|
Post by Darcy Collins on Jul 11, 2020 21:02:30 GMT
Some schools have had to close, but frankly not that many. And most of those countries did not have lower cases per capita than the US as a whole and certainly some areas of the US are significantly lower. Some have mask requirements, some didn't - I posted above an article that tried to gather as much data as possible on what seemed helpful and what wasn't. It's unfortunate that Sweden has not collected much/any data as they did not modify schools at all and it would have been helpful to have more data. The only thing I've seen is a 5% antibody in school children - which shows there were definitely outbreaks. I'll repost the long article that talked about schools in different areas. www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/07/school-openings-across-globe-suggest-ways-keep-coronavirus-bay-despite-outbreaksHere's an article talking about the lack of testing/data in Sweden: www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/05/how-sweden-wasted-rare-opportunity-study-coronavirus-schoolsI'm sure there are things than can be done better in general - and as I said, there has to be an acknowledgement of community rates and hot spots. I just don't believe that children in the US are fundamentally different than children in the rest of the world. Children may not be that different, but the way we're being asked to return to school is fundamentally different, as I said above. I read a long article about how French schools re-opened back in April. They decided how many children could reasonably be distanced in a classroom, and limited the re-opening to that many students, prioritizing the needs of essential workers and other select groups. If there wasn't space, there wasn't space - they didn't just crowd kids in as we're being asked to do. They also shortened the school day, recognizing that sitting in one room with the same people for 7 hours a day, 5 days a week, is not workable for any child. And even with these stringent limits on in-person attendance, several schools still had outbreaks and had to re-close. US schools, on the other hand, are being asked to prioritize providing in-person childcare for everyone who wants it over following any sort of science-based plan for safe return. We also seem to have a more contagious and child-spreadable mutation of the virus happening here. And, as pointed out above, we're being asked to re-open schools at a time of uncontrolled community spread in many areas. I don't necessarily think we have to wait until there's a vaccine until we re-open. I'd just like to see that there's been some attention given to how quickly the virus is spreading in any given area, and that the health and safety of children and staff are being prioritized over childcare needs. I've pointed out elsewhere that if we instituted a temporary universal basic income, there would be far fewer parents frantic to return their child to school at this point. My only quibble is your saying US schools as if they're all doing what you're doing in TX. They're not. My kids' district is doing a lot to limit density in classroom and looking at data for a safe return. We also aren't seeing increased cases - although we have unfortunately seemed to hit a plateau of 5-10 new cases in our county a day. I think it's incredibly unfortunate that more states are not looking at science and what other countries have tried. I'm also very concerned about the mutation(s) that is showing more spread with children.
|
|
|
Post by freecharlie on Jul 11, 2020 21:07:34 GMT
|
|
|
Post by Merge on Jul 11, 2020 21:30:52 GMT
Children may not be that different, but the way we're being asked to return to school is fundamentally different, as I said above. I read a long article about how French schools re-opened back in April. They decided how many children could reasonably be distanced in a classroom, and limited the re-opening to that many students, prioritizing the needs of essential workers and other select groups. If there wasn't space, there wasn't space - they didn't just crowd kids in as we're being asked to do. They also shortened the school day, recognizing that sitting in one room with the same people for 7 hours a day, 5 days a week, is not workable for any child. And even with these stringent limits on in-person attendance, several schools still had outbreaks and had to re-close. US schools, on the other hand, are being asked to prioritize providing in-person childcare for everyone who wants it over following any sort of science-based plan for safe return. We also seem to have a more contagious and child-spreadable mutation of the virus happening here. And, as pointed out above, we're being asked to re-open schools at a time of uncontrolled community spread in many areas. I don't necessarily