What school district are you in

(If you are comfortable sharing) And are you happy with the way things have been handled?

I have a first grader and my district (Riverhead) has been Amazing. The teacher posts daily assignments in math and reading, there is a weekly science assignment. They use Google classroom. There is a little scene which is a real picture of my child's classroom. They click on a cartoon avatar which looks just like my child's teacher and it takes them to recorded lesson from the teacher. They set up a virtual school that looks like the school and you can click on the principal to hear messages from him, click on the art, gym, and library classroom, and click on a virtual field trip each week. They are doing a virtual field day on June 5th. Teacher checks assignments daily and gives feedback. Weekly calls from the principal congratulating out the "stars" who completed their assignments. I honestly can't say enough. It took a few weeks in the beginning but I have been very happy. Although I am eager to get them out of the house, but that's another story...

What school district are you in

My kids get no live instruction, videos from youtube (not from their teacher), and 1 to 2 check-ins per week that consists of each student getting asked how their weekend was, but it's usually the co-teachers talking to one another and not to the student. Students are not allowed to speak to each other, are force-muted by the teacher which is fine, but there is no interaction. This is 4th grade. I started listening in on the meets and it sounds like it is being run by two teenagers the way they speak to the kids. No patience and totally annoyed that the kids accidentally did something, or did not understand something. I can hear them scoffing at some of the creative types on the call when they share what they did over the weekend. Just like a teenage girl would scoff at her younger brother for sharing a story about bugs. These kids are 10.

When I asked the teacher for a quick link sheet so my kids know where to go when, all i got was a - sorry, no I don't do that. The links and logins are all over the place. Specials communicate directly to my kids, not to parents, so I never know what they are asking my kids to do until I sign in as them. They communicate some things, but it's like no one is using the same method, or technology or communication tools. It is maddening. We're in SW Nassau.

I get e-messages all the time about how they didnt do assignments - multiple occasions where the work was done but the teacher couldnt figure it out, found it and apologized. Questions by students posted in Google classrooms go unanswered. During a meet, I overheard her say that the students should feel lucky she doesn't give them too much work. All the other teachers are giving a lot more, so they should be happy. Academics aside, this type of personality is a horrendous fit for our family. Thankfully we are almost done.


From what I hear from other parents in the same school, the same grade - their teachers meet with their classes every morning, get live instruction, small group meets and video lessons recorded by the teacher. I just saw on fb that the AP & teacher hosted a family game night for students of that class. I was floored as I have been asking about the lack of engagement and there it is.

So it would seem it is teacher-specific in our district. We didn't realize what we were lacking until we started hearing what other teachers were doing.

PTA is MIA.

What school district are you in

double post

Message edited 5/28/2020 3:15:03 PM.

What school district are you in

Kindergartner - Upstate NY

We get a weekly packet. His daily assignments include: reading, writing, math, sight word practice, science/social studies, and physical activity. He has a 45 minute small group google meet on Wednesdays where they practice their sight words and either do math or a tap it out activity. They then have a show and tell activity. He is required to submit one RAZ kids recorded reading and one writing sample per week. His teacher has an optional google meet up on Friday that he does as well. It is usually one on one and he is able to chat with her. My son is a talker so he loves it. They also have a weekly FlipGrid activity.
His teacher sends out a daily email in the morning and then will send feedback emails for the work he submits. Right now, they are doing an ABC Countdown until the end of school so each day has a letter theme.

For specials, PE does one google meet up per week. They also have contests each week, where they will come and chalk your drive way if you complete it.

Art has a padlet page, where you can post your weekly art project. We were very good about doing it in the beginning, but have slacked off big time recently.

Music has a page as well, but I have only looked at it once. They send out a weekly newsletter, but it honestly isn't a priority.

Message edited 5/28/2020 3:21:40 PM.

What school district are you in

I'm in Rockland.

4th grader - we use Google classroom. He gets work assigned on Mondays and Wednesdays. He gets math and science/social studies assigned both days and ELA and Writing is just assigned for the week on Mondays. He has a Google Meet once a week with his reading group to discuss their class reading book and other basic things.

2nd grader - he uses Seesaw. He gets work assigned daily and has to complete it each day. It's Math, Phonics, ELA and Science/Social Studies. Some of the instruction is YouTube videos and some of it is from teachers in the grade (they are doing a team teaching set up). It's only been his teacher 1x. He's had no Zooms but, is having a Zoom party on 6/15.

Teachers are required to post 2 hours of office hours a week (usually in 30 minute blocks M-Th). There is no new learning on Fridays, it's a catch up day.

