I'm giving up on the school saga. It's bad for my mental health and I need to focus more on my work. We are not going to change schools (just starting in a CW school), kid is advanced academically. We are not wealthy, but we will survive the extra costs for a few months or a year. Maybe I'm thinking selfishly, but following up the news, participating in parents groups, etc, doesn't seem sustainable for me. We will do what asked from the school, we will vote, sign petitions, etc, but I need to restrict this issue to a small part of my life.
I agree! I snoozed a parent group on FB bc there is a lot of arguing between Moms (who want and don’t want to go back). Teachers are on the page as well adding input, so unprofessional. So we hired virtual tutors and skipping vacation this year to balance our budget.
What extra costs do you plan to incur? Will you put him in a private school?
Childcare for the remote days. Who knows how many of these we will end up with.
@AnonymousQ , How do you hire a quality sitter or nanny without a steady schedule for them? I have to pay full time although I only need part time, but since the days and needs change, I feel I have to in order to have the flexibility we need.
@Anonymous, we are using a childcare center who provides coverage for remote learning days. It's a group of 8 kids with 2 teachers.
Retired nanny here, see that is something that I would love, not full time, just when I am needed
What is CW?
CW = Citywide school (usually Anderson or NEST). Most highly sought-after public schools in the city.
TT = "top tier" private school. Which schools are included on that list was highly debated on UB.
Ugh, I just got my second grader's schedule and there are 2-hour Zoom blocks from 8:30-10:30 every morning, lunch is scheduled for 11:30 and they have 45 minutes blocked out for PE classes. Why are we still doing Zoom PE? This is ridiculous.
I'm trying to figure out how much to opt out. Closing circle? Probably skipping. Art when it's at the end of 2 hours for Zoom? We'll see.
The Zoom PE is ridiculous but I can see why they're offering it. So many parents bitching in the spring about PE teachers being paid for doing nothing.
I'm definitely seeing that one as an optional class. I'd rather my DC get their physical activity outside.
@a nonymous I feel like our school had a much better program before the DOE came up with all of these regulations and standards. I was fine with 45 minutes of daily instruction and 1 hour of small group twice a week. My fourth grader had 30 minutes daily of small group and an hour-long whole class meeting and then about 90-120 minutes of independent work.
Agree. It's the McDonalds principle--quality doesn't matter, they just want consistency. Are you hybrid or fully remote?
Why won’t public schools just get their teachers and kids into zoom meetings and try something? better than nothing?
No. A day of Zoom is worse than nothing. I want printable assignments, videos, books and virtual trips. But I want the teachers to organize them and assign them day by day and week by week. And then I want small group lessons and individual check-ins, which is what we had last spring.