Back to School during the pandemic ...a discussion thread

[hdrolfe]

Well Ottawa Catholic Board shared their plans, at 4:20 pm, which was a bit annoying since when they said they would share it Monday I thought they meant Monday morning. The plans are generally vague, apparently schools will provide more details AFTER parents have decided to send or keep their kids home. The details I wanted, like how the cohorts will work, is it the class or the grade? What will the schedule be like? They did share they will be using Hapara (again) for the online learning but it will be the same curriculum as the in class kids, who will also be doing assignments on there. Online kids will have access to teachers to ask for help since their teacher will be teaching the in class people. The online kids will be part of a class, and they are asking to stick with your decision until first report cards come out in late October. So a two month commitment I guess. This is for the elementary kids. I didn't read the high school. Grade 7 & 8 will follow the elementary plans.

He wants to go, so I said he can go for the two months, but we'll re-evaluate if necessary. He doesn't want to do online because he doesn't think he will be able to do it, he knows he will be too distracted. I am hopeful some parents will keep their kids home, since his classes are usually 23 or so kids, and they are counted in the class numbers if they stay home, hopefully it will work out. I wish the school plans came first but it's a catch 22, they can't plan without the numbers and parents want more information to decide first.

 

[momof2gr8kids]

Have been reading along. Posting what our board sent out today (Lakehead Public Schools in Thunder Bay).
My DD is going into grade 12 so this for secondary.
The year has been split into 4 “quadmesters”. Each “quadmester” will have 2 classes. One in the morning, one in the afternoon. Only one room change per day.
I dont yet have info on lunchtime or bathroom breaks. (School board is holding a town hall meeting for parents This week)
My DD is also in the International Baccalaureate program so her classes are already a smaller size.
Mandatory masks, etc.
We live close to her school so she walks.
All things considered, I feel fairly ok with this.
she is excited to be going back to school

The catholic board is doing the same thing for high school students. DS is going into in grade 11, also walks to school, so we're ok with it as well. He also mainly hangs with 4 close friends- he's not the social butterfly that will have to be doing everything with everyone at the school. He wasn't disciplined enough with online learning, and both of us were working, so we weren't here to keep on him to get his work done first, and get off the PS4!

 

[hdrolfe]

I was reading some of the high school plans for here, the Catholic board is doing 2 - 3 mornings a week in class, for 2 1/2 hours, then kids go home for lunch and stay there doing an online class (teacher led). Parents are not happy. Basically 5 to 7 1/2 hours in class a week.

 

[Best_Vacation_EVER!]

I was reading some of the high school plans for here, the Catholic board is doing 2 - 3 mornings a week in class, for 2 1/2 hours, then kids go home for lunch and stay there doing an online class (teacher led). Parents are not happy. Basically 5 to 7 1/2 hours in class a week.

Our DS goes to an Ottawa Catholic High School and that is the plan (at least until January) --- I'm not super thrilled about only having the half day thing for the in-class portion, as we thought it would be 2 full days per week (and 3 full days on alternate weeks) but it is what it is and they did say it may evolve depending on how things go. We have already decided to drive him to/from school instead of taking the bus. It's got to be a tough job for the school boards though to balance safety (students, teachers, and staff), contracts, transportation, budget issues, having to expand capacity/offerings online, etc.... so I'm definitely willing to give them credit for coming up with a plan, communicating it, and being ready to react to changing conditions. Will be interested in seeing how the "quad-mesters" work out.

 

[Frozen2014]

Same schedule for my son in high school (non catholic school). I figure some in person is better than none. It does make me nervous sending them back so it's a start while things are still unsure. I get it as I assume they are avoiding the kids hanging around for lunch. It's easier with little kids to keep them in their classrooms at lunch time.

