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Post by willc453 on Dec 10, 2020 10:06:10 GMT -6
With the shut down of schools, social distancing, etc., this was something I never thought about. But then, I don't have any kids......at least not that I know of.  Who's got school kids or know people that do and how's it going for the kids and who's doing the home schooling? From what I understand, there's something called Zoom which allows kids to go to school via the internet and wondered how that was working out for everyone. We're read more than one survival story here and else where, but it'd be interesting to see how kids (pre-teenagers) deal with something like that. news.yahoo.com/childhood-without-other-children-generation-131651444.html |
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Post by papaof2 on Dec 10, 2020 13:39:06 GMT -6
Teenagers are also still in school - of some flavor.
One grand completed the senior year online and is now off to in-person college where they test for Covid monthly and they do have "family groups" (3 to 5) who can get together in one dorm room to socialize. The younger grand is still doing virtual high school but this is a kid who was home schooled several years in the past because of health issues so while not happy with isolation (very social kid) this kid knows the routine and is doing well in virtual school.
That doesn't work for all kids though because virtual school isn't the same as parent-led home schooling.
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Post by eyeseetwo on Dec 14, 2020 17:57:22 GMT -6
I finished up last school year and chose not to go back this year due to my age and my husband being at high risk.
I found that most of my students last school year did very well with home packets of work if the parents conducting short book learning and reading practice. Most are in famikies of two or more sibling groups.
The few single child families did miss being with their peers at school.
One of these students was very disordered in his school behavior and frankly I was grateful not having to deal with his violent behaviors and meltdowns. His parent was hard pressed to work from home with him having his tantrums.
We did not get online learning off to a good start due to tech issues, lack of devices, and lack of internet.
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Post by papaof2 on Dec 14, 2020 21:11:45 GMT -6
Our County's Public Library system made their wi-fi available in the parking lot for those who didn't have other wi-fi access. From my use of the system at various times, it does have good capacity and could have handled as many as could park close enough.
I'm a tech nerd so I have a plug-in wi-fi card which has an external antenna and that gets very good coverage - as in my second nearest neighbor's wi-fi through my window and her wall from across the yard ;-) That would work just fine in the library parking lot. I also have a directional antenna for that wi-fi card so I could access any available wi-fi system within a half-mile or so. Don't have a need for it but I've explored lots of side roads for things to use in the stories I write. Other than not having a machine shop and a sample tractor for some of the wood gas power I refer to in an in-progress tale, I've tested most of the things I write about on at least a small scale.
I saw where some school systems couldn't find enough equipment to issue to students but I have to wonder how many made the "Must buy new" decision when the things they're doing online do NOT require all the latest bells and whistles. I have a 6-year-old Galaxy Tab 4 tablet that does fine on a Zoom call with 3 people. Considering the across-the-board improvements in tablets over the past few years, a 2 or 3 year old refurbished unit (tablet or laptop) would likely be more than adequate.
I write on a 16-year-old Dell laptop running Windows XP because I like the screen and keyboard. My "new" laptop is slightly newer (a slightly more powerful Dell laptop and only 12-years-old) and it runs Windows 10 just fine.
I seem to get longer useful life out of used $150 laptops than some people get out of new ones at 10 times that price.
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Post by bretf on Dec 20, 2020 7:16:56 GMT -6
My son is a Senior. His school attends in person two days a week, and three days online. They use the "Teams" platform rather than Zoom as Zoom has a limit on number of participants that doesn't work for some schools.
I feel he is getting good instruction on his in-school days but not the remote days. He still works on those days but admitted to me it isn't nearly as effective.
One coworker has kids in a different district which is all remote. The older one isn't getting a thing out of school, although I'm not sure he would if he was sitting in the classroom. The younger one does well. Both adults have jobs, so it is up to the kids and their personal motivation.
Other coworkers have kids in the same district as mine and see about the same I do: good on the in person days, mediocre on the remote days. Again, working parents who can't sit with the kiddos on their school days at home.
My wife works at a school that has five day, in person education available. It is the most difficult year she's ever faced, including the years the school was close to folding due to finances and the year it flooded from frozen-broken pipes at -20. Those years were speed bumps compared to this year. Most of the dissension is coming from the teachers/staff.
One thing she told me of interest for this thread is the required state standardized testing. The reading test was recently administered. Test scores are down throughout the state, with the largest drops in the districts that are totally remote.
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Post by willc453 on Dec 23, 2020 12:14:22 GMT -6
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Post by bretf on Dec 23, 2020 13:14:14 GMT -6
Yes, we've seen the teacher shortages here.
My son's district sent out emails, begging parents who were able to sign on as substitutes.
In my wife's school, they've done a lot of shifting. Our daughter, home on break from college, spent three weeks working at the school. It gave her a good vacation paycheck and an occupation to add to the "Don't want" list.
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Post by cutter on Jan 3, 2021 9:51:06 GMT -6
My personal experience with "non-traditional instruction", which is what they're calling it here, leaves much to be desired. The one student who's performance I'm familiar with, is doing dismally. I have some opinions on the topic, but my input isn't well received, so I mostly keep my opinion to myself. My wider opinion is that the school systems are trying to protect the wider population, but our children are suffering because of it...both in their academic and social education.
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Who's got school kids or know people that do and how's it going for the kids and who's doing the home schooling? From what I understand, there's something called Zoom which allows kids to go to school via the internet and wondered how that was working out for everyone. We're read more than one survival story here and else where, but it'd be interesting to see how kids (pre-teenagers) deal with something like that. 
