School 2020- The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

 Erik got to start going back to school a few weeks ago. He goes M,T, TH, F from 1:30-4. Wednesdays are an asynchronous workday for them with a 30-minute meeting in the morning on Zoom. The other mornings, when the other half of the class is in school, the pm group will work asynchronously on assignments. Starting this week, they get to meet with their specials groups on Zoom (art, P.E., and music). It's been really nice for Erik to go in the afternoon when he usually starts to get bored (because his work is done by then), but his siblings still have class to "attend" and work to do. It's best if he's just out of the house. He rides his bike there and back (luckily we've had good weather for that) so he's able to get some exercise in.  

Lucky boy!

We have added an extra specials class with some friends from church on Wednesday afternoons. We have been rotating amongst yards/houses and doing P.E., art, or science. There are 7 kids in Erik's group, but there are only usually 5 or 6 kids there. He really enjoys it, even though he's older than most of the kids, he enjoys the experience and interaction. 

I did Pumpkins and Apples for my first science and P.E. special. I love their looks here! I don't remember why most of them were staring at Erik's painting...:)

Tossing hula hoops over the pumpkins.

I would have to say the best thing about virtual schooling is Austin's LME (Life Management Skills) class. He gets to choose a recipe from the genre of food that is assigned that week. We look at it together so he can write down what ingredients we don't have at home. On another day, we buy the things he needs, and then he makes it. The thing I like about it is that when Victoria and Karissa were in this class, they made stuff at school and they were usually things that I don't make at home. Plus, it was all done at school, so there was no connection to home. Austin has made dinner for the family twice, plus bread, dessert, and a snack. He's making a salad later today. The absolute best thing? He eats it all and likes it even better than when I make it. He made chili, which he usually loves. This is one that I don't think he liked as well as my recipe, but he still enjoyed it, along with the rest of us. He made chicken noodle soup, which he usually doesn't care much for, but loved it! He found a new bread recipe that I will use from now on and it was amazing! Everyone loved it! The dessert was a homemade pudding for Halloween, it wasn't as popular, but who cares, it's pudding. He made 3 ingredient peanut butter cookies yesterday for the snack. He loved them, they were very sweet but very easy! He's excited to make the salad later today and I'm excited that he wants to try it!

Cutting an onion with bread in his mouth so his eyes won't water. He says it actually works!

Chili

Pudding

The final pudding cup complete with candy pumpkins, Oreos, and an interesting chocolate tree.

Cutting chicken

Everyone loved this chicken noodle soup (it was actually my recipe, but we spiffed it up a bit).

The very successful bread!

So proud!

3 ingredient peanut butter cookies (Notice the clothes he wears very often. These were all taken on different days.)

The other good thing is that we just finished the first quarter and most of the grades on the report card were pretty good. But that's when the bad and the ugly come in too. There were a couple of bad grades, which we won't go into specifics on that. It could get pretty ugly with the reminding, checking, nagging, and pushing that was going on with those classes where the grades weren't great. One of them was due to a teacher who had a different way of requiring assignments to be turned in from the other teachers. Assignments were being done, but not being turned incorrectly. She didn't post the grades regularly though and do we wouldn't know there were problems until things got piled up. Even to the very end of the quarter, we had no idea about some of the issues. 

Which brings me to the other ugly part. The amount of emails we receive on an hourly basis is overwhelming! Jason's and my accounts are attached to Canvas, the learning platform, and we receive emails about each and every assignment that was turned in for each and every class for our older 3 children. To see details you have to click through various links. That's where you can see scores and whether or not the assignment was actually submitted with content that the teacher can access. Plus, we get notes from teachers, office staff, principals, and all of Erik's specials teachers. At times I feel like I am drowning. 

Back to the good again:

We've started a new quarter and already the grades that were too low, are much improved. Everyone has better study habits as they are getting used to virtual learning and ways to submit their work. We've also come to terms that the secondary schools aren't going back in person until at least late January. Austin, who had to get used to middle school itself, is in a groove and doesn't have to be working on homework all evening and all weekend. Phew!

I just want to say, though, that this isn't easy for anyone involved and especially not the teachers. I know it's been a real struggle for them to figure out this new way of teaching and to make it a successful learning experience for all involved. I know that if I were teaching public schools right now, I would be ripping my hair out. 

Here's to the second quarter!