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Post by beachbum on Sept 25, 2021 23:33:52 GMT
Non-covid related, admin keeps piling shit on my plate. I'm purposefully putting the crap that doesn't directly effect students on the back burner. I'm kind of hoping I get called out so I can ask them when the f#&k I'm supposed to do all this? Retired teacher here (and oh so thankful for the retired part). I understand the feeling of not having enough time and then being given MORE crap to do. I asked my P in a faculty meeting once if I was just supposed to pull that extra time out of my ass. (applause happened)
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Post by freecharlie on Sept 25, 2021 23:38:37 GMT
I've slept all day and alternate between being hot and cold.
I'm hoping it is psychosomatic.
I keep smelling things to make sure I can smell
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Post by Skellinton on Sept 26, 2021 0:20:13 GMT
we were talking about this last weekend. The k-1 kids have no idea how to be in a group The 6th and 7th graders are basically 1st time middle schoolers as are the 9th and 10th graders first time in hs. Since we are in person it is nothing like last year. Our 11th and 12th graders have forgotten and many teachers (in my school) want to do things the same way they have done it for 12+ years. These kids are different than any before and teachers have to adjust and adjust again and then adjust to some stupid admin thing...it is rough K-1 this year feels like my first year teaching in a high-poverty school, where the kids had either never been away from home or had only been in low-quality daycares where they don't teach any school skills. It's not their fault, of course. But it's so hard. I can only do about a 20 minute lesson with K and 30 minutes with 1st, and then we have to just stop and sing silly songs and stuff. Many of the kids are just completely mentally checked out by the time I see them at noon or 1 PM. That is a huge problem in our school as well. The kids are just almost feral. They have no school skills at all. No being able to sit and tend to a story, no boundaries, no social skills, lots and lots of tears. Our classroom is next to the kindergarten and first grade classrooms and the behaviors we are observing of the kindergarteners and first graders it's like what you would expect of 3-year-olds. One teacher had to write a suspension referral for kindergartener, she said in 30 years of teaching that has never happened before. I work with 3 to 5 year olds and most of them don't even recognize their own names on their cubbies,which is very unusual. It is really very apparent these kids have not been around anyone outside of family the past 1.5 years. We did some cutting practice the other day and I was surprised I have any fingers left. I made sure to tell my colleague teacher that when we didn't cutting skills again the teacher attending the children and assisting them needed to have Band-Aids by them, it was harrowing. This wasn't fancy cutting at all this was just snipping stripes of paper just to see how they did. It was clear only two children had ever probably touched a pair of scissors before. They cannot attend any activity more then 10 minutes, but my God do they eat. I think they must have been used to being at home when they can get a snack whatever whenever they wanted because they want to eat every 20 minutes. In over 10 years of teaching Pre-K I can name three children that ever napped in our program, now we have five or six children daily who are crashed out the second we start our rest time.
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SabrinaP
Pearl Clutcher
Busy Teacher Pea
Posts: 4,350
Location: Dallas Texas
Jun 26, 2014 12:16:22 GMT
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Post by SabrinaP on Sept 26, 2021 1:00:07 GMT
I've slept all day and alternate between being hot and cold. I'm hoping it is psychosomatic. I keep smelling things to make sure I can smell I’m in the same boat. Feeling achy with a slight cough. I’ve been taking my temp off and on all day. I’m hoping it’s just a little cold and I will feel better tomorrow.
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Post by Bobomommy on Sept 26, 2021 1:06:11 GMT
I teach 2nd grade at a low income school. We had conferences two weeks ago. I had 8 show up for their Zoom time. Parents don’t take time to find out how their child is doing, not even a 10 minute conference slot.
We have 4 classroom teacher job openings. Our EIP (Early Intervention) teachers have been pulled to cover two of those classes, which means our struggling students are not being served.
Students are 1 1/2 years behind grade level in reading, writing, and math. I have two who don’t know what sounds each letter makes and one of them can’t recognize all the letters of the alphabet. Several can’t add single digit numbers WITH OR WITHOUT using manipulatives. They are 8 years old.
We only have 3 subs for the entire school of over 800 students.
One of my teammates has been out for two weeks and we have been told her return date is “uncertain”. So the rest of us have an extra 5-6 students each.
Admin decided to change the lesson plan format 6 weeks into the school year.
We are still eating in the classrooms, so no break for the teachers.
Two of the 5 days we have meetings during our planning period. I stay an extra 8-10hours a week just to deal with paperwork, lesson plans, etc.
