Kids and parents in NYC are supposed to log on this morning for online orientation but a last-minute change — and we do mean last-minute — has thrown a giant proverbial wrench into Mayor de Blasio’s plans.
In summary, it’s chaos:
NEW: As schools face a staffing crunch, @NYCSchools will no longer require that blended learning students be given synchronous (aka live) instruction every day they're remote. Live teaching time will vary by school. Fully remote will still get live teaching daily. More soon.
— Jillian Jorgensen (@Jill_Jorgensen) September 16, 2020
NY Post columnist and Twitchy regular Karol Marckowicz has her kids in the NYC public school system. Imagine waking up to this crap this morning?
Every day is a new adventure with the NYC Department of Education. https://t.co/tqfhePsrUJ pic.twitter.com/2qoxXyW5fF
— Karol Markowicz (@karol) September 16, 2020
More from NY1 reporter Jillian Jorgensen who broke the news last night:
Schools will no longer be required to offer ANY live instruction on blended students' remote days if they don't have the staff available to do so.
This is a major change in guidance, and in what students will experience, and comes, oh, 12 hours before they're logging on tomorrow.— Jillian Jorgensen (@Jill_Jorgensen) September 16, 2020
If you're a parent with a child in blended learning, this may mean — depending on your school — your child may be in person once or twice a week, and then working remotely without any kind of live connection to their teacher on the other days.
— Jillian Jorgensen (@Jill_Jorgensen) September 16, 2020
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Fully remote students will get live instruction every day. The number of parents choosing remote has been increasing… wonder what next week's numbers update will show us.
— Jillian Jorgensen (@Jill_Jorgensen) September 16, 2020
My story will be up shortly but one thing I want to note is that if a school DOES have the staff to provide live instruction on blended remote days, they can, and DOE says they're working toward increasing the amount of it every school provides.
— Jillian Jorgensen (@Jill_Jorgensen) September 16, 2020
In some high schools, it’s even dumber where somehow they’ve combined in-person school with remote learning:
Some NYC public high schools are informing us families at the last minute (after an already-delayed start) that all in-school learning will in fact take place on kids' electronic devices because of staffing shortages and those are my entrails you see on the sidewalk behind me.
— Alyssa Katz (@alykatzz) September 16, 2020
Mayor de Blasio does not believe there’s a lot of confusion, however:
“I honestly…do not believe there's a lot of confusion…a friendly reminder, everyone, the DOE, City Hall, we are the people providing the services to our parents and our kids. And we've made very clear what all the preparations have been.” @NYCMayor this morning https://t.co/5gZ8Q16JeH
— katie honan (@katie_honan) September 16, 2020
We ask this with all seriousness: Is the mayor high?
School starts in like literally 10 hours and things are changing again. How much does it suck rn to be a principal trying to program your school, a teacher trying to planning your instruction, or a parent wondering who’s gonna teach your kids? https://t.co/hOLEsYHNcf
— Christina Veiga (@cveiga) September 16, 2020
From a teacher:
I'm literally meeting my students in 8 hours. I can't with these last minute changes. https://t.co/q8rtZEJ4sa
— Jabari Brisport? (@JabariBrisport) September 16, 2020
Mayor de Blasio is so, so bad at this:
I’m in another PTA school meeting that is breaking down into tears. We are short 9 teachers and there’s a shortage across the city to meet the demands of in-person and remote. Our principal and parents are irate at @DOEChancellor & @NYCMayor for what they call an unworkable plan.
— Christopher Werth (@c_werth) September 15, 2020
From another teacher:
My school is setting up classes so all our students face the back of the room ? and I’m supposed to stand at the front and teach so I can see their computer screens ? but they can’t turn around ? because that would increase air shared between us ? I hate it here ?
— Isabella Bartels (@idbartels929) September 15, 2020
You mean to tell us that after months of talking about how dangerous coronavirus is that you can just crack a window and everything’s good?
Neighborhood School (PS 363) in the East Village. #NotUntilItsSafe pic.twitter.com/uGRHBeCdkq
— Robin Menikoff (@robinmenikoff) September 15, 2020
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