 

[quandrea]

Our DS goes to an Ottawa Catholic High School and that is the plan (at least until January) --- I'm not super thrilled about only having the half day thing for the in-class portion, as we thought it would be 2 full days per week (and 3 full days on alternate weeks) but it is what it is and they did say it may evolve depending on how things go. We have already decided to drive him to/from school instead of taking the bus. It's got to be a tough job for the school boards though to balance safety (students, teachers, and staff), contracts, transportation, budget issues, having to expand capacity/offerings online, etc.... so I'm definitely willing to give them credit for coming up with a plan, communicating it, and being ready to react to changing conditions. Will be interested in seeing how the "quad-mesters" work out.

I think the quadmesters could be very good for learning, so long as a child doesn’t get sick and miss school. In our homeschool, I often “blitz” a unit. We go hard on a topic to get it finished all at once. This helps with continuity and the overall concepts connect in a more cohesive manner. I could see this in the condensed manner of course delivery this year. However, if a child falls ill, and can’t work for a bit due to illness, he or she will fall significantly behind. In math and science especially, catching up will be near impossible.

 

[hdrolfe]

I think the quadmesters could be very good for learning, so long as a child doesn’t get sick and miss school. In our homeschool, I often “blitz” a unit. We go hard on a topic to get it finished all at once. This helps with continuity and the overall concepts connect in a more cohesive manner. I could see this in the condensed manner of course delivery this year. However, if a child falls ill, and can’t work for a bit due to illness, he or she will fall significantly behind. In math and science especially, catching up will be near impossible.

Or if they have to quarantine for 2 weeks because of any kind of illness. It seems like they are all requiring a student to not be in class if they have any symptoms, either for 2 weeks or they can get tested and then it's only 72 hours after the last symptom. Which could still be a long time considering how long some coughs and such last. I wonder if they'd be allowed to switch to online only at that point? Often they aren't "can't do anything" sick but just a general cold or such.

This is going to be quite the interesting school year... I have moments I am tempted to pull him out completely and "unschool" him but he wants to go see his friends.

 

[pigletto]

My son is going into Grade 11. Our board will be doing cohorts of approx. 15 students. He will go two days one week and three the next. They will do three 75 minute blocks a day in the same classroom and come home and do an additional 75 minutes. My understanding is that it’s one class per day, in mini blocks of two weeks. There will be no cafeteria or designated lunch. Busing will be one student every other seat.

We have a considerate and socially responsible kid. We trust him and we feel like he should get at least a third of the say in his decision to return or not. So we all sat down and talked it out. His father and I were more on the side of not returning and doing the online option. He was far more on the side of returning. He takes his future very seriously and is very anxious about the online option.

He struggled a great deal in the Spring with the online model. I told him it would probably be better now that there’s been time to perfect the delivery . He very understandably said he didn’t want to leave his grade 11 year up to “probably”. The program he is hoping to get into for university had an entrance average of 92 last year. And he can do it. But not with the way learning went in the spring. We completely understand that it was foisted upon teachers at the last second and they had to scramble to make it work at all. We are VERY pro educator. However, he did have two teachers who I would say did less than the bare minimum, one of whom only answered 1 of 5 emails sent for help. This same teacher basically just dumped his lesson plan online and said “Go for it”. DS taught himself grade 11 history. Was it a hardship ? No. It’s a pretty first world problem. But he’s not trusting the online model and I don’t blame him.

So there we are. And it turns out I don’t feel any better about having made a decision than when we hadn’t made one. We are moving forward into the unknown.

 

[Iralyn]

The plans are generally vague, apparently schools will provide more details AFTER parents have decided to send or keep their kids home.

Similar for my daughter's board. They say that they may alter school schedules, including start and end times, but give no details. Because of our circumstances, going back to school is likely the only practical choice but if they change school start and end times or other things that could create enough headaches that I would want to reconsider.

 

[hdrolfe]

Similar for my daughter's board. They say that they may alter school schedules, including start and end times, but give no details. Because of our circumstances, going back to school is likely the only practical choice but if they change school start and end times or other things that could create enough headaches that I would want to reconsider.

