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FirstMate
My lil cowboy
Member since 10/10 7789 total posts
Name:
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School district reviews
Every so often you see people asking about what are "great school districts" and people always refer to the various ratings sites. You know what? All you have to do is go on the LI Moms FB page and read the posts with moms asking questions about what each school district is doing in response to this Coronavirus and you can see just how organized or disorganized each district is. You can also see who is more technologically with the times and who allocates resources correctly.
I remember people telling me Farmingdale was not so good. Um...they seem to have their sh!t together really well compared to the "great" school district I'm in. My kids teachers, who are fabulous, have been in contact with us through the Remind app frequently but as of yesterday, they very carefully worded in a positive light that they had no directives from the district yet. WTF. Our district was one of the first to close last week.
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Posted 3/17/20 5:29 AM  |
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LSP2005
Bunny kisses are so cute!
Member since 5/05 19453 total posts
Name:
L
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Re: School district reviews
My district has
• a nightly email from the superintendent
• morning emails from all teachers
• log into the parent portal for attendance daily
• for my 5th grade student one of their teachers is on video reading a book
• they have math, science, language arts, english, spanish, and social studies along with specials including gym
• each teacher has a daily outline of work that needs to be turned in daily.
• last week a book was sent home with some other reading materials.
• for my seventh grade student all classes have work including his cooking cycle where he is expected to cook at home.
• the teachers are using videos, on line drawing tools so the students can draw, photos to be emailed, essay writing, reading, text book usage, and having kids call other kids in class to do "group" assignments.
• for music the kids were required to tape themselves singing and send it to the teacher.
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| Posted 3/17/20 5:59 AM |
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FirstMate
My lil cowboy
Member since 10/10 7789 total posts
Name:
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Re: School district reviews
Posted by LSP2005
My district has
• a nightly email from the superintendent
• morning emails from all teachers
• log into the parent portal for attendance daily
• for my 5th grade student one of their teachers is on video reading a book
• they have math, science, language arts, english, spanish, and social studies along with specials including gym
• each teacher has a daily outline of work that needs to be turned in daily.
• last week a book was sent home with some other reading materials.
• for my seventh grade student all classes have work including his cooking cycle where he is expected to cook at home.
• the teachers are using videos, on line drawing tools so the students can draw, photos to be emailed, essay writing, reading, text book usage, and having kids call other kids in class to do "group" assignments.
• for music the kids were required to tape themselves singing and send it to the teacher.
Wow! That's impressive! (and slightly annoying to parents LOL)
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| Posted 3/17/20 6:43 AM |
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LSP2005
Bunny kisses are so cute!
Member since 5/05 19453 total posts
Name:
L
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Re: School district reviews
My normally excellent student just wants to text, FaceTime, and play on line with her friends,
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| Posted 3/17/20 7:45 AM |
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NervousNell
Just another chapter in life..
Member since 11/09 54917 total posts
Name:
..being a mommy and being a wife!
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Re: School district reviews
Posted by LSP2005
My normally excellent student just wants to text, FaceTime, and play on line with her friends,
Same. And they aren't sending home any work or doing any "virtual" learning in my district.
And I have to work full time because we have bills to pay and I am not a teacher- I'm actually TERRIBLE at teaching anything to anyone.
So the school will have to figure this out after all is said and done. That's their job
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| Posted 3/17/20 7:56 AM |
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MrsT809
LIF Adult
Member since 9/09 12167 total posts
Name:
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Re: School district reviews
Posted by LSP2005
My district has
• a nightly email from the superintendent
• morning emails from all teachers
• log into the parent portal for attendance daily
• for my 5th grade student one of their teachers is on video reading a book
• they have math, science, language arts, english, spanish, and social studies along with specials including gym
• each teacher has a daily outline of work that needs to be turned in daily.
• last week a book was sent home with some other reading materials.
• for my seventh grade student all classes have work including his cooking cycle where he is expected to cook at home.
• the teachers are using videos, on line drawing tools so the students can draw, photos to be emailed, essay writing, reading, text book usage, and having kids call other kids in class to do "group" assignments.
• for music the kids were required to tape themselves singing and send it to the teacher.
So is your district not using vacation days right now?
A lot of confusion I've seen has been talk about sending work home and keeping instruction going but then they changed the calendar to use up snow and vacation days so no work is required for the first two weeks. Parents are annoyed that work is not ready yet but I don't think they quite grasp that this is the last time off they'll get this year whether kids are physically in school or not.
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| Posted 3/17/20 7:57 AM |
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NervousNell
Just another chapter in life..
