I and mostly the students Grandmother now are home schooling a first grader in the NYC public system and would like to provide a description of what our situation looks like to better facilitate this discussion for those that are not living though this.

1. Everyday there is a video conference call.

This communication is mostly about trying to keep a relationship with the teacher and sharing stories they are writing only if a student desires.

2. There is no teaching, just lesson plans.

The responsibility of the actual schooling has been left completely up to the caregivers at home.

3. Schoolwork is expected to be uploaded daily.

There was no set way to do this. We are simply taking photos of the work done on paper (and at times screen shots if a login is shared for an activity) and pasting them in a google doc for each day in the students NYC google drive account.

4. There has been zero specific feedback on any of the work submitted.

The only accountability has been an online sticker chart where parents award award stars and teacher do also. We have given 1 star a day for completing assigned work, and 2 for a day when it is done with less struggle to maintain attention. Each parent has their own view of what a star means.

5. Writing has been the main focus over the past month.

My child already struggles with “writers block” even in school. We are fortunate to have a retired teachers assistant in our household who is able to do one-on-one teaching. While not trained or experienced in first grade education with the attention my child receives I have seen more improvement in the past month than the previous three months by a long shot.

6. The schooldays often goes later than when in school, and rarely earlier.

This is skewed by a new 9:00 start time, so the actual time may be less, but I would say it feels like more. It took at least 3 weeks to get into a rhythm where the days did drag out from morning to night.

7. There is no homework anymore.

Well, more correctly homework was initially part of the daily lesson plan, but we always did it during the day.

8. Reading, social studies and science have been done almost exclusively online.

This is the easiest for us as it is mostly self directed at this point. Additionally no work needs to be uploaded. IT started with Social Studies and Science each day, but they are now alternating days.

9. Friday’s have just become catch up days.

This is great, but in our situation was not necessary. We are hoping this means a 4 day school week.

10. We left NYC to a place where we have space to have school in a separate room behind a closed door.

I don’t think it would have been possible in our NYC apartment to limit distractions. There is also a younger sibling that requires attention and provides distraction to the student. In addition we now have ample outdoor space to allow the children to play with zero pandemic anxiety involved.

11. We still get assignments for the enrichment classes (music, art, physical education, and foreign language) separate from the primary teacher.

The first three are generally videos posted of the teacher providing interactive instruction. Foreign language is done with an online lesson and mimics social studies and science comments above.

The morning conference call does not address these at all.

In summary, my child has probably been doing better or as well as most in their class, and I don’t think they are falling behind. However, this is due to the time we have to teach them ourselves and not the attention given by the teacher. The teacher has been good at creating lesson plans and lowering our expectations, but other than that has been diminished to a technical support role in our case. There has been little to no remote teaching. We do have the ability to call hotlines and request more help from the teacher, but I can’t comment on those methods.