Back to school?

"Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo" (rustyvandura)
07/07/2020 at 22:19 • Filed to: None

The president of the NEA is interviewed in this segment and she sounds like a complete lunatic, but she’s spot-on-message. Nobody wants the kids back in school much more than the educators — like me — do, but it has to be safe and locking kids in a room all day will only make them miserable.

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DISCUSSION (47)

jminer > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
07/07/2020 at 22:29

Haven’t listened to the interview yet but will.

Are most schools making plans for the fall yet? Class starts in less than 6 weeks most places. There was little planning in the spring as all had to act so quickly but there’s been a few more months to think about long term now.

I know some colleges are being proactive and announcing their online only now in the Fall .

BoxerFanatic, troublesome iconoclast. > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
07/07/2020 at 22:37

The title of the post reminded me of this.

Which proves that that movie did this.

shop-teacher > jminer
07/07/2020 at 22:51

Most districts are still trying to figure out which way is up. I have no idea if we’ll be back in the building this fall or not. My guess is yes, but not with all the kids at any one time. Illinois has mandated no more than 50 people can be in one place at one time in school . How things like lunch and PE class are going to work? No idea.

DipodomysDeserti > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
07/07/2020 at 22:53

I would much rather be back in school. We have a group of friends that will all be trading home schooling days if our kids are forced to go online again. That stuff was a joke.

I get tested tomorrow. If I didn’t get Covid after this weekend, I don’t think I’m going to get it.

Phyrxes once again has a wagon! > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
07/07/2020 at 22:58

School systems around me are starting to do more than lay out options, we are about 6 weeks out as well.

The NEA interview was absolutely worth a listen.

This whole thing is a huge mess, parents don’t know what their work status is going to look like so child care and school are a huge issue. Much less managing to keep all the kids in a household sorted if one is to bank on the older ones taking care of the younger ones on “home days. ”

I teach at private school and we haven’t committed to of our options yet. Our classes and student population is pretty small but even so social distancing will be a challenge as our rooms were designed to handle no more than 20 students, much less putting them in their own bubbles. I haven’t don’t the measurements for my classroom but I would suspect with distancing my room caps out around 6 to 8 students.

I’m also a parent of a kindergartner and we have started working on him wearing a mask, oh boy is it a trainwreck!

ITA97, now with more Jag @ opposite-lock.com > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
07/07/2020 at 22:58

I hope I’m wrong, but my prediction is that to the extent schools do open next month they’re going to shut down again about a month later and the numbers spike. I look at this impart from the recent experience of the university I used to work for. They started up (and have since ceased) D1 football practice in June, allegedly with all kinds of precautions and no full contact, no large groups, ect... The result as of today is 26 new Covid cases (and 7 test results still pending) from 168 people involved with only 3 weeks of practice on campus .

jminer > shop-teacher
07/07/2020 at 23:01

Thanks for sharing, it’s a hard as hell problem especially with little national leadership to help and it varying so wildly state by state.

I’d think eating in a classroom with no PE but then what do you do for moving between periods? It’s been a while since I was in a highschool but I remember it being a wall to wall mashing of teenage bodies as everyone shoved past each other.

This year has essentially been pressing pause on most things and it's just really hard for me to wrap my head around. I can't imagine what this would be like if I was 12 and had to do school on top of it.

ttyymmnn > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
07/07/2020 at 23:14

Though there’s been no official announcement yet, it looks like we will have the option for sending our boys 5 days a week or keeping them home. We’re not sure how we are going to choose, but the boys will have a say in it. Trump is leaning on governors to open the schools. Tell me again which public school Barro n attends?

ttyymmnn > shop-teacher
07/07/2020 at 23:15

I think we will be given a choice of 100% at school or 100% at home. We’re not sure which we will choose, or if we will even have a choice.