Member since 11/09 54917 total posts
Name:
..being a mommy and being a wife!
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Re: School district reviews
Posted by MrsT809
Posted by LSP2005
My district has
• a nightly email from the superintendent
• morning emails from all teachers
• log into the parent portal for attendance daily
• for my 5th grade student one of their teachers is on video reading a book
• they have math, science, language arts, english, spanish, and social studies along with specials including gym
• each teacher has a daily outline of work that needs to be turned in daily.
• last week a book was sent home with some other reading materials.
• for my seventh grade student all classes have work including his cooking cycle where he is expected to cook at home.
• the teachers are using videos, on line drawing tools so the students can draw, photos to be emailed, essay writing, reading, text book usage, and having kids call other kids in class to do "group" assignments.
• for music the kids were required to tape themselves singing and send it to the teacher.
So is your district not using vacation days right now?
A lot of confusion I've seen has been talk about sending work home and keeping instruction going but then they changed the calendar to use up snow and vacation days so no work is required for the first two weeks. Parents are annoyed that work is not ready yet but I don't think they quite grasp that this is the last time off they'll get this year whether kids are physically in school or not.
yes we were told these 2 weeks are a combo of snow days and vaca days so no homework or classwork.
they already said the spring break days that were normally scheduled for Easter week are cancelled as is some dates in May
Message edited 3/17/2020 8:08:05 AM.
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| Posted 3/17/20 8:07 AM |
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LSP2005
Bunny kisses are so cute!
Member since 5/05 19453 total posts
Name:
L
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Re: School district reviews
Posted by MrsT809
Posted by LSP2005
My district has
• a nightly email from the superintendent
• morning emails from all teachers
• log into the parent portal for attendance daily
• for my 5th grade student one of their teachers is on video reading a book
• they have math, science, language arts, english, spanish, and social studies along with specials including gym
• each teacher has a daily outline of work that needs to be turned in daily.
• last week a book was sent home with some other reading materials.
• for my seventh grade student all classes have work including his cooking cycle where he is expected to cook at home.
• the teachers are using videos, on line drawing tools so the students can draw, photos to be emailed, essay writing, reading, text book usage, and having kids call other kids in class to do "group" assignments.
• for music the kids were required to tape themselves singing and send it to the teacher.
So is your district not using vacation days right now?
A lot of confusion I've seen has been talk about sending work home and keeping instruction going but then they changed the calendar to use up snow and vacation days so no work is required for the first two weeks. Parents are annoyed that work is not ready yet but I don't think they quite grasp that this is the last time off they'll get this year whether kids are physically in school or not.
not on vacation and spring break is in late April.
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| Posted 3/17/20 8:15 AM |
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PitterPatter11
Baby Boy is Here!
Member since 5/11 7612 total posts
Name:
Momma <3
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Re: School district reviews
For some schools, this week is replacing spring break and/or unused snow days.
Most districts are struggling with equity issues. Many in my district have access to the internet, but not all do. This means that my district will not allow us to count any of the work the students complete for a grade. We are also only allowed to expose students to new content, but there can be no requirement that students actually complete the work.
With that said, I teach HS and I already had all my resources online. Even though my students are comfortable with our online platform, I am still fielding probably over an hour of communication daily in addition to modifying content that I was planning to do in class. It is a stressful time for all parties involved.
Message edited 3/18/2020 6:56:41 AM.
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| Posted 3/18/20 6:55 AM |
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Mrs213
????????
Member since 2/09 18986 total posts
Name:
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Re: School district reviews
Posted by NervousNell
Posted by LSP2005
My normally excellent student just wants to text, FaceTime, and play on line with her friends,
Same. And they aren't sending home any work or doing any "virtual" learning in my district.
And I have to work full time because we have bills to pay and I am not a teacher- I'm actually TERRIBLE at teaching anything to anyone.
So the school will have to figure this out after all is said and done. That's their job
We have packets they made up but it’s barely a half hour worth of work. They suggested to do XtraMath I paid 5 bucks for this stupid app that only has one thing. Trying to race against the computer with math problems. The other app the teacher told me to use, the login doesn’t work. This is a big joke...
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| Posted 3/18/20 2:36 PM |
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Naturalmama
Love my boys!!
