Homeschooling right now

[tinkerhon]

Absolutely- each child is different, which makes a 1-size-fits-all approach really, really tough. Is there the possibility of you seeing his test, and being able to give him some of that positive feedback verbally? (And would that work for him?) I wish you the best in finding what works for him.

Thanks ! Absolutely - the tests are graded right after you finish them, and then you click submit and it goes to the teachers - and they are absolutely amazing - my concern was that the DOE basically told the schools that the only "grading" is basically attendance -

But he does understand when he does well on a quiz- and when he doesn't - the test scores are provided as soon as you complete the final question - I'm making sure he realizes that his teachers know he's working hard -
Thanks again !

 

[Donnainnj]

It really depends on how your school is handling this. I hear of some people having zoom meetings with teachers and being able to reach them constantly with questions. This isn't the case for everyone. My daughter is only given websites to work on, no live lessons. The only contact I get is to let me know what she hasn't accomplished by 1:16; the teachers are working a half day schedule. I feel like I am homeschooling with online curriculum that I didn't choose. Sometimes my daughter and I spend quite a bit of time figuring out exactly how to enter the answers so the program marks them correct. I dislike one of the match programs (IXL math) very much and would have never chosen to work on that. So I feel like I am doing the teaching and not the teachers. I think it's very variable right now depending on how this is being handled in each individual school district.

My daughter is in third grade and while she can work independently, some of the lessons we are having technical issues figuring out what the program is asking for. I am working full time at home, so it's difficult to trouble shoot her lessons while still fulfilling what is needed for my job. She didn't even use all these programs at school, so she's not familiar with them either.

My school is grading the work and still giving report cards on it. So completing everything is not optional. I'm getting extremely frustrated with e-mails at less than 1:30 telling me what not done. Some of them almost appear rude to me, but I do know it's hard to convey tone through e-mail. We're in NJ, so we'll be doing this through June.

Wow. Also in NJ and we have full days. The kids have until 12 midnight to hand in their work. Our district works mostly on take home chromebooks from 6th grade on. Grammer school worked with them at school 3rd grade on. The district knows that many parents are trying to teach thier kids while working, or after working themselves

My 6th grader is mostly fine doing the work on his own, just getting harder and harder to get him started. I know it would have been much harder for him in even 4th or 5th grade. Some of the teachers have a video explaining the lesson. They have not been doing live lessons. They are available all school hours, and many are available beyond that if need be.

 

[mousefan73]

Thank God my kids are in 8th and 9th grade so they are pretty much on their own for the content. By DH helps my DD with math and she is doing awesome.

Here is was "problem". with my DD. Our school moved to MS O365. I am IT and admin support and it can be exhausting. My DS has gotten it figure out but she needs more help and I cannot get mad as to be honest this new process is a challenge within itself.

What our school did is implement overnight MS Office 365 (outlook AND teams)
Thank God I just happen to be our Office /SP/ Teams admin for our department at work so I am the expert on this.

I feel like my kids overnight turned into college students. Now they are dealing with Outlook/Teams meeting requests, having to stay organized. There is not pattern so they need to stay on top of things Saving, dowloading, and uploading they now got down. For one class they topic was News reporting. so my DD had to recored and upload a segment in team. From her phone.. So I spent 20 minutes explaining all this. they have days or a whole week to get stuff done, so they schedule their " work" when they want. My DS is more productive at night. So he learns and works from 8pm-11pm.. and sleeps in unless he has a 8am Teams call. then he takes a nap again.. like a college kid! But he is actually thriving.

and the best line from my DD as " Mom this is driving my nuts, one teacher sends an email with an assignment, the other in a Teams chat or folder. I spend more time looking for stuff" and Just laughed and said welcome to my world at work..

I really hope that once things return to normal, our school continues to use Teams.. My kids are academically fit, thank God. Many are not and they have issues with shool content. But for me this whole experiment is like a blessing in disguise.. We all get to sleep in AND my kids are basically having an internship on office - professional working methods.

My DD now has a group project so I set up a Teams chat with her and gave her tips on how to collobrate online, use SharePoints to save stuff for everyone to access. Something they can now all use later on too.

 

[JediBonas]

I'm losing my mind... I'm not a teacher. I don't know how to teach. I'm still working full-time while trying to teach 5th grade math, science, social studies, ELA. My DD conveniently "can't remember" the lessons they learned in school from this year. None of it. SOMEONE SEND ME A DRINK!!! I'm becoming unraveled.

