Malibu Parents Will Now Ask Their Kids: ‘Have You Finished Your Asynchronous Task List Yet?
Written by 991KBU on August 19, 2020
Parents in Malibu and Santa Monica are getting a 35 page parents guide to distance learning from the local schools …. and now they have two new words to use in their homes.
Synchronous and asynchronous.
Those are what we used to call classroom time … and homework.
But the pandemic has changed everything about schools… including the words we use. In the new parents guide … SMMUSD Superintendent Ben Drati concludes that “distance learning last spring was in crisis mode, without teacher preparation or training.”
It needed a lot of work.
Drati now says there will be a whole lot less individual reading and studying on computers .
That is now called asynchronous lessons.
And there will be a whole lot more classroom instruction … with attendance taken and all kids online at the same time … which is now called synchronous learning.
Elementary school kids will get six hours of classroom time … synchronous learning … delivered by credentialed teachers per day.
Middle school and high school kids will get similar class loads.
Students will also receive social-emotional wellbeing interaction and support … Drati says.
Distance learning will provide structures for students to stay connected, engage in new learning, reduce loss of learning and access valuable resources.
And yes … there is a block schedule for kids to show up on time …. dressed for school … every school day.
