The school district had been planning a phased return to in-person, with elementary school going back for the second quarter (19 October), middle school returning halfway through the quarter, and high school coming back at the beginning of the second semester (after winter break).
However, cases are spiking locally, and so that’s on hold now—the school superintendent wants the kids back in the classroom, but the school board is sticking with the metrics that were put in place at the outset, and those don’t allow it.
D23 utterly hates online school, but she’s doing okay anyway. (D25 disprefers it, but doesn’t hate it.) No real extracurriculars aside from sports, but we’re not really an EC-heavy area anyway, so not a huge loss except for the fine arts (especially drama) kids, where it’s bad.
Still totally in person here. We even had a “homecoming” although no dance but they let the kids walk a carpet onto the football field and get pictures and a commemorative blanket.
School has been doing a dashboard every day. At the high school with 1512 students, today there were documented 8 kids positive, 35 kids out for quarantine due to being exposed at school, and 11 kids out for quarantine due to out of school exposure.
the private school D23 attends is in person. The school said today they’ve had no cases in staff or kids yet this first quarter; knock on wood. But, if they have to close, they are prepared.
we pulled her from our public school system (after 18 years there) for many reasons – but the top was the lack of education they offered in the spring. I get it; it was hard to offer education for 50K+ low income kids without the resources to go online. But for my kid, I can’t let that happen again.
Its been an adjustment certainly, but she’s been learning. Her old schoolmates are now online; and its sounding tough. Covid is awful. I’m just trying to get the best education for her during these crucial years. wishing all your kids the best this year.
Still 100% online here. It’s getting tougher to get S23 out of bed in the morning for school. His grades are excellent, but he misses his friends and the camaraderie of the classroom. Some fall sports have returned but we opted for private tennis team in a small group format over the large high school model with multiple schools and bus rides. This is a challenging time but we are trying to make the best of it. Wishing you and your kiddos continued good physical and mental health.
I hear you, @mountainsoul. We’re still entirely online, with no end in sight. Big urban district, with a strong union that opposes any kind of in-person return. I would be shocked if we’re back before 2021, and even then, I’m not sure when it might be deemed safe. Things have been okay for D21, but D23 is extremely extroverted, always prefers working in a group vs. alone, misses the collaboration and social interaction. The teachers are absolutely giving it their all, but she just doesn’t learn well this way.
@Mom24boys@2plustrio our school system started in person 8/12 and has had no real issues - students are required to wear masks; some teachers got really into hanging plastic and shower curtains in their classrooms (just upper grades 7-12), some just spaced out the chairs as much as possible (I substitute and have seen it all from strict compliance and an over abundance of cleaning to just letting the kids do what feels comfortable for their learning) … a few ‘possible or confirmed’ cases pop up each week but no wide spread outbreak (knock on wood) … we are playing football, volleyball, and swimming (my S23’s sport!) … just had tennis, golf and basketball tryouts. My D23 and D25 would not have done well with only online classes… my D18 in college is struggling with deadlines and being motivated and she is my most enthusiastic learner! Right now excited that S23 has already made two State qualifying cuts for swim as well as being on 2 relay teams, and keeping fingers crossed we are able to actually have a State Championship Swim competition in December as planned.
Just have to vent somewhere. My S23 says he might not do an activity hes done the last 5 years. I know he had a rough time last year trying to do 2 school activities in one season. But still, I love both the activities and I enjoy watching him in them.
I have also had to really push mine to be involved… the clubs didn’t start up right at the beginning of school (they were just trying to see how it was coming back to classes in person) so they got complacent with not having meetings. Finally Key Club and Model UN are back as of last week! Also for the time being our county Model UN is planning to host an in person session. Sadly he can only do one day because we leave for State swim meet on the second day… he really loves Model UN so he is disappointed.
@2plustrio I sympathize. My D23 dropped one of her activities last year because it initially conflicted with marching band, then was too much in the winter on top of another activity, and she was just getting back to it when COVID shut everything down. Now she doesn’t want to go back to it. It’s disappointing when those things happen.
But sounds like he’s keeping one of them? That’s good. My S21 really resisted doing any ECs in high school. He’s not really athletic so dropped the casual soccer and baseball leagues he’d done through middle school. Kind of half-heartedly participated in a couple clubs but ultimately told me, it didn’t feel like they really needed him there. Side effect, I guess, of a really big school where so many kids are mindful of building their college resume. Instead, he had a couple year-round commitments at our church, a full-time summer job every year, plays guitar on his own, and golf with friends. I had to let go of the nagging to do something at school. D23, on the other hand, dove right in and is probably too busy, even with dropping the sport she’d done until the start of 9th grade.
