Distance Learning for students at WDW

[silver236]

Looking for some feedback from families that have actually done this. We are looking at possibly doing a 9 night trip in January with only four days of school scheduled. How has it gone for students (one 8th grader and on 10th grader) doing their school work at WDW? What worked well and what didn't? Both of us parents are also teachers, so if anyone has taught their classes at WDW, that would be some great feedback too. Thanks!

 

[Cdn Jeff]

School work at WDW?
No, don’t do that to your kids on what should be a magical 9 days.
We take our kids out of school for vacation every year. They get caught up when we get back. They understand that if they aren’t able to catch up, then we can’t keep taking them out if school for vacations.
It’s a teaching moment all on it’s own.

 

[Disneylover99]

Looking for some feedback from families that have actually done this. We are looking at possibly doing a 9 night trip in January with only four days of school scheduled. How has it gone for students (one 8th grader and on 10th grader) doing their school work at WDW? What worked well and what didn't? Both of us parents are also teachers, so if anyone has taught their classes at WDW, that would be some great feedback too. Thanks!

So do you also have to teach as well?

 

[silver236]

So do you also have to teach as well?

Yes. That's why we're a little worried about the wifi.

 

[Betty Rohrer]

School work at WDW?
No, don’t do that to your kids on what should be a magical 9 days.
We take our kids out of school for vacation every year. They get caught up when we get back. They understand that if they aren’t able to catch up, then we can’t keep taking them out if school for vacations.
It’s a teaching moment all on it’s own.

our district does not allow for make up work for Disney trips. some teachers will help but if assignment is missed it is a zero/F for it. with older kids like OP I would be trying to do work at WDW

 

[NashvilleMama]

We took our virtual learners down in September and did work one day, but the WiFi was NOT reliable enough to be able to trust zooms all day if you're teaching. I was going to say "go for it" until I caught the teaching part. I think that would be incredibly difficult, especially if you're all in one resort room?

 

[StitchesGr8Fan]

We’ve always found the WiFi spotty for things like streaming and FaceTime. I would be really hesitant to trust it for all 4 of you.

 

[Cdn Jeff]

our district does not allow for make up work for Disney trips. some teachers will help but if assignment is missed it is a zero/F for it. with older kids like OP I would be trying to do work at WDW

Could hand their assignment in early. They’re only missing 4 days.

 

[EpcotNerd]

I'm curious about this too... we've taken our virtual learning/work show on the road before and had to set up internet hot spots in other places, wondering if that would also be the case at Disney.

 

[marinejjh]

Just get a hotspot on your phone plan. We have traveled often the past 9 months and haven't had any issues. I definitely wouldn't trust the wifi at Disney.

 

[kwdw]

Logistically, your challenge here is the horrible WiFi at WDW. No way I would trust TEACHING on it. Your kids might manage to be stable enough to do their school since if they get dropped they could log back in. But if you are live teaching, good luck with that staying stable.

But I think you should think about who needs to be live in class and how you would spend those days. Can they miss some online class or is there a penalty for that? This is going to be very school system dependent.

But even my niece reports students in her class have attended class from vacation locations (including one from WDW), so families are clearly mixing school and vacation.

 

[zoo2tycoon]

Your kids might be ok and able to make up but what does your superintendent have to say about your teaching remotely and possible bad WiFi. Is it fair to the students you and spouse are to be teaching not be able to learn because their teacher is on vacation? I can’t imagine a school district allowing teachers to do this with WiFi issues possible.

 

[marinejjh]

Your kids might be ok and able to make up but what does your superintendent have to say about your teaching remotely and possible bad WiFi. Is it fair to the students you and spouse are to be teaching not be able to learn because their teacher is on vacation? I can’t imagine a school district allowing teachers to do this with WiFi issues possible.

Teachers are lucky if they can work from home. Teachers in our district have to go to school each day and teach. I would also have zero tolerance if a teacher had wifi issues if they decided to go on vacation and had issues. But them again I haven't had a lot of tolerance toward school issues during this whole thing anyway. I work in it everyday and have had to adapt and change many times. The hotspot should work.

 

[AllieBoo]

We went in November and it did not work out that well. My daughter did some work while we were there, but still had a lot to do when we got back. The wifi was spotty, but mostly the issue was making the time to do it. When we are at Disney, we don't like hanging out in the room that much.

 

[sarobison]

My wife and I are teachers and we used our phone data to teach online the one day we had to at the end of our November trip.

We are virtual again until at least Mid-January, DD is also virtual so we’ve contemplated another short trip down to telework and for her to do online school. It would be easier if the parks were open later so she could get a few hours of “school” in each day before we headed out.

 

[hippiechicken]

In November, I worked just fine at the Riviera in the library to both take attendance, communicate with students, and post videos, as well as participate in discussions for my grad work. I used my phone to access our learning platform.

 

[Bjkandma]

In August, granddaughter had her freshman orientation and "boot camp". Teachers actually assigned work that needed to be turned on all remotely. We stayed at POP. !y daughter had to use her hotspot from her phone. It wasn't working with Wi-Fi at all.

 

[starry_solo]

Will you be staying on property? You will definitely need to get a Hotspot for your phone plan if you don't already have it

 

[calismic]

We typically pull the kids from school for one week when we travel. Our teachers prepare their assignments prior to leaving and we bring them with us. Normally we have them work on assignments on the plane and during some hotel downtime. Nothing terrible, most times its "get one assignment done today and you're good." That way when we arrive home they're not struggling to do a weeks worth of work in a single day. Though our school is one of the rare one's that's fully in-person, the students all submit their assignments online, so the kids will be able to hopefully get everything turned in this time around before going back the next week. I don't find designating school time at Disney World to be cruel or ruin the magic. It's a balance and they understand they could be in class instead of Disney World! As other have said the Wifi is crap. I have T-Mobile with unlimited tethering and I get really great signal around the parks. If you have a good cellular signal, I would strongly recommend using that instead of the hotels internet. All the big name carriers will allow you to buy hotspot time if its not included with your package.

 

[mom2rtk]

Are you guys staying in a house or something? I'm trying to figure out how you would have 2 people teaching class along with kids distance learning all from a typical small hotel space.