first time, ever, that she's had this many As and they should count. Here, we have a block schedule for high schools so the 'semester' would have been over March 27. They had 10 instructional days left. Each 'quarter' lasts a little over a month. Losing one quarter/semester of grades...ok. Losing the equivalent of a whole year? not so much.

I am hoping they just go with the 3rd quarter grades for the semester if it comes to it.

[Sneezyone]

8 minutes ago, Farrar said:

But this is an unusual situation where the method of instruction will have been very abruptly changed and be run by people not that experienced in teaching online and with students who may have never had an online course and the parent is suddenly in the hospital and possibly there are other complications of living under the virus. I don't think we should dismissively say, well, it would have counted before.

 

This is EXACTLY what Chinese students are dealing with too. They're making it work but they have a strong cultural expectation of parent involvement and drill. In some cases, the classes are little more than videos posted online with office hours after class but they're doing it. Few teachers are prepared to teach online. It's a very different skillset. It's not about classroom management but about engagement and being engaging. It's honestly, I think, why so many homeschoolers do well with online ed providers.

Edited March 17, 2020 by Sneezyone

[SKL]

They should provide hard copy work for kids who don't have access to online.  Up to recently, hard copy was what everyone used, and it worked fine.

[hippiemamato3]

3 hours ago, Katy said:

None of my kids in public school.

Was dismayed to see the curriculum of a kindergartner in Florida posted on Facebook.  It included practicing counting to 100 and practicing cursive. It is ridiculous to require that from a 5 year old, even if SOME of them are capable of it.

The cursive seems a little crazy, but I would expect most 5 year olds to be able to count to 100.

[Excelsior! Academy]

2 hours ago, hippiemamato3 said:

The cursive seems a little crazy, but I would expect most 5 year olds to be able to count to 100.

I agree.  I remember being expected to write to 100 in kindy.  I attended in late 70's/early 80's.

Both of my college attending dd's are paying their own way, debt free with no loans.  One attends a small, private Christian uni.  It would be devastating for her, if she had to take the semester as a loss.   I am so proud of both of them and they work their patookas off making A's and paying their expenses.

[Pen]

Ours just closed for two weeks initialLy. Told the kids that whatever had already been assigned should be finished.  

Now they announced all schools in state closed till late April.  But school hasn’t worked out school at home plans.  

 

[Lecka]

My 9th grader is doing schoolwork on Google Classroom.  I don’t know any details but I found a piece of scratch paper with Algebra on it so that seems promising.  He has had good grades so we don’t monitor him.  He shuts down if he thinks parents do not have confidence in him — it is weird but we have not monitored him for a little while.  (Edit — we get a progress report and his grades, here and there he tells about what he is doing in class.). 
 

I picked up packets for my younger kids.  They have a suggested schedule and a lot of options in the packets, and then all the passwords for options for online learning.  We shut down very suddenly so there are many details that are undecided.  They were planning to figure things out this week!!!!!!  There was a half-day scheduled for today, mid-last week, for high school students, for teachers to figure things out, but then Saturday the schools were closed.  We got the same announcement as the teachers.  
 

They have suggested times to spend on each subject (like 15 or 20 minutes) and one teacher suggested a few specifics.  The other said make it work how you want.  One is going to call weekly to check in.  One is available by email and I know she is responsive.  

Edited March 18, 2020 by Lecka