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Larry T. Spider

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Everything posted by Larry T. Spider

  1. Glad that you seem to have that worked out so well and are able to work on next years curriculum. My 3rd-4th grade math teachers don’t feel the same. They teach new concepts up until early May. I used to teach 4th grade math and can promise you that if you start on day 1, you will be lucky to get it all in before staar. There are far too many new concepts, even though the overall difficulty isn’t too bad. 5th seems to be better off because they only had a couple of weeks until their staar date. Just about everything had been covered.
  2. My school is completely full and we have a full kindergarten crew coming in next year. We can talk about the educational side of things but the logistical side would be a wreck if more than 10-15 kids per grade were retained. It would bump me to hiring a new teacher per grade and I don’t have anywhere to put them. It would mean rows of portables with teachers that wouldn’t be at the school long term because they wouldn’t be needed once the retained kids get worked through the system. Now imagine that same issue state wide. We don’t have enough teachers in many schools as it is. I think there are two groups of kids that shouldn’t be lumped together. The group that gets by or might be a little behind. They can’t afford to miss instruction for two months but retention would be too drastic. They need some type of summer school if we can swing it. The group that’s legitimately behind already. Many of these kids are in special education due to having a learning disability. In most cases retention isn’t the answer. They are already getting individualized instruction for their needs. Obviously this online mess is going to hurt them.
  3. TEA is really expecting districts to move forward with online learning and they have the dollars. I haven’t seen any specific threats that the money will stop flowing if you don’t do this but that seems to be the message that districts are getting. So, this is probably necessary for your wife to continue getting paid. TEA expectations: https://tea.texas.gov/texas-schools/health-safety-discipline/instructional-continuity-planning-framework
  4. Lolz at online public school. Most people are poor (nobody here). Both parents work (yes they're still leaving the house every day). They may or may not have wifi or a computer. Public school IQs range from 20 to 150. This works for college online instruction, but for the non pre AP type of dipshit this will be a disaster. See you in September kids. I don’t disagree but the other option is education employees start missing paychecks. Gotta give it a good faith effort. It will also be a great test of what works and what doesn’t. God forbid we ever have to do something like this again.
  5. Yeah, next year is going to be the real bitch of this, especially in math. The kids have to have the concepts from the previous year or they will be completely lost. However, there arent enough days in the year to make up 1/3 of last years curriculum plus the current year. Prediction time: math staar scores are going to suck next year.
  6. Yeah the AISD terminology is weird. When they say classes are cancelled, they mean in person classes. School is technically still in session and will continue to be through the end of the semester. Only way we continue to be funded and thus pay people.
  7. Nothing yet. My guess is that we will eventually say classes are cancelled indefinitely as Hays did. It keeps you from having to play the week extension at a time game. It leaves the door open to coming back this year if something drastically changes but also signals that people better start buying into the online learning that will be provided. Pure guesswork though. This is the last week of optional activities vs required coursework. We should know some specifics for requirements starting tomorrow. I talked to an assistant principal at a low income school and he guesses that 25% of his kids will participate. Not really sure what you do with that other than let it go. Technology devices have been collected, inventoried and should be available for pickup soon. Packets of work have been going out at locations where food is being distributed with more sites on the way. I will be doing that starting Wednesday. Pflugerville ISD starts their required coursework tomorrow so we will see how it goes.
  8. The people leaving NYC and spreading covid in other cities reminds me of all the northern Italians going to their vacation homes in southern Italy.
  9. Agree. No way they are making much off these family packs. Just burning inventory and keeping people at work as long as possible. Vendors that serve restaurants have got to be so fucked. Huge inventory and no where to move it.
  10. We were wondering that. Wife is PPCD and had a Zoom conference call and told me they're still trying to figure out what to do about special education. She's trying to figure out how they're going to get ARDs and other required stuff done. We are waiting on TEA for guidance. Don’t want to start doing one thing only to get slammed with lawsuits down the road. There are a few lawyers in town who basically sue us for a living so I’m sure the sharks are circling. TEA says they are waiting on the US department of education for guidance because the laws are federal. I can’t say anything about them without it being political.
  11. Our biggest challenge is that experience levels and expectations are all over the place. Some parents want daily organized lessons with a ton of activities. Others want something minimal because parents are working from home and can’t help their younger kids. Obviously the number devices and internet connection is something else to consider. If we roll one thing out to appease one group, the other starts freaking out. I’ve collected info from about 200 families and there is a distinct divide about what they want/can’t handle. In addition, some of our teachers could teach via zoom for 8 hours a day starting tomorrow. One can’t get into the meeting we are having right now...
  12. It going to be optional activities for a long time. As soon as it’s required or grades are taken then we have to fulfill special education requirements. We have no capability to do that at this time. We are basically providing resources for kids as well as ways for them to connect with their teachers and each other.
  13. Good lord, they need over 100k a month to break even? Even running the leanest operation possible. You could never convince me to invest a dime in the restaurant/bar business. I do appreciate those that take the risk though. Thoughts on me making a thread where people can post their favorite local restaurant that is doing to go/delivery right now? No clutter, just the recommendations.
  14. Noticed the same thing. My thought was that we can actually go over the speed limit now.
  15. “The governor traveled to Arlington Wednesday to discuss the situation unfolding at the Texas Masonic Retirement Center after a resident infected with the virus, 77-year-old Patrick James, died early Monday. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott says the residents of an Arlington Masonic home where a man infected with COVID-19 lived will be tested for the deadly contagion.“ My grandmother lives here. Fun.
  16. Absolutely. If all the kids with college educated parents go home and continue their education as normal and the others struggle to find internet access and don’t have parents at home, the gap will continue to widen. Those are the kids most at risk of sliding backwards over a normal summer. I can’t imagine what it would be like if it was a 5 month break. My guess is that we will putting together some jump start camps and the like for August.
  17. According to the email, it's up to individual principals on how to handle the staff. If they're going to teleteaching then they'll do training to let all teachers know how to handle it. Not sure how my wife is supposed to teach pre-k special education over a computer. Hopefully she doesn't have to go in for any training considering they often do online training. She has three ARDs scheduled for the 24th and she's trying to figure out whether they are still going to do them then. I told her they could all do in a teleconferencing call. She's not sure how that would work since everyone involved has to be audibly recorded for the records. I’m a elementary campus administrator in AISD. They have basically told us to stay tuned for more direction. While the email said that teachers will receive direct communication from their principal, campus administrators are still waiting for direction from the district. Principals are under the impression that they will be receiving specific instructions from the district, not making their own plan. They will likely be used to train staff on the district plan, communicate with parents, and figure out logistics, especially at title 1 schools.
  18. Damn, if they are in trouble then just about everywhere is. They stay packed on weekends. I can imagine that place has some overhead though.
  19. My MIL had elective knee surgery this morning in Houston. Called the hospital on Friday to double check and they said it was a go.
  20. AISD students are out for an extra two weeks. Staff need to be on standby to roll out distance learning if we are going to need to go that route. They have been told to check their emails regularly for updates. No idea what that would look like yet. Hard to transition to that model effectively in two weeks but it will probably be a make the best of it situation.
  21. I keep getting reports of olds saying it’s just the flu and carrying on as normal. I’m not cheering for Darwin but.....
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