Dear teachers,
You are amazing. You have put in superhuman effort to try to provide engaging, challenging online content with zero notice. I am grateful.
But I need you to stop trying so hard. I’m a single, full-time working parent now working remotely. My adult to kid ratio is 1:3.
Each of my kids (grades kindergarten, third and fourth) have two to four required video conferences a day via Webex, Zoom or Microsoft Teams. This means I provide user support (“Mom, my sound isn’t working!” or “It logged me out!”) for six to 12 video conferences a day, some of which they simply cannot attend, as we only have two computers with webcams and one of them is my work computer which I am (supposed to be) using.
You’ve painstakingly curated homework modules in free online teaching platforms that you have had to research to find and then teach yourselves how to use. That’s amazing! And I get that there are different platforms for different subjects, but you do not need to use all of them.
These are the 17 sites that we are expected to regularly use to communicate about or access the homework assignments: Class Dojo, Canvas, Microsoft Teams, Class Shutterfly website, Lexia Core5, STMath, BrainPOP, Duolingo, Spelling City, Khan Academy, RazKids, Zearn, Typing.com, McGraw Hill Wonder, Xtra math, Prodigy and Mystery Science.
We’re in week three of online school; it’s not getting easier. And it simply is not sustainable. These kids are in elementary school. They’re already dealing with uncertainty, isolation and stressed-out parents.
Can you just give them a journaling prompt a day? Use one online math/science/geography module and call it good? Assign them a book/article and a classmate and have them call each other and talk about it? Please? Please?
Kristen Kinjo Bayles, Salt Lake City