think we have to wait until there's a vaccine until we re-open. I'd just like to see that there's been some attention given to how quickly the virus is spreading in any given area, and that the health and safety of children and staff are being prioritized over childcare needs. I've pointed out elsewhere that if we instituted a temporary universal basic income, there would be far fewer parents frantic to return their child to school at this point. My only quibble is your saying US schools as if they're all doing what you're doing in TX. They're not. My kids' district is doing a lot to limit density in classroom and looking at data for a safe return. We also aren't seeing increased cases - although we have unfortunately seemed to hit a plateau of 5-10 new cases in our county a day. I think it's incredibly unfortunate that more states are not looking at science and what other countries have tried. I'm also very concerned about the mutation(s) that is showing more spread with children. I'm basing my observations on what I'm hearing from teacher friends all over the country. I have one who works in a suburban part of of SoCal, wealthy district, and after spending the whole summer working out plans for hybrid learning and severely limiting the number of kids in school, the district upended the whole thing and told them they'll be in-person five days a week with classroom video feed for those who want to stay home. I'm hearing similar things from a teacher friend in a wealthy Virginia district outside of DC. Parents, particularly high school parents, are afraid that if their kids don't attend in person, they may not have access to AP classes or the "best" teachers, so they all want to go in person. They're also concerned about instructional inequity between online and in-person instruction. I've heard similar stories from teachers in Iowa, Nebraska and Missouri (where I grew up and where most of my college friends are now teaching, so it's a large sample size). Everyone goes in with the best of intentions, but there's no way to please everyone. You either have a situation where teachers have way too many kids in class for safety, or where teachers are forced to do two full-time jobs (in-person and online) in a desperate attempt for equity. Then, of course, there are governors like mine and the one in Florida (so far) who are mandating that schools are open in-person five days a week to anyone who wants it, meaning that limiting numbers or doing A/B days is not possible. Lower SES families want in-person school because they need the childcare, and higher SES ones want it because they're afraid of their kids missing out on educational opportunities that others may get and not getting into the "right" colleges. This seems to be a trend nationwide. Perhaps consider that your county/district is an outlier rather than mine. (Maybe, maybe not - I'm just saying consider that.)
|
|
TankTop
Pearl Clutcher
Refupea #1,871
Posts: 4,767
Location: On the couch...
Jun 28, 2014 1:52:46 GMT
|
Post by TankTop on Jul 11, 2020 21:35:20 GMT
The thing to keep in mind is that this will not be a return to normal school.... Assigned seats all day in all contexts Assigned order in line No getting out of your seat No group works o small group work Special classes in your room in the same seat you have been all day No singing in music No PE No playing with friends from other classes at recess No sending kids to the restroom when the urge strikes No adult within 3 feet of any student This is not a return to normal. Many kids will not fare well with these restrictions. This is not the way US kiddos function in our schools. Heck, I do not think I could function in that manner. I'm pretty sure that none of this is happening in my district or any of the ones close to me Unfortunately, this is part of our plan. All of it.
|
|
|
Post by Merge on Jul 11, 2020 21:37:01 GMT
I'm pretty sure that none of this is happening in my district or any of the ones close to me Unfortunately, this is part of our plan. All of it. And it's all been discussed as part of our plan - which we haven't seen yet. It's supposed to come out next Wednesday.
|
|
SabrinaP
Pearl Clutcher
Busy Teacher Pea
Posts: 4,350
Location: Dallas Texas
Jun 26, 2014 12:16:22 GMT
|
Post by SabrinaP on Jul 11, 2020 22:09:05 GMT
Darcy Collins what is your district doing to limit density in the classroom? Class sizes and the ability to spread out students is the number one concern. I have teacher friends all across the country because I’ve been on an active teacher message board for 20 years. My school has every single classroom full so our only option is hope a good percent of students pick to do virtual, but then some of the teachers will be pulled to do virtual, so we still don’t know how much it any impact it will have on class size.