I’m tired. I have 4 more years before I can retire, If I didn’t need a pension I’d leave sooner.
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kate
Drama Llama
Posts: 5,513
Location: The city that doesn't sleep
Site Supporter
Jun 26, 2014 3:30:05 GMT
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Post by kate on Sept 26, 2021 1:06:58 GMT
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Post by Darcy Collins on Sept 26, 2021 1:08:38 GMT
I really can't imagine how hard it is for the teachers of the little ones. I can tell you that the food thing is real. Even my teens are struggling with not having access to food whenever they want. They're seriously out of practice of waiting to eat when they have a break vs when they're hungry, so I can only imagine how much harder it is for the young ones who've never had to wait for lunch.
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cakatie
Junior Member
Posts: 77
Jun 29, 2014 4:45:05 GMT
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Post by cakatie on Sept 26, 2021 4:19:36 GMT
I'm 4 weeks into year 21 of teaching and it is so far and away the hardest that I just want to cry.
I think one thing that hasn't been part of any conversations much is how much harder classroom management is while wearing a mask. (For the record I am 100% in favor of masking and my district is fully masked indoors and out.) I have realized how much of my classroom management before was done with just a glance, or a long look, or a raise of the eyebrow, none of which comes through the same way at all when wearing a mask. That means that ALL redirection (and there is so much redirection!) has to be done verbally which then interrupts the flow of teaching and learning. I am just so so tired.
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Post by SockMonkey on Sept 26, 2021 12:54:24 GMT
We are about to start week 8. Last week was Homecoming - all events outside. We're trying, but getting school spirit up right now is a real challenge when everyone is >>thisclose<< to breaking down on the daily.
I cried at our last union meeting when it was time to give my building report.
Everyone I talk to says they're "spring tired," which has been echoed here. And we are in a decent place with mandatory masking (a daily battle now, as kids have gotten lax about it), and mandatory vaccination or testing for staff. I really hope they mandate the vaccine for students as soon as possible. I realize it won't be at least until next year, but let's just get it done. Numbers in my immediate area are trending down, which is good. Because masking and vaccination work.
Meanwhile, we are all trying to pick up the pieces of the last two years while also being asked to keep doing more work. I realize curriculum planning and PD are important. I TEACH the PD. But also...people are not okay.
Basically this:
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Post by Merge on Sept 26, 2021 12:54:27 GMT
I'm 4 weeks into year 21 of teaching and it is so far and away the hardest that I just want to cry. I think one thing that hasn't been part of any conversations much is how much harder classroom management is while wearing a mask. (For the record I am 100% in favor of masking and my district is fully masked indoors and out.) I have realized how much of my classroom management before was done with just a glance, or a long look, or a raise of the eyebrow, none of which comes through the same way at all when wearing a mask. That means that ALL redirection (and there is so much redirection!) has to be done verbally which then interrupts the flow of teaching and learning. I am just so so tired. Yes! I've brought this up several times because I did it last year, too. (I think teachers who were online all last year are just now experiencing some of the difficulties of in-person Covid teaching that we dealt with last year as well.) The teacher look is much harder to pull off with a mask on. I use proximity a lot more than usual, but even that is difficult when not paired with a good teacher look. Also the energy needed to be engaging and keep everyone's attention through a mask. It's exhausting. I swore last year I would not come back this year if we still had to mask. Not because I don't support masking, but because teaching from behind a mask (and constantly nagging kids to wear their masks correctly) makes the job ten times harder than usual. Circumstances did not let me quit just yet, so here I am, trying to make the best of it. America needs to take a long, hard look at whether it wants to continue to have public schools available to all students, and if so, what we're willing to do to make teaching a job any rational person would want to do. Even when Covid restrictions are lifted, it will take many years to replace the knowledge and experience lost from teacher attrition during Covid, and there's very little to draw smart and talented young people to the profession at this point. I know several teachers around my age who are quietly reorganizing their lives (downsizing) to allow them to live on their partner's salary and quit teaching until they can find something else to do. And folks, teachers my age are the absolute core of the institution. We are the team leads, mentors, and rock-solid classroom managers who can take almost anything you throw at us. We're experienced enough to be excellent at our jobs, but not old enough to be coasting to retirement. And the burden of carrying our schools through Covid is breaking us. Sorry, I know people get tired of teacher "whining" and "complaints" when so many others are suffering as well. If I didn't care so much about public education, I wouldn't feel compelled to ring this bell over and over again. Public education is not just the great equalizer in terms of lifting people out of poverty, it's also an equalizer in that it's allowed millions of women to enter the workforce while their kids are being cared for and educated, mostly by other women. If we want our grandkids to have viable schools to attend, we need to do something now.
