The DOE is hastily trying to give every student a laptop to participate in the Google classroom remote learning program. However, many students have not received a laptop to participate in the remote learning program. It was bad enough that the DOE, rather than spending the allotted time during professional development over the winter months to make sure every teacher was trained, wasted their time with the DOE's useless "flavor of the day" items that bored most teachers to death.
The result was that teachers and other staff were unnecessarily exposed to the coronavirus the next week as they were told to report for remote learning training, despite many schools already had staff sickened by the coronavirus. . Anecdotal evidence by teachers that only 50% of the students are participating in remote learning. Of course the better schools have a much higher percentage while the struggling schools have lower percentages of students participating ib remote learning. Hopefully, the percentages will increase over the following weeks as school teachers and administrators push parents to force their children to take remote learning seriously but there is no guarantee that it will happen.
The reasons for students not participating are many:
1. No laptop.
2. Lack of or inadequate internet service.
3. Too many students in one apartment
4. Parent indifference.
5, Student refusal to participate.
6. Family distractions.
I see that remote learning will only increase the academic achievement gap between high achieving schools and struggling schools.
Note: The New York City cronavirus infection rate has increased to 38,087 and the death rate to 914 , or a 2.4% mortality rate as of Monday morning. For New York State the coronavirus infection rate is 66,497 and the death rate is 1,218 or a mortality rate of 1.8%/
We also have a huge homeless population in our schools. Remote instruction takes a back seat to housing and food insecurity. With rents due April 1st and massive layoffs, things are not going to get any better.
ReplyDeleteWe have seen an increase in participation and attendance. We gave out the majority of laptops in our school to the students who had no device, we have called and helped them get internet through spectrum or comcast, we even were able to get a neighbor to share their wifi for one family after they found out they cant get free internet since they owed a bill to spectrum. Its been a community effort and im extremely surprised. After one full week, it seem the almost all of our students are up and running and completing their work. We have spoken to families that almost always would never respond, and they are on top of things. i would have never guessed this. And yes we are in a low income school and town. Im hoping we can maintain the participation and progress. I would think this is a huge makeup call for the DOE to get every student a working laptop to keep at home. They can get rid of ILT and use that money for laptops for every student. Good luck everyone
ReplyDeleteRemote learning, zoom meetings, jupiter ed/, Emailing payroll sec at 8AM
ReplyDeleteWhat jokes!
This will be a great excuse for administrators to pressure teachers to pass students saying "well, we can't hold it against them that they had no laptop or internet service, so you have no choice but to pass them." Imagine the learning loss when we get back in September, but they will have their credits. Graduation rates will probably soar especially if they don't give Regents exams.
ReplyDeleteAnon 9:40
ReplyDeleteGood for your school but I suspect your school is an exception. Let's see what the statistics are in a couple of weeks,
I use my phone for the Internet.
ReplyDeleteI went to spectrum and ask them I am a
teacher I need Internet to access my students.
The sales person told me only students will get
free Internet.
I had to pay for Internet service.
I just make ends meet!!!!
The students at my schoo lhave been handing in assignments(mostly).
ReplyDeletehowever we need to remember
there is a BIG difference between handing in assignments vs actual learning.
11:57: you should know by now that it doesn't matter if the students learn anything as long as they get their credits and graduate.
ReplyDeleteHow are staff making phone calls at your school?
ReplyDeleteI teach a special ed self contained class. Devices are the limitation for the students not participating. I have about 60% participation now up from about 20% the first few days. Some of the parents with $ bought devices and they are in the mail. The students waiting for the DOE devices are not participating. The issue with the "free internet" is the bill they'll be getting at day 61... Early on, they were refusing service to people who had an outstanding bill. I see a hesitancy of parents to sign up for anything because they have a history (especially the non native English speakers) of getting screwed with contracts and big companies.
ReplyDeleteI’m a middle school teacher. Age 38.
ReplyDeleteSince 2007, I haven’t failed one kid. Pass them all. What does it matter?
Admin doesn’t bother me and I get good ratings.
You have to go along to get along.
#4:16pm but how are your teaching skills?
DeleteI have a few students who miraculously are A+ students now with perfect grammar!! They have made leaps and bounds after just 1 week on remote learning!! This is how we do it. No way to prove they aren't doing it! They look great we look great and everyone is happy!!
ReplyDeleteUntil you are living in a third world country that is. This is why we teachers get so upset about fake grades. We know these are the people that will be in charge , or under rule of a dictator, almost there now btw. It's what happens when there are too many uneducated people crammed into one spot!
I had 40% attendance. Some of my students have issues with the computer or the internet service.
ReplyDelete4:16: I really hope you're kidding! How can you call yourself a teacher? If you cared about the students you would give them honest grades. You're just an automaton.
ReplyDelete@8:08 pm: Poster 4:16pm is NOT an educator.
ReplyDelete8:08
ReplyDeleteHe can give honest grades, they are just calibrated between 65-100. Didn't you get the memo, that 65 is the new 55?
