Distance Learning Day Two

Madison woke up at 6:00.  It was a long stretch between 6 and 9:15 until her first class.  
Derek and Savannah were both gone by 7:00, so Maddie and I were on our own today....

9:15-10:35:  Period 4, Horticulture.  This is the class Madison is typically mainstreamed into.  It requires a lot of support to participate, but it is her FAVORITE class and it is her FAVORITE teacher.  IRL, this is an incredible, wonderful class.  She woke up very excited to see Mrs. Miguel.  Not sure how they are going to be able to garden virtually, but knowing this very clever teacher, she will figure something out!

9:15-9:30:  Teacher was not in class, BUT, permissions were not set properly, and all kids were allowed in unattended.  Madison saw one of her classmates in class and kept repeating his name and asking him about his dogs, and then another kid yelled at her to stop talking and repeating herself.   She can mute and unmute herself independently, but it’s not always appropriately. Of course, after hearing someone yell at her, I intervened and made sure she was muted.  Please note, I am letting Madison have at it independently so I can explain what type of support and help she needs and to demonstrate that she can’t participate in virtual learning independently or in a meaningful way.  Her one-on-one does not yet have access to any of Madison's online classes, so she can not offer any support yet. 
Teacher arrived around 9:30 and was adorable. She took the kids on a tour of the school’s garden.  😊 They were online together for about a half hour and then the teacher told them they have some independent work to do posted on Schoology.  I’ll be interested you see what that entails.  I haven’t even attempted to check.

A few small tantrums at this point today, but nothing compared to yesterday.

10:45-11:45:  Lunch. I told Maddie we could bring one of her dear friends some lunch and they could hang out for a little bit.  THAT made her very happy. 

AND she got to hold this adorable pup!!!
Thank you, Ciara!!!

11:45-1:05 - 6th Period PE.  We rushed back home from Ciara’s to get Madison logged into PE.  She was SUPER EXCITED at the prospect of seeing her beloved PE teacher online.  But there was no “classroom” to enter...  No where to click or log into.  After getting super frustrated (but no tantrum), I told Madison to take a break and I’d figure out what was going on. Let’s imagine this in a traditional setting.  All the kids show up to class, but the door is locked and no teacher arrives.  The students are just stuck outside and no administrator shows up to tell them what is going on.  Weird.
Come to find out (I only found out through some digging)...  that beloved PE teacher is no longer her teacher.  There is a new fella who “might” start classes next week.  Not that I have much hope for an online Adapted PE class (are you KIDDING ME?), but at least Madison would get a kick out if seeing her “people”.

1:10-2:30:  7th period, back to Madison’s LLH “homeroom” class.  This is supposed to be her math class, but come to find out, it is actually health and science.  🤔 So at this point, Madison doesn’t even have math on her schedule.  This was another getting-to-know-the-technology period.  Students practiced muting and unmuting themselves.  Class was over at 2:00.

Another bright spot in our day was a fun after swim at our amazing neighbor’s house. (PE: check!)  SO nice to get this kid out of the house and away from a screen.  Thank you Kim!

Oh yessss girl!  Livin’ it up!

So my conclusion after today... too tired to really put it in words, but feeling pretty hopeless.  I do have some people waiting in the wings to come in and help us, but I wanted to get a feel for what this all “looked” like before I started arranging all of that.  

Again, the efforts of all involved are not going unnoticed.  Everyone is trying SO HARD.  But if you are not given the proper training and teaching online is just not your thing, we can’t call that education.  And that is not the teacher's fault.

 
And really, this is just so sad for all involved.