Hybrid school- live streaming

[mmsmom]

DC are in private school and they have been doing this since August in all divisions. They invested in cameras last summer that automatically track the teacher (teacher wears a mic on a lanyard) and highlights the speaker on the screen if it is someone from home. Camera will also focus on student speaking in classroom. It has worked well and has been a great option for those who chose to be 100% virtual or are quarantined. There are some teachers who use this set up at home as well. Middle School and Upper School are 1/2 capacity so each class has in person students and the virtual students are on the screen. In lower school they also use this technology... lower school is at school every day but classes divided between 2 rooms. Half the class has teacher in the room and the other half has teacher on the screen and an assistant in the room. Teacher switches between room (not sure how often).

I understand your concerns but I feel this set up can work well if implemented properly.

[niccig]

Thanks everyone. I expect a change like this would take some time to work out. I also know from the teachers I work with, some will cope better than others with the increased technology demand. So the success really depends on how the teacher can adapt, and the support given to the teachers.

The district I work in hasn’t announced plans for our return. This live streaming would be easier for me as I have small groups. 3-4 students max. The district I live in is talking about this for elementary with class sizes up to 35, max 12-14 in person depending on room size, and the rest either on home day or 100% remote. I can’t imagine it for class that big.



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[westwoodmom04]

My high school age child has been in this set up since September because they first did a/b day hybrid and now are 5 days in person with some smaller percentage of the kids still remote. It seems to work just fine and I’ve not heard many complaints about it from students or teachers.

[Tenasparkl]

Contentious debate underway in the school district we live in (not the school district where I work). The plan is 2 days for each cohort and the students who are at home that day or the 100% online students will join the teacher’s live stream of the in person lesson. The teacher will have 2 web cams and a microphone.

I’ve seen a lot about this in local online groups in the last day or so. We’re in a neighboring district if this is the one I’m thinking of. It’ll be interesting to see what happens. I don’t think we’re going back unless something big changes with our school board.

[niccig]

I’ve seen a lot about this in local online groups in the last day or so. We’re in a neighboring district if this is the one I’m thinking of. It’ll be interesting to see what happens. I don’t think we’re going back unless something big changes with our school board.

Yes that’s the one. I thought your school board decided on remote until end of the year?

I’m not worried for DS too much. He’s in high school and could manage. He really wants to be back in person, though don’t think he realizes how different it will be. I do think it will be difficult for the teachers to have split focus. My students would struggle to stay focused if the teacher is focusing on the in-person students. I have to keep a high level of energy to get many students to even look at the computer screen. If I need to reload something because a URL isn’t loading, I lose them. DH said he now understands why I’m so tired some days


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[klwa]

We're another school district that has been handling it this way since the end of the first 9 weeks. (October? I want to say it started in October.) There are definitely some hiccups to work through, but it's honestly been great from the student end for us, and I've got kids in 9th, 7th, and 2nd grades. I know there are times where the teacher is more focused on the kids in the classroom and others where they are focused on the online students, but it really has worked well. We've actually got ~ 1/3 of the students who are full virtual, with the rest split between the 2 cohorts. And we've got asynchronous Wednesdays. On those days, the older kids' teachers have "office hours" where they'll meet with students who are having issues. The younger one's teacher often sets up review days for that day. So, yesterday, she had a noon meet that the kids who are having issues in math could join her to go more in depth. She also had an earlier meet for the kids who wanted extra practice on their vocabulary before their test today. Most of the teachers I've spoken to have said that it's much better than they feared and honestly easier than the full virtual.

[Moneypenny]

My school has been doing combined in-person/virtual all year. Students are either full time in person or full time virtual by live streaming the in-person classes. Each classroom has a Smartboard so the virtual students are usually up on the screen so the teachers and in-person students can see them. The first few weeks of school they hired assistants to sit in each class to help the teachers get used to the set up (the assistants would watch the virtual students and let the teacher know when one of them was raising their hand or whatever). It's been going quite well, and allows students to quarantine without falling behind. Students are allowed to choose their learning modality each term. It was definitely a transition for the teachers at first, but I'm really impressed at how hard they've worked at it, and how much support the district is giving them to make this work.

ETA our district has stayed steady at about 75% in person and 25% virtual all year.

[smilequeen]

Our school is full time in person, but there are a handful of kids who choose virtual and anyone in quarantine does virtual as well. They zoom into the lecture portion of class. My oldest has been quarantined and did virtual when he had a cold and during his concussion recovery. He actually really likes it, zooming in for the lecture and then doing the work on his own, messaging the teacher if needed. It's great for keeping everyone on the same track. They have a different set up if the whole school goes virtual (which they have lately due to snow...they got a real snow day and 3 virtual days...great for keeping young drivers off the road).

However, this is a private college prep school and I can see it being a disaster if the students were not all engaged.

[gatorsmom]

Our school is small and a private K-12 and has been in-person since September. My kids have been the only all-virtual family in middle and high school there. The school set up zoom for our family but it has been handy for the other families who have had to quarantine and whose kids then attend via zoom. Our class sizes are very small meaning 8 or fewer students per class. I am able to keep an eye on what is happening in the classrooms and watch the teachers teach and it seems to be going very well. The teachers frequently call on my kids to participate and they break into study groups to work together for studying and discussions.

It’s clear though that I need to be around my kids supervising them to make sure they stay on task. I frequently have to quiet my twin middle schoolers down who are in the same class and argue. I make sure they are taking notes and not distracting themselves with online video games. While I was recuperating from ankle surgery last fall things fell apart for 3 of my kids without me supervising them. Teachers can’t be expected to maintain order in the classroom as well as for the kids in person. My high schoolers don’t need any oversight at all since they are motivated to do well. I’m guessing that most other schools are finding it much less frustrating to zoom-teach and in-person teach at the same time when the kids are older.

[essnce629]

The one very nice thing about this set up is that it has allowed students to stay with a consistent class regardless of teacher/student quarantines and allowed students to move back and forth between virtual and hybrid. My kids did not have to change teachers/classes when we moved to all virtual and it basically was the same as their virtual days in the hybrid. And they could go back to the hybrid anytime without missing anything or having to change anything.

They invested in cameras last summer that automatically track the teacher (teacher wears a mic on a lanyard) and highlights the speaker on the screen if it is someone from home. Camera will also focus on student speaking in classroom.

My best friend's DD is in 9th grade in San Diego at a private school and this is their exact setup as well. They've also been doing in person hybrid since the fall. I think it's much better than having 2 separate teachers because the kids can transition from in person to virtual seamlessly. At their school classes have had to go from hybrid to completely virtual when there's a positive in the class. Students can also decide the day of if they want to go in person that day or just log in from home. This allows sick kids to stay home and not miss anything and also, my friend kept her DD virtual the first 2 weeks after winter break when the case numbers were sky high just as an extra precaution. Having the same teacher for both in person and virtual made this easy.

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