This for sure. They also speak about the before/after school programs that are in the schools... how will that run with staggered start/end times? It's all so frustrating... always waiting for more details. I am lucky, my boss will be accomodating of start/end times, also because I am able to work from home, but not all parents are so lucky.

I have the added bonus that kiddo does not usually get along with his teachers, he's had a few that were ok but certainly most have been hard for him. So if he gets one who he doesn't do ok with it will just add to the frustrations here.

 

[hdrolfe]

My son is going into Grade 11. Our board will be doing cohorts of approx. 15 students. He will go two days one week and three the next. They will do three 75 minute blocks a day in the same classroom and come home and do an additional 75 minutes. My understanding is that it’s one class per day, in mini blocks of two weeks. There will be no cafeteria or designated lunch. Busing will be one student every other seat.

We have a considerate and socially responsible kid. We trust him and we feel like he should get at least a third of the say in his decision to return or not. So we all sat down and talked it out. His father and I were more on the side of not returning and doing the online option. He was far more on the side of returning. He takes his future very seriously and is very anxious about the online option.

He struggled a great deal in the Spring with the online model. I told him it would probably be better now that there’s been time to perfect the delivery . He very understandably said he didn’t want to leave his grade 11 year up to “probably”. The program he is hoping to get into for university had an entrance average of 92 last year. And he can do it. But not with the way learning went in the spring. We completely understand that it was foisted upon teachers at the last second and they had to scramble to make it work at all. We are VERY pro educator. However, he did have two teachers who I would say did less than the bare minimum, one of whom only answered 1 of 5 emails sent for help. This same teacher basically just dumped his lesson plan online and said “Go for it”. DS taught himself grade 11 history. Was it a hardship ? No. It’s a pretty first world problem. But he’s not trusting the online model and I don’t blame him.

So there we are. And it turns out I don’t feel any better about having made a decision than when we hadn’t made one. We are moving forward into the unknown.

Our board indicated that the online portions will have teachers available to answer questions, it may not be the actual teacher but they will have those who are unable to work in school to do this part. It changes a bit between elementary and secondary but I understood that there would be additional help available. Hopefully, for everyone, the online will go better this time around. But yes, it does still require a certain amount of "self teaching" I think.

Oh, the fully online model for our board is the same as whatever they currently use for a fully online model, one course at a time. It sounded like they've been doing that for awhile so it's not new and must have been working before, just will probably have a lot more kids now. It's the hybrid model where there will be additional help for the online bits.

 

[mshanson3121]

And it starts. My friend sent me this. Granted it's in Alabama, but still a glimpse of what will likely happen here. Not even so much a positive case, that's just a given, but the quarantining of large numbers of people. So how do families and schools manage this?

https://www.waaytv.com/content/news...bers-in-coronavirus-quarantine-572070701.html

 

[quandrea]

Or if they have to quarantine for 2 weeks because of any kind of illness. It seems like they are all requiring a student to not be in class if they have any symptoms, either for 2 weeks or they can get tested and then it's only 72 hours after the last symptom. Which could still be a long time considering how long some coughs and such last. I wonder if they'd be allowed to switch to online only at that point? Often they aren't "can't do anything" sick but just a general cold or such.

This is going to be quite the interesting school year... I have moments I am tempted to pull him out completely and "unschool" him but he wants to go see his friends.

I’m a huge homeschool/unschool advocate. I always tell people, if you are the least bit curious, give it a try. When I started with my twins, I gave myself until Christmas to see if it was a good fit. We’ve been homeschooling nine years now. It’s allowed travel, independence in learning, self direction, autonomy. All three of my kids are very social—it is just separated from school. They all say, we are at school to work, socialising happens later.

One of the huge benefits that we didn’t plan for, is each child will have the opportunity for a gap year if they desire. They will all graduate a year early because they got so far ahead in elementary school. Homeschool also allowed dd the flexibility to pursue high performance swimming.

