Coronavirus in Massachusetts (Milton, Sudbury, Dover: dyslexia, sales, 2014)

[Bridge781]

Well we’re only on week 2. But yes I guess it’s a positive that he loves the iPad

[bohemka]

Originally Posted by Bridge781

My first grader was issued an iPad this year. the teacher showed him how to use and so far he loves it.

How did the teacher show him how to use it? Our son loves the idea of gadgetry and a screen, but he doesn't at all know how how to navigate to live zooms or asynchronous recorded lessons or to submit the classwork he's been assigned. Every step requires our involvement. Throw in an older child on a Chromebook with an entirely different routine and different set of apps and procedures, and it's just ridiculous.

Private schools are conducting class in person. Why can't public schools?

[2sleepy]

Originally Posted by bohemka

How did the teacher show him how to use it? Our son loves the idea of gadgetry and a screen, but he doesn't at all know how how to navigate to live zooms or asynchronous recorded lessons or to submit the classwork he's been assigned. Every step requires our involvement. Throw in an older child on a Chromebook with an entirely different routine and different set of apps and procedures, and it's just ridiculous.

Private schools are conducting class in person. Why can't public schools?

Is your son's school using google classroom? It's pretty easy to navigate even for a first grader, oun neighbors kid is a first grader who uses a chromebook with a touch screen and can log into the google classroom apps, do the work, submit it and log himself into zoom sessions. One difference might be that in this district kids start using ipads or chromebooks in kindergarten and have done so for long before covid.

[bohemka]

Originally Posted by 2sleepy

Is your son's school using google classroom? It's pretty easy to navigate even for a first grader, oun neighbors kid is a first grader who uses a chromebook with a touch screen and can log into the google classroom apps, do the work, submit it and log himself into zoom sessions. One difference might be that in this district kids start using ipads or chromebooks in kindergarten and have done so for long before covid.

I guess our kids are dumb. Fair enough. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree and all that. My six-year-old has never seen an iPad before. To be honest, neither have I. I use dozens of apps and different systems for work (including iOS to use inDesign and Vellum), but I've never picked up an iPad, and I think it sucks. It's not intuitive at all. It also doesn't stand up on its own, so our first-grader has two hands on the device instead of one hand holding a writing implement. He's entering assignments by writing with his finger on the screen, which eliminates another essential element of his learning. We are working on solutions, but this flaw should have been addressed by teachers and administrators, not parents.

Our eight-year-old's first introduction to a laptop was in March, and then there was no screen time over the summer until last week. And his system is obviously different from that of the iPad. Two different education distribution systems. More to manage for the kids and the parents—who are pretending to continue their careers.

I think it's amazing that other young children can work fluently with iPads and Chromebooks to navigate through their lessons and submit assignments and attend zoom calls on time, but...wait. Nope. That's absolute BS that they can do all of those things on their own.

Private school kids are in class. In person. This is a massive statewide public education failure. And the problem starts with a U.

[jayrandom]

Originally Posted by bohemka

I guess our kids are dumb. Fair enough. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree and all that. My six-year-old has never seen an iPad before. To be honest, neither have I. I use dozens of apps and different systems for work (including iOS to use inDesign and Vellum), but I've never picked up an iPad, and I think it sucks. It's not intuitive at all. It also doesn't stand up on its own, so our first-grader has two hands on the device instead of one hand holding a writing implement. He's entering assignments by writing with his finger on the screen, which eliminates another essential element of his learning. We are working on solutions, but this flaw should have been addressed by teachers and administrators, not parents.

Our eight-year-old's first introduction to a laptop was in March, and then there was no screen time over the summer until last week. And his system is obviously different from that of the iPad. Two different education distribution systems. More to manage for the kids and the parents—who are pretending to continue their careers.

I think it's amazing that other young children can work fluently with iPads and Chromebooks to navigate through their lessons and submit assignments and attend zoom calls on time, but...wait. Nope. That's absolute BS that they can do all of those things on their own.

