One thing that I hope to see come out of this current educational dilemma is parents waking up to the struggles that their young students are actually facing in the classroom, not some combination of assumed circumstances based primarily on their own experiences 20 to 40 or more years prior.?ÿ Perhaps some will realize that their child has reading problems or comprehension problems or memory problems or vision problems or hearing problems or...............................?ÿ We, as parents, prefer to assume everything is hunkydory with our offspring.?ÿ An example is a classmate of mine whose mother was an elementary teacher in our district.?ÿ She had no idea he was reading at about a Third Grade level while in high school until we had a day where numerous parents were in attendance for some reason in our English classroom.?ÿ He was one of several students called on to read aloud to the class from some book we were reading at the time.?ÿ It was painfully obvious to all in a short time that he was not up to par with other random students.?ÿ His mother worked very hard with him after that.?ÿ He went on to graduate college and became a high school teacher for several years before becoming an instructor at a community college.?ÿ I'm sure that would not have happened without his mother's awakening to his weakness.
When I started school it quickly became apparent I could not comprehend what was being thrown at me. And being a shy child I merely withdrew and my poor performance worsened. There was "talk" of placing me in the special-ed class, you know...the short bus. In later years I was happy to hear children with the same sensory problems were being helped. However at that time I don't think anyone had ever heard of the word "dyslexia".
As it would happen my mother had endured the same conditions her whole life. Her pleadings kept me out of the "short bus class" temporarily. She worked tirelessly teaching me the 'tricks' she had learned over the years that had helped her adapt. It worked. I know it sounds strange, but she would make me read a page only looking at the page's reflection in a mirror. After mastering that chore, reading by looking at the page directly seemed like a breeze. To this day I can still read a page in a mirror. I can also write upside down and backwards almost as well as I can "normally".
I know there are a few of you all out there that have worked with me and watched me write upside-down and backwards on a lath. One helper said it so eloquently...he said, "That's fu*ked up". I had to agree with him, but that's how I learned.
Saw some official statistics on school closings a few minutes ago.?ÿ In the US, over 120,000 of the nearly 125,000 schools (not school districts) are closed.?ÿ That is 98.3 percent of the students.?ÿ There are around 800 schools that have made no changes from the norm.
This morning my 9 y o son??s 3rd grade teacher taught her math class via Zoom- she was sitting on he couch in sweatpants wearing a camouflage baseball hat....?ÿ
I can do the same thing and got similar responses. I did it because I could not because of dyslexia.
I suspect that Mrs. Cow had an impulse to lock out the Rip Van Winkless altogether, but she's too dedicated to learning to do that. But it does illustrate the problems that sites like Coursera have with completion rates.
I spent time today homeschooling. I appreciate teachers so much and am very glad I've only had to TA university class labs.
I have 2 2nd grade boys in different classes. School closed three weeks ago. This is the 1st week post-spring break. The district is still working on their distance learning platform, instructions to teachers, and are training teachers in the online apps like Google Classroom. They aren't starting formal instruction (whatever that will be) until April 20. We have a babysitter, who's been working with them this week until she came down with a cough last night...Because her mom's a nurse, she's quarantining and met with a dr today, who thinks it's a cold but they'll see how she does over the weekend.?ÿ
One teacher is um, more technically savvy and had them working online more already. She also doesn't believe in homework. Kids also can sit on the floor, on a high stool, in a regular desk, etc. The kid in her class is biddable, likes to help out, does fine. In a zoom meeting last weekend, she stated she wasn't assigning any work yet because the union was still working out the schooling-from-home details with the school district.
The other teacher is much more...traditional and strict. Of course, the oh-look-a-fly/let-me-toss-out-this-somewhat-related-question-which-will-derail-work-for-5-minutes/why-do-I-have-to-do-this-anyway? kid is in the latter's class. He always brings home notes that he needs to concentrate and finish his work. I don't think he's actually ADHD. He did okay in K and 1st. She and I agree he's quite smart (missed the gifted and talented program by 4 points, 116/120). Anyway, you have to really work at keeping him on track. After working with him this afternoon, I headed straight for my horded chocolate cookies (Lady Walton dark chocolate filled wafers). I don't often drink, but yeah, if I didn't have chocolate available...!
Meanwhile the other one was back-chatting because I was making him do some schoolwork even though he has nothing officially assigned yet. ?????ÿ
A few days back we were discussing temp changes in Kansas. Thursday afternoon we hit 88, Saturday morning was 33. Back up into the 60's during the day. Thunderstorms this morning to be followed by wind gusts up to 50 mph. 7:00 a.m. Monday should be 32 with a feels like of 21.
What a great way to start the week!
Wow! We were in the 30s Friday night and cool yesterday, but 62 here currently. We have thermostatically controlled gas logs upstairs and downstairs. Sometimes the logs downstairs ignite while the air conditioning comes on also. We really have to watch the temp settings on the logs in the spring and fall.
Otherwise, those logs have saved us hundreds on heating bills. But they'd be hard pushed to cope with Kansas extremes.
