Parents - What is your child's school doing about completing the school year?

[agame2323]

I can't imagine all kids getting held back a year do to the virus. I think some sort of concession needs to be considered. What happens with student that are in the 12 grade and were scheduled to graduation? Or those that were heading off to college in fall? I think a "catch up program" should be implemented.

Currently, my kid's school is conducting it's classes online. They JUST started this today. I was looking into just completely home schooling too.

 

[spiders]

Elementary school.

They have been doing online assignments and Zoom 4x per week since this started. I am personally not worried about my child because she was already above benchmark standards before this happened. They have not made any communication regarding students who were behind but I would imagine that would be addressed on an individual basis.

As for graduation ceremonies, I think they should just schedule all of them for the Saturday before the next school year. If they can't do the ceremonies the Saturday before school opens then they're not opening and in which case, have bigger problems at that point.

 

[SaintsManiac]

Primary school and they are not allowing current grades to go down. Grades can only be improved. We don't do Zoom classes. They use Google Classroom. We've been on spring break, so return to instruction tomorrow.

We are almost done with the school year. Not a ton of classroom instruction left with spring break, state testing, early dismissals, conference day, etc.

 

[wilbret]

Our school system is operating with online learning 5 days per week. Friday is supposed to be catch up day, no new work. We have 2nd, 4th, and 6th graders. The kids have meetings with teachers and classmates during the day. We are well-equipped for this, and the school system was well prepared.
My wife is a teacher, and she has conference calls all day.

I have heard other school systems basically say that the grade you have is the grade you get. Some have said that participation will maintain your scores, non participation will result in lower scores.

 

[MarkLT1]

Our kids are doing online/"distance" learning 5-days per week. We have a first grader and a fifth grader. The fifth grader has pretty typical assignments each day, covering all of the normal subjects. He is very good at being responsible, and is well ahead of the curve in general. For him I have zero concerns.

The first grader is.. well a first grader. It takes a lot more hand-holding to get him through the school days. M,W,F they have a fairly set schedule- reading, writing, math and a specialist. On T,Th, it is a "free choice" grid, which, frankly sucks. They are similar subjects, and each student has to pick one activity from each of 6 columns (the same grid is used for T and Th each week, then is switched up the next week). The grid assignments are from the district, not the school/teacher, and to be honest, I don't know what first graders they were thinking these assignments were appropriate for. Especially the writing assignments, would be challenging for a 3rd grader, let alone a first grader. Those Tuesday's and Thursdays are tough, and require my wife or I to take several hours out of the work day to get him through it. These days, that is falling more on me, and I'm making up work in the evenings/late at night.

Overall, distance learning is working pretty well, with the exception of those "free choice" days for the first grader. They are definitely learning new material, and it is keeping them engaged/busy, which as we all know is very important.

Speaking of which, time to go check in on the first grader, and see if he has finished his reading, then on to math.

 

[Southernmiss]

School has been online in Mississippi since 3/20

Daughter is a senior. Completing assignments online. In essence, she's done with school and ready for college.

Expecting our governor to call it for the year today or tomorrow.

Hope she gets a graduation ceremony later this summer.

Younger families are told do your best with online assignments or picked up packets. We will catch you up next year in the next grade, as long as the student was going to pass.

 

[jackers]

We are very fortunate that our local school system provides laptops (middle/high school) and iPads (intermediate/primary) to every student and have been for years so they have worked out all the kinks over the years and have a solid online system they use. I think they provided hotspots for rural families, if they needed it.

My son is a freshman and the high school seems to have it together, although it is all downsized a bit. We get 20 "free" days due to Covid-19 that they don't have to make up and they are making use of all of those. The kids started back up last week after an extended Spring Break and will only do eLearning for 3 days a week (T, W, Th) for the rest of the year. Tuesdays they do Google Hangout as a group for 30 minutes for each class (15 minute break between each plus a 1 hour lunch break), with the teacher explaining the plan for that week and it gives the kids a chance to ask questions or just interact with each other. My son, who is an introvert and could generally care less about school, actually seemed to enjoy all of that.

