quote:

Originally posted by midwest guy:
President Trump released in April Guidelines for opening up America again. Explicit guidelines that are clear .

And as much as I support the president, my response to that is, so what? It's not up to the bureaucracy in Washington to try and resolve or dictate how this needs to happen. If state and local government can't figure this out, then all of them need to go. As with so many things, there will be no one size fits all solution to getting schools open in the fall. The first and most important aspect of accomplishing that goal is for state and local governments to openly and enthusiastically commit to it. That of course assumes you can pull most of these cowards out from under their desks.

quote:

Originally posted by VictimNoMore:
My wife is a HS guidance counselor. I can say that this past semester was more work for her. She earned every penny.
The only thing there was less of was the stress of experiencing students/parents in person.

This.

As a principal, I’ve never seen my teachers work harder than they did during the last quarter of the year. Not only did they have to adapt to teaching online, but they spent COUNTLESS hours of their own time calling parents and students, helping them with things like getting their cable bill caught up so they can get internet access to be in class, things like that.

I don’t know why the perception is out there that teachers weren’t working...As I said, I have personally seen hard, difficult work performed by some of the most adaptable people on the planet.

quote:

Originally posted by holdem:
My wife and I have two children. A girl, age 12, just finished 6th grade. A boy, age 8, just finished 2nd grade.

I am self employed and work from home about 50% of the time. My wife is employed 40 hours per week with a work from home job.

We are both educated and intelligent individuals who are involved in our children's lives. We are blessed that our children are also intelligent and are well behaved.

With all of that said, the virtual learning that we had to do from March, 23rd through May, 27th was a nightmare. One, it was hard on both the children and my wife, because they do not look at her as a teacher. Two, my wife now had an additional 15-20 hours of "work" she had to do each week. We realized very quickly that we are not homeschool parents and our kids are not homeschool children.

And we are privileged with a stable home environment. I cannot even imagine a single mother, with 2-3 children, working 40+ hours to make ends meet, tying to keep up with schooling.

Does COVID present an issue to schools? Yes, of course it does. But the bottom line is that our children's (and by our, I mean everyone in America) education is being sacrificed. The majority of children will not learn as well with virtual learning as they will in an actual school. Without actual school, the education of our youth will fall behind.

It was very similar for my wife and myself, she is working from home but on video conferences all day and I support India and WPA so am away from home 3 weeks a month.

My 8yo's education suffered due to this, we are doing extra tutoring this summer hopefully to make up for our poor performance.

Not to mention the social interaction, my son is an only child...poor kid, being asked to play everyday and telling him you are working broke my heart.

Both of my children are elementary school teachers working at inner city schools and my son is a special education teacher. They both prefer teaching in the classroom but didn’t have a choice. This pandemic has not been a vacation for either of them.

On line learning? Just today the tv news in Detroit said at least 30% of city families have no in-home internet. So how would they do "online learning"?

I also heard On Fox news a couple of weeks ago that only 1/3 of US students did any kind of online schooling during the shutdown.

I also wonder about the tax dollars that were allocated for a full school year. Around here it was still heating season when this started, did they turn the heat down? Didn't need to turn the AC on in warm weather. Water/sewer bills would be much lower, didn't need lights so the electric bills should have been much lower. Maintenance staff could have been greatly reduced as nobody messing up the schools.
Add up all those reductions over 3 months, should be refunded to the taxpayers.

quote:

Originally posted by gjgalligan:
On line learning? Just today the tv news in Detroit said at least 30% of city families have no in-home internet. So how would they do "online learning"?

I also heard On Fox news a couple of weeks ago that only 1/3 of US students did any kind of online schooling during the shutdown.

I also wonder about the tax dollars that were allocated for a full school year. Around here it was still heating season when this started, did they turn the heat down? Didn't need to turn the AC on in warm weather. Water/sewer bills would be much lower, didn't need lights so the electric bills should have been much lower. Maintenance staff could have been greatly reduced as nobody messing up the schools.
Add up all those reductions over 3 months, should be refunded to the taxpayers.

Maintenance staff increases in summertime. Some teaching staff come in to help.

Summertime is when all the heavy maintenance is done. Painting, repairs, resurfacing floors. Also any renovations. School district electricians, plumbers HVAC technicians, IT and others are hard at work doing things that are almost impossible to do with students there.

There is other groundkeeping stuff that gets done outside that can't be done with students around.

The kitchen is up and running preparing food for the low income students.

Bus maintenance is going year round, by Kentucky law, every 28 days a school bus has to be inspected. Even if it has not been driven.
Also, a lot of the deep cleaning of school buses get done in the summer. Scrubbed, steam cleaning, so on. Something that I usually do in the summer, but has been cut back drastically to save the budget. Which if you saw my other post is really hurting my finances.

As for NTL it's the last thing our school district wants to do, there are many students living in rural areas that have no internet access. Just 3 miles from me is no cable or internet service or cell service available. The only only way for internet is satellite.

It's not just teachers, there are a lot of other professionals that make up school, and if it wasn't for them, school wouldn't function.

Custodians, HVAC, IT, plumbers, electretions, locksmith, groundskeepers, transportation (school bus drivers, first to see the kids and last to see the students of the school district). Kitchen staff. All non teachers but if they wasn't there, the school could not do it's job of educating students.

I'm tired of it all. I'm ready to go to work. The insanity of it all.


ARman

quote:

My daughter and both daughter in laws are in the public school system. They claim they are working harder now then when classes were being held. Monitoring kids completing online work tasks, video conferencing etc.

^^^ this ^^^

I don't want to do this "at home learning" shit again. Just let us get back to normal.

New Jersey News today said school might not open for classes in September. My wife will still do her online classes, but I work as a substitute so no paycheck for me. I typically work 4 days a week.