|
|
AmeliaBloomer
Drama Llama
Posts: 6,842
Location: USA
Jun 26, 2014 5:01:45 GMT
|
Post by AmeliaBloomer on Jul 11, 2020 22:33:00 GMT
new data suggests that children with the virus often don't have temperatures even if they have other symptoms? It’s funny. I’ve now read articles about this No Fever thing among children, among 25-35 year olds, and among seniors. Who is getting a fever? Perhaps we need to retire this idea of fever as the COVID litmus test. The temp checks are probably catching some positive people, but it seems they’re missing some, too...or maybe missing more than they’re catching? In March, we believed fever and cough were the red flags and hand sanitizer was our defense. March was a long time ago.
|
|
AnotherPea
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 2,968
Jan 4, 2015 1:47:52 GMT
|
Post by AnotherPea on Jul 11, 2020 22:54:40 GMT
Can you tell us anything about the plans in other countries. The only other country I’ve read about was China’s reopening plan and much of what they did initially will not work in most US classrooms. I think teachers have a couple of problems with going back to school. First, at least in my area, there is a real denial of this virus. Many parents still think it’s no worse than a cold. In the US many parents do not have the protection and sick days other parts of the world do. Our kids come to school sick, high on fever reducing medications because their parents have to work and do not have sick days. I’ve already seen many parents saying they cannot quarantine their kids if the need be because they don’t have that much sick time. I totally get it because as a teacher we are only given 8 days per year. Also our classrooms are just over crowded. I’m not sure how class sizes are in other countries but in Texas the limit is 22 to 1 through 4th grade and then after that all bets are off. I had classes of 30 last year and my DH is a high school teacher and had always had classes of 35. If I need to spread kids out I can maybe fit about 15 kids in my room. They’ve already stated “spread kids out if you can”. That just shows teachers that they are still not taking it seriously. We are trying to fight this virus but not spend anymore on education. In fact most of our budgets are being cut. I do believe that 100% of teachers want to go back in the classroom because that is where all the things we love happens, but we want to ensure our safety and the safety of the kids and honestly most of our administrations have not proven to us that our safety is on the top of their priory list. I understand the concerns about parents sending sick kids to schools, I know many countries implemented temperature checking (and the school my cousin's kids went to over the summer as essential workers also required temperature checks). FYI - US is pretty average with class size compared to the rest of the world: economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/11/class-size-around-the-world/I've posted a few times an article taking a pretty comprehensive look at what other countries are doing with outcomes. I would love to have an average of 23 kids per class. Last year I had really small class sizes (one class had 18 kids!) and it was wonderful! I could really connect with students, I had fewer behavior problems, and my students seemed to learn more. That was a fluke though, likely a result of district mandates changing. This upcoming year my class sizes range from 35 to 45 students.
|
|
|
Post by Merge on Jul 11, 2020 23:19:40 GMT
I understand the concerns about parents sending sick kids to schools, I know many countries implemented temperature checking (and the school my cousin's kids went to over the summer as essential workers also required temperature checks). FYI - US is pretty average with class size compared to the rest of the world: economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/11/class-size-around-the-world/I've posted a few times an article taking a pretty comprehensive look at what other countries are doing with outcomes. I would love to have an average of 23 kids per class. Last year I had really small class sizes (one class had 18 kids!) and it was wonderful! I could really connect with students, I had fewer behavior problems, and my students seemed to learn more. That was a fluke though, likely a result of district mandates changing. This upcoming year my class sizes range from 35 to 45 students. At the elementary level we average about 24 kids per class. Middle and high school can have many more (I had 60-70 in my middle school choirs - core area teachers tended to have 25-40 per class depending). And you know, we make it work during normal times. But I don't know of any way to safely distance 24 kids in a 12x14 classroom with no windows. We're not allowed to do alternate day schedules or a "hybrid" model per the state, and we must also offer full time online for those who want it. So it's most likely that some teachers will end up with 24 kids in a tiny classroom for 7 hours a day, and some will end up with 24 kids online. And it's likely that there will not be enough online teaching spots for the teachers who have medical issues, medically fragile people at home, kids of their own, etc., and still doesn't answer the question of what happens when one of those teachers gets sick, and there is no sub. I really hate to harp on this, but dang. It feels like some people (not you) just aren't listening.
