We survived our first week back at school - Virtual learning that is. I was pretty confident we could do it since we were fine for the Spring and the district had promised this year was going to look much different and be much more structured and rigorous than the end of last school year. Well, that remains to be seen!
For high school and junior high, the kids are in "synchronous" learning and have to be logged into their chromebooks non-stop for eight hours a day. There is a 30 min lunch break and 5-minute breaks between classes, but how exhausting!
3rd grade is "asynchronous", which I guess is good, seeing how my other boys are stuck staring at a screen non stop. But that is also exhausting for parents who are the ones the kids comes to with every question. Not even lunches are at the same time - so there are kids coming down to eat at three different time periods during the day. How can working parents function, and how can anyone with a 3rd grader or below be productive? Add to this an internet failure and I'm not sure how the kids are supposed to learn what they need!
And THAT is the main problem! I am thankful to be in a position where I CAN be available and we have a separate room for each child to log into their zooms. So many families are not in this position! But still, what kind of experience is it for the kids who want to see their friends and are starved for human interaction? Again, thankful here that the kids have their brothers and we are not alone at home. (though I do occasionally miss a quiet house)
Our neighboring district, DISD has already said they will postpone in person school until October 7th. While our health and safety is very important, I fear the gap between rich and poor, privileged and not will be widened the longer we stay in this situation. Private religious schools are able to be back face to face, and I can say that it is tempting. How will public school districts be able to survive when families choose to withdraw their kids from public education to home school entirely or go to private schools? We have to be creative and work together for solutions!
There is no easy or perfect solution. In every situation groups of people will complain. But this is the FIRST time in many years of school that my kids have complained about going back only four days in and saying they don't like school. We need to make it fun, educational and interactive!
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