Our school is found some online instruction, but made it clear that attendance at the time of the class wasn’t mandatory, and that parents could access the class at a later time if they needed. Although this doesn’t help students who don’t have online access, this is helpful for families who are WFH and need the bandwidth for their work and can’t stop everything at 11am for a class
Our school has also said that they’re still working out the kinks in the plan, and that there will be some trial and error
At least the emails have slowed down. The first few days the number of emails we were receiving from teachers was just overwhelming. The PE teacher sending out an email saying to take advantage of commercial breaks to do jumping jacks might have been well intentioned, but was basically just clutter. Art teacher sending out projects, music teacher, etc. It’s too much
If this thing is going to last through the end of the school year (very likely) then they need to be realistic and focus on the core subjects and recognize that the daily instruction is not going to be equivalent to what they received at school. I’m not saying art and PE aren’t important, but parents are already overwhelmed, make this doable
Nope, let's be sure that we all understand the difference between distance learning, virtual learning, online learning, etc. Don't be fooled. I can only speak for SOMSD, but there is no plan for live lectures. Nope! Just log in to your Google classrooms everyday. Slog through the material. Help your child access it and turn it in. This is not teaching. This is not real time lecturing. This is only to keep the kids from regressing. This is parents staying on their kids to not slack off.
Our school is found some online instruction, but made it clear that attendance at the time of the class wasn’t mandatory, and that parents could access the class at a later time if they needed. Although this doesn’t help students who don’t have online access, this is helpful for families who are WFH and need the bandwidth for their work and can’t stop everything at 11am for a class
Our school has also said that they’re still working out the kinks in the plan, and that there will be some trial and error
At least the emails have slowed down. The first few days the number of emails we were receiving from teachers was just overwhelming. The PE teacher sending out an email saying to take advantage of commercial breaks to do jumping jacks might have been well intentioned, but was basically just clutter. Art teacher sending out projects, music teacher, etc. It’s too much
If this thing is going to last through the end of the school year (very likely) then they need to be realistic and focus on the core subjects and recognize that the daily instruction is not going to be equivalent to what they received at school. I’m not saying art and PE aren’t important, but parents are already overwhelmed, make this doable
Nope, let's be sure that we all understand the difference between distance learning, virtual learning, online learning, etc. Don't be fooled. I can only speak for SOMSD, but there is no plan for live lectures. Nope! Just log in to your Google classrooms everyday. Slog through the material. Help your child access it and turn it in. This is not teaching. This is not real time lecturing. This is only to keep the kids from regressing. This is parents staying on their kids to not slack off.
It might also be due to the size of the school districts. SOMSD has more students than there are resident in my entire town. My first grade son is in a class of 12, so it is easier for the teachers to keep up with lesson planning and checking work without being overwhelmed
I don’t know about the high school here since none of my kids are old enough to attend yet. Our grade school, one school for the entire town, has less than 350 students, and that is pre-k through grade 8. Though the downside of smaller class size is that when I didn’t respond to one of the teacher’s mass emails I almost immediately started receiving personalized direct emails from her asking us to check in and do the work
It might also be due to the size of the school districts. SOMSD has more students than there are resident in my entire town. My first grade son is in a class of 12, so it is easier for the teachers to keep up with lesson planning and checking work without being overwhelmed
I don’t know about the high school here since none of my kids are old enough to attend yet. Our grade school, one school for the entire town, has less than 350 students, and that is pre-k through grade 8. Though the downside of smaller class size is that when I didn’t respond to one of the teacher’s mass emails I almost immediately started receiving personalized direct emails from her asking us to check in and do the work
My understanding is that Millburn is offering live lectures for MS and HS every day, like nothing has even happened. Yet SOMSD students need to log in and do the work themselves. Sorry, but that burns me up!!!!!
