Did you guys see the news that came out yesterday that NYC public schools are not required to offer any synchronous instruction to children in blended learning on their remote days? This came out LAST NIGHT. What a bait and switch. Many schools are doing three (or more!) in-person cohorts, so kids now will have no one to help or talk to them from school for 4/6 of their school days. And the staffing issue was something school-level leaders have been raising the alarm on since the chancellor announced this plan.
I'm so upset. I picked remote-only from the start because I knew it would be such a mess, but there are so many families desperate for in-person school and I'm so sad that they are being offered such a pathetic educational plan. Kids with special needs, kids learning English--they will be completely abandoned. So awful.
Oh, also, if a school doesn't have enough teacher in the building, it's also fine to just park them in front of a screen with a teacher teaching remotely... so 10 kids in a classroom in masks... watching a screen. Great.
https://twitter.com/Jill_Jorgensen/status/1306049862698442753?s=20
I don't mind the idea of those days being asynchronous. Better than having one in-person teacher and a different one for remote. My real confusion is why they aren't using the specials teachers for the remote teaching. For elementary, science, art, PE, etc should be the ones running remote days and then the kids can do homework and projects in between those meetings. In school time should be devoted to reading, writing and math.
The M-F pacing thing is the dumbest idea I’ve heard yet. I had no idea this was how it would work until a few days ago. Who came up with this? And without live teaching on home days? Those day should be reinforcement days and honestly days for kids to get outside and be kids. Im really upset about this.
Same. Zoom is such a disaster for my 10 year old that I'd rather have him in "real" school 2 days/week and let him do some worksheets at his own pace on the home days. The less Zoom, the better IMO.
I really don’t care what they do on remote days. We aren’t going to get anything out of it anyway for our 4 and 7 year olds. Will just be sending them to school on their days and nanny will take them to the park on home days.
Well, just to provide a differing opinion, mine is in K with 50/50 blended and I honestly prefer this. I'd rather have him in-person half time with worksheets or whatever on the other days. Remote K is utterly ridiculous.
My dd's HS was planning this all along. Blended = 2 days in person, core subjects only. Remote instruction is 3 days a week (actually 2, because one day is just gym and advisory), all independent assignments to be turned in by the end of the day. I don't see how they could do otherwise with the resources they have. And I feel fortunate that they are offering this, because my other kid in middle school is fully remote, and is already bored out of her mind.
We started weeks ago and now the parents who choose virtual think it sucks and want to switch back. Too late now. What a mess !
My BK charter was always going to teach the class through live zoom instruction whether blended or remote. So the classroom blended spots are really just childcare. They were prioritized for essential workers. Were your schools going to have one zoom teacher teaching to remote students and a second teacher instructing the blended kids in person? Or were the remote students watching pre-recorded QTS and doing work on their own?
Disgraceful. I'm sure we're all going to wind up remote soon enough anyway.
This was inevitable. The idea that schools could provide a whole separate set of teachers to service the blended students' remote learning, with no money and a hiring freeze until last week, was always a pipe dream. As you say though, it sucks that schools have been calling this out for weeks and the top level leaders have only just acknowledged it.
We're hybrid and now that this has been announced, I suspect the school will pull the synchronous remote time (which I was dreading anyway... the music and gym teachers trying to teach Math and ELA remotely to 60 students!) I'd rather DC have two days per week of their class teacher's full attention in person; it's the same amount of time in total that the full remote kids get, just in more concentrated doses.
We're in a privileged position though, and it is harder for kids who need more support. However, I'm hoping that by getting rid of the blanket requirement for 90 synchronous minutes for all kids (or whatever it is for other grades), schools can use the resources they have to target support to those vulnerable students. I'd much rather the music and gym teachers spend their days contacting those families and helping troubleshoot for the kids who are struggling, rather than doing busywork over Zoom to meet a quota.