I feel this in my soul. I have two 3rd graders, they have a half an hour Zoom meeting with their teacher in the morning to get their assignments and ask any questions, then we are pretty much teaching them everything. I've never thought about or wanted to be a teacher, I do not have the patience for it AT ALL. I feel like we're totally losing it here. Trying to teach them fractions these last few weeks has been torture. My husband and I both are working full-time from home, there are some days I'm in meetings nearly all day, and when we're done it's hard to find the time and energy to do 2.5+ hours of school work with them.

 

[holden]

We are all doing the best we can. Just remember that your children will graduate and be fine. They will all figure out their path in life regardless of how well they do in 4th grade math, etc.

 

[PollyannaMom]

to all those parents muddling through a job you didn't sign up for, especially if you're doing another one as well!

 

[aprilchem]

We've been really frustrated with the way our district has handled this whole situation and are honestly considering pulling our kids out and homeschooling them for real next year. Our schools closed on March 13, with exactly three months left of the academic year. It took the schools 4 weeks to post the "real" online learning stuff - in the interim, they posted two weeks of "review material" that wasn't collected or graded.

But... when they posted the real material, turns out it was all review as well, because by March 13th they say they had covered all the new material for the year. That means they spend three months of the school year reviewing, reviewing, reviewing for the SOL exams, then taking the SOLs, then wasting a lot of time until the school year ends while they wait for the scores so they can retest the kids that didn't pass. It's infuriating.

And, added to that, the teachers aren't teaching any of this review material. One teacher per grade, for the whole district, made and posted the packet for each course. There is no instruction, only worksheets and links to YouTube videos and such (not made by our teachers - by other people). I'd say about 20% of the links are incorrectly linked/broken. Students have to do three assignments, that are graded Pass/Fail, in order to "pass" the last grading period. And of my two boys in middle school, only one of their 14 combined teachers is doing any sort of office hours or Q&A sessions.

As an educator myself I find this so, so frustrating. I'm just really disappointed at the whole thing.

 

[Boopuff]

I co-teach a pre-school class online. We meet 4 days a week for a half hour with the kids.(then we meet with two/three kids in small groups for 15-20min a day) We are in a low-income district. We went online the minute the stay-home order was issued. Our district handed out Chrome Books to families that wanted/needed them. We are trying to keep our PreK kids at a level learning curve. We just don't want them to loose what they have. That being said, you can't force people to log on. We do take daily attendance, have "office hours" which is most of the day, we're available via text and email and we also host parent meetings. During our parent meeting we are really just trying to "teach" parents how to play with their kids, keep the kids off the video games, include basic counting, and alphabet during daily life. So frustrating. I honestly think we're working longer and harder than when we went into a classroom daily. I really want this to end.

 

[Summer2018]

I co-teach a pre-school class online. We meet 4 days a week for a half hour with the kids.(then we meet with two/three kids in small groups for 15-20min a day) We are in a low-income district. We went online the minute the stay-home order was issued. Our district handed out Chrome Books to families that wanted/needed them. We are trying to keep our PreK kids at a level learning curve. We just don't want them to loose what they have. That being said, you can't force people to log on. We do take daily attendance, have "office hours" which is most of the day, we're available via text and email and we also host parent meetings. During our parent meeting we are really just trying to "teach" parents how to play with their kids, keep the kids off the video games, include basic counting, and alphabet during daily life. So frustrating. I honestly think we're working longer and harder than when we went into a classroom daily. I really want this to end.

I'm also a Pre-K teacher doing distance learning. It is truly challenging to teach children who naturally learn everything hands-on through a computer screen in a developmentally appropriate way. At school my students have iPads as one of the choices that they can make during Center Time. Some children that need extra practice use the iPad to go on ABCMouse.com every day for 20 minutes, but the majority only use the iPads two-three times a week. I use my SmartBoard every day for about 20 minutes to conduct a lesson, but otherwise, all of our work is through play and hands-on exploration.

This has been truly difficult for all of us, teachers, students, and parents alike.

 

[denecarter]

This is a crazy world for everyone.

I taught high school science for 21 years. I’m a computer geek and had shifted my classes to a predominantly technology-enhanced model where I was more of a facilitator... very little lecture involved.

This year, I moved over to what we call the SOAR class. It is online curriculum for students who are behind in credits or who want to graduate early. The courses include all the core classes (science, math, English, social studies) and quiet a few electives (art, pe, personal & family living, Spanish). Once again, I’m a facilitator. The majority of my students are there because they have failed classes or had too many absences.

