Parenting

He loves school. He enjoys learning and prides himself in doing his best. The transition to online learning has been nothing but struggle for him, for his dad and me. Everyday his google classroom inbox is full of notifications from teachers...to the tune of 15-20 of them. Some of these notifications come through between midnight and 6am. It’s ridiculous. Further, his teachers aren’t teaching any more. At all. The child gets reams of google documents, power point presentations, digital worksheets and reading assignments but not one of his teachers has recorded themselves teaching anything. Not one. It is heartbreaking to witness this and try to keep my child’s chin up and encourage him in this environment.

I have asked every single teacher for access to the Google Classroom content they’re sending my child. I am told that there really isn’t a place for parents in google classroom for high school. Google classroom’s support site acknowledges this. We parents are expected to be involved in teaching our kids but we are not at all included in this arrangement. I’m expected to be an auxiliary teacher but I do not have access to the content my child is supposed to learn.

A couple weeks ago, my son asked me if he could email his principal to give him feedback on his experience with online school...I gave him permission as long as the email was fact based and respectful. I proofread his letter and gave him the thumbs up to send it. The principal’s response? “I’m sorry our remote learning environment is not working out for you.” My kid’s response? “So I guess Mr. Miller is not a resource for me going forward.” My kiddo isn’t stupid. He was blown off big time and he knew it.

I realize we have no choice but to deal with this situation but I find it incredibly discouraging, sad and frankly, pathetic that this is what our school district is dishing out. I am not confident my son will ever recover the learning experiences he has missed and will miss.