When I read the fine print on the “free high speed wireless access” from Comcast, my understanding was not that they were giving families access to the network at no charge, but that all Comcast hotspots would be free for now. Out of curiosity I looked to see where some hotspots are, and it seems for children to use them, nearly all would have to leave home, set up outdoors (in a folding chair? In the rain? Without a parent there?)...and potentially be around other children doing the same thing. If I misunderstood, or if the deal has changed, I’d be happy to know. Because it seems like Comcast did a big PR push and patted itself on the back...after creating an impractical “free”’offer that isn’t going to work for a lot of families who need the access. (Another option would be a child taking a device to the grounds of somewhere like a library and doing the lessons. Also not terribly practical.)
My understanding is that Millburn is offering live lectures for MS and HS every day, like nothing has even happened. Yet SOMSD students need to log in and do the work themselves. Sorry, but that burns me up!!!!!
Millburn HS Is definitely not having a full schedule of live lectures every day.
My Millburn HS junior has two teachers who have done live lectures. The problem we had was when one teacher decided to combine classes at a time when my kid had the other class lecture (eg teacher tried to have a live lecture period 3 when my kid has him period 8). Not all teachers have been lecturing and even those who are it is definitely not every day. I am hearing the live lectures might ramp up a bit and i am cautiously optimistic. Note that the teacher who has held the most live lectures is her music teacher (she has him for both chorus and musicianship). No math or English lectures, history was the problem above (which I am told will Not happen again) and science has been optional science experiment demos (again not at her class time). Fortunately for me there is little I can help her with at this point lol so if she says she doesn’t know what she is doing in math I tell her to FaceTime friends and/or Check Kahn academy. Hope it gets better next week since they have been deluged with emails from irate parents.
Even once they get everything worked out I don’t think we’ll be seeing full school days of online stuff, it will probably be closer to the half day/ 4 hour schedule to meet the state minimum
When I read the fine print on the “free high speed wireless access” from Comcast, my understanding was not that they were giving families access to the network at no charge, but that all Comcast hotspots would be free for now. Out of curiosity I looked to see where some hotspots are, and it seems for children to use them, nearly all would have to leave home, set up outdoors (in a folding chair? In the rain? Without a parent there?)...and potentially be around other children doing the same thing. If I misunderstood, or if the deal has changed, I’d be happy to know. Because it seems like Comcast did a big PR push and patted itself on the back...after creating an impractical “free”’offer that isn’t going to work for a lot of families who need the access. (Another option would be a child taking a device to the grounds of somewhere like a library and doing the lessons. Also not terribly practical.)
Well, then, that's a problem. And probably a significant difference between SOMA and Millburn's school populations.
Verizon Wireless (and the other carriers) could probably do something about this by distributing Wifi hotspots and offering free data for a while. I have an deactivated one that got good 4G service which I would gladly donate but that's just the hardware. There are probably a lot of them around that people aren't using anymore.
To mrincredible - lots of area libraries have mobile hotspots they lend. And with no libraries open, there are no due dates. But with everything else that was going on, I don’t imagine parents had doing that at the top of their lists. I feel like with WiFi, there’s got to be a way somebody somewhere at Verizon, Comcast, wherever, can flip a switch and and everyone who needs it gets free WiFi. (That said, obviously I am not someone who knows much about tech. It just seems like they could make the hotspots larger and make sort of a temporary WiFi eruv. That’s the closest description I can come up with.)
I love the idea but unfortunately wifi has to go both ways. Even if they jacked up the broadcast power of every Comcast hotspot in the town, each connected device would need to transmit back. The wifi antenna and transmitter in something like a chromebook has a finite range and wouldn't be able to talk back and say "I'm here!" or communicate which url it wanted to reach.
Another potential solution would be to create a guest network that worked through every consumer wifi router on the Comcast (or Fios or Altice) system. That would probably present an enormous privacy challenge for the owners of the routers. And it would depend on there being enough coverage across the whole town. You could have pockets where there are no wifi routers in range, or where one router would have to try and handle multiple connection requests.
The wireless carriers could also offer free hotspot service on every smartphone on their networks. Then you'd have pretty blanket coverage. I don't know what it would cost them to open the floodgates like that, especially since it would allow all kinds of use, not just educational. It would be hard to put gates on the traffic. I imagine it would strain the cellular network.