|
|
|
Post by snugglebutter on Jul 11, 2020 23:47:45 GMT
I was reading this article last night and about halfway down, they quote Abbott saying "For schools across the state, if anyone in that school tests positive, that school will close down for five days to clear out the school, to sanitize it, to make it clear and clean for students return," Abbott said. It seems like schools would be perpetually closed in counties with high case numbers. I am really hoping we see more districts delaying the start of school. Denton ISD has pushed theirs back two weeks. I'm not sure of others.
|
|
|
Post by Skellinton on Jul 11, 2020 23:51:36 GMT
I understand the concerns about parents sending sick kids to schools, I know many countries implemented temperature checking (and the school my cousin's kids went to over the summer as essential workers also required temperature checks). FYI - US is pretty average with class size compared to the rest of the world: economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/11/class-size-around-the-world/I've posted a few times an article taking a pretty comprehensive look at what other countries are doing with outcomes. I would love to have an average of 23 kids per class. Last year I had really small class sizes (one class had 18 kids!) and it was wonderful! I could really connect with students, I had fewer behavior problems, and my students seemed to learn more. That was a fluke though, likely a result of district mandates changing. This upcoming year my class sizes range from 35 to 45 students. The school where I work has around 28 kids per class, I think the lowest number of students in one class was 25 but that grade had 4 teachers, there must have been some weird baby boom for that age because they are the only grade that required 4 classes. The district where I live I think the class sizes are smaller, but I don’t believe they average 23 per class. The district where I work sent out a letter today, the proposal at this moment is the first 2 weeks will be online while focusing on socio emotional learning and getting the students and teachers acclimated to online learning and to make sure everyone has access. After that it is likely half of the kids would go 2 days, Wednesday would be a deep cleaning day/teacher work day and the other half of students will go Thur and Friday. All students will be learning 5 days a week If that isn’t safe then online all the way. They state that they are preparing for the possibility of a return to full time learning. They are also looking at a way to accommodate parents who want to keep their children home.
|
|
TankTop
Pearl Clutcher
Refupea #1,871
Posts: 4,767
Location: On the couch...
Jun 28, 2014 1:52:46 GMT
|
Post by TankTop on Jul 12, 2020 0:12:25 GMT
I was reading this article last night and about halfway down, they quote Abbott saying "For schools across the state, if anyone in that school tests positive, that school will close down for five days to clear out the school, to sanitize it, to make it clear and clean for students return," Abbott said. We have been told that we send home and quarantine by class only. If I have a positive case in my room, only my class will be sent home.
|
|
paigepea
Drama Llama
Enter your message here...
Posts: 5,609
Location: BC, Canada
Jun 26, 2014 4:28:55 GMT
|
Post by paigepea on Jul 12, 2020 0:18:52 GMT
I understand the concerns about parents sending sick kids to schools, I know many countries implemented temperature checking (and the school my cousin's kids went to over the summer as essential workers also required temperature checks). FYI - US is pretty average with class size compared to the rest of the world: economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/11/class-size-around-the-world/I've posted a few times an article taking a pretty comprehensive look at what other countries are doing with outcomes. I would love to have an average of 23 kids per class. Last year I had really small class sizes (one class had 18 kids!) and it was wonderful! I could really connect with students, I had fewer behavior problems, and my students seemed to learn more. That was a fluke though, likely a result of district mandates changing. This upcoming year my class sizes range from 35 to 45 students. About 15 years ago I had 35 kids in a class. On meet the teacher night I had a parent ask me how i planned to teach 35 kids in one class and i said I didn’t. Teaching would not be happening. I was so annoyed with 35 kids. They got it down to 28.
