Here is one to hopefully make you smile!
Yesterday, kiddo’s science teacher couldn’t get internet for the Zoom classroom. He drove in his car to a place where he could pick it up and hosted 3 lectures that day from the Prius. Now that is commitment!
Interesting article @ the rush to online learning:
@golfr8 --What a great teacher! (Says one rival school mom to another!)
Thanks @itcannotbetrue ?. Back at you!! BTW, my article on the golfer’s guide to emotionally surviving a crisis has been republished. PM me for the link.
PA (finally) gave in and announced remote learning through the rest of the spring trimester.
Does anyone know about these MA high schools having their Zoom classrooms hijacked? New warning from the FBI @ security.
No, but I just happened to see on Twitter this morning that questions are being raised about Zoom’s privacy and data security practices (perhaps all related). I did not read the article.
Update my friends. Deerfield just announced (like other schools this week) that they will go to online learning for the remainder of the year. My heart breaks for the Seniors. Kiddo is very upset - just yelled at us “You have no idea what it is like to have to live with OLD people for the rest of the year!”?
Very impressed by SPS communication and online learning. The schedule is a bit wonky to accommodate different time zones but the process is well organized and the teachers are using Zoom to good effect. For example, setting up private discussion groups during class, assigning a few students in each group to discuss a topic and setting a timer for them to then rejoin the class Zoom and report back. From what I overhear, there’s good discussion happening during class and also the standard amount of homework being assigned. Expectations are high - but doable.
DS finally started today. He had four class meetings plus a meeting for rock ensemble. He also got up at 7:20 and then realized his first class wasn’t till 9:50, but I guess better than the alternative. I heard a lot of exuberance and with my office across the hall from his room, I feel like I have a bunch of teenage boys in my house. It sounded pretty lively. From the teachers’ kick-off emails, they seem very enthusiastic and miss being with the kids. I’m optimistic. I hope everyone is doing okay!
Darrow hasn’t started on line classes yet (next week I think) and my DD20 graduated in January (phew !) but their social media posts have been really clever and upbeat and much appreciated and the directions we’ve received have been very helpful. I almost wish my DD still had classes to take as she is home now from a gap semester with nothing to do until July when she has a camp counseling gig lined up which may not happen. She is majoring in ceramics in college,and the studio near us where she could happily fill many hours of time is of course closed. If your students have a ceramics question, feel free to PM me and I will ask our artist in residence. Maybe it will stop her for a minute from painting on her walls and every other surface in her room! She cut her bangs the first day home and is now eyeing the dog. I have a college senior home too taking online classes via zoom and it seems to be going smoothly so far.
Regarding zoom - I have several friends who are teachers and they said that other teachers have posted zoom meeting links on public school websites - they suspect that’s how people are getting in vs true hacking.
DS had a Zoom school meeting hacked into last night. The login info was not published on a public forum. They were changing urls and user names so quickly, the IT guys could not block them before inappropriate things were said. They shut down the meeting early. It was very sad.
What are your schools doing to build community at this time? Are there any efforts aimed at families and not just students?
Today was a community building day online with virtual activities and an online platform, along with specific blogs by faculty and students. Our parents network is planning something. Yesterday, was advisories in meetings. We have had team meetings online and support sessions. There are some virtual activities planned - like a virtual trivia night.
What kind of virtual activities have worked best so far, @Golfgr8 ?
Besides the classes, there are video messages and blogs, also video & photo sharing platforms @ what you love most about school, classes, campus…the interactive team meetings-chats and advisory chats have been received very well because the students can see each other from around the world, share, vent, etc. There is a cooking class coming up and virtual trivia. Another school we know of is planning more virtual fun activities - Bingo. I believe SPS has chapel.
Today there was a message from the locker room staff guy and videos from teachers just to say “hi”.
One of DS’s coaches started holding weekly parent/family meetings early in the break, which are continuing. He’s the assistant head, so they have been an opportunity to talk about both sports and the academic program more broadly. Monday there’s a college office meeting for families of juniors. There’s an ongoing trivia contest on social media. The parent/development office is working on putting together virtual parent activities, but nothing rolled out yet.
Also “mindfulness” sessions online and encouraging videos… We had virtual team meetings also for newly accepted students and the Virtual Revisit panel discussion.
- Our neighborhood has had virtual Happy Hours! We should do one for this CC thread!
.Looks like Groton and SPS is still not saying if they are/are not returning to school?