Cancelling of classes by #abed was a necessary measure to help limit the spread of #COVID19AB. Teachers and support staff worked tirelessly for the following week to transition their resources to a virtual delivery method. Many skipped their ‘spring break’ in order to do so.
Because our family is with the Catholic School division, we started online learning last Monday (our Spring Break is in April). I am going to provide you with a bit of a *reality check* about what our first week of structured online learning is really like.
My husband is a principal with the district and I work full-time in academia. So, one could say we are well-equipped to educate our children with the assistance of teachers online.
(Narrator: they were not)
We have three children in grades 2, 6 and 8.
(Narrator: they were not)
We have three children in grades 2, 6 and 8.
Even with the amazing support of our teachers and support staff, the transition to online learning has been incredibly disruptive. My own work productivity has decreased by at least 50% and my children have no additional requirements for supported learning.
I have friends who wake up incredibly early to get a few hours of their own work completed before their children wake up, so that they can spend the work day educating/enriching them, and then continue to work late into the evening once their kids have gone to bed.
Yes, we have considerably lowered our expectations of ourselves and our children. My children’s screen time has increased exponentially, they play in the backyard with minimal supervision. They do chores and help with cooking/meal prep. But this all takes time to supervise.
Academic time requires me to be directly engaged with my children to ensure they are a) doing their work and b) understanding the concepts correctly. This is even with the amazing resources and online sessions teachers are providing.
Our teachers have been thrown into a new environment, and are working incredibly hard learning new and innovative techniques to educate our children. They have been doing with with the help of support staff.
Now that school is up and running online, there are children who will need the additional support of education assistants and librarians to ensure their learning is happening. Yesterday, the #AbLeg took that away. Now, more load is placed on teachers and parents.
This is further going to decrease productivity. Plus, this is all happening when the majority of our population is still healthy...what happens when we start to see rates of COVID increasing and teachers and parents start to get sick? Remember, #Abed cut substitute teachers too.
We are living in exceptional circumstances. People are navigating completely disrupted work and life environments. Now is NOT the time to be cutting supports. We need these support staff; teachers and parents are already spread too thin...and the pandemic hasn’t even hit us yet.
@threadreaderapp please unroll
