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Scott Administration Announces Partnership with Vermont PBS to Provide Educational Programming to Vermont Students | Office of Governor Phil Scott ... See MoreSee Less

Scott Administration Announces Partnership with Vermont PBS to Provide Educational Programming to Vermont Students | Office of Governor Phil Scott

governor.vermont.gov

Press Release Scott Administration Announces Partnership with Vermont PBS to Provide Educational Programming to Vermont Students 06 April 2020 Montpelier, Vt. – Governor Phil Scott and the Agency of Education (AOE) today announced a partnership with Vermont PBS to provide educational content to su...

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Sharon Elementary School

5 days ago

Families,

I know that many parents and caregivers are looking for guidance in terms of how much time their child should be spending on schoolwork during this distant learning phase. While I hesitate to give a detailed daily schedule to you that is “required”, I will offer some suggestions. I know that every household has different circumstances surrounding home learning. In one home, there may be multiple children at multiple grade levels working. In another home, there may not be a parent present to make sure their child is doing school work, as the parents are at work. For some, there are technology barriers. The willingness of a child to engage may be difficult for some. So, in reading these suggestions, please understand that you as the parent need to gauge what is doable in your home. I need to trust that all of you will do your very best to have your child engage in academic work for a portion of their day. How that looks, well, I don’t necessarily know.
Suggested Minimum Time for Daily Academic Work:
PreK-K: 30 minutes
1st-2nd: 45 minutes
3rd-4th: 60 minutes
5th-6th- 90 minutes
Again, these are suggestions. For some students, this will be their limit, for others, they will be able to sustain more time. As a parent, you will have to decide what is best for your situation. I’d like to give you a glimpse of how my home has evolved during home learning. My intent is not to say that what we are doing is right, but to show you that I, an educator, am struggling with this as well.
First, I will say that currently my oldest daughter is feeling overwhelmed by the amount of work she has. She is in tenth grade. My middle child, a daughter, who is a 7th grader seems to be handling her workload just fine. And finally, my son, a second-grader, well, it depends on the day what I can get out of him. All of my children are being provided work online and my son has some packet work.
My oldest daughter is a driven student. She wants to do well in school and unfortunately her drive to succeed can also cause her stress and anxiety. I’m working with her to recognize the fine line between having grit to get something accomplished and over-stressing to accomplish a task. Currently, she is setting up her own schedule that basically has her working from 8:00 am until 3:00 pm on school work. I think this is too much, but again, she is driving this.
My middle child, another academically driven student, tends to recognize when she is feeling overwhelmed and takes breaks. She has set times where she has video conferencing with her teachers and then works independently. Her day typically starts at 8:00 am and by 1:00 pm she is pretty much tapped out.
Then there is my youngest, a second-grader. When this home learning initially started I had written out a schedule for him to follow. Here is what it was:
7:00-8:00- Screen Time, Breakfast, Teeth Brushed and Dressed
8:00-8:45- Learning Time
8:45-9:30- Break (non-screen time)
9:30-10:15- Learning Time
10:15-11:00- Snack and Break (non-screen time)
11:00-11:45- Learning Time
11:45-12:30- Lunch and Break (non-screen time)
12:30-1:30- Screen Time
1:30-6:30- Non-Screen Time- Encouraged Outside Play or Inside Games
6:30-7:30- Screen Time
I thought it looked doable. The first day went really well. The second day, our 45 minutes of learning time slipped to about 30 minutes. By our third day, the schedule was in shambles. My wife and I were finding it difficult to keep him on task because as soon as we left his side, he’d be calling us to come and help him and it was starting to stress us out.
And so, what we’ve done is that we have pulled back, a lot. We still aim for three chunks of learning time a day and we still aim to limit the screen time. But, what we’ve found is that every day is different. Some days, he will sit for an hour working on his math assignments. Some days, when the sun is shining, he limits his own screen time by being outside riding his bike or jumping on the trampoline. On rainy, cold days, he has a bit more screen time than we would like.
What I’ve come to realize is that every day is different. We do have guidelines and a rough schedule, but they are flexible. And being flexible with our time, it feels right. During this stay at home order, we can be flexible and it feels really good. If we wake up and the sun is shining, then we may hop on our bikes and ride for a bit, and not get to our learning time until the afternoon. If I’m bogged down with work, which is mostly the case, and my wife needs to work (we are fortunate that she works from home anyway), then my children are sort of on their own and I’m not sure what they are doing.
This is not our typical normal. I do not expect us to be recreating a school day at home. It can’t be done, not at this point anyway. I do expect my children to be engaged in learning at some point during the day. How much time that is, well, it depends on the day. And that is alright.
As I wrote to you in an earlier note, every family needs to find their flow. Right now, for my home, our flow depends on the day. My priority is to limit stress and anxiety for all of my children and I encourage you to do the same. I’m not overly concerned about children regressing during this unusual time. When we get back to school the teachers will be ready to meet their needs, that’s what they are really good at.
Currently, teachers are working on developing their at-home learning plans. Some teachers are offering class meetings, virtually, which I think is awesome. If your child is able to attend those meetings, that would be great. It allows them to see their classmates or at the very least hear them with the call-in option. Some teachers have created Flipgrid or Seesaw accounts for students to share on. I love adding my voice to these platforms! Teachers will be suggesting work to be completed. At some point, we will need to take “attendance” for each day of the week. Basically, we will need a quick check-in from students. How that looks, well, as with a lot of things right now, we are not sure. There will be a lot of options for students to engage in learning.
Finally, if you are feeling overwhelmed about this home learning experience, know that you are not alone. My suggestion is to take a step back, take a breath, ask questions and know that all of this is new for everyone. Again, we are all in this together. For now, enjoy your weekend and please keep in touch.
Be well,
Keenan Haley
Principal ... See MoreSee Less

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