It’s been a busy week back at work. Having said that, I think our new “block schedule” is going to make everything more manageable. I only have to post new work on two days, which means I can only grade and input work on two days (unless I want to revisit all the assignments a second time to score again after the procrastinators finish). I’m supposed to be posting two days worth of work on each day, but I’m finding that the block schedule helps me keep my expectations reasonable. I was definitely giving too much work before the break.
I’ve spent some time doing a broad map out of my two biggest classes, and will map my wheel electives this weekend. I’m still not sure how I’m going to follow up with the MANY 6th and 4th graders who are not doing anything in my class. I have 96 students in those four classes (two classes of each grade) and it’s way too much for me to follow up with all of them. I’m still working on that. It feels good to have some general information for myself written down somewhere.
My kids district evidently wasn’t really back in session this week, as teachers were given yet another week to determine how to deliver distance learning (they didn’t actually provide any distance learning the first two weeks either, they just sent students home with packets to work on, but there was no contact with teachers). This was mentioned, non-nonchalantly, in an email sent by the district on MONDAY AFTERNOON. We’ve received nothing from our kids’ school admin, though we have gotten some texts from their teachers (none announcing there was another week without distance learning though!)
As a teacher myself, I’m astounded at how badly SFUSD has handled this crisis, and I always have exceedingly low expectations of the district as whole. Luckily for us, our daughter got one of the awesome SFUSD teachers and she’s had a great week of learning. I am SO THANKFUL we ended up in her class because my friend’s daughter is in the regular 4th grade classes and it hasn’t been going nearly as well.
I’m picking up a packet from their school today for my son, who’s in Kindergarten. (Why could they not send these packets?!) I don’t really expect them to do much on zoom or other apps, but I do hope we’re not just given some paperwork and left to our own devices. I don’t really understand how teachers can expect to be paid if they are doing nothing after dropping off a packet. I understand these are hard times, but there are ways to do things, here and there, to help kids feel connected. We shall see.
{I have a lot more thoughts about teaching right now, but it feels like I should save them for another post dedicated to that topic alone.}
I haven’t left our house in a week, and it’s starting to get to me. Now that everything is officially closed (they even closed Highway 1 north of the city/county line and have rangers patrolling Ocean Beach to keep people away), it just doesn’t feel worth walking around our neighborhood. We are getting out into our backyard – but that space causes me profound anxiety so it’s not helping to alleviate my stress, though I do appreciate the time outside and working with my kids. I’m going to try to schedule a solo run once a week so I can enjoy the outdoors with out my kids (I tried to have them scooter with me last Friday and I ended up pulling their scooters for half of the four mile circle, which was a great workout, but not very fun). I will also be better about making them go on walks this weekend (it rained all last weekend which is part of why we didn’t make it outside).
I have done NOTHING for Easter and my kids keep talking about how excited they are for Sunday and I’m very close to freaking out. I have a couple of stuffies for them, but no candy and I can’t even find my eggs. My mom is going to bring me some stuff tomorrow (we usually do Easter with them) so hopefully it will work out, but they won’t get to dye any eggs. You can’t forget shit until the last minute and get it delivered these days. I guess I could brave Target for some stuff… but ugh, that sounds awful.
How are you doing today? Any plans for the weekend? 😉
So very wonderful to hear from you.
School districts are having lots of varied problems resolving the on-line problems. It is grim and discouraging even when teachers are trying so very hard. I am very impressed by what you are doing and the cohesion your school seems to be displaying. Then I heard about the high school across the bay from you that had zoom class interrupted by nudity and racial spewing and the problems faced are clearer.
I have found early morning walking (leave before 7:30 am prior to breakfast) (old, no running for me) really works well and there are very few people out. BUT, I am not in steep hills location which you may be. I am struck by how much pedestrian traffic near me has reduced in past 2 weeks as the county’s confirmed cases count has increased.
Low keying Easter is a reality for most of us. ‘Even the Easter Bunny has to take steps to prevent the spread of disease so is wearing a mask and not carrying as much to each house.’ Wonderful that your mom is able to bring some stuff. Do you have enough eggs to hard boil a few and crayons for the children to decorate them?
This is hard. You are making it better and raising spirits. THANK YOU!!!!!!!
We have friends in two different counties in our state and my teaches in a totally different state and the differences between all three are shocking. Our county is teaching DAILY on zoom for each class Kindergarten through fifth grade to include all specials and electives. The other county in our state is posting a few things on Sunday/Monday and the kids have all week to complete them without any interaction from the teachers. My mom is similar a few check ins, some videos uploaded to google classroom and lots of assignments. They seem to be doing well. We are struggling with having my children on chromebooks 6 hours a day. My kindergartener is just not able to stay still that long, nor should she.. PLUS we don’t allow electronics at home so this is all so foreign to them. I am happy they are trying to move forward with distance learning but I think the approach is a little too forceful. I am still working 40-50 hours a week and between their zoom classes, my zoom meetings and conference calls and trips into work I think I am busier now than I’ve ever been.
Our district also had an extra week between spring break and distance learning. The teachers really needed that time to pull things together so quickly. We are doing mostly nonsynchronous (i.e. not live via zoom) b/c families have a variety of work and economic situations and it’s not realistic, at the elementary level, at least, to expect all families to be available at the same time.
Plans for the weekend: hopefully lots of sleep and little to no thinking about work stuff.
Fortunately I had bought some jelly beans and toys before the crisis really got started. We don’t go all out for Easter anyway so my kids will be happy.
If anyone is interested…this podcast covered how my children’s school district handled moving to distance learning:
https://www.buzzsprout.com/847942/3316273
I forgot to thank you for posting this! I found it very interesting. I’m trying to get a better sense of what people are doing in different areas near me so I have more context for understanding my own district’s, and my kids’ district’s, courses of action.
My kindergartener has about 20 minutes of zoom in the morning and an extra science zoom one day a week. And we get a daily list of activities. It involves a lot of parental involvement and I’m trying to work so we don’t do all of it.The two times the zoom went past 20 minutes my son couldn’t handle it and turned it off. I don’t think kids that young can do zoom for hours. If kids in the school don’t have good internet access, I don’t know what else teachers can do besides send home packets. But yes, they should mail them rather than have you pick them up.