Member since 1/12 3548 total posts
Name:
Christine
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School district reviews
Our school is intense. On Friday, all kids were sent home with devices (ipad or chrome book). We are using Google Classroom & Zoom. The kids have to sign in at 9 am each morning, and they have a 60 minute zoom meeting with their teacher. Then they get that day's assignments- ELA, math, science, social studies, writing. The specials teachers have posted assignments as well. Today was music- so he had to do something for the music teacher. It is a huge PIA, but at least I know they will hopefully be ready for the next grade if we are out until September.
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| Posted 3/18/20 3:27 PM |
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jellybean78
:)
Member since 8/06 13103 total posts
Name:
Mommy
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School district reviews
The students in our school all have Chromebooks. The district and the teachers have been doing a great job in communicating with the students and the parents. Assignments are available in Google classroom. It's been a pretty smooth transition for DD since they were used to using all the tools before hand. We are in a SD that is considered "average" on this board and at times we hear negative remarks about our SD because of our minority population.
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| Posted 3/18/20 3:30 PM |
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Mrs213
????????
Member since 2/09 18986 total posts
Name:
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Re: School district reviews
Posted by jellybean78
The students in our school all have Chromebooks. The district and the teachers have been doing a great job in communicating with the students and the parents. Assignments are available in Google classroom. It's been a pretty smooth transition for DD since they were used to using all the tools before hand. We are in a SD that is considered "average" on this board and at times we hear negative remarks about our SD because of our minority population.
What grade are the kids who have the chrome books?
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| Posted 3/18/20 4:11 PM |
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FirstMate
My lil cowboy
Member since 10/10 7789 total posts
Name:
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Re: School district reviews
Posted by Naturalmama
Our school is intense. On Friday, all kids were sent home with devices (ipad or chrome book). We are using Google Classroom & Zoom. The kids have to sign in at 9 am each morning, and they have a 60 minute zoom meeting with their teacher. Then they get that day's assignments- ELA, math, science, social studies, writing. The specials teachers have posted assignments as well. Today was music- so he had to do something for the music teacher. It is a huge PIA, but at least I know they will hopefully be ready for the next grade if we are out until September.
That is awesome but is insanely exhausting for you all at the same time. I already said recorder practice is suspended indefinitely.
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| Posted 3/18/20 5:14 PM |
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LSP2005
Bunny kisses are so cute!
Member since 5/05 19453 total posts
Name:
L
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Re: School district reviews
Posted by Naturalmama
Our school is intense. On Friday, all kids were sent home with devices (ipad or chrome book). We are using Google Classroom & Zoom. The kids have to sign in at 9 am each morning, and they have a 60 minute zoom meeting with their teacher. Then they get that day's assignments- ELA, math, science, social studies, writing. The specials teachers have posted assignments as well. Today was music- so he had to do something for the music teacher. It is a huge PIA, but at least I know they will hopefully be ready for the next grade if we are out until September.
I think they are going to add in zoom based on the superintendent email tonight. Parents had a 90 response thread going on the town parent board that the local private schools are using zoom and why can't we. I fully expect that to be added to everything. My kids have roughly 3 hours of work. We do the work in the morning after breakfast. Then lunch, then we went for a walk. We are playing games in the afternoon. They are texting and gaming on line with friends in the afternoon. We baked cookies which we then promptly ate so dinner was at 8pm because we ate cookies at 5. Duh me. I have to work on scheduling better. Half the day we are in pjs. I need to get out. A restaurant in town is now offering simple bagged groceries you can get from their drive up window. I will be getting something tomorrow. Hope it works out.
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| Posted 3/18/20 7:35 PM |
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jellybean78
:)
Member since 8/06 13103 total posts
Name:
Mommy
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Re: School district reviews
Posted by Mrs213
Posted by jellybean78
The students in our school all have Chromebooks. The district and the teachers have been doing a great job in communicating with the students and the parents. Assignments are available in Google classroom. It's been a pretty smooth transition for DD since they were used to using all the tools before hand. We are in a SD that is considered "average" on this board and at times we hear negative remarks about our SD because of our minority population.
What grade are the kids who have the chrome books?
Grades 4-8
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| Posted 3/19/20 5:19 AM |
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LIRascal
drama. daily.
Member since 3/11 7287 total posts
Name:
Michelle
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School district reviews
Listen to me. The response to this virus does not make a district great vs. good vs. just okay. The teachers are the lifeblood and core of the district, NOT the administrators at the top making decisions! Just because there is virtual learning vs packets does not mean they're better. In fact, a carefully planned district who monitors their community's needs is 10000000 times better than one who just throws out a packet or online assignment.
There are a million factors to consider: household ability to connect to wifi, equipment,bandwith, member of the household who need to be connected at all times, learning disabilities, teacher aides, support classes and the list goes on and oon.
