Online school sucks

[Pelado]

In the debut for our district's online school today, all three of my kids have had difficulty connecting to the school's system. The district sent out a text saying they're having technical difficulties.

My youngest was in tears about not being able to attend her first day at middle school. My middle child was angry and taking it out on me. My oldest keeps telling me our internet is the reason the district apps won't load even though he's concurrently connected to his class.

This is great.

I had all the kids log on to their new district-issued laptop computers the other day to make sure everything was set up properly, exactly to avoid these kinds of technical issues. Apparently the district was not anticipating that all the students would be logging in for the first day of school.

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[Flystripper]

In the debut for our district's online school today, all three of my kids have had difficulty connecting to the school's system. The district sent out a text saying they're having technical difficulties.

My youngest was in tears about not being able to attend her first day at middle school. My middle child was angry and taking it out on me. My oldest keeps telling me our internet is the reason the district apps won't load even though he's concurrently connected to his class.

This is great.

I had all the kids log on to their new district-issued laptop computers the other day to make sure everything was set up properly, exactly to avoid these kinds of technical issues. Apparently the district was not anticipating that all the students would be logging in for the first day of school.

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

based on our family's experience now being three weeks in to remote learning, it does not get much better.

[Bo Diddley]

Glad I'm past school aged children now.

[Clark Addison]

My daughter hopes school is permanently online in the future. She gets to wake up later, she "goes to school" while sitting in her bedroom, she gets to hang out in the kitchen and have snacks between classes. There is less chance of being called on in class, and assignments are due at midnight, which fits her preferred work schedule better.

I do not share her view, but will say that based on what I have seen so far. our district is doing it MUCH better than they were in April/May (we are currently on our 4th week back).

[The_Tick]

My wife is on her 3rd week of teaching from our living room. She is enjoying it quite a bit. She spent the first week at the school but the internet there was just too slow. There were some hiccups at the beginning, but it is good now.

Have some faith. It can be done.

[Pelado]

Here's the email the district sent out a little while ago:

We are aware that West Ada websites are not currently loading. This issue is due to a nationwide server problem with Blackboard, our web hosting provider. We are also experiencing some web filtering issues that is causing slowness in other areas as well including Teams. Our service desk is working on the issue. There is no need to call the service desk or your school at this time for this particular issue.
We do not have an ETA on when this will be resolved but will continue to send out updates

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[Moliere]

My kids are all on campus this morning for the first day of school. I’m hoping they can avoid a shut down of on campus learning.


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[Lost Student]

In the debut for our district's online school today, all three of my kids have had difficulty connecting to the school's system. The district sent out a text saying they're having technical difficulties.

My youngest was in tears about not being able to attend her first day at middle school. My middle child was angry and taking it out on me. My oldest keeps telling me our internet is the reason the district apps won't load even though he's concurrently connected to his class.

This is great.

I had all the kids log on to their new district-issued laptop computers the other day to make sure everything was set up properly, exactly to avoid these kinds of technical issues. Apparently the district was not anticipating that all the students would be logging in for the first day of school.

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

You can assure your oldest that it's not your Internet connection. None of my kids' issued laptops are connecting. It was a scramble this morning to install MS Teams on each of their individual devices.

Like you, we fired up their "new" Obama laptops over the weekend to make sure they could log in, access Teams, figure out the links to each class session, etc. But that was of no help this morning. The school laptops are basically worthless right now. They can't access any website like google.com. I'm guessing that each laptop has to use a school district DNS, proxy, or something, but whatever the setup is, it's getting overloaded by all the students trying to get on.

For the last 3 hours I've been going from room to room to fix little issues, help them learn how to navigate around Teams, etc. This sucks, I can't really get any work done (or cougarstadium--while I was typing this, I had to get up at least three times b/c different kids were calling for my help). There's a lot of angry parents who just want the kids to go to school. Apparently at the board meeting last month one of the board members quoted "heavy is the head the wears the crown" when he voted against all the parents' wishes.

My oldest is starting high school and she will also be using the school-issued laptop to do Seminary Zoom classes (hopefully we are not running afoul of the Establishment Clause ).