|
|
|
Post by freecharlie on Jul 12, 2020 0:21:34 GMT
I was reading this article last night and about halfway down, they quote Abbott saying "For schools across the state, if anyone in that school tests positive, that school will close down for five days to clear out the school, to sanitize it, to make it clear and clean for students return," Abbott said. We have been told that we send home and quarantine by class only. If I have a positive case in my room, only my class will be sent home. what if the positive case has a sibling in another grade?
|
|
|
Post by Darcy Collins on Jul 12, 2020 0:54:57 GMT
Darcy Collins what is your district doing to limit density in the classroom? Class sizes and the ability to spread out students is the number one concern. I have teacher friends all across the country because I’ve been on an active teacher message board for 20 years. My school has every single classroom full so our only option is hope a good percent of students pick to do virtual, but then some of the teachers will be pulled to do virtual, so we still don’t know how much it any impact it will have on class size. My district is splitting classes into A/B and going half time FtoF and half time synchronous remote so there is only half the kids in the class at a time. I understand that several governors in other states have specifically rejected these hybrid models. I think elementary school is different, but I haven't followed those plans as closely.
|
|
TankTop
Pearl Clutcher
Refupea #1,871
Posts: 4,767
Location: On the couch...
Jun 28, 2014 1:52:46 GMT
|
Post by TankTop on Jul 12, 2020 1:04:17 GMT
We have been told that we send home and quarantine by class only. If I have a positive case in my room, only my class will be sent home. what if the positive case has a sibling in another grade? That has been asked and not clarified. Right now they are saying the sibling only would quarantine. If the sibling is positive, that class will be sent home as well.
|
|
|
Post by myshelly on Jul 12, 2020 1:11:02 GMT
Tea: it’s not safe we’re working from home until January. You guys go back and just try to distance. Typical Texas high school during a passing period:
|
|
Dani-Mani
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,706
Jun 28, 2014 17:36:35 GMT
|
Post by Dani-Mani on Jul 12, 2020 1:17:44 GMT
myshelly weren't you saying not too long ago that your county only had 17 cases? now you are telling us about refrigerated trucks for dead bodies? i am a little confused. My *city* had 17 cases when I made that post (and we’re still pretty low, but the county and city where DH is a teacher has exploded). Now *counties* in Texas are ordering refrigerated trucks for morgues. I fully supported reopening in April and May. The situation has changed now. I don’t like the way it’s been handled at any point on the timeline. I believe we should have gone to masks first with bipartisan support, shut down for 2 weeks to prepare hospitals, then reopened (still with 100% masks everywhere) at limited capacities, then had rolling lockdowns in specific places as the situation warranted. Since what we did was pretty much the opposite of that, my feelings have been pretty much the opposite of supporting whatever TPTB were doing at any given point in time. Now we’re fucked almost beyond repair. Adding schools to the mix isn’t going to help with the repair. If you didn’t like the way it’s been handled, why were you and your family so quick to return to normal, even going out of state? Don’t you think those are the behaviors that helped contribute to the mess? The attitude that because you can, you will? Why not stay at home, because you knew that was the safest for you and everyone else in your area? I guess I also feel you are back peddling now but eh. Whatever. 🤷🏽♀️
|
|
inkedup
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 4,837
Jun 26, 2014 5:00:26 GMT
|
Post by inkedup on Jul 12, 2020 1:20:33 GMT
Tea: it’s not safe we’re working from home until January. You guys go back and just try to distance. Typical Texas high school during a passing period: View AttachmentCurious as to how this crowd is worse than the crowd at a NASCAR race. You were fine with exposure for employees at ausement parks, large sporting events, etc. Is the difference that your husband will be exposed to the same risk as the strangers you wanted to go back to work? What about people who don't think life is worth living if they can't send their kids to school?
|
|
Dani-Mani
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,706
Jun 28, 2014 17:36:35 GMT
|
Post by Dani-Mani on Jul 12, 2020 1:22:22 GMT
Tea: it’s not safe we’re working from home until January. You guys go back and just try to distance. Typical Texas high school during a passing period: View AttachmentCurious as to how this crowd is worse than the crowd at a NASCAR race. You were fine with exposure for employees at ausement parks, large sporting events, etc. Is the difference that your husband will be at the same risk as the strangers you wanted to go back to work? What about people who doubt think life is worth living if they can't send their kids to school? Or disney. Or universal.