Anyway, if you have the itch, it might be worth exploring.

 

[mort1331]

So thats will be one of many questions..if there is one case..how many are sent to isolate? I know there is no magic bubble..but we have to start with something and see. And I knoe some will say that experiment is with my kids life or my parents life. The reality is unless you have ypur bunker in the back yard and dont plan to come out for a couple of years, nothing is full proof. Also the flip is the complaints of isolation and how negative that is. Its even hard to weigh the pros and cons to it all as we dont have full models that are not guesses to how each plays out.
Do your best research, find your semi-comfortable position and go fo it.

 

[mort1331]

I’m a huge homeschool/unschool advocate. I always tell people, if you are the least bit curious, give it a try. When I started with my twins, I gave myself until Christmas to see if it was a good fit. We’ve been homeschooling nine years now. It’s allowed travel, independence in learning, self direction, autonomy. All three of my kids are very social—it is just separated from school. They all say, we are at school to work, socialising happens later.

One of the huge benefits that we didn’t plan for, is each child will have the opportunity for a gap year if they desire. They will all graduate a year early because they got so far ahead in elementary school. Homeschool also allowed dd the flexibility to pursue high performance swimming.

Anyway, if you have the itch, it might be worth exploring.

Great for you and the thousands that do. As long as the parent can stay home and feel comfortable to do it.

 

[hdrolfe]

I’m a huge homeschool/unschool advocate. I always tell people, if you are the least bit curious, give it a try. When I started with my twins, I gave myself until Christmas to see if it was a good fit. We’ve been homeschooling nine years now. It’s allowed travel, independence in learning, self direction, autonomy. All three of my kids are very social—it is just separated from school. They all say, we are at school to work, socialising happens later.

One of the huge benefits that we didn’t plan for, is each child will have the opportunity for a gap year if they desire. They will all graduate a year early because they got so far ahead in elementary school. Homeschool also allowed dd the flexibility to pursue high performance swimming.

Anyway, if you have the itch, it might be worth exploring.

I am reading a lot about it and wish it had been possible sooner for him given his school problems. Given my newfound ability to work from home, and how well he's been doing recently with less game playing and more interest in other things, it's very tempting. We will try in school but I am prepared to pull him out. Hopefully I'll be able to figure out ways to keep him socialized outside of school. Current restrictions make any socialization that much harder. Thanks (and any tips, feel free to send me a message, I don't know anyone who does this here and would love to hear how it really works).

 

[wdwmom3]

Great for you and the thousands that do. As long as the parent can stay home and feel comfortable to do it.

And great for the kids who are a fit with that. A lot of kids aren’t. I know my son isn’t. Sure I can teach him, but he needs to be in school, away from mom and dad. He needs the social aspect, to learn how to deal with things on his own (when we aren’t there), how to cope with all different types of personalities etc. Since being home he’s moody, more withdrawn, snapping at people including some of his friends.

We need to stop downplaying the affect not being in school has on a lot of kids.

 

[hdrolfe]

And great for the kids who are a fit with that. A lot of kids aren’t. I know my son isn’t. Sure I can teach him, but he needs to be in school, away from mom and dad. He needs the social aspect, to learn how to deal with things on his own (when we aren’t there), how to cope with all different types of personalities etc. Since being home he’s moody, more withdrawn, snapping at people including some of his friends.

We need to stop downplaying the affect not being in school has on a lot of kids.