I’m tapping my fingers waiting for clubs to start up again - DS needs something! And getting him to be proactive or take initiative has been challenging at most. However, with all that said, I will say that his grades starting off are the best I’ve seen - with the exception of Chemistry where he got a 70 on the first test and a few zeros (he STILL doesn’t get some things - I don’t understand where the disconnect is but he somehow isn’t receptive to certain pieces of information like “this needs to be turned in for a grade” ). With regards to Chemistry, he’s adamant that something is wrong with the test and was most upset because he’s never score so low on a “science” test before. So he’s convinced something is wrong - but can’t prove it because the teacher won’t release the test until all remote users have completed it or something like that - it’s been almost a month. She asked him to sit with her during study period to review this week - that way she knows he won’t copy the test (she’s paranoid, I guess). I guess we will see what he discovers.
Aside from all that, this will be the first year I have not sent an email to all teachers informing them of DS’s IEP (ADD and executive function issues) - I am encouraging DS to be his own advocate so that he can see what needs to be done with respect to communication with his teachers. I am also encouraging him to check his grades daily (I still do this and ping him about things).
I am wondering though - do you all stay on top of your 23s with regards to grades, assignments, tests, etc? I don’t know when tests or quizzes are but I do remind DS23 to check his schoology calendar for any tests or quizzes that are coming this week. That’s it. It’s a challenge for him with his executive function issues but he has to learn to organize and stay on top of his schedule on his own. Should I be doing more? I don’t know - but I feel like I have given him all the resources he needs to be successful. Rambling stops now.
@JaceyK
I have btdt with my oldest as well (ADD with EF issues and LD). I did help him more because he needed it but only in areas where he was struggling. So example, he was holding his own in english but as his LD is in math, I stayed on top of that subject a bit more. Even sitting down with the plan ahead worksheets from different EF books on Sunday and helping him develop a schedule for that week in courses he had lower grades in. However, this is also the kid who pretty much ended up with a 1.7 gpa and barely made it through high school (who now has a 3.0 in college doing classes he actually enjoys!).
One thing I did was sit down with him and ask him what assignments he had due for each class at the end of each day. He would dictate to me and I would write down on a post in note and set it on his homework space. He then proceeded with his work and would throw away notes when complete. So it was letting him lead the way a bit and I was more in a “secretary” mode. For my son, time was a big thing for him as well so I would have him tell me how much time he thought the assignment would take and I wrote that down as well. He then had to make the choices on what to do and in what order.
My thinking was that I understood my sons brain was not neurotypical so I had to support it but would only do so in the areas of true deficit. For my son, I knew he was never going to do a math related career so extra support just to make it through was required. However, I would not totally micromanage him rendering him incapable of success on his own in the future (as I said, guess I succeeded as he writes lovely multip colored notes and has a much higher gpa now in college all on his own).
My S23 is a scatterbrain but very intelligent. While he could get higher grades, Im letting him try to figure things out (currently at a B- in math mostly because he thinks the teachers requirements for homework is stupid and he is refusing to do it when all he has to do is correct wrong answers in red pen). He does juggle a pretty busy schedule so Im slowly trying to talk to him about ways to not forget stuff but he is my more stubborn one. If he doesnt feel in control or if he doesnt understand the logic (everything I say is teacher biased an illogical according to him), he totally pushes back and refuses to do the work. Hes so much like his dad (my ex husband) it annoys me.
@JaceyK My S21 has extreme ADHD/executive function issues (and slow processing speed), so I definitely supported him more than I need to do with my D23s. This year, as a senior, S21 has been working without my involvement at all but knows he can/should come to me or a teacher when he has a question/needs help (I told him to think about it as he would the writing center in college, for example…it’s there for you but only if you know when you need it and make a point of going to get the help). I figure if he screws it up and gets behind this year and then has to catch up, that will be a good learning experience for him, and I definitely want him to practice/think about advocating for himself and being aware of when he needs help (I don’t think he’s great at that although I’ve been trying to guide him towards it throughout high school). In past years, I was helping him get organized a lot more but trying to step back more and more each year of high school. I’m sure that this year he’s not doing it the way I would suggest ?but so far he seems to be getting it done and is keeping up.
