Our school district just announced it would be 100% online in the fall.

[brett]

My daughter selected on line learning for her son...going into grade 1.

It has been a good experience. First thing they did was test his math and reading capabilities. He came in at grade 3 math so he was put in the grade 2 level to start. Same with English. This means he will progress at his own rate, vs. at the rate he would have in an in class environment. They will do the same for science. I suspect some of this will rub off on his younger sister who often 'listen ins' on the lessons and on the homework discussions.

At her local school some classrooms have lost 10, 20, 30 percent of their students. They have been sent home to isolate after exhibiting symptoms that may or may not be related to covid. Major interruptions.

I think the success of these programs depends on the school board, the individual teachers, and of course the parents.

 

[harllee]

My daughter selected on line learning for her son...going into grade 1.

It has been a good experience. First thing they did was test his math and reading capabilities. He came in at grade 3 math so he was put in the grade 2 level to start. Same with English. This means he will progress at his own rate, vs. at the rate he would have in an in class environment. They will do the same for science. I suspect some of this will rub off on his younger sister who often 'listen ins' on the lessons and on the homework discussions.

At her local school some classrooms have lost 10, 20, 30 percent of their students. They have been sent home to isolate after exhibiting symptoms that may or may not be related to covid. Major interruptions.

I think the success of these programs depends on the school board, the individual teachers, and of course the parents.

You have a smart grandson! Sounds like he is self motivated and I would think those types of students would do best for on line learning.

 

[rodi]

My son is still 100% online. My son's teachers are providing rigor and solid academics. It helps that he's a senior enrolled in IB and AP courses. The district (probably at the direction of higher powers) is giving weighted grades to IB courses, even without taking the tests. (Previously you had to take the test or they took away the grade weight... Unlike AP courses.). I'm sure this is a result of the cancellation of last year's IB exams. The school is encouraging kids to consider taking AP exams in the IB subject if they want college credit. AP tests are slightly easier than the IB tests. Last year AP exams were online.

The only downside to virtual learning is our bandwidth hit for the 4-5 hours he has zoom or Google classroom (or both) going.

 

[explanade]

University of Notre Dame had a big outbreak, traced to a couple of events, one of which was a big sit-down meal before a game.

They have 25 players in isolation and 14 more in quarantine.

They were forced to postpone a game last week.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/nc...-spread-like-wildfire-on-his-team/ar-BB19y41B


In August, there was a 55% increase in covid cases among the 18-22 age group as universities opened for in-person classes.

Between Aug. 2 and Sept. 5, weekly cases of COVID-19 among people aged 18 to 22 rose 55.1%. The Northeast region recorded a 144% increase in COVID-19 cases, while Midwest cases rose 123.4%, the report said.


The uptick in cases was not solely attributable to increased testing and could be linked to some universities resuming in-person attendance, the CDC researchers said. They also said transmission could also be among young adults not attending college.


Previous reports identify young adults as being less likely to adhere to prevention measures, the report said.

In a separate study published in CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) on Tuesday, researchers reported a rapid rise of COVID-19 cases two weeks after a North Carolina university opened its campus to students.

The study found that between Aug. 3 and Aug. 25, the university reported 670 laboratory-confirmed cases of COVID-19, with preliminary investigations finding that student gatherings and congregate living settings likely contributed to the spread.


On Aug. 19, classes moved online and the school began to reduce density of on-campus housing. No COVID-19 patient from the university was hospitalized or had died, the researchers said.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/c...ults-in-u-s-rise-55-in-august-cdc/ar-BB19xLwI

 

[rodi]

Two unrelated school updates.

The UC system had taken the stance of not requiring SAT/ACT... Considering it optional. Some campuses went further to say they would not consider the scores. But some still had it as part of their consideration. Until yesterday. Bad for the kids who till the test and aced it prior to covid... But great for the kids who were disadvantaged by multiple cancellations.

Our local district, San Diego Unified, announced a very limited amount of in person starting on 10/13... They are choosing kids with special needs, grade school kids who aren't doing well with distance learning, and any kids they've figured out who are homeless. In other words, they are trying to reach the kids who are falling through the cracks with distance learning. I think this is a good approach.

 

[Aerides]

My niece started college at UCF in late August. In person, dorms. They are 4 to a dorm, and have individual bedrooms, 2 to a bathroom, and 1 shared kitchen/living.