Wednesdays and Thursdays they get online assignments for each class, and are expected to have them completed and submitted by the end of the following week and the grades will count. They will do this through May 21, which is the last day of school (moved up a week from the original planned last day). The teachers are also available on Wed and Thurs for several hours in the morning and afternoon for the kids to reach out to them if they have questions about the assignments. It took my son 5 hours the first day and 4 hours the second day to complete all of the assignments. It's only been a week, but seems like a workable, reasonable plan for students, teachers, and parents.

I was mostly concerned about Algebra, as math has never been a strong subject for my son, but the teacher made a close up video of herself walking through the new material, writing down the equations, just like she would on the whiteboard in class. I think it will actually work even better for DS - I witnessed him pausing it, and then rewatching it while he was going through the assignment to make sure he was getting it right. When he finished, he took pictures of his work and then submitted that online.

The principal has been doing multiple video updates over the past few weeks and he said it is their intent that every one be prepared and ready for the next year come this fall.

 

[mjkacmom]

My high school juniors had one day off when they transitioned to online a month ago. I not sure exactly what they are doing because I’m not involved, ds did do a video culinary assignment yesterday. They will take AP exams at home. Dd19 is home from college and takes live classes and has a ton of work. Fortunately her bedroom is in the attic so it’s quiet.

 

[tvguy]

My kids are long out of school, but Sac City Unified is trying to start distance learning today. They handed out thousands of free computers to students, but thousands more need computers. But apparently their contract with the teachers union requires the union to sign off on any plan, something they have not done yet.

 

[soccerdad72]

HS and College freshmen at home - college student is fully online through the remainder of the semester. As of right now, HS student is online through the end of this month, but that's subject to change. Most likely, he'll be online for the remainder of the year. So far, his HS seems to be doing a pretty good job of online learning (from what I can tell).

The HS has rescheduled their senior activities - they even announced dates in July for Prom and Graduation.

 

[amez]

Before the (Ohio) governor announced school closures, our area superintendents has met and decided a course of action and set up a plan. The schools last day was 3/16, they had a long weekend (Monday for a little more prep work) and my high schoolers were up and running online on Tuesday. They are utilizing google classroom. My sophomore has ”live“ classes most days of the week, as well as assignments. My senior has fewer “live” classes and tends to do his work in bulk like block scheduling— all assignments for a class in a day, and then pops in for any lives he might have.
It has already been said if our seniors were on track to graduate then they will graduate, and any problem areas to work through are up to the discretion of the school- and it is their goal for kids to graduates. Right now, Ohio is still set to go back in May (although it’s doubtful)
My son wasn’t planning on attending the graduation ceremony, although he did point out that he hadn’t realized that the last time he would see everyone basically came and went (we had taken the week off before closures We’re announced to go to Belgium) He’s leaving for Basic Training and then AIT this summer/fall/winter before heading to college in Jan 2021. So not much of a chance to catchup on his final missed senior year moments.

 

[Lumpy1106]

With you.

I have a Kinder who is in Catholic school. They have done on-line learning from the start and it has been fantastic. Only complaint is the zoom lesson is only about 30 mins and then she's pretty bored the rest of the day until we can sit down and make sure the work is done - then it's a bit of a fight. I blame it on the boredom and the disruption in routine though - not the instruction.

Then there's the public HS. I have a Freshman and a Junior. Instruction up until now has been sparse, assignments have been optional/extra credit. The CA Governor has ruled we will all be out the rest of the year and assignments will be required following spring break only. Some teachers have been pretty good and are making an honest effort. Other teachers have been, IMHO, abysmal. Example; My Freshman daughter is taking a guitar class. The teacher has held one, and only one, zoom lesson, where he combined 3 classes. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!? Le't's be generous and say he spent twice as long planning the lesson as doing the lesson - that's a TOTAL of 3 hours over 3 weeks. YEESH! Sorry, but in everyone's rush to declare teachers as heroes for soldiering on, they are SERIOUSLY overstating some of their actual efforts.