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Post by crazy4scraps on Sept 26, 2021 14:43:19 GMT
Sorry, I know people get tired of teacher "whining" and "complaints" when so many others are suffering as well. If I didn't care so much about public education, I wouldn't feel compelled to ring this bell over and over again. Public education is not just the great equalizer in terms of lifting people out of poverty, it's also an equalizer in that it's allowed millions of women to enter the workforce while their kids are being cared for and educated, mostly by other women. If we want our grandkids to have viable schools to attend, we need to do something now. Hugs (and sincere thanks) to all of you for fighting the good fight through this whole mess. If you didn’t speak up and vent the rest of us wouldn’t know exactly how hard all of this has been. I know it’s been stressful for my kid (6th grade, virtually all of her classmates are not vaxxed because they’re not yet eligible) so it has to be exponentially stressful for her teachers who are encountering 150+ kids every single day. Hang in there and know that there are a lot of parents like me out there who have your back and are doing what we can with our kids at home to help make things go as smoothly as they can for all involved.
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Post by freecharlie on Sept 26, 2021 15:28:32 GMT
I'm 4 weeks into year 21 of teaching and it is so far and away the hardest that I just want to cry. I think one thing that hasn't been part of any conversations much is how much harder classroom management is while wearing a mask. (For the record I am 100% in favor of masking and my district is fully masked indoors and out.) I have realized how much of my classroom management before was done with just a glance, or a long look, or a raise of the eyebrow, none of which comes through the same way at all when wearing a mask. That means that ALL redirection (and there is so much redirection!) has to be done verbally which then interrupts the flow of teaching and learning. I am just so so tired. Yes! I've brought this up several times because I did it last year, too. (I think teachers who were online all last year are just now experiencing some of the difficulties of in-person Covid teaching that we dealt with last year as well.) The teacher look is much harder to pull off with a mask on. I use proximity a lot more than usual, but even that is difficult when not paired with a good teacher look. Also the energy needed to be engaging and keep everyone's attention through a mask. It's exhausting. I swore last year I would not come back this year if we still had to mask. Not because I don't support masking, but because teaching from behind a mask (and constantly nagging kids to wear their masks correctly) makes the job ten times harder than usual. Circumstances did not let me quit just yet, so here I am, trying to make the best of it. America needs to take a long, hard look at whether it wants to continue to have public schools available to all students, and if so, what we're willing to do to make teaching a job any rational person would want to do. Even when Covid restrictions are lifted, it will take many years to replace the knowledge and experience lost from teacher attrition during Covid, and there's very little to draw smart and talented young people to the profession at this point. I know several teachers around my age who are quietly reorganizing their lives (downsizing) to allow them to live on their partner's salary and quit teaching until they can find something else to do. And folks, teachers my age are the absolute core of the institution. We are the team leads, mentors, and rock-solid classroom managers who can take almost anything you throw at us. We're experienced enough to be excellent at our jobs, but not old enough to be coasting to retirement. And the burden of carrying our schools through Covid is breaking us. Sorry, I know people get tired of teacher "whining" and "complaints" when so many others are suffering as well. If I didn't care so much about public education, I wouldn't feel compelled to ring this bell over and over again. Public education is not just the great equalizer in terms of lifting people out of poverty, it's also an equalizer in that it's allowed millions of women to enter the workforce while their kids are being cared for and educated, mostly by other women. If we want our grandkids to have viable schools to attend, we need to do something now. I agree with almost your entire post. Masks suck to classroom manage. I don't know about lower grades, but at the high school level, we get snark and willful disobedience from the students around it and it sucks. I think I'm pretty close to your age and I am looking at how to change professions. Honestly, the only thing really holding me back is the state pension as we don't pay into social security and I am much closer to returning with PERA than I am with social security. But then I think that I still have 13 years...can I make it? The young teachers are jumping ship and the older teachers that can are retiring earlier than maybe planned. The teacher shortage will continue to grow. Who replaces us remains to be seen. But most people on this thread are teachers or very supportive of teachers. We already know this.
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Post by epeanymous on Sept 26, 2021 15:30:48 GMT
My students are adults and we have a vaccine requirement and a mask requirement. We have zoom set up for any students who need to be absent because of Covid symptoms or exposure, and, in five weeks, I have only had two class sessions where no one was on Zoom for Covid reasons. No one has actually tested positive, however, which has been a huge relief.