Thank you for the explanation. I just feel badly for the families who can’t get the access. Thought it might be an easier solution. A friend there told me in SC they were going to outfit thousands of school buses with WiFi and send them around, presumably as mobile hot spots. But you don’t want children lined up on park benches doing schoolwork, either!
I'm in total agreement with susan1014 above (eta, with Klinker too): do what you can and let the teacher(s) know what's too much. Teachers can't always know how their assignments are working out at home. The good ones are happy to get feedback (collaborative feedback, NOT confrontational) if assignments are too long or otherwise aren't working out for students and families. Right now, everybody is to some extent a beginner at this stuff.
Of course it makes sense now, but webcams are hard to find right now! I have a need for one to do some training via video conference. The integrated camera in my laptop is poorly positioned to show the equipment I need to demonstrate. So I was looking for one to mount on a tripod. Lots of backorder/out of stock messages.
I know we need to cut the teachers some slack, but I am getting seriously frustrated with this
Some assignments are on the teachers home page on the school website
Some assignments are on google docs
Some assignments are emailed directly to my son
I have not been getting ANY assignments from my fourth grade child‘s teacher. None. My husband is. He is trying to remember to forward these emails to me when he receives them, but he’s kinda busy at work at the moment and it doesn’t always happen. Before the coronavirus he might have one or two cardiac arrest call a month. The other day he had five in one shift. Reading and and forwarding emails isn’t high on his to-do list, and when he gets home he is understandably exhausted and goes to bed
I emailed the teachers about getting MY email on there (I know I supplied it on the list at the beginning of the year), they said it would be taken care of. I wasn’t
I was looking through my son’s email on the chrome book, there are some assignments inter spaced between emails discussing things and emails between students just chatting. I try to print the assignments out so they’re not lost in a sea of emails, can’t print from the chrome book. I try to email them to myself so I can print them, I’m not in the “safe” emails so he can’t email them to me. My husband is supposedly on the safe list, but he isn’t receiving them either, yet my son can email other students about model trains and classroom gossip
Yesterday my husband received an email detailing at least ten assignments that are past due. Once again I was not sent anything. We didn’t even know all these were due
I wish there was ONE location I would go to find what is due without having to constantly check the school website, my husband’s email, my son’s email, and google docs. Why is getting school assignments like a ******* scavenger hunt?
Another concern of mine is the mail, also ups and fedex deliveries. I use gloves to take my mail and packages. I leave them inside my front porch until the following day to open. I don’t know how many people have touched them. I hear a mail carrier in west orange died from covid19.
Do you know if it was from the mail, contact with residents, or unrelated? Judging by your post you seem to be indicating it came from the mail itself. The numbers will be a lot higher than predicted if this is truly the case. I wonder if anyone on his route had or has since then been infected?
I don’t know if it was from handling the mail. I also got a voice message from a friend who forwarded it, instructing people to separate the mail every day for 24 hours. The person on the recording said they were from the postal service. I figured since this virus can live for hours on surfaces, it made sense to not handle it for 24 hours. It’s like cash at toll booths, no more cash. Too much contact with humans.
I don’t know if it was from handling the mail. I also got a voice message from a friend who forwarded it, instructing people to separate the mail every day for 24 hours. The person on the recording said they were from the postal service. I figured since this virus can live for hours on surfaces, it made sense to not handle it for 24 hours. It’s like cash at toll booths, no more cash. Too much contact with humans.
I've been surprised that our mail carrier is not wearing gloves, for his protection as well. He is opening one box after the other.
I use gloves to pick up the mail and also leave the gloves on the porch, sometimes the mail particularly if it is just junk mail. Some of that goes right into recycling.
It would be helpful if this virus floresced the way some types of ringworm do under blacklight. I'm getting crazy trying to remember the sequence of using gloves when I pick packages up and then remembering how I removed them and what I touched. We are all living in OCD hell.
Rather than gloves, I just use a napkin or similar to handle the boxes IF I need to and then it goes straight into the trash when I'm done. Some just get left for a day or two on our covered porch, since the virus doesn't live all that long on paper/cardboard. We have a recycle bin on that porch also, so a lot of the mail goes straight there and never comes into the house. After I've handled mail/packages, even with a napkin, I wash my hands thoroughly. I don't think gloves would really add anything but extra hassle to this procedure. (And I don't have very many gloves anyway.)