Oh, did I mention they are currently on Spring Break? A Spring Break from WHAT?!? Nobody traveled, my wife and I are still working (thankfully) - how exactly are we justifying a Spring Break?

I know I don't get a vote, but we stand firmly in the camp of the schools should be open. Identify the kids and the guardians of kids who are at risk and isolate them and them only. You could then give them the mother-of-all remote learning experiences since it would essentially be 1 on 1 instead of 1 on full class.

 

[kaytieeldr]

OP, I'm curious why you think theventire country would need to repeat a year; what colleges woukd do without an incoming freshman class; and how doubling-up classes for the next 13 years woul work?

 

[omniscientmommy]

Here in Wisconsin, our district has moved to 'virtual learning'. This learning is dependent on the teacher putting something together, and honestly after seeing how the curriculum for our district is I'm reconsidering sending them back in the fall. I have a 3rd grader and this common core math is complete BS. How am I supposed to follow this ridiculous tree branching for multiplication!? I only make DS9 do what is required and then I'm supplementing with this Time4Learning online program. I moved DS6 completely to the Time4Learning program along with ABCmouse and varying worksheets and books we already own. DH is busy complaining that we're not hippies and aren't homeschooling our kids, try to stop me! I figure I have 4 months to figure out if they will go back to school or not.

 

[NYCgrrl]

I can't imagine all kids getting held back a year do to the virus. I think some sort of concession needs to be considered. What happens with student that are in the 12 grade and were scheduled to graduation? Or those that were heading off to college in fall? I think a "catch up program" should be implemented.

Currently, my kid's school is conducting it's classes online. They JUST started this today. I was looking into just completely home schooling too.

Not a parent but am primary caretaker to DGD. She's currently in 8th grade and has been learning remotely since...the last week of Feb or 1st week of March, I think. It feels like we've forever been in the house and time is losing it's meaning.

Your question was one asked by parents at her school before the school closed down and the response we received then still holds true. In a nutshell: If your child was already failing mid term you and the student need to work extra hard to get back on track. If your child passed midterm, keep up the good work. We were told that no matter how long the school closing lasted expect that 2 weeks of normal summer time will be needed to finish up the school year. We were required to choose what period we preferred to give up so that holiday plans could be adjusted if need be.

I haven't the patience to home-school thus congratulate and commend all who do.

ETA: DGD doesn't attend public school so responses from other NYS residents could well differ.

 

[mjkacmom]

With you.

I have a Kinder who is in Catholic school. They have done on-line learning from the start and it has been fantastic. Only complaint is the zoom lesson is only about 30 mins and then she's pretty bored the rest of the day until we can sit down and make sure the work is done - then it's a bit of a fight. I blame it on the boredom and the disruption in routine though - not the instruction.

Then there's the public HS. I have a Freshman and a Junior. Instruction up until now has been sparse, assignments have been optional/extra credit. The CA Governor has ruled we will all be out the rest of the year and assignments will be required following spring break only. Some teachers have been pretty good and are making an honest effort. Other teachers have been, IMHO, abysmal. Example; My Freshman daughter is taking a guitar class. The teacher has held one, and only one, zoom lesson, where he combined 3 classes. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!? Le't's be generous and say he spent twice as long planning the lesson as doing the lesson - that's a TOTAL of 3 hours over 3 weeks. YEESH! Sorry, but in everyone's rush to declare teachers as heroes for soldiering on, they are SERIOUSLY overstating some of their actual efforts.

Oh, did I mention they are currently on Spring Break? A Spring Break from WHAT?!? Nobody traveled, my wife and I are still working (thankfully) - how exactly are we justifying a Spring Break?

