What is happening with in-class vs online learning for K-12 ??

[deckeda]

After weeks of silence, our school board has announced they've bought into some kind of virtual classroom package and that it's optional. "We're offering this because of significantly reduced registrations." Gee, ya think?

We are not the kind of parents who confuse school with babysitting, so we are intensely interested in this option.

Trouble is, the district has almost no details of consequence to share and we're only a few weeks out from when school is starting. So I'd like to know what you've heard from your area.

-> Our oldest would be starting his senior year. He's a straight-A, honors student who already has about 6 hours of college credit courses taken last year as self-study online. But guess what? The state of TN can't say if any honors courses he'd do online for the school would be considered as "honors" courses when taken online through their own curriculum.

We're considering not registering him for school at all, and have him take the GED and then just start applying to colleges.

-> Our youngest is just starting high school (9th grade). She's on the basketball team, a hard-earned achievement. The district is saying that anyone who chooses the virtual option cannot participant in ANY extra-curricular activates. No sports, no clubs, zero. They're basically pariahs. It's effing stupid.

Meanwhile, the bball team still isn't practicing. They tried it a few times this summer until some random kid elsewhere got C19. A few days ago one of the assistant coaches said the gym was open in case anyone wanted to do some shooting. Optional, not mandatory. 4 kids showed up. The head coach sent an angry message to the team about the weak participation? It was optional! That earned him an email from my wife, which I haven't read yet because I'm not in the mood to turn that into a blistering email.

************

We want them in-class, for all the positive reasons students benefit from the in-class environment, educationally and socially. But the district has zero plan for how to do that this year, safely. But hey, they hold their own board meetings sitting more than 6-ft apart. Nice for them, but not for the kids who I guess are assumed to be immune to sickness and transmission.

And if one of them comes home from school and gets the rest of sick that would be ... not good. I'm already stressed about it since I'm the primary earner here.

[N-OS X-tasy!]

The K-12 situation in the U.S. is a looming disaster. Basically, we can’t afford to let kids return to school this fall.... but we can’t afford NOT to let them return. Things are going to get a LOT worse in the U.S. before they begin to get better.

Good luck with your situation, OP. I personally think your idea to have your older child move on to college is a good one. He can take classes at a community college while applying to four-years — he’ll be WORLDS better off than sticking around for what is sure to be a fustercluck of a senior year in HS.

[Acer]

For the senior, I'd strongly consider community college if available. Even if online, you know you'll get college credit for it. Focus on courses that will meet freshman gen ed requirements. We cyber-schooled with a charter, but the last two years of high school were mostly at the community college. Our kids entered college with 20-30 credits already covered, at a fraction of the cost.

[Rolando]

I found a couple of acreditted K12 online schools in Texas from a Teacher friend. If you know any educators, ask.

Run by the University
https://highschool.utexas.edu/hs_courses

Another by another University
http://www.depts.ttu.edu/k12/?fbclid=IwA...dkmMkAZRP8

https://learn.connectionsacademy.com/texas/?ao=0&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_network=g&utm_campaign=Texas%2BBrand%2BUS%2BENG%2BSPART%2BEXACT&utm_term=texas%20connections%20academy&utm_matchtype=e&utm_device=m&utm_creative=407682883329&utm_adposition=&utm_content=%7Badgroup%7D&leadsource=CA_PPC&gclid=Cj0KCQjwgJv4BRCrARIsAB17JI6IF4gIQ7tqxxvT76uY4ZkkEkz2lplDKck1QMxZ-ufmfTuRelRn3KEaAnoREALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds&utm_expid=.7GhM-4jCSMarYq7b9IT8OQ.2&utm_referrer=

[Ombligo]

I work in a high school, so have insight into what our district is doing, how it differs from last year, and potential advantages and disadvantages to each. Educationally I believe we have a good plan in place; situationally I'm not nearly as impressed.

Background: We are a small/midsize district by state standards. The school district has about 1800 teachers, 20,000 students spread across 3 high schools, 4 middle schools, 12 elementary, 1 votech, 3 special schools. All students from third grade up are supplied with iPads.

Last year when schools were closed in March, we went to a virtual school model. Teachers could set up classes however they wanted and create their own lessons. It worked but was far from ideal as each teacher set standards that could be far different from another teacher with the same subject. Most high school teachers used Google classroom, but some used other programs. The middle schools and elementary were on completely different platforms. The results were not great.

This year we have learned from our mistakes. The district has settled on an online program called Canvas. This program is extremely popular in colleges. All grade levels will use it in place of the hodgepodge we had. The simple uniformity will help parents and get stronger every year since nothing new will need to be taught just to use it.

This coming year there will be two options for students - either full-time traditional or full-time Virtual.

The virtual program will utilize the online platform and lessons of Florida Virtual School but be overseen and administered by district teachers. In this program, the teachers do not "teach" the class but rather are there to answer questions and evaluate mastery. All lessons and tests are built into the program. I personally have never been impressed by Florida Virtual lessons. I found them to be shallow and minimal. They meet state standards but go no further. Students have no interaction with other students, there is no classroom discussion that can enhance the material. I would homeschool before relying on FLVS.