We left for Spring Break on March 7th and will not go back. School ends May 20th. We’ve been a Google district for several years... and the majority of our students and teachers were already used to integrating technology. I would’ve been fine with the new system, but I’m super lucky I moved over when I did. I trimmed up their required assignments and made incentives where they can skip tests for every 10 hours they spend online.

My students and their parents can contact me by phone (text or call), through the website, or via email. The district has moved us to a pass/fail system that doesn’t effect GPA or class rank, just credits since some kids are high tech and some are low tech. We passed out lots of Chromebooks and calculators to students. There are still about 10% of our students that require low-tech lessons. We also serve over 1000 meals per day to low income students. There are pickup locations around the district and a team of volunteers that deliver meals to homes where families cannot pickup the meals. Prom has been canceled and we still haven’t gotten guidelines on graduation.

I’ve noticed what I’m calling the Corona Effect... most of my classroom rockstars are doing little to no work. Some kids have shut down and refuse to work. Some who never worked in class are now thriving... because they can work at anytime during the day or night. Especially those that ended up being the only working members of their households.

I keep students, parents, and the counselors updated on student progress, grades, and time online. And celebrate when students complete courses. That part hasn’t changed... just now I do it from the house and around the needs of 1 & 3 year old grandkids. I’m truly blessed.

 

[Momto2minniemice]

This is not going to be a popular post .........
I know everyone is frustrated with processes that are going on at the school level. But what bothers me the most is seeing parents/care giver get mad a their children for not wanting to learn. Think about your child's teacher who has the same problem all year?

Knowing how your child learns is key I think in today's world of learning. Example I have a child who loves to get up and get to work, and hates that teachers post school work later in the day. My other child loves to do more work later in the day. But the key thing I have found is keeping to a schedule! The kids are use a schedule, once they are in school they have a schedule to some point. If your kids find out stress they will feed off of you as well.

Think outside the box to keep them learning. Learning is not just in front of the screen or work sheet. Home Ec is a good place to start, math, reading, and science. Take class outside when you can.

****We are a dual working family with unset schedules for both of us. Yes we let the teachers know right from the start our situation and they were understanding.****

 

[Frwinkley]

I am a 3rd grade ELA teacher and we've been doing remote learning for 6 weeks now. I am using Google Classroom and the kids (and parents for the most part) are managing well. I do a Zoom meeting once per week, with very little instruction. It's more of a time for the kids just to see and talk to each other. They miss each other terribly. Of course, the Zoom meetings are not mandatory and out of 18 students, I usually only have 14-16 participate.

One thing that I've discovered that has really helped working parents: I post my lessons on Saturday morning at 8 a.m. Assignments are not turned in on a daily basis, but rather weekly. The students have until the following Monday to turn their work in. Parents have greatly appreciated having two weekends to get work done, especially if they themselves are working at home during the week.

 

[Momto2minniemice]

I am a 3rd grade ELA teacher and we've been doing remote learning for 6 weeks now. I am using Google Classroom and the kids (and parents for the most part) are managing well. I do a Zoom meeting once per week, with very little instruction. It's more of a time for the kids just to see and talk to each other. They miss each other terribly. Of course, the Zoom meetings are not mandatory and out of 18 students, I usually only have 14-16 participate.

One thing that I've discovered that has really helped working parents: I post my lessons on Saturday morning at 8 a.m. Assignments are not turned in on a daily basis, but rather weekly. The students have until the following Monday to turn their work in. Parents have greatly appreciated having two weekends to get work done, especially if they themselves are working at home during the week.

As a working family this is amazing!! Both my kids would love that from their teachers!

 

[PollyannaMom]

I’ve noticed what I’m calling the Corona Effect... most of my classroom rockstars are doing little to no work. Some kids have shut down and refuse to work. Some who never worked in class are now thriving... because they can work at anytime during the day or night.

That's a very interesting observation! I bet we'll have some kids who switch to programs like K12 after all this, because they do find they like the flexibility.

(My own, on the other hand, is dying to get back to "real" classes. Setting his own schedule is a little too flexible for him.)

 

[denecarter]

That's a very interesting observation! I bet we'll have some kids who switch to programs like K12 after all this, because they do find they like the flexibility.

Flexibility will be key for some... structure will be a priority for others.

Since this began, I’ve been telling my friends and family that education will change a dramatically as a result of this. People will either have a greater appreciation for teachers or they will decide teachers aren’t that important.