|
|
|
Post by myshelly on Jul 12, 2020 1:22:24 GMT
Tea: it’s not safe we’re working from home until January. You guys go back and just try to distance. Typical Texas high school during a passing period: View AttachmentCurious as to how this crowd is worse than the crowd at a NASCAR race. You were fine with exposure for employees at ausement parks, large sporting events, etc. Is the difference that your husband will be at greater risk than the strangers you wanted to go back to work? What about people who doubt think life is worth living if they can't send their kids to school? Outside versus inside is a big one for me. Length of time of exposure has been shown to be a big factor in transmission. At amusement parks and sporting events you aren’t around the same people for 8 hrs a day.
|
|
|
Post by myshelly on Jul 12, 2020 1:24:30 GMT
Curious as to how this crowd is worse than the crowd at a NASCAR race. You were fine with exposure for employees at ausement parks, large sporting events, etc. Is the difference that your husband will be at the same risk as the strangers you wanted to go back to work? What about people who doubt think life is worth living if they can't send their kids to school? Or disney. Or universal. Universal has been open for a month. No clusters have been linked to its reopening. I felt completely safe there. But, masks were required and everyone wore them 100% of the time and social distancing was strictly enforced. Those practices will not be in place when school reopens. Why are we willing to accept school without these safety measures?
|
|
|
Post by myshelly on Jul 12, 2020 1:28:41 GMT
|
|
|
Post by crazy4scraps on Jul 12, 2020 1:33:00 GMT
I hope my initial post was clear that I absolutely understand specific hot spots needing to get local virus control in place. I do disagree though that it's only places like Texas that are concerned about reopening school. There was a survey a month or so ago and something like 2/3 of teachers in the US did not want to go back into the classroom. And certainly a large portion of the teacher peas from all over the country have overwhelming expressed a desire to not reopen schools. I'm sure the lack of confidence in the administration is a huge component. Not just lack of confidence in the administration. Lack of confidence that it’s possible to do safely. Busing will be a nightmare, for one thing. My old (speech therapy) room was windowless with poor ventilation. How to deal with kids in the hall, eating when large groups of kids are crowded into a room. Preschoolers. Special ed.students. Kindergarten students. All of them cough and sneeze on you. Getting them to cough into their elbow is hard enough. People talking all day in poorly ventilated rooms. Opening windows will help, but not enough to inspire confidence. Plus, not all schools are set up the same either. In our district there are the really old school buildings that have individual closed classrooms and other newer schools like the one my kid attends that is more open concept with several classes in one giant room (with as many as 5-6 individual classes per room) that are only separated by bookshelves and movable partition walls. With an average of 25-26 kids per class, each house holds around 150 kids and 5-6 teachers plus assorted paras, volunteers, reading and math corps tutors, etc. That’s a lot of people breathing in one space even if you cut them back by half. And none of the windows open because it would be a security risk. With all the school shootings that have happened over the last couple decades, there is no way any school is going to risk having windows that actually open anymore.
|
|
|
Post by crazy4scraps on Jul 12, 2020 1:35:38 GMT
Not just lack of confidence in the administration. Lack of confidence that it’s possible to do safely. Busing will be a nightmare, for one thing. My old (speech therapy) room was windowless with poor ventilation. How to deal with kids in the hall, eating when large groups of kids are crowded into a room. Preschoolers. Special ed.students. Kindergarten students. All of them cough and sneeze on you. Getting them to cough into their elbow is hard enough. People talking all day in poorly ventilated rooms. Opening windows will help, but not enough to inspire confidence. But see that's my comment. None of that is different in the 20 other countries that have already opened schools. I don't think US children are more likely to cough and sneeze than kids in the Belgium or France. But in those countries, do they normally pack the kids into classrooms with 25-30 (or sometimes more) kids like we do?
|
|
luckyjune
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 2,685
Location: In the rainy, rainy WA
Jul 22, 2017 4:59:41 GMT
|
Post by luckyjune on Jul 12, 2020 2:35:01 GMT
My prediction is that schools that go back face-to-face will quickly realize that shutting down to sanitize, due to kids with positive diagnosis, is futile and we'll be back to remote learning.