Your assumptions are hurtful to those of us trying our best to home educate our children while appearing online for virtual lessons, monitoring student work and progress, adjusting to a new life, all while trying to make everyone happy. This isn't easy for anyone. How dare you?
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| Posted 3/19/20 7:59 AM |
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amac27
LIF Toddler
Member since 8/09 471 total posts
Name:
A
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Re: School district reviews
Posted by LSP2005
Posted by Naturalmama
Our school is intense. On Friday, all kids were sent home with devices (ipad or chrome book). We are using Google Classroom & Zoom. The kids have to sign in at 9 am each morning, and they have a 60 minute zoom meeting with their teacher. Then they get that day's assignments- ELA, math, science, social studies, writing. The specials teachers have posted assignments as well. Today was music- so he had to do something for the music teacher. It is a huge PIA, but at least I know they will hopefully be ready for the next grade if we are out until September.
I think they are going to add in zoom based on the superintendent email tonight. Parents had a 90 response thread going on the town parent board that the local private schools are using zoom and why can't we. I fully expect that to be added to everything. My kids have roughly 3 hours of work. We do the work in the morning after breakfast. Then lunch, then we went for a walk. We are playing games in the afternoon. They are texting and gaming on line with friends in the afternoon. We baked cookies which we then promptly ate so dinner was at 8pm because we ate cookies at 5. Duh me. I have to work on scheduling better. Half the day we are in pjs. I need to get out. A restaurant in town is now offering simple bagged groceries you can get from their drive up window. I will be getting something tomorrow. Hope it works out.
I suspect we live in the same town!!!
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| Posted 3/19/20 8:06 AM |
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amac27
LIF Toddler
Member since 8/09 471 total posts
Name:
A
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Re: School district reviews
Posted by LIRascal
Listen to me. The response to this virus does not make a district great vs. good vs. just okay. The teachers are the lifeblood and core of the district, NOT the administrators at the top making decisions! Just because there is virtual learning vs packets does not mean they're better. In fact, a carefully planned district who monitors their community's needs is 10000000 times better than one who just throws out a packet or online assignment.
There are a million factors to consider: household ability to connect to wifi, equipment,bandwith, member of the household who need to be connected at all times, learning disabilities, teacher aides, support classes and the list goes on and oon.
Your assumptions are hurtful to those of us trying our best to home educate our children while appearing online for virtual lessons, monitoring student work and progress, adjusting to a new life, all while trying to make everyone happy. This isn't easy for anyone. How dare you?
I tried to explain this to a parent losing their crap on the local Facebook page. He was ranting about how teachers shouldn't be getting paid if they were not setting up online learning. Our district has a ton of low income students. The district's first priority was making sure that those lower income students who needed food and packets had access to them. People who do not work/have never worked in a district have no idea what goes on behind the scenes.
Kudos to all teachers who are currently trying to maintain some sort of normalcy with their students while managing their own children!!!
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| Posted 3/19/20 8:10 AM |
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LSP2005
Bunny kisses are so cute!
Member since 5/05 19453 total posts
Name:
L
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Re: School district reviews
Posted by amac27
Posted by LIRascal
Listen to me. The response to this virus does not make a district great vs. good vs. just okay. The teachers are the lifeblood and core of the district, NOT the administrators at the top making decisions! Just because there is virtual learning vs packets does not mean they're better. In fact, a carefully planned district who monitors their community's needs is 10000000 times better than one who just throws out a packet or online assignment.
There are a million factors to consider: household ability to connect to wifi, equipment,bandwith, member of the household who need to be connected at all times, learning disabilities, teacher aides, support classes and the list goes on and oon.
Your assumptions are hurtful to those of us trying our best to home educate our children while appearing online for virtual lessons, monitoring student work and progress, adjusting to a new life, all while trying to make everyone happy. This isn't easy for anyone. How dare you?
I tried to explain this to a parent losing their crap on the local Facebook page. He was ranting about how teachers shouldn't be getting paid if they were not setting up online learning. Our district has a ton of low income students. The district's first priority was making sure that those lower income students who needed food and packets had access to them. People who do not work/have never worked in a district have no idea what goes on behind the scenes.
Kudos to all teachers who are currently trying to maintain some sort of normalcy with their students while managing their own children!!!
I know there is free broadband for low income families and at least in NJ there was a mandate for chrome books for every kid in grades three to five. Some schools have them for all grades. I know our district handed out those chrome books to any student that did not have access to one. They are also distributing food to those in need. I’ve seen posts from friends in other local to me districts about food distribution for those in need too. So I do have to say if your district is not teaming up within your county to help the residents out, why not? This is something my county and state have set up. It just takes planning.