It's interesting isn't it, how everyone (kids included) are so different? It took my kid a couple months but he is now actually doing better, though I also credit that with him getting off the games in addition to not being in school. He only plays a couple things now that he actually really likes, as opposed to what his friends liked. Any way, he was like you describe when in school. He gets so anxious to "please" everyone that he just gets overwhelmed. He loves being with his friends, but not so much the teachers. He also has no interest in sitting and doing an online course or a workbook, but ask him anything about planes and he'll go on and on about the biggest, fastest, what it takes to land one, how they fly... all stuff he learned himself because it interested him. Heaven forbid you ask him to write something down though... I totally agree that kids need to play and spend time with one another to learn the social skills, to know how to get along with each other and "follow the rules". Kids are so different from one to another, and they do need to learn to all get along. I sometimes think there are a few adults I work with that could use a bit more skill in that area too

 

[mshanson3121]

I’m a huge homeschool/unschool advocate. I always tell people, if you are the least bit curious, give it a try. When I started with my twins, I gave myself until Christmas to see if it was a good fit. We’ve been homeschooling nine years now. It’s allowed travel, independence in learning, self direction, autonomy. All three of my kids are very social—it is just separated from school. They all say, we are at school to work, socialising happens later.

One of the huge benefits that we didn’t plan for, is each child will have the opportunity for a gap year if they desire. They will all graduate a year early because they got so far ahead in elementary school. Homeschool also allowed dd the flexibility to pursue high performance swimming.

Anyway, if you have the itch, it might be worth exploring.

Yes, 1000x over, yes. We started homeschooling due to special needs with the intention to put them in school when issues were a little better managed. Well, that was 9 years ago, and we have 0 intention of putting them in school now (even before Covid, lol).

So thats will be one of many questions..if there is one case..how many are sent to isolate?

In this article, it was every single person who was within 6' of the person for 10 minutes or longer. So, at one school alone, one student and one teacher tested positive - and now there are over 70 people in a 2 week quarantine.

I am reading a lot about it and wish it had been possible sooner for him given his school problems. Given my newfound ability to work from home, and how well he's been doing recently with less game playing and more interest in other things, it's very tempting. We will try in school but I am prepared to pull him out. Hopefully I'll be able to figure out ways to keep him socialized outside of school. Current restrictions make any socialization that much harder. Thanks (and any tips, feel free to send me a message, I don't know anyone who does this here and would love to hear how it really works).

We have allowed outdoor visits with friends, which hasn't been an issue for them at all. They also have tablets, so they talk to their friends daily on that. They have also had visits where they all wore masks. There are lots of ways to make socialization work/happen! They just take some creative thinking and... the willingness to adapt one's way of thinking.

If you want to mesasge me with any questions you may have re: homeschooling, please feel free! The tips I have could fill a book, so it's probably easier for you to ask specifics, lol. Also, even if you're just considering homeschooling, or want to learn more about it - join some groups on Facebook!

 

[wdwmom3]

It's interesting isn't it, how everyone (kids included) are so different? It took my kid a couple months but he is now actually doing better, though I also credit that with him getting off the games in addition to not being in school. He only plays a couple things now that he actually really likes, as opposed to what his friends liked. Any way, he was like you describe when in school. He gets so anxious to "please" everyone that he just gets overwhelmed. He loves being with his friends, but not so much the teachers. He also has no interest in sitting and doing an online course or a workbook, but ask him anything about planes and he'll go on and on about the biggest, fastest, what it takes to land one, how they fly... all stuff he learned himself because it interested him. Heaven forbid you ask him to write something down though... I totally agree that kids need to play and spend time with one another to learn the social skills, to know how to get along with each other and "follow the rules". Kids are so different from one to another, and they do need to learn to all get along. I sometimes think there are a few adults I work with that could use a bit more skill in that area too

I’ve talked to a few friends who say the same thing. Their kids have changed. Others they haven’t and are doing great. But a lot of people just want to argue about how safe school is, but don’t want to address what keeping schools closed is doing to many kids.

There are kids like my son who just need to be back in that environment for their development. There are others who don’t have the supports at home, with parents who just can’t do it all (especially single parents). There are kids who are sadly living in very bad, toxic environments and need the escape school gives them.

There are lots of reasons why some kids need school. And it makes me sad so few want to even acknowledge it.