If students get 55 without doing anything, adding ten bonus points seems like a reasonable way to play the game. When you graduate with all 65's, the jig is up anyway.
Waiting for support,
ReplyDeleteWe work for the doe. Love the idealism about being an ‘educator’.
Do you believe in the tooth fairy, too?
We are the babysitting service of NYC.
Your job is not to teach them. Your job is to survive.
Grow up!
This is 416 here.
ReplyDeleteI used to care and bust my back side.
Guess what happened? I had letters to the file, kids cursed me left and right and went to admin trying to get me fired.
Also, I was overweight, depressed and drank too much bc I hated my life and it was directly related to teaching. Oh, I had high blood pressure as well.
Then, I got excessed, met a great woman, got married and started a life and realized that this is not a ‘career’. There is more to life.
In the doe, admin change grades any way. I can put together elaborate lessons in my sleep. The kids do not listen any way. Half of them are on their phones. If I take them, I get in trouble.
So, you want to say I am not a real educator, well that’s fine. It’s March 31st and my pay check hit my direct deposit.
I am able to spend this time now with my family more. My son and I work out in the backyard every afternoon. Life is good!
Stay well my friends and remember that life exists outside of the doe.
This is not a career. It is a job. Take care of yourself first.
@4:16 i suffered through a similar experience (hbp too). Our experiences diverted because instead of foregoing my integrity I dug in. I fought and won a bogus 3020a charge--my integrity intact. Many years after that experience I was able to retire (integrity still intact) and be offered many opportunities to go into schools and support admin with planning. My point: the DOE/UFT will challenge you in ways you never imagined. I am sure that when you decided to become an educator you never thought you would NOT use your professional skills and still get paid. People do what they do for reasons that are beneficial to them. I guess that's one of the reasons why the DOE/UFT did what is best for them when they sent educators into potentially dangerous school buildings.
DeleteAbout 70% percent of my HS kids have signed on to Google Classroom and are reading and answering assigned questions (and submitting on a DOC) from the textbook. I attach the DOC to the assignment so I can look at their work in progress (if I have the time/desire).
ReplyDeleteI've been doing three-day assignments that should take them about an hour total.
I teach two different courses so that is (just) two different assignments every three-ish days.
I am not grading anything but GC (obviously) records the work as submitted and, at some point, I could go back and assign a general/rubric-based grade to each assignment fairly quickly and fairly.
I do cut-and-paste (and then lightly edit) a personal message to each kid on each submission.
I've done a couple of cut-and-paste emails to parents of the kids who seem to have gone AWOL and last time I cc'd my supervisor.
I don't do zoom/facetime/skype/group chat because I am not an idiot.
Keeping it clear and straightforward for the kids who want to learn.
My assumption is kids who do the work will pass the class (even if I do not wind up grading each submission) and those that do not may have issues (although I don't realistically see anybody failing).
Did I hear correctly, are we going to give up our vacation to satisfy the 180 day requirement? Am I not working 10+hour days now? Please tell me that this will not happen! Just when I stopped hating Cuomo...
ReplyDelete10:52: I see your point that a 65 is really a failing grade but to a slacker student it's like a 100. Also, has anyone heard anything about principals forcing staff to work over spring break? Can anyone fill me in?
ReplyDeleteCant lo on to Zoom...anyone have any idea?
ReplyDeleteSupposedly facebook got access to your zoom account. I wouldn't use it.
ReplyDeleteFor spring break, we all need to take off. Don’t check email. Don’t respond to phone calls. Go underground as they say for the week.
ReplyDeleteHonestly for the most part my students are doing better with this asynchronous learning. Many fail because they're not punctual, which is no longer an issue. Also, students like doing the work on their phones. (Note: A student doesn't need a laptop to do the work.) Every student has a phone. We know that because we see them out in class all the time. They're doing more work now than they did in school.
ReplyDeleteAs for the DOE and not having this prepared ahead of time: A big problem is that the DOE insists that students can't learn independently. It insists on socialist group work and having students sit in groups (which facilitates being off task) instead of sitting in rows. Other districts surrounding the city and private schools in the city already integrated Google Classroom, Blackboard, etc. where students do assigned readings and submit their work online. The DOE never implemented this because it values individualism over collectivism.
My only gripe with this online learning so far is that it is an enormous amount of work to put together a lesson that students can read and follow along with. It's like being a first-year teacher again. There was no off-the-shelf curriculum or program made available.
The kicker is that the City has contracts with companies like Apex learning, which I used in one of my previous schools, where a student can go on a device and there's a preloaded video lesson, with preloaded examples, and then the student does a quiz. Apex even grades it for you. That would reduce the workload by 99% and free up time to actually help students who still need it one-on-one.
Apex was a joke. The students got all the answers on-line and cheated all the time.
ReplyDeleteAbove post should have said, "The DOE never implemented this because it values collectivism over individualism."
