What do the students do each day?For elementary age, the kids are expected to do daily reading, writing, social-emotional learning, and math activities - each of these takes about 20-30 minutes - and then there is a checklist of science, social studies, music, and literacy activities that the student completes over the course of the week. All of this is listed in a paper packet. It is up to the parents to administer the activities (which is pretty easy if the students are self directed and willing to do it, and pretty challenging and hands on if the students are resistant or needing lots of help and direction). We are doing work from the packet for about 2-3 hours per day.
Will the homework be turned in or graded?
My understanding is that none of the work for this 4th quarter will be turned in or graded. My kids are in 2nd and 3rd grade, so for them this matters not at all - it doesn't affect their willingness to do school work, their future college prospects, etc. - but I can see this being a bigger deal for older students.
What is the teacher's role?
The teachers are in lots of communication with the parents, offering help and additional resources. They are doing one or more Zoom calls with the class per week, which is usually a chance for kids to share some of the work they've been doing and then sometimes an additional activity or read aloud. I'm sure they are doing tons of other work behind the scenes.
How is special ed being handled?
Our special ed supports are doing an awesome job. Speech, occupational therapy, counseling, and resource (tutoring) support are all doing Zooms with us at least once a week and also sending additional resources. Between general ed and special ed, and between two students, we are facilitating about 12 Zoom calls per week, so this lengthens the amount of time spent on home school stuff. (Which, some days it's helpful to keep them occupied, and other days it's difficult to fit all the Zooms in.) I thought it would be a big challenge to accommodate the academic work in the paper packet as we went, but the teachers have been helpful with suggestions and flexible with accepting whatever I decide to do.
What have we loved?
- More down time - if the kids get right on task by 9 am and only take short breaks between activities, we are usually done by lunch time. This leaves plenty of time for getting outside, read alouds, Minecraft, and anything else that's fun for them. It also allows for breaks in between subjects to jump on the trampoline, play with our dog, etc.
- There is more flexibility to tailor to the kids' interests and abilities. Josh loves natural disasters, so we use natural disaster books for his reading time, and suddenly he's able to read several levels above what his standardized test scores would indicate. Zoey wanted to start a newspaper, so I let her do that for her writing time this week. It's fun to let them run with their passions.
- It's cool to see the creative ways the teachers and school staff have found to reach out and interact with and teach the students via our various technologies.
- This one is extremely specific to our family, but -- it's great having Josh home all day e'ryday because I can get food in his hands six times per day, and that's the key to helping him maintain and gain weight, which is an ongoing challenge.
What's been hard?
- Figuring out how to prioritize - there are days that are heavy with Zoom calls, days where a certain assignment takes way longer than anticipated, and days where either me or the kids are just not that motivated to work hard. I am a big time rule follower, so it's hard for me to just cross things off a checklist with abandon, or to even choose which things to cross off. (Although it's getting easier as the weeks march on.)
- This is no fault of anyone (except the corornavirus!!) and it's certainly better than no contact, but Zoom calls are just not the same as in person interactions. The teachers have gotten good at figuring out how to make the most of it with read alouds, directed drawing exercises, sharing time, nature videos, etc., but we are all very limited by this format.
- The kids miss things about school that I just can't pull off at home and with the current world situation: time with classmates, science days, field day at the end of the year - things like that.
- Everybody is balancing things that used to be much more separated out - teachers are parenting while teaching, parents are teaching while parenting - it's been a lot for everyone to adjust to, balancing different roles all at the same time. I'm very lucky that I'm not currently trying to balance a job with everything else, but it's still a juggle.
- All of us are operating under the corona cloud - fears about sickness and finances, disappointment about things getting cancelled, missing get-togethers with important people in our life - and I think that can't be separated from how we're performing our day-to-day functions.
As you may have noticed on Facebook, my emotions are fluctuating pretty wildly during this time. Sometimes, I feel so grateful for this time with my kids. Sometimes it feels so hard. Often, it's both feelings at the same time. I would be very interested to hear how distance learning is going for the rest of you!