Private school kids are in class. In person. This is a massive statewide public education failure. And the problem starts with a U.

Don’t fret, my kids are dumb, too. I guess somewhere out there are first graders who have no problems remote learning, but not my kids or really any of their friends. Thankfully our district did the best they could and got the first graders and kindergartners in 4 days a week. That’s one day of remote learning which isn’t entirely a waste of time, but it’s probably 10-20% as effective as in person learning.

Of course, we’ve already established my kids are stupid and this is definitely not a problem for most 5 and 6 year olds who can power through hours of Zoom learning with no problems and then independently learn the rest of the time. I’m glad at least I got my kids into a district for other stupid kids.

[bohemka]

Originally Posted by jayrandom

Don’t fret, my kids are dumb, too. I guess somewhere out there are first graders who have no problems remote learning, but not my kids or really any of their friends. Thankfully our district did the best they could and got the first graders and kindergartners in 4 days a week. That’s one day of remote learning which isn’t entirely a waste of time, but it’s probably 10-20% as effective as in person learning.

Of course, we’ve already established my kids are stupid and this is definitely not a problem for most 5 and 6 year olds who can power through hours of Zoom learning with no problems and then independently learn the rest of the time. I’m glad at least I got my kids into a district for other stupid kids.

Ha! Well, we're 100% remote. My kids will be sweeping your kids' floors in a dozen years or so.

[BostonMike7]

Mine are in second grade now, but prior to covid they had never used an IPad simple because we never introduced them and tried to minimize screen time. Covid kinda threw all that out the window due to necessity.


One is hybrid 5 days a week (half days) in school, the other is full remote. 3 year old is in a small (3-4 kids) home day care 4-days a week. This years remote lessons are actually going better than last, but I must admit it’s nice when the house is empty and I can actually focus on work. My sons school system that is full remote is planning to return to in class lessons in oct.

[robr2]

Originally Posted by bohemka

How did the teacher show him how to use it? Our son loves the idea of gadgetry and a screen, but he doesn't at all know how how to navigate to live zooms or asynchronous recorded lessons or to submit the classwork he's been assigned. Every step requires our involvement. Throw in an older child on a Chromebook with an entirely different routine and different set of apps and procedures, and it's just ridiculous.

Private schools are conducting class in person. Why can't public schools?

Not all private schools are conducting class 100% in person. As for why some are, it's because the parents of private school kids in MD sued citing religious freedoms and were expected to win when the Governor overruled the Department of Education. Typically private schools have smaller class sizes, more money to spend on PPE, and support, and greater flexibility than public schools. They also have teachers that are much easily dismissed than public school teachers.

The elite schools have the ability to hire extra personnel to make things easier for their teachers as well. My niece was hired at a hoity toity boarding/day school to assist the public school children of the school's teachers/employees with their remote learning so that their parents could be in the classroom.

[htfdcolt]

Originally Posted by sawyer2

Agreed - important to look at rolling averages rather than one day spike, and in-town case loads/trends rather than state wide.

We are doing better than I thought we would be at this point.

Well, turns out I'm not the only one who's concerned with us consistently seeing nearly 500 cases/day. Is it indoor dining? Is it the increased testing by colleges & universities? No one seems to be able to pinpoint it. I was hoping for a much lower baseline, going into the full indoors season.

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/09/...d-19-increase/

[htfdcolt]

Wondering if someone can shed light on this.

I was participating remotely in a meeting with some colleagues this past week, who were at my workplace in a conference room. I was shocked to see on the webcam that all had removed their masks. I actually raised this question at the outset, and was told, "That's because we're sitting more than 6' apart. That's the CDC guideline". I did verify this is the case, but isn't no masking and sharing the same indoor space one of the known culprits for spread?

Also, I checked the MA guideline, which does not seem to make this distinction. In other words, facial coverings are required, and as far as I can tell, regardless of whether you're able to social distance or not. Two questions:

(1) Is my interpretation correct?
(2) If they differ, which guidance should my workplace be following--CDC or MA?