What will schools do this fall if this is still around?

[Quixote1818]

Any thoughts?

[ProudMNDemocrat]

1. Go to year round, with a few weeks off here and there.

[Alex4Martinez]

2. Many at-risk students are falling through cracks, enrollment will drop off dramatically.

I work with schools and have seen it happening already.
On a conference call with teacher and students in a very underserved community, only 15 of 70 students were on the group ZOOM class and very few of them were engaged.
Home visits to check on students are off the table.
Some teachers worry if there will be a job for them as enrollment drives funding which pays salaries and benefits.

Now more than ever schools and teachers will need to help students build initiative and agency skills.
Business as usual undervalues individual thought and independence.

[jimfields33]

9. Homeschooling will explode

Remember that it does not take long to form a habit and if parents see their kids are thriving on computer based learning, I can see them going that route. Many homeschoolers already have clubs and sports to fix the social parts. In fact, some homeschool communities even have dances and proms. Is this a bad thing????? Overall yes. But the virus is doing the education system no favors.

[Under The Radar]

3. Dr. Fauci warned that the virus could return in the fall

[Igel]

4. They're busy today getting things ready for tomorrow.

I've gotten 2 out of the three courses I do ready through 4/10, so I can work on actually dealing with students and the 3rd course.

And I'm in serious denial, typing this instead of work.

Best suggestion I've seen: Get funding. Over the summer have a multi-week boot camp for teachers to be trained in on-line/distance learning. How to design it, implement it, grade and provide feedback. And maybe get students to participate.

But unmotivated students don't distance learn. It's hard enough when they're in the classroom and you can prompt them and remind them. I have no clue how we're going to deal with those with accommodations--this student needs large print, this one needs checks for understanding, this other one is to be near instruction while this other student needs language support. Give another student printed copies and yet another needs to be pretaught vocabulary and drilled on it before that unit actually begins.


No paraprofessionals. No easy way to get them printed materials. Check for understanding during instruction? Sorry.

Then there are all the simple tech issues. "I forgot my password." "My computer isn't working. How do I get it fixed?" "That website's blocked." "What's the access code again?" "I'm new to your class. Am I on the roster for Squidget Plus-Ultra?" "I didn't see the link, I didn't think it would be large, red, and blinking in the middle of the page."

My favorite so far? "The calculator on my phone is broken and none of the calculators on the Internet work, either." What I wanted to say: "Have you considered that perhaps the rest of the world is okay and it's *you* that's broken?" Instead I walked her through how to use the calculator on her computer (thinking that she wanted less to have her problem solved and more just to be shown some attention by somebody, and really feeling sorry for her and asking how things were going).

AP tests are reduced to 45 minutes, free response, open book/open notes, at home. On any device. Or handwrite them and send in a picture.

But my favorite questions are not academic. How'll they manage PE entirely online? And what are the coaches, esp the football coaches, going to do? (Seriously. My high school has a full time head football coach--that's all he does, no classes.)

[MineralMan]

5. I imagine they'll start planning for that this Summer.

Right now, they're scrambling and trying to make the last of this school year work.

[ProfessorGAC]

6. I Saw Cars At The Middle School Today

The 4/5 and 6-8 schools are four blocks from the house.
Don't know why.
Sign still says no school until Mar 31.
Either teachers are overly optimistic or they're grabbing materials from classrooms prepping for on-!one or video schooling.

[Marrah_Goodman]

7. could be meetings or cleaning crews

[ProfessorGAC]

8. Not Cleaning Crew

I see those cars all the time. It's 4 or 5 cars there at night. (Remember, I only live 4 blocks away and one supermarket, the hardware store & the pharmacy are all just past that). I go by all the time.
These were people showing up at around 730 & there at least 15 cars.
I thought I heard JB Pritzker say schools in IL were closed until at least April 7. Lori Lightfoot added a week for CPS, saying won't be school until at least the 15th.

[Alex4Martinez]

11. Lunch pick up for free and reduced lunch program kids.

That's happening here, and it's a very good thing for those households most at risk.

[ProfessorGAC]

12. They're Doing That Here

Not at 730 in the morning. 1130 to noon pick up. Was in local paper.

[Doreen]

10. I know that schools are set up for online schooling.

Even in the elementary grades. I know this because I have some friends who had their children do this. It asks you to log on at a certain time and go through the courses needed. There are teachers available to get instruction. It is no different than people who get a computer to work their office jobs at home.

It might take a little bit of doing but they could figure out how to get computers to the children who do not have one and set up an app for those who do. Kind of like they already do?

[ProfessorGAC]

13. In The Schools Where I Sub...

...every laptop or tablet is owned by the school.
The day when the governor shut the schools, I was subbing and kids were told to take computer & charger home.
So, most of these homes, not all affluent, will have the hardware. Internet access might be an issue for kids from low income homes, though.

[Alex4Martinez]

14. Internet access and family dynamics.

It's not unusual for a family member to take control of the student Chromebook or to sell it on the street.

In this way, the most at risk kids are becoming even more at risk and the whole mess is going to suck for the schools I serve in Oakland and Stockton and Fresno, etc.

An educational crisis is taking place in slow motion, you and I are witnessing it.

My wife hasn't been provided any instruction by the district yet for how to serve her 3rd graders.

[ProfessorGAC]

16. Wow!

Yeah I don't think I'm subbing in districts where that's likely. Nothing's impossible though.
I sub in 10 different districts, because I don't do little kids, and I rarely do anything but science & math. So I need more districts.
I haven't heard anything either, but I'm just a sub. I have gotten emails or texts cancelling days already booked, but I expected that.

[Doreen]

15. I do not think they are doing that in my small county.

I know some kids who should be getting that but are not. If the kids already have a computer they can use those and give the ones that belong to the school to the ones who don't.

I have seen that most kids have computers these days. Even the poor ones. But there are always those few who do not. The poor people can get free internet if they need it for a child's schooling. As you know there are a few fixes.

[ProfessorGAC]

17. If The Installers Are Allowed To Enter Residences

That'd be my concern.
That said, even when I'm subbing I see kids in classrooms doing the work solo or in small groups exclusively on the computer, even when the actual professional teacher is there.
So the kids are used to it. At a couple K-8 schools, I even see little kids doing it!

[Doreen]

18. Yeah, hookup might be a problem.