Hats off to all of you dealing with more precarious situations.
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SabrinaP
Pearl Clutcher
Busy Teacher Pea
Posts: 4,350
Location: Dallas Texas
Jun 26, 2014 12:16:22 GMT
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Post by SabrinaP on Sept 26, 2021 19:21:16 GMT
Well I went and got tested today and my rapid test came back positive. Ugh! I’m upset and hope the rest of my family can stay healthy. We are all fully vaccinated. Our house is too small to be able to quarantine much, but we will do our best.
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Post by freecharlie on Sept 26, 2021 19:23:34 GMT
Well I went and got tested today and my rapid test came back positive. Ugh! I’m upset and hope the rest of my family can stay healthy. We are all fully vaccinated. Our house is too small to be able to quarantine much, but we will do our best. oh, I'm so sorry. U hope you have a very mild case and your family avoids i
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johnnysmom
Drama Llama
Posts: 5,682
Jun 25, 2014 21:16:33 GMT
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Post by johnnysmom on Sept 26, 2021 19:33:37 GMT
Well I went and got tested today and my rapid test came back positive. Ugh! I’m upset and hope the rest of my family can stay healthy. We are all fully vaccinated. Our house is too small to be able to quarantine much, but we will do our best. Well crap. I hope is a very very mild case and the rest of your family stays healthy.
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Post by 950nancy on Sept 26, 2021 21:40:59 GMT
The beginning of each school year is exhausting and just trying. It is like you are starting a new job all over again. Year after year. With the added stress of Covid, I just can't imagine. I always felt like were rough until the first quarter was over.
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Post by Merge on Sept 26, 2021 22:23:05 GMT
Well I went and got tested today and my rapid test came back positive. Ugh! I’m upset and hope the rest of my family can stay healthy. We are all fully vaccinated. Our house is too small to be able to quarantine much, but we will do our best. Oh crap. Hope you are over it quickly.
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Post by elaine on Sept 26, 2021 22:25:45 GMT
Well I went and got tested today and my rapid test came back positive. Ugh! I’m upset and hope the rest of my family can stay healthy. We are all fully vaccinated. Our house is too small to be able to quarantine much, but we will do our best. ☹️I hope that your case is mild and that the rest of the family stays healthy.
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Post by Alexxussss on Sept 27, 2021 0:12:04 GMT
This is year 20 for me and I am struggling. Sub shortages, no masking, teaching quarantined 2nd graders on zoom and in class kids at the same time… it is just too much. Plus, I have a parent harassing and threatening me. My admin has stepped in and has told the parent they are no longer allowed to contact me for any reason. The constant harassment on top of everything else just about to break me. I’m sorry! Sending you hugs!
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Post by Skellinton on Sept 27, 2021 0:48:51 GMT
Well I went and got tested today and my rapid test came back positive. Ugh! I’m upset and hope the rest of my family can stay healthy. We are all fully vaccinated. Our house is too small to be able to quarantine much, but we will do our best. I am so sorry, I hope you recover quickly and the rest of your family stays healthy.
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Post by crazy4scraps on Sept 27, 2021 1:15:07 GMT
Well I went and got tested today and my rapid test came back positive. Ugh! I’m upset and hope the rest of my family can stay healthy. We are all fully vaccinated. Our house is too small to be able to quarantine much, but we will do our best. Well that just sucks. I hope your family doesn’t get it and your case is mild.
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Post by natscraps on Sept 27, 2021 1:16:15 GMT
Well I went and got tested today and my rapid test came back positive. Ugh! I’m upset and hope the rest of my family can stay healthy. We are all fully vaccinated. Our house is too small to be able to quarantine much, but we will do our best. Hoping your symptoms stay mild and the rest of the house stays healthy. About to begin week 4 and it’s been the longest first month of school ever. Most of my kids I had last year. I moved from 3/4 preschool to PreK. I can’t tell if their behavior got worse over the summer or if my fuse has gotten shorter. I’m also the administrator for the preschool and the crap just keeps hitting the fan. We have a kid with covid but had been quarantining so no exposure to staff or students but I still have to fill out all the required paperwork and I just don’t have time for that. I’ve got one parent writing letters to the board because I won’t exempt them from the mask mandate. I have a teacher unable to teach because the state system for fingerprinting is backlogged so we had to move the other class to the afternoons and now we’re working full days with no breaks and my planning time and office hours are now nonexistent. With all my family and house stuff mixed in I’m drowning. Completely drowning.
