In my building, I know there are teachers in my building that will be great implementing these things as they trickle down from the high schools into the middle schools. However, there are teachers in my building that would probably rather retire than have to deal with teaching an online or hybrid course.
Districts will have to spend time researching and developing policies, training staff, and providing the basic infrastructure to handle the web based classes. This will cost a great deal of money, so bonds or millages will play a role in this. Title 1 funds could be used for some of the costs if it is appropriately included in the schools Title Plan. I'm guess the districts with additional funds will really implement these programs quickly and efficiently, while schools with low funding may start off taking baby steps and work their way up slowly.
The scenarios mentioned brought up a plethora of difficult choices. This shows how ALL stakeholders will have to be involved in the creation of policies and programs including, but not limited to teachers, parents, administrators, union representatives, government agencies, and board members.
Amber I agree with your post. I lot of thought and planning needs to come from the district in order for this to be successful. My school district has so many obstacles to overcome in the traditional setting, I am not sure if virtual school/online learning i will be successful. Where do you work? Do you think online learning will be successful in your district?
ReplyDeleteErika, I am in Dearborn. I feel that my district will do an ok implementing virtual learning. I'm sure there will be plenty of ups and downs. Many of our students don't have computers or internet at home, plus we have a language barrier which plays a major role. I wish I was more familiar with what the high schools do for their online learning requirements.
ReplyDeleteHi Amber, You statement about how districts, will vary in readiness, school to school will vary in readiness, as well as teacher to teacher. I can see clearly in my school and in my district; as there is a big difference in readiness from school to school in my district from discrepancies in infrastructure to having available tools. It's going to take a long to move our district to readiness. If you happen to have a job in one of the new fancy high schools, you probably have a good chance of being ready. However, a 50 year old middle school might have a problem with readiness. The question of retiring rather than learn what is necessary to teach online is a major consideration. We have all returned to school to ready ourselves, and most of us are working and going to school. and it's expensive. This is a major commitment that I really didn't realize was so great until I got started. The point I'm making is how many teachers will make our commitment and return to school to become experts? Amber, I agree that many of the seasoned, close to retirement teachers will probably through in the towel, particularly after getting a big pay cut a few years ago; rather than go back to school to retrain. It's going to be interesting watching how things play out throughout the state.
ReplyDeleteHi Amber, pleasure workign with you on the final project. You did a great job! As far as your blog, you are right. Teachers is where the rubber meets the road. If teachers aren't fully on board then nothing will work right. There are many many teachers who will be great at implementing this and there will be some who should retire prior to this implementation. I don't think it goes with age either. I think there are a lot of older teachers who will be great at this new pedagogy while there are some new teachers who won't hang on because they signed up to have summers off and to lecture. Harsh but true.
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