I know I don't get a vote, but we stand firmly in the camp of the schools should be open. Identify the kids and the guardians of kids who are at risk and isolate them and them only. You could then give them the mother-of-all remote learning experiences since it would essentially be 1 on 1 instead of 1 on full class.

What about the teachers? I’m sorry yours aren’t doing much, ours have been great, I can’t imagine HS teachers to hundreds of teens every day who might not even show symptoms.

 

[wenrob]

I’m not sure what’s going to happen here. I’m guessing passing them with the grades they have. The only one that has been iffy is DS’s pre Algebra grade. When I signed off on entering high school there was a stipulation that if someone was struggling in a subject one of their electives would be used to catch them up. I imagine that might just be the default for all the kids moving onto the next grade.

Our district was in no way prepared for distance/online learning but honestly, why would they be? We live in the desert where there’s never been a reason to think kids wouldn’t be able to go to school for days/weeks/months. It’s just never happened. They’re doing the best that they can and most of what my kids are getting is busy work which is fine with me. I don’t understand the freak out some people are having. They’re kids, they’re resilient, they’ll catch up.

 

[debster812]

DS is a college SR. Left school a month ago for spring break, went back the following week to pack up his dorm stuff, and started online classes on the 30th of March. He's actually driving to one of his professor's homes right now to pick up a book being left in their mailbox. It's a $175 book, for which he needs 1 chapter for an assignment. His professor graciously offered to loan their copy to him. We will UPS it back to them when he is done.

He's basically got online assignments in 2 classes. 1 class meets 2x a week via Zoom. 1 class he has a 25 page paper due, and that's all they're working on. He'll be finishing up mid-May, likely no finals, no Commencement, no Senior Athletic Banquet, or celebrations of any kind. Pretty anti climactic.

 

[MarkLT1]

I have a 3rd grader and this common core math is complete BS. How am I supposed to follow this ridiculous tree branching for multiplication!?

Common core can be hard to wrap your head around, if you haven't experienced it yourself. I know the first time I was exposed to it, I thought it was absolutely nuts. I've got a very deep mathematical background (advanced degree level), and I was much like Mr. Incredible in the Incredibles 2- "How could they change MATH?!?!"

That said, the more I worked with our older son on it, the more I started to notice that a lot of the techniques they were teaching were how I naturally adapted to solve math problems as I saw math not as a bunch of steps to take, but as a logical puzzle to figure out. I really do think the goal is to teach the kids to think in mathematical terms, rather than just regurgitate an algorithm to solve the problem. I know this is probably cold comfort, and it is extremely frustrating when you are trying to help your child learn, and the way they are being taught is completely different than you were taught.

Hang in there. This whole situation is really hard, especially when you don't feel like you have the tools to help your child (at least directly with the work required by the school).

 

[DLgal]

Full online learning here, and out district is VERY good, and everyone is fully connected and has a free district issued Chromebook, but it's largely a joke. My HS sophomore spends like maybe 1-2 hours a day on school stuff. It really is eye opening how much time lessons actually take, without the distractions of trying to teach a class of 35 fifteen year olds.

They follow a block schedule so have 3 classes to do every day, and are "supposed" to be getting lessons that take 1-2 hours oer class. However, my son is only spending real time on science and math. Everything else is done in 15-30 minutes. The elective classes he has can't be taught remotely so they are basically over for the year. (We don't exactly have a kiln over here so homeschool ceramics is out...)

My younger son is in 8th grade but in a special day class for autism. He is spending an hour or so each day doing math and reading worksheets, I am supplementing science lessons from a textbook I bought, and he has Zoom meetings 3 times per week, including speech therapy. It is what it is, but he is basically not going to be able to make progress on his IEP goals for the rest of the year and will have to keep working on them probably for most of next year. So, he will end up about 6 months behind, perpetually.