WEDNESDAY: Drop-off went easy again.

I hope they keep the multiple door drop-
off next year. Sydney came out again
with a smile on her face and says the
day was great! Her class has been doing
lots of review of concepts that were well
mastered last year. I hope they move on
from counting to 10 soon...

Name: Christine Stevens
Town: Owings, MD
Child: Sydney, 6
Child’s Grade: First
How are you doing school this fall? Our
school is going four days in-person,
Monday through Thursday, then distance
learning on Friday mornings.

MONDAY: Drop-off was amazingly
smooth. Instead of all the kids going
through the front doors, grades are being
separated and sent into three different
doors to minimize mixing of the grades.

I kinda like it. No more bottleneck, and
they’ve extended the drop-off time from
15 minutes last year to 30 minutes this
year. After a quick temperature check and
asking the standard COVID questions, we
are allowed to pull up to the back of the
school and let her out. Pretty easy.

Syd says that school went great, and
they got to take their masks off outside.

Loving their new teacher so far as well.

TUESDAY: Drop-off went much like
the day before—very easy and smooth.

Pickup in the afternoon is just like last
year: All the kids come out the front
door as their names are called. Her
teacher seems to be really organized and
is communicating good information via
email, such as reminders to have their
computers charged and bring snacks
and about upcoming events like back-to-
school night.

FRIDAY: As promised by the teacher,
assignments were posted early this
morning so we had time to look over
them before the morning meeting. All
the kids wore their headphones to cut
out distractions (which I think is working
well) and spent about 30 minutes going
over what they’d be doing for the day
and a short lesson from the teacher. We
completed the three assignments that
were listed in Google classroom, scanned
and marked them as complete. Spent
another hour reading and working on IXL,
a web-based program to supplement math
and reading.

Any final thoughts? Overall, I couldn’t
be happier with the way that school is
going this year. The mix of in-person
and distance learning is going well, I
believe, mainly due to the teacher’s
great organization and communication
to parents. She’s teaching the concepts
during the week, and we’re helping to
review and reinforce them on Fridays. I
could totally get used to this! n
16 Washington FAMILY OCTOBER 2020
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VIRTUAL LEARNING
Name: Susan-Lisa Gvinter
Town: Rockville, MD
Child: Ilan, 6
Child’s Grade: First
How are you doing school this fall? One
hundred percent virtual.

MONDAY: Today started off OK. Ilan
was logged in on time and ready to go
in his new “office”—the dining room.

He met his teacher and was generally
complacent throughout the day. Recess
was the highlight: Ilan rode on his bicycle
for 90 minutes around the cul-de-sac and
almost forgot to eat lunch. There were
expected technical kinks with first graders
not fully knowing how to read and log
into things and the teacher learning how
to use the system concurrently. I chalked
them up to “growing pains” and figured by
tomorrow, we will all have one more day of
experience and, hopefully, fewer technical
issues. TUESDAY: A total disaster. The teacher
was discussing reading comprehension
requirements with the reading specialist
over Zoom while the kids were supposed
to be doing individual work, and they
didn’t know whether to listen to her or to
watch the video attached to their work.

I had to jump on and request that the
sidebar conversation be taken offline to
reduce the distraction and to protect the
students’ privacy. I sat there the entire
time because the technical issues were
out of hand. As soon as Ilan turned his
CHRISTINE STEVENS; SUSAN-LISA GVINTER; SHEENA GIRTY
HYBRID LEARNING
THURSDAY: Last day of in-person
learning for the week. Sydney came
home with additional links saved on her
computer for distance learning tomorrow,
and the teacher emailed a schedule of
exactly when the kids should be logged on
to their Google classroom and how the day
will work. The teacher’s organizational
style makes me feel so much better about
distance learning. We know what to expect
and what to do. Very low stress.