Day Three - Guilty
March 26, 2020
Juvie got himself into quite a tangle today. Late morning he realised a summative prac for his Year 8 science class was due tomorrow at 9am. Much of the work required not done. Juvie, normally irrepressible, can get flustered when things go wrong. Which they had. Which he did.
He locked himself away and set to work, but the monster snuck in after him and grew. The questions in the scaffold only ever more perplexing. Graphs of data, instead of displaying clear and linear relationships between variables, just set them running in different directions.
An email to the teacher asking for a little more time to sort out what he wanted to say went unanswered.
Fifteen year old Tino helped, sorting out the data display, urging him on with the writing, and discussing the finer points of his observations. Juvie was making good progress, but so was the clock.
At 10.15pm I wrote an email I hoped one of the lead teachers might pick up early in the morning, asking that she try to contact the teacher concerned before the deadline.
At 10.30pm she replied, saying that “an extension is fine and he should get some rest and hand it in by Monday morning”. Oh, thank you. That is so far above and beyond any reasonable expectation of how school might support its students.
Guilty I stand. Of not keeping a better watch over my boy's schedule. (It did not appear in his GC summary, my only excuse.) Of expecting him to meet the demands of a normal schoolweek in these early days of continuous learning. Me, the one who said we were starting slow!
If something similar occurs again, I will grant whichever boy is concerned an extension myself and let the relevant teachers know. At least for the immediate future.
I am at home with the boys, and still we messed that up. How much harder for those families whose guardians can't be available most of the day.
But great things happened today as well. In a momentous first Juvie joined a virtual class in Google Hangouts. I could hear him talking about technology to no-one present and became suspicious. "What part of 'live video classroom' don't you understand Aunty?" he replied, when i inquired.
With the wave building though not yet crashing over us on one of these last pre-lockdown days, I took some time out to shop. Some 'continuous learning' technology. A few hands-on project materials. Something for my beloved.
Back at home, Gabriel our senior was in trouble as well. But you will have to wait until next time to hear of that. I am so tired now. It's Friday tomorrow, and by the end of it I expect I will be quite ready for the weekend.
Juvie got himself into quite a tangle today. Late morning he realised a summative prac for his Year 8 science class was due tomorrow at 9am. Much of the work required not done. Juvie, normally irrepressible, can get flustered when things go wrong. Which they had. Which he did.
He locked himself away and set to work, but the monster snuck in after him and grew. The questions in the scaffold only ever more perplexing. Graphs of data, instead of displaying clear and linear relationships between variables, just set them running in different directions.
An email to the teacher asking for a little more time to sort out what he wanted to say went unanswered.
Fifteen year old Tino helped, sorting out the data display, urging him on with the writing, and discussing the finer points of his observations. Juvie was making good progress, but so was the clock.
At 10.15pm I wrote an email I hoped one of the lead teachers might pick up early in the morning, asking that she try to contact the teacher concerned before the deadline.
At 10.30pm she replied, saying that “an extension is fine and he should get some rest and hand it in by Monday morning”. Oh, thank you. That is so far above and beyond any reasonable expectation of how school might support its students.
Guilty I stand. Of not keeping a better watch over my boy's schedule. (It did not appear in his GC summary, my only excuse.) Of expecting him to meet the demands of a normal schoolweek in these early days of continuous learning. Me, the one who said we were starting slow!
If something similar occurs again, I will grant whichever boy is concerned an extension myself and let the relevant teachers know. At least for the immediate future.
I am at home with the boys, and still we messed that up. How much harder for those families whose guardians can't be available most of the day.
But great things happened today as well. In a momentous first Juvie joined a virtual class in Google Hangouts. I could hear him talking about technology to no-one present and became suspicious. "What part of 'live video classroom' don't you understand Aunty?" he replied, when i inquired.
With the wave building though not yet crashing over us on one of these last pre-lockdown days, I took some time out to shop. Some 'continuous learning' technology. A few hands-on project materials. Something for my beloved.
Back at home, Gabriel our senior was in trouble as well. But you will have to wait until next time to hear of that. I am so tired now. It's Friday tomorrow, and by the end of it I expect I will be quite ready for the weekend.
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