Stupid things teachers are asking for during remote learning....

[jgenie]

Your school work is voluntary?
DS12, 6th grade will get a pass/fail based on effort. If he does more than 40% (per a convo with the VP) he will pass. I have to force him to do that! The PE teacher wants them to do 60 minutes of physical activity per day, and log it. I get that exercise is healthy and good, and PE must have a way to determine a grade, but my kid is in the midst of depression and has stopped doing even the physical activities he enjoys.

I’m sorry your DS is having a rough time. P & PT for your family.

[klwa]

Oh, goodness. The scavenger hunt. DD1 had a fit last week about the durn scavenger hunt one of her teachers assigned. "We don't have anything orange in this house!!!!" Uhm, we have oranges. And Cheetos. And foam pumpkins that you and your sister painted. And... "Those don't count!!! (Fine. Give me the cheeto bag.)"

[SnuggleBuggles]

This is how DS2's elementary school is, except for the voluntary school work. Our school didn't start remote learning till 5 weeks in on April 20th and they just started optional Zoom meetings last week. They are also just for fun and the only chance for the kids to connect with their teachers live (our school uses Seesaw for their online learning and all lessons are prerecorded by the teachers). Last week's Zoom included a craft for Mother's day and this week the teachers are doing a drawing with the kids and then a game. Unfortunately, DS2 has no interest in participating and seems like none of the other boys do either. The sign up they sent out is almost exclusively girls.

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That’s funny because the overwhelming majority of kids participating in ds2’s bi-weekly, just for fun check in yesterday were boys! Could be totally mom driven though. I made him sign on.


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[Melaine]

We've had to do similar things and I think they are mostly optional and the teachers are trying to find creative ways of connecting and making zoom fun. It is really really hard.

[erosenst]

They've had a few things like spirit week, but totally optional and my DD doesn't do in person much less virtually .

BUT - one of the memories we'll all have of the pandemic is the red cabbage. While extra credit is technically not allowed, extra projects are (I've stopped asking...). She could get another 10/10 in the grade book if she did a lab on acid and bases (fine) - where juice from a RED CABBAGE was used as the indicator. I told her I would go to at most two stores to find one; thankfully the second store had it.

[niccig]

We've had to do similar things and I think they are mostly optional and the teachers are trying to find creative ways of connecting and making zoom fun. It is really really hard.

Yes this. My school uses class dojo and we ask for pictures of work competed to be uploaded otherwise we have NO idea if child has done anything. I get excited when I get a photo. A couple of parents even sent me a video. Made my day as I don’t hear from 90% of students. We’re also trying to find things kids can do with what they have at home. One teacher and I were teaching unit on Spring, so we did do a scavenger hunt in backyard or on a walk for a leaf, flower, stick, bark etc but told parents to find 1-3 items.

I’m sending material out and connecting every week as required, it goes out into the ether and I never hear back. I totally understand parents are overwhelmed. If they don’t want anything, they can tell me that and I’ll stop sending things. But until they do, I’m required to keep sending materials and checking in.

There is no pressure to do all the activities, do what you can and skip what you want. And if the kids are not happy with what you have/do and thinking they have to do everything - maybe the teacher can talk to them and explain these are optional and it’s OK if can’t do them.

And ask school for a device. My school has been given out iPads and we just got enough so now siblings don’t have to share. First round it was one device per family, but we knew 3 kids and one ipad wouldn’t work, so then when they got more for the district, the principal gave out extra.


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[petesgirl]

Ours is ungraded and voluntary. The grade kids had on March 13th is the grade they have. I think the HS kids can improve, but they can not get a lower grade.

This is what is so interesting to me-- how every school district is handling grading. Ours changed absolutely nothing. They take daily 'attendance ' by whether you log on each day or not and are grading every assignment as usual, with the spectrum of letter grades. It doesn't matter much for my 3rd grader but sure would for an older student!

That said, most of our work hasn't been too bad. They have tried to re create digital specials which we don't do. We don't watch the librarian read a story over zoom, we don't watch go noodle videos on youtube for PE (my son rides his bike and jumps on the trampoline every day) and we only watch the art videos if DS is interested.

My biggest annoyances have been 1) when DS is all ready to work but some program like classkick or something is having technical issues and the teacher says to try again later. Um, no, I won't spend my while day trying to log in to get it done. If it doesn't work when we are ready then it isn't getting done that day. And 2) the ridiculous grammar assignment that was 5 pages long-- the first page had 15 sentences on it and then the students had to click to the next page and re type the sentence with correct grammar. Well, it's hard for a 3rd grader to memorize and sentence, click to the next slide, re type it and also make grammatical changes. All that clicking back and forth made us both lose our minds.

[AnnieW625]

For every family who is annoyed by these activities, there is another family asking for more. It’s fine to opt out of a scavenger hunt. Teachers are under tremendous pressure to connect with students. Just do what you can and keep in touch with the teacher to let them know you’re doing what works for your family.

Yes to this! I am getting this from Dd2’s teacher as well that there is no way she expects all of the students to complete everything. I almost think in her case they have too much work, but I know for sure there are kids in the class who are breezing through everything.

Dd2 would love a pj day in her zoom meeting.


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[PZMommy]

My son's 5th grade teacher has been ridiculous, but she has been this way all year. I've actually had him skip out on a few of the projects, as I just don't have time for that while trying to teach Kindergarten and my own two kids! My son's 3rd grade teacher has been amazing. The work has been reasonable, and he tried to keep it interesting.

As a teacher it is hard. Some parents are overwhelmed and don't want anything. Other parents want you to be on zoom 5 hours a day. And then there is everything in between. Many of my parents are still working outside of the home. I've been telling them to do what they can, and not to stress over what gets done. I have about half submitting work to me each week. And other send me stuff here and there, and some just stay in touch with me, but aren't really submitting any work. I figure everyone is just doing what they can. Some of my students are just now getting devices from the district. They started with high school and working their way down, so Kindergarten had the least amount of priority for getting devices.

[essnce629]

the students had to click to the next page and re type the sentence with correct grammar. Well, it's hard for a 3rd grader to memorize and sentence, click to the next slide, re type it and also make grammatical changes. All that clicking back and forth made us both lose our minds.

DS2 is in 5th grade and has a morning work that includes editing. He'd also have to click back and forth. Now I just take a picture with my phone and put it next to him. No more going back and forth, forgetting the sentence, etc.

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