Yes for high school/college. Maaaaaaaaybe for middle schoolers with incredibly high executive function.

You are correct. I am tending to think more middle school and up because that is were more of my experience is. Lower grades get exponentially more difficult. Still at the core of it is the fact that to make any of this really happen we need more teachers, like we have for a long time even before the pandemic.

Y'know, it would be nice if they actually paid teachers enough. Just a thought ....

More teachers, paid at a fairer and attractive rate, is clearly part of the solution. Probably not part of *our* solution though.

I can't even imagine how hard this is for parents, and for kids, and I don't mean to elide that. I know Matilda is hurting, and glam's kids, and so many many more. But it's also pretty clear that many of the steps that would make this workable without putting teachers in the hot seat are just not being done.

There was a time when I had a glimmer of hope that this terrible year would at the very least push some transformations in things that already weren't working well. It fills like more and more of that is slipping away.

This country is doing what we always seem to do, we ignore the transformations that are needed and instead force more work on the underpaid and overworked classes, and then tell them that the reason the country is failing is because they aren't working hard enough, and that they are asking for too much compensation.

That is the American way

I've been trying to work out ways to make my classes more interactive, and it's working out decently in one class, but in the other one, it's getting to the situation where, whenever I ask a question or try to start a discussion, the same two people always answer (and one of them usually doesn't even answer what I asked, but just uses that opportunity to ask about something else completely unrelated), and when I try to get anyone else to participate, I get dead silence. I'm trying some things now where the discussion starts with them typing their answers and then I pick a few to anonymously discuss -- maybe having them type stuff first will get them over the "I don't want to talk" hurdle?

Also, I just sent a work email, and then realized five minutes later that I'd phrased it really badly and it could be read as insulting, so I sent a follow-up apologizing for that and saying that I really respect the work that person does and that email didn't reflect that, and now I'm worried that the apologizing might have just made it worse, and, ugh. I hate social anxiety, and I hate not really having a sense of how these interactions are supposed to work, especially when I'm talking to someone outside my department. With math people, we're kind of expected to be blunt and just say what needs to be said, and this email shouldn't have been written like that, I don't think.

Our HR VP is asking us to donate sick time for someone. I have 162 hours, so probably I could afford to donate some of that, I hardly ever use any, but also if I do need it I will probably need it all at this point, ugh, why can't they just continue to pay the person and not involve me.

Bah, the difference between having 4 weeks of sick time and 3 weeks banked is probably not worth worrying about. I'll just donate the max and stop thinking about it.

Which I encourage you to do about that email, Hil, stop thinking about it. You're doing the best you can, the emails are both sent, hopefully it's not actually that bad.

Hil, if you're the host, administrator, whatever they call it, can you mute the annoying one(s)?

Hil, have you tried "think, pair, share"? You give the class a question that they all think about (you could probably send it via email ahead of time), then you pair up the students to discuss it, then one (or both) of them reports out on their conclusions/ideas. If you pair up the two talkers, the others will have more pressure to step up.

Timelies all!

Mr. S's school is using a hybrid model(3 days in person, 2 virtual), but it is a private school with small classes. Also, they are keeping track of COVID status of students and staff, and adjusting the plan as needed. We're lucky.