My D23s are so different from him this way. I just keep an eye on their grades to be sure there aren’t any red flags or anything but leave it to them to manage everything, and they make it work. I have no idea what their assignments are or when things are due unless they happen to tell me. (The two girls are very different academically - one in the most rigorous curriculum and very motivated and the other in a very standard curriculum and dislikes school greatly…but they both are able to be in charge of their own calendars/organization). Neurotypical vs. ADHD/executive function issues = soooo different (at least from the way I’ve seen things go with my own 3 kids). I felt it was natural to need to provide some scaffolding for my ADHD kiddo that I gradually removed so that he will be able to handle it all in college…that’s the hope…I do wonder with S21 how it will go - his college list and eventual college selection will take all of this into account so that hopefully he’s set up for success (in the way that success makes sense for him - growing, exploring, experiencing, building confidence, graduating, etc. rather than any particular academic honors).
@JaceyK Since you asked, no we do not stay on top of any grades or assignments or studying or anything for D23. She updates us plenty, but I have not seen her homework before it was done since elementary school. Her older sister, as our first , had us hover more just because we thought that was our job, but we stopped in 6th grade or so. So we just dropped hovering on this one the same year. The school really encourages independence and in fact if a (newbie) parent emails in 9th or above the teachers are quick to point out it is for the student to communicate(except for major health or family issues). Ours do not have special educational needs, so I definitely agree that type of situation might need parent intervention, at least initially until they get more independent.
In prior years I’ve been a lot more on top of my S21’s grades because he also has ADD/exec function challenges. Freshman year was awful! But he’s doing so much better now that I really only looked at progress report/report card times. This year with everything so crazy with the school-at-home, I was back to looking at his grades regularly to make sure all is going well. It is going fine so I have scaled back for him.
For D23, I had historically not kept a close eye on it but she had a really rough time last year with missing school for some illnesses and one class that was too fast paced so I got into the habit of keeping an eye on it. Doing the same this year since she’s having more trouble than S21 in managing distance learning. She’s not too inclined to share what’s going on in school if I ask so we have more productive conversations if I can just say that I saw x, y, z, on Canvas and then we go from there to talk about how she’s planning to tackle the workload, how to get help from teachers, etc. I never email teachers but use the info to coach her on how to handle issues. I did the same with S21 earlier in HS and he’s very independent now.
We have powerschool, which is easy enough to check periodically. That said, I don’t have to do anything with D23 regarding her work except keep an eye on how she is doing to offer a tutor if I see she is having a hard time. The good thing that came from her LD’s being diagnosed in elementary is that she spent a lot of time learning organizational and study skills. She is handy with a highlighter, and great a working through a rubric to really complete an assignment. She’s conscientious and she’s smart about knowing that she needs to do her assignments-she knows she can’t always count on great test grades. She’s been back at school for one month-2 cases of Covid out of 1400 kids in her high school. I think the school is doing a great job. She joined the photography club. Received her first piece of college mail, and instantly rejected it. Does not want to belong to any club that wants her, I guess!
Generally agree that you should take the test(s) and try to be done by fall junior year as it takes much of the stress off of spring where many students have multiple AP exams to study for and take and they should be focusing on their classes and grades junior year as they are very important.
With that said, my D20 took the ACT a third time end of August senior year to get the score she wanted. Isn’t there something about “best-laid plans…” lol
We have Q (formerly ParentConnect), which isn’t great, but it can be helpful. My D23’s quarter (read: semester, effectively—they’re doing three classes per quarter, so she’s finishing the first semester in those three classes) ends today, and last week all parents got messages from their kids’ teachers asking us to look at our kids’ grades and that there would be partial leniency for late work as long as it was in by the next Wednesday (yesterday).
We looked and found that D23 had been doing most excellently—read, a high A—in first aid (that’s a PE credit) and chem, but AP world she was at a high B due to a missing assignment. We asked her about it and found that there was a weird mixup where D23 accidentally hadn’t been informed of the assignment (which sounds like an excuse, but it turned out it was actually true!) until it was gone over in class, and D23 felt like doing it at that point would be cheating.
We told her to email her teacher about it (she didn’t want to, so we helped her with the phrasing), the teacher verified that the mixup had been on her end, and came up with a replacement assignment for D23. With that score, D23 went into the final today with a low A, so we’ll see. History is, to put it mildly, not something that she gets into.
So that was our latest raising a pandemic-era high-schooler adventure.
An addendum to my previous post: As a result of this past quarter/semester, D23 has kind of fallen in love with chemistry. Not as in wanting to do it for a career or even minor in it in college, but she absolutely loves thinking about the way all the interactions work, and how it’s “like math but interesting”, in her words.
She’s always been good at school and gotten good grades, but not because she enjoys it, more because it’s just something one does. She’s a fine-arts kid, and so she’s enjoyed most of that sort of class (not anything related to studio art, though, emphatically not!), but this is the first time in my memory that she’s actually enjoyed a class in a so-called “core academic” subject.