Highlander-Datsuns are Forever > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
07/07/2020 at 23:27

I am a parent of two above average (Of course) high school children. We have absolutely no idea what is going to happen. If Montana had closed its borders in April we would be COVID free. However we are now swarming with tourists and getting 30-50 new cases a day. Simply put I feel terrible for the children, the educators, and the parents who can’t babysit during the week. This is not going to work well, at all.

facw > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
07/07/2020 at 23:31

A lot of people seem to be pushing to reopen schools since education is important, and having parents have to take care of kids during the day is a drag on their productivity, but I haven’t heard anything about how anyone thinks they can do so safely. Even if the kids themselves are at low risk of serious complications, they can easily spread it to high risk individuals (including their teachers). Unless you are going to set up completely isolated boarding schools, I don’t see how you can do this without it quickly turning into a major driver of virus spreading.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > jminer
07/08/2020 at 00:06

My district is full-in distance learning for Fall and we have been planning. For my part, I’m having some fun setting up my studio in the shed. I’m making the folding server my teaching machine, will move to the school and use their electrons in a year or three when things go back to something like normal.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > ttyymmnn
07/08/2020 at 00:07

Stay home would be, will be, is my vote.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > jminer
07/08/2020 at 00:07

It’s a mosh.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > facw
07/08/2020 at 00:09

IT’s going to be interesting. I want my district to not charge me sick days if I contract COVID at school.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > Phyrxes once again has a wagon!
07/08/2020 at 00:10

All of that.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > ITA97, now with more Jag @ opposite-lock.com
07/08/2020 at 00:11

I think you’ve nailed it. My district is doing all distance learning this fall and I concur with that decision. I think this school year will be a write- off.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > Highlander-Datsuns are Forever
07/08/2020 at 00:12

This school year is going to be a farce, academically. We need to accept it.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > ttyymmnn
07/08/2020 at 00:12

I’m so done with that guy.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > DipodomysDeserti
07/08/2020 at 00:13

I will avoid the VID as long as I can. My first grandchild is due in a few weeks and I’m old enough to really appreciate my life.

jminer > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
07/08/2020 at 00:17

That makes sense to make a decision and plan for it. Good luck with your home studio there- if you need any tech help let me know.

AdamB > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
07/08/2020 at 02:05

This is a complicated topic for me. I really want to go to school (I’m in high school) but don’t want to get COVID. It has been really boring to be honest except for browsing Reddit and Oppo. Luckily NYC has been going down in numbers and most people here are fine with wearing masks. And I’ll be attending a new school that is right outside of the city so the risk level is much lower (not zero). My school has already sent emails saying how they’re handling it. Basically a certain amount of people will attend in person and others at home, and they’ve spent a ton of money taking safety precautions since it’s a school for the rich (I’m shocked with how much they’re doing though, I could never imagine being in a school with the money to do that). Hopefully things will go smooth for all us.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > AdamB
07/08/2020 at 05:32

At a school with resources, it won’t be so bad. Thing is, if your school has resources, so likely does your household, and that will help as well. I’m an educator myself, and I think last year and this year coming up and very likely the following year will mostly be a write-off academically and there will be all the students, well, on Earth, actually, who will have a two-to-three-year gap in their educations.

Sovande > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
07/08/2020 at 06:09

I agree 100%. And I think people need to go into the situation knowing that this is the trial run and the training for how things may look moving forward.

shop-teacher > jminer
07/08/2020 at 07:48

Good call on the passing periods. There is no way for them to just stay in one room. They have to be able to move from place to place.

avalonian > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
07/08/2020 at 07:48

You think the online classes aren’t effective? Will the kids just be missing information? Or will they have to extend stuff out? What are they gonna do about the SAT? And whatnot this is definitely trickey.

AdamB > avalonian
07/08/2020 at 11:01

From my experience from online classes at my old school they were not very effective. I really had to teach most of the stuff myself with the Internet and the textbooks I brought home. I feel like it’s harder to be taught since online classes are so much more complicated instead of just sitting down in a classroom. It’s also harder to process the information since you’re at home. Plus there is always the possibility of kids not even going. Here in nyc a lot of kids in the public school system were skipping class, and even many teachers would not do a live class. Many kids here fell very behind.

davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com > AdamB
07/08/2020 at 11:12

I’d encourage you to write an OPPO piece about your experience as a high schooler during this time, how it’s affected you now, and how you think living through this (and the racial unrest we’ve seen) will affect you and many in your generation in the future.

I’m sure you know that while this virus isn’t zero risk to you, personally, it’s very, very low. Clearly, no one wants to pass it on to anyone that might get sick or worse...

Kinja'd!!!

davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com > ITA97, now with more Jag @ opposite-lock.com
07/08/2020 at 11:14

Those are 26 new cases, not cases that were discovered in asymptomatic students who were tested prior to participating in practices?