Oh I just keep the gloves on and wash them under the hottest I can take the tap water. Go back to the front porch (it’s enclosed) and leave the gloves there to dry, then use them the next day. They’re the heavy duty type that we use for washing dishes and general cleaning.
My wife came up with this and I just did it. With NJ rule against pumping your own gas, it seems that you can't do touchless paying here (and you'd still have to touch the nozzle etc.). So we put a twenty dollar bill in an envelope, wrote "$20 regular" on it, and and let it hang from the back window. Opened it a crack to let the attendant take it. I'm sure he was happy for one less face to face transaction with a driver giving him a credit card and talking at him. BTW I didn't stick the envelope in the window til I was almost at the station so it wouldn't blow away.
Even if it seems kooky, it's low hanging fruit so why not pick it.
My wife came up with this and I just did it. With NJ rule against pumping your own gas, it seems that you can't do touchless paying here (and you'd still have to touch the nozzle etc.). So we put a twenty dollar bill in an envelope, wrote "$20 regular" on it, and and let it hang from the back window. Opened it a crack to let the attendant take it. I'm sure he was happy for one less face to face transaction with a driver giving him a credit card and talking at him. BTW I didn't stick the envelope in the window til I was almost at the station so it wouldn't blow away.
Even if it seems kooky, it's low hanging fruit so why not pick it.
Not a criticism, but would giving a credit card accomplish the same sanitary effect? You had to handle the envelope and the $20 in order to get it to the car.
My wife came up with this and I just did it. With NJ rule against pumping your own gas, it seems that you can't do touchless paying here (and you'd still have to touch the nozzle etc.). So we put a twenty dollar bill in an envelope, wrote "$20 regular" on it, and and let it hang from the back window. Opened it a crack to let the attendant take it. I'm sure he was happy for one less face to face transaction with a driver giving him a credit card and talking at him. BTW I didn't stick the envelope in the window til I was almost at the station so it wouldn't blow away.
Even if it seems kooky, it's low hanging fruit so why not pick it.
Not a criticism, but would giving a credit card accomplish the same sanitary effect? You had to handle the envelope and the $20 in order to get it to the car.
I don't think so. The envelope and money have been in our house for a long time. We have been hunkered down in our house for a long time. We haven't been to a supermarket in weeks. All of our food for the last few weeks has been delivered. There are 3 of us, all healthy. We are almost certainly not asymptomatic carriers.
As I see it, the biggest risk for those of us who are healthy so far (and it's the majority of us, even in hot spot places like NJ) is close proximity to others, especially with those in the front lines of retail who have to go face to face with a large number of customers every day. And of course, the biggest risk to those retail workers are customers. If we can avoid a close up driver side window conversation to tell the guy "fill 'er up," why not do so?
My five year old found a box of glass Christmas ornaments, I found him in the driveway pulling the tops off (the part that hangs them onto the tree) and then throwing them like grenades. Only about 1/3 of them broke, but I’m STILL picking up pieces of glass from the driveway two days later
Today he was jumping on his brothers bed. The upstairs has seriously short ceilings. He’s fine. The ceiling? Not so much
We’ll be fine, but I don’t know if my house will survive much more of this
Creative project for next week: making replacement Christmas ornaments that will last years
Slightly longer term project: perhaps seeing if there's a small trampoline you could borrow from a community sports centre, or a jogger-trampoline thingy from the pre-loved thread? Or via friends?
Seems to me he needs to go into training for safe Circus Sports (I think Flying Fruit Fly Circus and Cirque de Soleil have online ideas)
Nope, let's be sure that we all understand the difference between distance learning, virtual learning, online learning, etc. Don't be fooled. I can only speak for SOMSD, but there is no plan for live lectures. Nope! Just log in to your Google classrooms everyday. Slog through the material. Help your child access it and turn it in. This is not teaching. This is not real time lecturing. This is only to keep the kids from regressing. This is parents staying on their kids to not slack off.