Grumble

So! Online learning is not off to a great start. These are the things I hate:

1. The kids are required to use district-issued laptops. Which are terrible: laggy, unpredictable, massively frustrating.
2. The district is using Google Classroom, which seems to be creaking and groaning under its current load: more lags, more frustration.
3. Google Classroom is spewing out enough automated email to overwhelm my sixth-grader, but the teachers are not providing much guidance as they require her to do stuff she's never done before. It's not hard to make a video and embed it in a PowerPoint slide, but it's also not a skill anybody is born with. And at the risk of sounding bitchy and entitled I'm going to say, here at the end of our third very long online learning day, that I don't think it should be my job to walk her through each one of those steps during the workday on a sub-par machine in an overloaded course management system.
4. The teachers are scrambling, and I can't fault them for that. The district did not give them much notice here; they're not to blame for that. But at the same time I'm already weary of the fallout. If you tell an 11-year-old rule-follower that she's required to use a particular app, but the terms of service say it's only available to kids 12 and up, I am going to be the one smoothing down her ruffled conscience. Oh, and can we talk about missing class for a dentist appointment? and the teacher who, when emailed about makeup assignments, said Stella would need to watch the recording of the entire synchronous class session? Would it surprise you to learn that this was not in fact a good use of her time?
5. The kids are lonely, and it is hard to build community over online video. I do not envy the teachers and administrators their tasks. Maybe, though, the kids could talk to each other sometimes? Maybe a little more communication with classmates, a little less reliance on parents?

In this moment I am feeling very grumpy, very flounce-y. It could be so much worse, I know: we have reliable internet service, my job is the most flexible that it will ever be, I have smart kids who are trying hard to be independent, and when they can't be independent I can (mostly) answer their questions about embedding videos and solving pre-calculus problems.

Counting my blessings is not actually helping me feel any better right this minute.

Comments

[Pippi]

We were SO lucky in the spring. My daughter’s teacher gave an option of about 5 projects each week. Each covered multiple curricular areas and the students could choose which one they wanted. They had an online math program to use and a book they were all reading. They’d have two class meet-ups at the beginning and end of the week and I heard them playing games like scattergories and sharing about their weekends. They’d have at least one small group meet-up during the week and I believe she had online “office hours” too. It was pretty darn awesome and the kids were still learning and connecting. She was in grade 7 so obviously the kids were more independent than younger grades. But what the teacher did well, and what the school really encouraged, was putting connecting with kids and meeting their social/emotional needs at the centre and realizing that not as many curricular boxes would be checked. I wish every place would do this. I’m sorry it’s been so stressful on Stella. I’ll be hoping that her teacher and all the people higher up lighten up and that lets everyone slow down and adapt to the current craziness.

[Verity]

I have no advice to give, merely sympathy and appreciation.

I am one of the probably many anonymous readers who follow you via RSS feed, who look to you for not only inspiration (ha, she says; that sounds more lofty than is meant) but confirmation that I, too, am not the only one struggling and facing challenges.

I am facing covid with a 3 year old starting preschool and a 5 year old starting Kinder. Thank you, thank you, thank you - for being a voice of reason, for being the voice of understandable and considerate doubt, for understanding that this is hard for all yet voicing the fears none of us dare utter aloud, for letting me laugh at the ridiculous.

You are both an inspiration -- in the most literal sense of the word, in someone who lets me breathe without feeling like it's an imposition -- and a fellow-in-arms, and both are very welcome. I read your posts and value them; you are valued, immensely, by an internet stranger, and please God continue being you because you make being me that much easier.

Thank you, for your honesty and your willingness to be you on the internet. It is intensely valued and appreciated.

[Melanie B]

At the beginning of this year before everyone was catapulted into distance learning Bella started taking some online classes via Homeschool Connections and she loves them. They usually allow students to log in 15 or 20 minutes before the teacher begins the class and they are able to have some social time. They can also send text messages to each other as well as interact directly with the teacher. Bella's taken a couple of Shakespeare classes where she's got to act out scenes with classmates, a literature class where she did a project and where there was a lot of group discussion and some small group work.

It's been fascinating to me to sit back and watch the sudden shift everyone has had to make and to see the difference between classes that were designed from the beginning to take place in an online format vs teachers who are trying to adapt on the fly.

While it's never going to be a great fit for everyone, distance learning can be done well. It's frustrating that it's being done so poorly in so many cases. Not that I blame the teachers. They're doing their best in a situation they had no preparation and training for. But it would perhaps be nice if somehow schools could connect with and emulate outfits like Homeschool Connections which has clearly figured out how to do it well.

[Colette]

I tip my hats off to you, parents of virtual learners. I think you and your 11 yo have earned the right to be just a tad grumpy.

I'm feeling grateful that my district decided that 4K through Grade 2 could be in-person. They're making plans for virtual learning, in the likely event of a shutdown, and I'm...not interested.