[smokymountainrain]

just have two in school - in school school. 7th grader and 4th grader - they've been at school for two weeks.

7th grader cried for about 2 hours in bed last night because "school is too hard" - mind you, this is my smartest kid (granted, that isn't saying a lot, but she is legit smart and school is ridiculously easy for her). she just has major anxiety and makes mountains out of molehills in every area of her life. she has been a beast to live with since school started. otherwise, she is a really good kid and also our most obedient.

4th grader didn't eat breakfast this morning because she didn't want to barf. also incredibly nervous, but she was so stinking cute and acted happy and ready to go. kinda broke my heart knowing how nervous she was but keeping her head up and just handling it. such a great kid. i feel too old to be raising a kid as young as her, but man, we are so lucky to have her in our family.

i'm glad they get to go to school in person, but with their personalities, it might be a lot easier if they could just do it from home.

[Clark Addison]

just have two in school - in school school. 7th grader and 4th grader - they've been at school for two weeks.

7th grader cried for about 2 hours in bed last night because "school is too hard" - mind you, this is my smartest kid (granted, that isn't saying a lot, but she is legit smart and school is ridiculously easy for her). she just has major anxiety and makes mountains out of molehills in every area of her life. she has been a beast to live with since school started. otherwise, she is a really good kid and also our most obedient.

4th grader didn't eat breakfast this morning because she didn't want to barf. also incredibly nervous, but she was so stinking cute and acted happy and ready to go. kinda broke my heart knowing how nervous she was but keeping her head up and just handling it. such a great kid. i feel too old to be raising a kid as young as her, but man, we are so lucky to have her in our family.

i'm glad they get to go to school in person, but with their personalities, it might be a lot easier if they could just do it from home.

That's one of the big reasons my youngest (10th grade) loves online so much. We actually had the option in our school of 100% virtual or in school 1 day a week. We originally signed her up to go one day a week, but she did not respond well to that. Her issues were:

1. None of her friends would be there on her day (it was split alphabetically)
2. With smaller in-person classes (usually 5-7 kids) she would be more likely to be called on
3. She would have no one to sit with at lunch which would be a social disaster

After a couple of weeks of severe stress, we agreed to switch her over to virtual.

[Pelado]

You can assure your oldest that it's not your Internet connection. None of my kids' issued laptops are connecting. It was a scramble this morning to install MS Teams on each of their individual devices.

Like you, we fired up their "new" Obama laptops over the weekend to make sure they could log in, access Teams, figure out the links to each class session, etc. But that was of no help this morning. The school laptops are basically worthless right now. They can't access any website like google.com. I'm guessing that each laptop has to use a school district DNS, proxy, or something, but whatever the setup is, it's getting overloaded by all the students trying to get on.

For the last 3 hours I've been going from room to room to fix little issues, help them learn how to navigate around Teams, etc. This sucks, I can't really get any work done (or cougarstadium--while I was typing this, I had to get up at least three times b/c different kids were calling for my help). There's a lot of angry parents who just want the kids to go to school. Apparently at the board meeting last month one of the board members quoted "heavy is the head the wears the crown" when he voted against all the parents' wishes.

My oldest is starting high school and she will also be using the school-issued laptop to do Seminary Zoom classes (hopefully we are not running afoul of the Establishment Clause ).

For a little while, all three kids' school-issued laptops were connected and working properly. Last I checked, only one was working properly. I moved the youngest to the home desktop computer (at which my wife had just sat down to use for a Zoom meeting - she switched to her laptop, but not without being upset). I used my oldest's lunch break to bring him to my office so he can use an extra desktop computer here.

I think you're right about running everybody through the district's internet connection. That must be how they're trying to ensure there's appropriate internet filtering. In their email, they said their web filtering was causing slowness with everything else, including Teams.

just have two in school - in school school. 7th grader and 4th grader - they've been at school for two weeks.

7th grader cried for about 2 hours in bed last night because "school is too hard" - mind you, this is my smartest kid (granted, that isn't saying a lot, but she is legit smart and school is ridiculously easy for her). she just has major anxiety and makes mountains out of molehills in every area of her life. she has been a beast to live with since school started. otherwise, she is a really good kid and also our most obedient.