Can you imagine the revolving door? "Okay, kids and teachers, the school has been sanitized and it is safe to return...oh, never mind. We have another new case," and everyone goes home again. How many times do you think THAT happens before they throw in the towel?
|
|
breetheflea
Drama Llama
Posts: 5,882
Location: PNW
Jul 20, 2014 21:57:23 GMT
|
Post by breetheflea on Jul 12, 2020 2:50:24 GMT
My prediction is that schools that go back face-to-face will quickly realize that shutting down to sanitize, due to kids with positive diagnosis, will quickly figure out that it is futile and we'll be back to remote learning. Can you imagine the revolving door? "Okay, kids and teachers, the school has been sanitized and it is safe to return...oh, never mind. We have another new case," and everyone goes home again. How many times do you think THAT happens before they throw in the towel? And if a family has kids in multiple schools like mine, it could get really fun trying to keep track of who is in school and who isn't each week.
|
|
paigepea
Drama Llama
Enter your message here...
Posts: 5,609
Location: BC, Canada
Jun 26, 2014 4:28:55 GMT
|
Post by paigepea on Jul 12, 2020 3:24:35 GMT
Darcy Collins what is your district doing to limit density in the classroom? Class sizes and the ability to spread out students is the number one concern. I have teacher friends all across the country because I’ve been on an active teacher message board for 20 years. My school has every single classroom full so our only option is hope a good percent of students pick to do virtual, but then some of the teachers will be pulled to do virtual, so we still don’t know how much it any impact it will have on class size. My district is splitting classes into A/B and going half time FtoF and half time synchronous remote so there is only half the kids in the class at a time. I understand that several governors in other states have specifically rejected these hybrid models. I think elementary school is different, but I haven't followed those plans as closely. My younger dd in elementary will be 5 days per week. I think my older dd in high school will be this hybrid model.
|
|
|
Post by crazy4scraps on Jul 12, 2020 4:08:48 GMT
My prediction is that schools that go back face-to-face will quickly realize that shutting down to sanitize, due to kids with positive diagnosis, is futile and we'll be back to remote learning. Can you imagine the revolving door? "Okay, kids and teachers, the school has been sanitized and it is safe to return...oh, never mind. We have another new case," and everyone goes home again. How many times do you think THAT happens before they throw in the towel? This is exactly what I’m afraid of. My kid really doesn’t handle rapid changes very well in the best of times. Because of some upheaval with her grade last year followed by the instant school closure after spring break, all of the shifting really threw her for a loop. Just judging from how frequently we get school notices about reports of strep and flu in the classroom normally, I think her school would just be a revolving door with Covid added into the mix. I honestly can’t see how that lack of consistency and constant change would be helpful to anyone—kids, parents or teachers/staff. IMO they are inviting disaster.
|
|
|
Post by freecharlie on Jul 12, 2020 4:10:02 GMT
My prediction is that schools that go back face-to-face will quickly realize that shutting down to sanitize, due to kids with positive diagnosis, is futile and we'll be back to remote learning. Can you imagine the revolving door? "Okay, kids and teachers, the school has been sanitized and it is safe to return...oh, never mind. We have another new case," and everyone goes home again. How many times do you think THAT happens before they throw in the towel? As a teacher, the up in the air/revolving door is hard. How am I supposed to plan? In person, I can do without problem, but I need to prepare the lessons. Some of them do not translate to online very well, so I should change and update them. But I'm not doing that on my own time without pay. My pay is frozen, so fuck that.
|
|