We've only had three fires this year,
Maybe we should fire the fire fighters.

And don't get me started on the county mountie.

2020
Time to streamline

( Sarc)

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. —
The head of the Albuquerque Teachers Federation says they all want to get back to the classroom, but she says there are thousands of APS employees who are considered high risk. Ellen Bernstein says they're worried about getting themselves, their students or family members sick.

"They know that of the 14,000 total employees that they have, it could be up to 26% who are considered high risk. High risk could be their of a certain age or had cancer and were a survivor, or have other health compromising conditions," Bernstein said.

Albuquerque Public Schools is scheduled to begin in one month. Teachers have to be back to work in three weeks.

She says the district will have to accommodate staff who are high risk. Bernstein says a lot of teachers are telling her with school just weeks away, if they have to go back into the classroom, they are contemplating retirement.

"One of the things I'm hearing from a lot of educators is depending on whether or not they think the return plan is safe for them, they may retire and I don't think our school system even statewide can afford to have so many people retire because they don't feel safe," she said.

The current mandate from the state is that students are in the classroom half the week, and working virtually the other half.

LINK: https://www.wapt.com/article/m...o-classroom/33281137

quote:

On line learning? Just today the tv news in Detroit said at least 30% of city families have no in-home internet.

And who is at fault there??

Every internet provider has a program for low income families..

Michigan Home Internet Options* for the Economically Disadvantaged
Spectrum Internet Assist from Charter/Spectrum provides low-cost internet for $14.99 per month, plus taxes and fees.

Eligibility requirements:

Have at least one student who participates in the National School Lunch Program
Without outstanding debt for Charter/Spectrum service within the last year
Cannot have had a Charter/Time Warner Cable/Bright House Network broadband subscription within 60 days of signing up
Comcast Internet Essentials Program provides affordable Internet for $9.95 a month plus tax, with no term contract, no credit check, no installation fee, with In-home Wifi.

Eligibility requirements:

Have at least one child who qualifies for the National School Lunch Program
Do not have outstanding debt to Comcast that is less than a year old. Families with outstanding debt more than a year old may still be eligible.

Live in an area where Comcast Internet Service is available but have not subscribed to it within the last 90 days. Access an availability map from Comcast here.
CenturyLink® Internet Basics provides affordable Internet for $9.95 a month plus taxes and fees, with a 12-month contract at speeds up to 1.5Mbps.

my wife works HR at a large school dist My daughter works same district but different dept. My son is a teacher at another district All have been putting in their time cept they are at
home Hope this makes you feel better

quote:

On line learning? Just today the tv news in Detroit said at least 30% of city families have no in-home internet.

^^^^^
Yeah that is ridiculous. The rural areas are problematic. Ole Miss had that problem with Professors who lived in very rural areas with shoddy poor internet connections. You have satellite providers in those areas and the speed and reliablity are poor.

quote:

Originally posted by ARman:
[QUOTE]


Maintenance staff increases in summertime. Some teaching staff come in to help.

Summertime is when all the heavy maintenance is done. Painting, repairs, resurfacing floors. Also any renovations. School district electricians, plumbers HVAC technicians, IT and others are hard at work doing things that are almost


ARman

I was wasn't talking about the summertime, I was referring to the last 3 months of the school year.

Everybody we know around here says their children got nothing from schools in way of at home teaching. NADA, ZIP, NOTHING No lesson plans, no online help, nothing.

C’mon guys, let’s take away people’s income and destroy their ability to support themselves because of a virus!!!!

Sounds like something a liberal would say..:.

quote:

Originally posted by gjgalligan:

quote:

Originally posted by ARman:
[QUOTE]


Maintenance staff increases in summertime. Some teaching staff come in to help.

Summertime is when all the heavy maintenance is done. Painting, repairs, resurfacing floors. Also any renovations. School district electricians, plumbers HVAC technicians, IT and others are hard at work doing things that are almost


ARman

I was wasn't talking about the summertime, I was referring to the last 3 months of the school year.

Everybody we know around here says their children got nothing from schools in way of at home teaching. NADA, ZIP, NOTHING No lesson plans, no online help, nothing.

Those people are liars, every school did it’s best. Sounds like you’re hanging out with a bunch of losers who are butthurt that they actually have to deal with their shitty kids. Teachers aren’t babysitters though and honestly parent complaints should be ignored as 95% of parents are pieces of trash who just don’t want to hang out with their kids.

As a teacher of 18 years now, parents are the worst, they all think the ya re good parents but the majority of them are pieces of shit unfit to raise a chia pet. First order of education should be to ignore parents.

Maybe your school did a good job, if so good on ya.
But you just called some of my family & friends a lair when you have no idea what went on is this part of the country.
Please excuse me if I don't have any respect for your thoughts and opinions.

Locally, I have observed nothing but a lot of waste.

quote:

Originally posted by newmexican:

As a teacher of 18 years now, parents are the worst, they all think the ya re good parents but the majority of them are pieces of shit unfit to raise a chia pet. First order of education should be to ignore parents.

Sounds like something a liberal would say.
Oh yeah, you are a teacher so the odds are that you are a liberal.

quote:

Originally posted by MikeinNC:
Three of my grand parents were teachers. They told me that they were actually only paid for the months they worked, during the summer they received their pay because they had chosen to have a reduced payment during the school year. This was a choice by them, some teachers took the higher payment during the school year and worked odd jobs during the break.

Perhaps the reason people think teachers are getting paid twelve months of the year is because teachers present it that way in their arguments for more pay. I’ve often heard statements like “Teachers average $48,000 a year while the national average salary for all professions is $54,000 a year.” In their arguments for increased funding, the teacher’s unions never compare their salary to 3/4 of the national average.