4th grader didn't eat breakfast this morning because she didn't want to barf. also incredibly nervous, but she was so stinking cute and acted happy and ready to go. kinda broke my heart knowing how nervous she was but keeping her head up and just handling it. such a great kid. i feel too old to be raising a kid as young as her, but man, we are so lucky to have her in our family.

i'm glad they get to go to school in person, but with their personalities, it might be a lot easier if they could just do it from home.

If they've already been in school for two weeks, why were they so anxious last night? Were the first two weeks online only?

Also, my youngest, who was in tears this morning when she was unable to connect to her first class, was beaming later this morning because she got selected to be the teacher's helper. All the other students were muted while she would tell the teacher whether or not slides or other media were visible on the screen.

[Pelado]

That's one of the big reasons my youngest (10th grade) loves online so much. We actually had the option in our school of 100% virtual or in school 1 day a week. We originally signed her up to go one day a week, but she did not respond well to that. Her issues were:

1. None of her friends would be there on her day (it was split alphabetically)
2. With smaller in-person classes (usually 5-7 kids) she would be more likely to be called on
3. She would have no one to sit with at lunch which would be a social disaster

After a couple of weeks of severe stress, we agreed to switch her over to virtual.

Because of our youngest's anxiety, I was adamant that if there was on-campus school available, that she was going to attend. This is her first year of middle school and none of her closest friends from elementary school are attending the same school. I want her to be able to meet new friends now before the clicks are formed.

[smokymountainrain]

For a little while, all three kids' school-issued laptops were connected and working properly. Last I checked, only one was working properly. I moved the youngest to the home desktop computer (at which my wife had just sat down to use for a Zoom meeting - she switched to her laptop, but not without being upset). I used my oldest's lunch break to bring him to my office so he can use an extra desktop computer here.

I think you're right about running everybody through the district's internet connection. That must be how they're trying to ensure there's appropriate internet filtering. In their email, they said their web filtering was causing slowness with everything else, including Teams.



If they've already been in school for two weeks, why were they so anxious last night? Were the first two weeks online only?

Also, my youngest, who was in tears this morning when she was unable to connect to her first class, was beaming later this morning because she got selected to be the teacher's helper. All the other students were muted while she would tell the teacher whether or not slides or other media were visible on the screen.

ha. that's great. good for her.


no, they've been in school the entire time. for the youngest, she has struggled with nerves each monday (and today tuesday) going back after the weekend. just has a hard time going back after a break i think.

for the 7th grader, i have no clue what goes through her head and why. she is good at school, has good friends in each of her classes, friends at lunch, etc. but she is just a big ball of anxiety. like i say, i think she creates worry where there should be none. crying because school is too hard is a great example - school is not too hard. she may have missed one answer on a math test or spelled a word wrong in her english class, so now all of her classes are too hard. that girl is going to be handful as she gets older. a different handful than my oldest girl and somebody like your son, but damn - she's going to require some patience.

[smokymountainrain]

That's one of the big reasons my youngest (10th grade) loves online so much. We actually had the option in our school of 100% virtual or in school 1 day a week. We originally signed her up to go one day a week, but she did not respond well to that. Her issues were:

1. None of her friends would be there on her day (it was split alphabetically)
2. With smaller in-person classes (usually 5-7 kids) she would be more likely to be called on
3. She would have no one to sit with at lunch which would be a social disaster

After a couple of weeks of severe stress, we agreed to switch her over to virtual.

that's cool. hopefully it's a good thing for her.

[Pelado]

Got another email from the school district today. They're saying this was the cause of the technical problems:

These devices all went online today and attempted not only to provide school curriculum through Microsoft Teams, but complete software updates as well. These software updates caused lagging and connectivity issues while they were being downloaded and installed.

They want us to leave the devices on this evening so that updates can finish being installed. Of course, they didn't tell us whether or not we're supposed to keep any applications open. I just tried running a Windows update on the laptop issued to my son, but it's showing that option as disabled right now.

The email also said that the health department recommended switching to their "yellow" category for next week, so they can do alternating day in-school attendance. My kids, all on "Team 2", will be on campus on Tuesday and Thursday next week and, presuming they stay on yellow, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday of the following week.