She has joined a sorority, has a boyfriend there, but has avoided large gatherings, parties, etc., (she says, hah) - so far so good though, she's had 3 tests all negative - 1 at the start, the other two she went and got after hearing of a casual friend that was positive.

Being florida, there hasn't been much regular random testing on the students, but that is increasing now, starting with the greek groups, so we'll see how it goes. The campus will close at thanksgiving, and not reopen till the end of January or something for the 2nd in-person session.

 

[Bamaman]

Our school can choose 9 weeks at home online and then going back to school daily. Or, they can do online learning without support from the school for a minimum of one semester.

Our 4th grade granddaughter's physically back in school prematurely because the online curriculum the schoolboard purchased crashed constantly. Teachers on Zoom spent all their time trying to get the computers to mesh up. They simply couldn't do any teaching after trying to manage the online coursework.

Our 7th grade grandson's father chose the full semester online--without teacher support. He has a reading disability and spent an hour on the phone with my wife yesterday teaching him two courses. The school board's thrown him to the wolves, and he's having difficulties.

So far, many of our kids are at least a full 1/2 year behind in their schoolwork. Unless big changes are made quick, they'll shortly be a full year behind and this time cannot be gotten back. In the meantime, we parents and grandparents are having to pick up the slack as teachers. Unfortunately so many parents do not/cannot do the job as teacher for various reasons.

 

[Chuckanut]

Same here. It looked like we might get to open schools for k-2 students in a few weeks, but the infection rate has been rising since mid September, so I doubt that will happen.

Despite this being a major state-wide election year, nobody seems to care. The silence is deafening. I wonder if the next volcano to erupt won't in the Cascade Range, but instead will be fed up parents.

 

[GravitySucks]

As of yesterday only 12 active cases and a total of less than 40.
Looks like there's a good handle on it for now, but I'm still betting on in person classes canceled and dorm closed by the end of the month.

Welp, I was wrong again. Syracuse University is doing a bang up job keeping the students safe. Classes are continuing as usual.

https://www.syracuse.edu/covid-dashboard/

A friend has picked up some extra cash working security on campus, basically walking around in the evening making sure the kids are masked up and in groups less than 10. He did say the students were getting sloppy about it last week though.

(And Harlee's Tar Heels spanked my Orangemen in the season opener. Hoping we get our revenge when BB season starts.)

 

[harllee]

Welp, I was wrong again. Syracuse University is doing a bang up job keeping the students safe. Classes are continuing as usual.

https://www.syracuse.edu/covid-dashboard/

A friend has picked up some extra cash working security on campus, basically walking around in the evening making sure the kids are masked up and in groups less than 10. He did say the students were getting sloppy about it last week though.

(And Harlee's Tar Heels spanked my Orangemen in the season opener. Hoping we get our revenge when BB season starts.)

The Tar Heel football team may have beat Syracuse in FB but Syracuse is beating UNC in a much more important measure--continuing classes. All classes at UNC are online and the dorms are closed to most students. Now they are trying to figure out Spring semester. Many of UNC students have acted awful and disregarded the rules, they are an embarrassment to me.

 

[gerntz]

Many of the students working at home do go to the school for extracurriculars or athletic and that is often what most of them wanted anyway.
.

That takes a level of personal mobility that many may not have.

 

[regenaeb]

Well it happened. We received the call/email yesterday afternoon that we had our first cases of positive Covid at my twins middle school. Thankfully it is not their class. There are 2 cases, siblings that are in separate grades (not twins like mine). But because of all the precautions it will only affect their two classrooms of 15 kids each. There is no changing classes this year in the middle school, eating lunch in the classrooms as well, so the exposure was contained to those 2 classrooms only. We live on a military base and the school is located next to housing so there are no busses at our school, which means also no need to quarantine an entire bus of kids. I am thankful for all the extra precautions they have put in place this year so when it does happen it will be minimal exposure. Now only 30 kids and 4 teachers will need to remote learn/quarantine for the next 2 weeks instead of shutting down the whole school because those 2 children were in 7 different classrooms per day and the cafeteria full of kids.

My twins were not happy about being put in the same class together this year, but this shows exactly why the school wanted to do it. If one of them gets it, they only need to quarantine 1 class of 15 and 2 teachers. It just works better for the school and everyone concerned.