For Specials - there are virtual assignments but, you can do your own thing (especially for gym).

Message edited 5/28/2020 4:21:27 PM.

What school district are you in

My boys were in a 3 year old program in a private school. I pay a pretty penny to send them to this school and I’m happy that the teachers engage the kids the way they do. They have 2 30 minute interactive zooms weekly with sons, a letter, number, color and shape. They break the class up and rotate the kids because a bunch of toddlers on zoom is not effective. My kids are always together for convenience. They post songs and stories for the kids outside of the classes and their music teacher posts weekly music for the kids. I get mail once a week with projects for the kids as well with the materials if they choose to do it. Projects are just for fun. I’m surprised at the amount of effort which is awesome. We were still required to pay our tuition monthly during this which I was indifferent about but my husband reminded me they are paying the teachers through the year and the school depends on fundraisers and tuition to remain running.
They were enrolled for next year as well but with this pandemic I’m choosing to keep them home for next year

Re: What school district are you in

4th Grade in Queens

- at the beginning they got too much work. now that they're running out of things to give them, it's eased up. Assignments get posted to google classroom daily. ELA and at least 4 pages of math every other day. Science every other day. Social Studies alternating with science.
They've run out of book things, so for social studies are reading the magic tree hours on pdf. art and music is required and every tuesday. gym was required, but the teacher gave birth so she hasn't posted in weeks. they learn new topics on their own and don't have teacher help. messages go unanswered.
they meet once a week for a community-building activity which my kid hates. it's a bunch of kids yelling at the screen and the teacher yelling at them to mute their mikes and no one listening for an hour.
overall, i've been completely disappointed with the teachers and the learning. my a student who loved school is now doing the bare minimum just to get it over with. he hates school. it's all very sad.

Re: What school district are you in

I have a second grader in Suffolk. Pretty close to you. I am very happy with my districts distance learning. They are using google classroom. Her teacher is signed on with them everyday at 930. They use google chat every morning. They have a question of the day they answer. She does reading/writing, math and science/SS everyday. Her math program is online now so they are continuing where they left off in school. Her teacher is online everyday until 2:30pm, but she will continue to answer on google chat past that if needed. The principal, gym teachers, art, music Etc. post new materials each week as well. I’m also happy with how the superintendent has kept parents informed since day 1. Overall I think they have done a great job with the cards that were dealt!

Message edited 5/31/2020 3:02:48 PM.

What school district are you in

I have a kindergartener in White Plains. I have been very happy with how things have been handled. The school superintendent has been amazing. He holds daily (M-F) read a louds for the students and update meetings/question and answer sessions for the parents. My daughter’s school principal has kept in contact via weekly update letters via email and has hosted a couple of zoom parent meetings. In anticipation of school closing children were sent home with packets of work on 3/13. The online learning platforms were up and running with in a week of school closing. My daughter’s teachers are using see-saw as the main platform for daily lessons. They post a daily schedule that consists of reading, writing, story time, word study and math additionally they post supporting activities to see saw that are more fun. We have continued to use the apps the class was already using in class and the reading specialist in the school was able to share a literacy app with the kindergarten and first grade to fill in some of the gaps. The teachers post daily videos, poems and other fun things. Sometimes they post themselves reading stories or poetry. We are being given YouTube video for some lessons like fundations- it is not ideal but works. They have a zoom meeting with the class once a week and do a fun activity with the children. The teachers also did a socially distanced visit where they drop of some of the children’s work and a care packet with books and some school supplies (basically returning unused things sent in). They are planning a second visit to drop off children’s belongings and a kindergarten diploma. We have also had specials posting on websites designed in response to distance learning but my daughter is not really into it- the music teachers start doing zoom class in mid May and the librarian did a couple of zoom meetings and has posted videos of her reading on YouTube. This past Friday the physical education teachers put together a virtual field day. The district decided that asynchronous learning was the best way to handle distance learning so that the parents and students have some flexibility. The district also loaned iPads to any students that did not have access to a tablet or computer.

Message edited 6/1/2020 10:00:12 AM.

Re: What school district are you in

I'm in Nassau and no I'm not happy with the way things have been handled.

Re: What school district are you in

What school district are you in

Nassau County here - 3rd grader and we’ve been happy with everything so far. The main teacher has assigned math, reading and social studies/science every day, and has posted youtube videos of herself going over the lessons so the kids can follow along while doing the work. The specials teachers have all posted work as well. We’ve had scheduled zooms with every single teacher also.