Distance learning experiences in BUSD?
Before the pandemic hit us, we had already planned on switching our first grade son from a private school to BUSD. He was assigned to Rosa Parks and he's on the waitlist at Jefferson. I have heard not great reports about the distance learning at Thousand Oaks, so I started to wonder if Rosa Parks and Jefferson are doing a better job (in case this continues next fall). Can people let me know their experiences at either of those schools (in particular, second grade)?
Thanks in advance.
May 12, 2020
Parent Replies
The quality of distance learning differs even from teacher to teacher. I have two boys at Cragmont. Our TK teacher rocks, our 3rd grade teacher not so much. Actually for TK it works out even better than face to face. The virtual class has 5 children and is 30 minutes per day. They cover "reading" and math. For the 3rd grader, we get 17 pages of assignments per week and two hours of virtual classroom. Half of that time they talk about their feelings and the other half about the assignments they failed to complete. Not a word on fractions yet-this is obviously parents' responsibility not teacher's.
Greetings, and I I understand your concern...but it is nearly impossible to measure one school to another. Since this is BUSD first time ever to do Distsnce learning, much of it has been to teacher discretion with general guidance from district. This means that every teacher teaching will be different; classwork and load will vary quite a bit too. Currently there is not a definitive plan as to what hybrid learning program will be in place. Both Rosa Park and Jefferson are great schools, but the overall district curriculum and number of websites district approved telling teachers to use have significantly overloaded both teachers and parents.(too many login and passwords/classcode). There is not way to objective measure anything at the moment...everything is a russian roulette when it comes to school choice right now. Personally, I would reccomend determine your interaction with other parents and how well the principal communicates. Best of luck!!!
I have a second grader (and Kindergartner) at Rosa Parks. The Second grade teachers are a really strong group of teachers who are creative and fun. Distance learning is never going to capture the magic of great teachers, but the three 2nd grade teachers have worked together to adapt the curriculum and use google class room quickly and well. They cover the basics and I would say its a manageable amount of work for a working parent with two kids who are not ready to work totally independently. Also, our teacher does a morning meeting with the class and also meets once a week individually with each student. she seems to be particularly interested in supporting them emotionally which I know is a huge benefit to the kids. Both my kids and I miss our community, our after care program and the Rhythm of school, but I have been impressed with the teachers' inventiveness, adaptability, receptiveness and all out effort in a really uncertain an new situation.
We have a 2nd Grader at Rosa Parks and the teachers for that grade have come together to develop an online curriculum so there are assignments daily with instruction. The team approach the teachers are taking means that every child in the grade is getting the same content and the teachers aren’t trying to all develop individual content, so they have more time to engage with the kids. My child meets with the class daily online for about half an hour (including 1 day with the science teacher) and has private office hours with the teacher once per week. During the office hours, it is evident that the teacher is reading the submitted work and providing feedback even though the work is not graded. I think it’s excellent given the circumstances and am very satisfied with my child’s education and engagement. All that said, it’s still not as good as “real” school.
On the other hand, our other child is at the same school in a different grade and the experience has been more aligned with what I’m hearing from others. Basically we get a list of assignments and a once a week meeting with the teacher some weeks. I’d like to say that it’s better than nothing, but I’m not sure it is.