The traditional route is just what it sounds like - in school learning with a teacher and other students present. Teachers will utilize Canvas as well for homework and testing. This really should give students the best chance of success. If we have to close schools again, students will already be familiar with the Canvas platform. Teachers can utilize it along with Zoom to continue. For students without internet access at home, there are two options being given. They may get all assignments on paper; that requires someone picking up the assignments and then returning them every week. We are also making busse into hotspots that students can join. There will be a school bus at certain places every day for food distribution, so this uses the same resource in multiple ways. There will be shortfalls given the realities of immature students, unsupportive parents, and minimalistic teachers (I admit that those exist, more than I care to count).

We are in a very tea-party, Trump supportive zone. The county as a whole has not taken true precautions. There has never been any directions beyond what the state required. Even masks were scoffed at. The school leadership is no different in that regard. The precautions being taken amount to little more than wiping down desks and doorknobs. Masks are encouraged but not required. There will be no temperature screening or additional measures. Honestly, there would have been some huge pushback from the community if those things had been dictated.

I don't have an answer for you, I don't even know what I would do if my child was still in school. There is no easy answer.

I hope this helps some.

[rz]

Let me relay an interesting story to you about my sister. When I was going into Jr. High, we moved to Tennessee. The educational system there was easily two years behind the schools we came from. My sister was going into her Junior year. They basically put her in all Senior level classes. When she finished the year, they told her they had nothing left to teach her... except there was a state law that in order to graduate, she had to take a year of Tennessee history. They told her to enroll at UT-Chattanooga and take a Tennessee history class, and at the end of the year they would give her a diploma.

Well, she attended UTC for a year and at the end of the year went back and showed them that she had taken a Tennessee history class. Well, they backed out of the deal. They refused to give her a diploma. At this point, my dad got transferred back up north. So she enrolled at U of Delaware as a transfer student. They transferred her year of classes at UTC and never asked to see a HS diploma. So she graduated college and got an MBA, but has no HS diploma.

Not sure that helps at all, but I can sympathize about the ridiculousness of the Tennessee school system.

[Lemon Drop]

Spoke with a kindergarten teacher in a small South Carolina town yesterday. They will return with 10 children attending at a time, in masks and at separate tables.

Children will attend alternating days of the week which will be hell for poor working parents unless employers get with the program.

Teachers are required to purchase the extra cleaning supplies with their own money, the school says it has no funds for it but requires them to clean all surfaces with a Lysol-type product after each class.

I'm looking for donations for her school, which serves a low income community.

Her online experience last spring was terrible. Children logged in from a loud McDonald's where their parent was working or it's the only place they can get internet, or from home with noise and siblings running around and no adult present, or never at all.

[bfd]

Canvas is just a shell. It's a Learning Management System. It doesn't teach anything. It's not a program. It's a way to organize the "stuff" for online teaching. You will still see a hodgepodge of stuff. Only now, the hodgepodge will be "organized" into modules. Unless the district has undertaken a fairly robust inservice program for teachers in how to successfully transition to a virtual teaching setting, there won't be much change, and there'll be more teachers who throw their hands up in the air.

In general, it'd take at least a few weeks in the summer of fairly rigorous in-service training just to get up to speed on how to use a LMS. That's not delivering instruction, it's just learning how to use the system. Then there's the actual teaching strategies like making videos for instruction, holding Zoom sessions successfully, helping students that don't get it, students that need more time, and students that need to move more deeply into the material, collecting work, grading and returning work, and all the stuff that goes with that.

It's not likely that much of the online teaching you see this fall will look any different than it did in the spring - schools and teachers just haven't had enough time to relearn the dance and practice it yet. That's why the big push for back in school is so strong. No need to relearn anything if everything's face-to-face. But unless there are significant safeguards, any teacher who goes back into a classroom right now is - seriously – putting their life on the line. In some cases, for about $125 a day. How many of them are going to decide that "the kids" just aren't worth that risk? Probably not that many, but for every one of them that does, it'll mean a less qualified person in their place - and that's a real problem.

[deckeda]

The community college idea is sounding better all the time. He’s 17, so would need a letter from the Superintendent to take the GED. Or he might be able to wait until he’s 18 (December) when the letter’s not needed. We’re not too worried about him passing it today, even without Senior year. We’d have to start talking to some community colleges now and see what they advise, also.

The wildcard option here is that we could send him to live with my dad in MO. He lives next door to a good H.S. in a good district, but I no longer know what that really means today. Oh and we’d have to kick out my nephew, who decided to leave home in a rift with his dad.

My 9th grader has fewer choices. Still not understanding why there’s the hard line drawn for extra-curricular activities. I suspect that by handing the kids over to what’s probably a charter (which our County has never been authorized for previously) they’ll literally be “out” of the school district, which again is retarded but whatever. It breaks my heart that she has to choose between two impossible choices, or that we have to choose for her.

[deckeda]

Ombligo wrote:

I hope this helps some.

It does. What you describe is a rich person's environment compared to where we are. We can afford to buy laptops for our kids, many here cannot, and unless things have changed, the district can't either. In March they just sent everyone home. That's when the school year ended completely.

Oh, but they did once point to some stuff on PBS the kids could tune into.