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| Posted 3/19/20 8:28 AM |
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FirstMate
My lil cowboy
Member since 10/10 7789 total posts
Name:
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Re: School district reviews
Posted by LIRascal
Listen to me. The response to this virus does not make a district great vs. good vs. just okay. The teachers are the lifeblood and core of the district, NOT the administrators at the top making decisions! Just because there is virtual learning vs packets does not mean they're better. In fact, a carefully planned district who monitors their community's needs is 10000000 times better than one who just throws out a packet or online assignment.
There are a million factors to consider: household ability to connect to wifi, equipment,bandwith, member of the household who need to be connected at all times, learning disabilities, teacher aides, support classes and the list goes on and oon.
Your assumptions are hurtful to those of us trying our best to home educate our children while appearing online for virtual lessons, monitoring student work and progress, adjusting to a new life, all while trying to make everyone happy. This isn't easy for anyone. How dare you?
You totally misunderstood my post. I am in no way criticizing the teachers. At all. If you go back and read what I said, I said my kids teachers are fabulous. And they are. They were in constant contact on their own with us giving us some directives. What I was saying is that you can assess a district i.e. administration on how efficiently this crisis is being handled and some are handling it much, much better than others. No question.
This is when you see whether administrations can shine or not and really gives a sense of how the district is managed. I can tell you mine is disorganized and lacking in technology compared to what I am seeing with other districts and that has absolutely NOTHING to do with the teachers.
So calm down. I was not insulting teachers at all. I know how hard they work and now I'm getting a taste of it. I can tell you, teachers have the hardest job in the world!
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| Posted 3/19/20 8:50 AM |
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lululu
LIF Adult
Member since 7/05 9508 total posts
Name:
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Re: School district reviews
I think your post was a little premature because while some districts may have been more prepared than others, other districts are really pulling it together now. There are a million moving parts that go into this so it's hard to criticize what's going on behind the scenes when you aren't there. I definitely wouldn't judge a district by how they responded in the first couple days. If you want to assess the overall response when everything is said and done, that's another story... But just because a horse comes out of the gate fast, does not mean he's going to win the race.
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| Posted 3/19/20 9:10 AM |
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alli3131
Peanut is here!!!!!!
Member since 5/09 18388 total posts
Name:
Allison
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School district reviews
I’m in Farmingdale and I love it. I grew up in Northport and when I was there we were award winning. I have to say so far farmingdale is blowing away my expectations.
I have been in contact with my sons teacher daily and on day last week we talked to her on the phone to walk us through the portal to make sure we could get in. There is so much love and pride in our district it’s amazing
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| Posted 3/19/20 9:49 AM |
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NervousNell
Just another chapter in life..
Member since 11/09 54917 total posts
Name:
..being a mommy and being a wife!
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Re: School district reviews
If you want to judge a school but how they are handling this, mine must be the worst in the nation.
We have no work.
No homework
No classwork
No assignments
No google class or whatever the heck that is
No communication of any kind from the teacher(though DD's wasn't much of a communicator all year long to be honest)
We get emails and robo calls from the Superintendent with updates.
In his last one he said no work will be assigned for these 2 weeks as they are vacation and snow days.
I think we are the only ones on the planet with zero for the kids to have to do.
They are just sitting and wasting away.
Message edited 3/19/2020 10:26:01 AM.
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| Posted 3/19/20 10:25 AM |
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MrsT809
LIF Adult
Member since 9/09 12167 total posts
Name:
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Re: School district reviews
Posted by NervousNell
If you want to judge a school but how they are handling this, mine must be the worst in the nation.
We have no work.
No homework
No classwork
No assignments
No google class or whatever the heck that is
No communication of any kind from the teacher(though DD's wasn't much of a communicator all year long to be honest)
We get emails and robo calls from the Superintendent with updates.
In his last one he said no work will be assigned for these 2 weeks as they are vacation and snow days.
I think we are the only ones on the planet with zero for the kids to have to do.
They are just sitting and wasting away.
My home district is the same. It seems they're still assessing the best way to assign work but nothing is required the first two weeks since it's vacation. I'm fine with that since looking at the calendar, they won't get a single day off the rest of the year even if they don't go back.
I can tell you your district has conference days today and tomorrow and teachers are working from home to get work together.
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| Posted 3/19/20 11:27 AM |
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