ReplyDeleteI agree with a work slowdown. Unfortunately every School is like an island in this stupid system of ours. Every principal issues their own decrees. Mine thank goodness is not a complete moron, but close. Leaving us generally alone. But I'm elementary. Without question I can see a big difference in the work load between K-5. Plenty of people getting away with doing diddly, others busting their backs. If told to put lesson up over the break I will, but be clear they will be light and fluffy and I will not bother to grade or correct much of it.
ReplyDeleteI agree the union should be involved in this and fight to limit the pain. They won't. That they are even considering allowing some form of a virtual observation, instead of straight out stating the entire idea is off the table tells you all you really need to know. The union should be negotiating a simple pass fail for this year (if we do not return). The criteria should just be showing evidence of providing instructional and learning opportunities to their students. Nothing about how many ever signed in, or submitted work. Not our problem to be social workers. We should be negotiating how final report cards (if there should even be any) are to be done. And by the way all this should be done in a differentiated fashion between, elementary, middle and HS. This not a one size fits all world. Never was, but nows the time for our union to step up and put some reasonable on this (but I doubt it).
And, what asinine decisions will be made with that final ridiculous parent evening time??
We can all whine and gripe here, but it's really only our union that can whine and gripe to them. How do we make our union hear us?
so many kids do not do any work while sitting in a classroom! You expect them to do any work at home? JOKE
ReplyDeleteGee Whiz so many of you teachers are doing marvelously and your students are completing assignments and handing in work on time! I wish I knew which land of OZ you guys are working in because as far as my eyes could see barely any kids do the work at school and none do any hw during the year. I'm thinking one kid does it one day and the others copy and then another kid does it the next day...etc.
ReplyDelete@6:01...r u at stuyvesant hs?
ReplyDeleteIf we lose the spring break, that would be unfortunate. But in a time of a National Emergency, when so many people are sacrificing so much and we are still getting our full paychecks, and full benefits, and pension benefits Etc, it would look Petty indeed for us to complain. Working an extra 4 days is hardly going to break us But it will Garner us the praise of the city and the nation. Small price to pay.
ReplyDelete@7:31, the praise means nothing. When this is all over people are going to go back to hating on teachers like all this never happened.
ReplyDeleteMulgrew just emailed everyone. We have off 4/9 - 4/12.
ReplyDelete7:31
ReplyDeleteWe are NOT getting our full pay. We are losing about 2 percent. We are working 5 extra days. We risked our health working Tuesday, Wednesday,Thursday. Friday was a work at home day.
I understand others are working extra. BUT THEY ARE BEING PAID TOO.
When will our union agree for us to be paid? In 11 years..2031? Never?
We needed our break. Families need the break. I am all for doing our part just like others who are being paid extra to do so. Our lives were at risk when we went to work when many other companies had their employees WORKING FROM HOME. I honestly think I will opt out of our crappy, useless union.
@9:31 PM - We should get paid. If need to work during Spring break, we should get those days at a later date included into vacation days just like everybody else that is a professional.
ReplyDeleteAsk Mulgrew about it.
DeleteWow April 9 through April 12. So the state let us keep Saturday and Sunday. Another great victory for the UFT
ReplyDeleteCarranza-De Blasio-Mulgrew los 3 amigos.
Delete@7:31
ReplyDeleteAn extra 4 days? The rest of the NYC DOE teachers around the city are expected to work 5 days and put in a minimum of 7 hours a day online. Then, spend additional time creating lessons, grading, contacting parents, answering student emails, etc. This can easily be 10 hour days.
Here is an issue as I see it.
ReplyDeleteI am not even creating a lesson until 8 am every morning.
Teachers don’t get that you don’t get rewarded for working harder.
Do less! In the hours of 8 am to 220 pm, do what you can do. Take your preps. Go out to get fresh air for lunch.
Then, at 220, that’s it. No checking emails until the next morning etc.
I’m going to call it as I see it. For the majority of us who work in low income areas, the more work you put in does not equate to a better outcome.
Cuomo is the one who mandated this, not the 3 amigos.
ReplyDelete6:01 it's not so much Oz as this:
ReplyDeleteIn my classes, and I should add the school is on one of those State naughty lists, it went and goes like this:
About 40% of the kids legitimately do the assigned work and more or less act like students. All those kids are doing the work online. In that 40% I have at least one table worth of legitimate high achievers, which depends on the class.
Another 20% of kids who did the bare minumum, basically show up and then copy the group work, are basically the same. They know how to play the game enough to pass, and they log in, and then they likely have someone text them the answers, which they copy and post up.
Then you have the 20% of kids who roll into school 3rd period and leave after 6th. These kids are actually doing work. Kids who never showed up to my 1st and 2nd period are suddenly doing well because they can log in in the middle of the afternoon when they wake up (one literally told me she wakes up at 1 PM!)
Then you have the 20% who cut class all the time or were LTA's. They're the same ones who never log in.