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ddly
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,947
Jul 10, 2014 19:36:28 GMT
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Post by ddly on Sept 27, 2021 10:16:07 GMT
I’m exhausted! We’ve had 6 reported cases but Friday had 88 quarantined out of 389. I’m a special educator and we’re down a special educator and paras which means huge caseloads and extra work. We’re all asked but I also teacher in the county with the highest amount of cases.
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ddly
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,947
Jul 10, 2014 19:36:28 GMT
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Post by ddly on Sept 27, 2021 10:18:43 GMT
K-1 this year feels like my first year teaching in a high-poverty school, where the kids had either never been away from home or had only been in low-quality daycares where they don't teach any school skills. It's not their fault, of course. But it's so hard. I can only do about a 20 minute lesson with K and 30 minutes with 1st, and then we have to just stop and sing silly songs and stuff. Many of the kids are just completely mentally checked out by the time I see them at noon or 1 PM. That is a huge problem in our school as well. The kids are just almost feral. They have no school skills at all. No being able to sit and tend to a story, no boundaries, no social skills, lots and lots of tears. Our classroom is next to the kindergarten and first grade classrooms and the behaviors we are observing of the kindergarteners and first graders it's like what you would expect of 3-year-olds. One teacher had to write a suspension referral for kindergartener, she said in 30 years of teaching that has never happened before. I work with 3 to 5 year olds and most of them don't even recognize their own names on their cubbies,which is very unusual. It is really very apparent these kids have not been around anyone outside of family the past 1.5 years. We did some cutting practice the other day and I was surprised I have any fingers left. I made sure to tell my colleague teacher that when we didn't cutting skills again the teacher attending the children and assisting them needed to have Band-Aids by them, it was harrowing. This wasn't fancy cutting at all this was just snipping stripes of paper just to see how they did. It was clear only two children had ever probably touched a pair of scissors before. They cannot attend any activity more then 10 minutes, but my God do they eat. I think they must have been used to being at home when they can get a snack whatever whenever they wanted because they want to eat every 20 minutes. In over 10 years of teaching Pre-K I can name three children that ever napped in our program, now we have five or six children daily who are crashed out the second we start our rest time. We refer to our freshman class as feral. They are out of control. They are only doing 2 lunch blocks this year, compared to 5, so it’s a nightmare in the cafeteria when the freshman are there. The seniors eat in the gym.
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Post by monklady123 on Sept 27, 2021 10:32:16 GMT
Well I went and got tested today and my rapid test came back positive. Ugh! I’m upset and hope the rest of my family can stay healthy. We are all fully vaccinated. Our house is too small to be able to quarantine much, but we will do our best. Ugh. I hope your symptoms aren't too bad and that the rest of your family stays healthy. I have a friend right at this moment who is at day 5 or so of covid. Fully vaccinated. She has two other people in her household and both of them are fine. So fingers crossed for your family!
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mama2bailey
Junior Member
Posts: 67
Jun 26, 2014 14:37:35 GMT
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Post by mama2bailey on Sept 27, 2021 11:22:41 GMT
I’m done. I’m end of year done and it’s not even October. 🥺
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Post by elaine on Sept 27, 2021 21:40:32 GMT
I just substituted for 7th grade Home Ec (is called Family Consumer Science here now) today.
Bwahahahaha! (maniacal laugh). 🤣🤣🤣
I did well for the first 4 periods of the day and completely failed the 5th/last period, when I had to call to the front office because 3 young “men” left class because I asked them for the 15th time to be quiet (so the rest of the class could hear). When the security officer showed up in the hallway and escorted them back to class they weren’t happy.
I feel for those boys’ parents.
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Post by christine58 on Sept 27, 2021 22:39:38 GMT
Well I went and got tested today and my rapid test came back positive. Ugh! I’m upset and hope the rest of my family can stay healthy. We are all fully vaccinated. Our house is too small to be able to quarantine much, but we will do our best. Retest...the rapid ones are not reliable...
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Post by Merge on Sept 27, 2021 22:40:56 GMT
Well I went and got tested today and my rapid test came back positive. Ugh! I’m upset and hope the rest of my family can stay healthy. We are all fully vaccinated. Our house is too small to be able to quarantine much, but we will do our best. Retest...the rapid ones are not reliable... False negative is a lot more likely than false positive, I think.
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