The covid numbers are quite high in Michigan again, despite the fact that about a third of us are vaccinated. B's school has been meeting in person since the return from Christmas Break. It's been a wild ride of a year. She is passing most of her classes, but not all.
First semester she failed pre-algebra, which we knew would be the hardest and which had the bad manners of taking place during first hour. Our district does not follow CDC guidelines of high school classes not starting before 8:30 in the morning. First hour starts promptly at 7:30. She actually did make it to class most days and even made it on-time at least half the time. She said she liked it because there were other autistic kids with Aides. There was a very outspoken girl. Other kids she knew from her past. But the online platform, Odysseyware, was amazingly awful. The teacher was struggling with the limitations. When classes moved online in mid-November, I was there on the periphery every morning and I had a really clear understanding of how doomed the class was. Child was sleepy and groggy. Her participation level was at about 5% . The material was not engaging. She would answer correctly when the answers were made exceedingly obvious. I could tell the teacher really wanted to help her pass. But I didn't want her to pass the class without her feeling like she had actually learned the material and could go on and pass the next level of math.
I still think she can, but it's going to be hard. She's going to need excellent resources. I know they exist-- I found a great book, The Cartoon Guide to Algebra. My search for excellent math resources started when I realized that platform for the class would never work for us. The very first video lesson was dry as toast. The woman who was giving the lesson was not excited. But there was no looking ahead to see if it got better. There was no moving forward without completing the work in front of you. And it was abysmal. No color, no raison d'etre, just monochrome math. It was like the people who wrote the lesson had no idea why anyone would want to take the class other than to jump through a hoop to the next curricular expectation.
I'm not repeating that particular pattern. Not sure how we will get through the high school math requirements, but I don't think it's hopeless. If my wishes are granted, by the end of August, we will find ourselves with a completed credit of per-algebra and a plan of attack for regular first year algebra. My vision involves a very friendly patient education major college student who loves math but understands not everyone does and is dedicated to relieving math anxiety and who finds my daughter's sense of humor hilarious and whom my daughter similarly enjoys. We'll use The Cartoon Guide to Algebra, we'll use Kahn Academy, and if the only way through to the credit is using Odysseyware, we will play the videos with the sound off while we take a bathroom break and do the problems after learning the lesson from a better resource. Maybe there won't be a really cool tutor. Maybe the school will ditch Odysseyware and allow Kahn. I think we can do this. I just need to convince my daughter. No easy task, that. Not impossible.