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > Sovande
07/08/2020 at 11:15

Yes. I am not saying that teachers will not provide good stuff, though some certainly will not... But a lot of the kids just won't take it seriously. Particularly in the demographic where I teach, which is not homogenous middle class or a higher families.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > AdamB
07/08/2020 at 11:18

I am a teacher. I teach eighth grade math. and I'm here to tell you, as an educator, there are a lot of lame educators out there. Trying to teach over a webcam is far, far, far outside many teachers comfort zones. yet my concern has less to do with teachers not making the effort and more to do with kids not taking it seriously. As well, anyone who's taken online courses through the university will be able to tell you that the professor's pile on heaps and heaps of extra work just so that no one will think that the online course was a slouch. And yes, to your comment, you do have to be auto didactic about it.

davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com > ttyymmnn
07/08/2020 at 11:18

Will be interesting to see if the AAPediatrics changes their recommendations if things continue to get worse. Still hoping that, somehow, the death rate doesn’t spike along with the infection rate...

https://services.aap.org/en/pages/2019-novel-coronavirus-covid-19-infections/clinical-guidance/covid-19-planning-considerations-return-to-in-person-education-in-schools/

avalonian > AdamB
07/08/2020 at 11:20

Yyeah, one of my friends sisters is a teacher in a lower income school district in Georgia. Th ey closed school down in late march because so many kids do not have internet access or anything at home. These are definitely troubling times ahead for the next generation of children.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > avalonian
07/08/2020 at 11:20

I think that students get from any course what they put into it. I think that many students will just not take school seriously when it's all online. though of that group many would not have taken it seriously if they were sitting in the classroom... Some universities have already announced that they are through with the SAT. For my part, I am hoping that standardized testing is a casualty of covet 19. In any event, teachers are going to be shrugging and saying covet 19 anytime the subject of test scores comes up. I think we are looking at a two to three year chasm in education rolling forward. There's going to be this lump of kids and college students who just get less than what they would have for at least one solid year more like two and maybe three.

Sovande > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
07/08/2020 at 11:28

I just hope that if things don’t go according to script that people don’t blame the schools and the teachers as you are in uncharted territory and in an impossible situation. I think that expectations need to be set rather low as this is not going to be easy. My 9 year old already told me that he is looking forward to school because it will be like a weekend - two days of having fun with his buddies and then the rest of the week at home. And I’m kind of on his team with that sentiment.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > Sovande
07/08/2020 at 11:37

In my opinion, in the 21st century, way too many teachers are technological luddites. One of the upsides to the difficulties we are having is that this will force teachers to change in that respect. I personally think that these hybrid models that they’re trying to come up with to get some of the kids in school some of the time are insanely complicated and the children will be utterly miserable while they’re at school. My biggest fear personally is not that I will get sick going to work, but rather, that I will get sick going to work and have to burn through all of my accrued sick leave. I have asked my union to negotiate for us not being charged sick days if we get covid 19 at work. I'm just one rank and file member, but I haven't heard back from them on that one yet.

AdamB > davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com
07/08/2020 at 11:43

Yeah my worry is not really about me too much. I’m pretty healthy except for some minor Asthma. I worry about passing it in to my 61 year old dad. I’ll consider writing that Oppo piece. Great suggestion!

davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com > AdamB
07/08/2020 at 11:45

I look forward to reading it. My dad is 83, so I’m definitely concerned about him and my mom, but they live 8 hours away, and thankfully are taking distancing seriously.

ITA97, now with more Jag @ opposite-lock.com > davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com
07/08/2020 at 11:49

Yes, t hose are 26 new cases discovered in students via testing since practice started. I don’t know if they were all tested before it started, but I do know they made every player self quarantine for a couple of weeks before it started up. I think there was a symptomatic case last week that resulted in 6 positive tests for folks that were in immediate contact with that person. They then shut down practice and tested every person involved with the football program to find 20 more new cases this week. I don’t know how many are symptomatic, or not.

davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com > ITA97, now with more Jag @ opposite-lock.com
07/08/2020 at 11:52

Ah, I just assumed every student had to get tested before they began.

One factor in the spike in cases (in some places) is all of these student athletes who are going back and getting tested prior to activities. Almost all asymptomatic, so positive test results for a good number that wouldn’t have gotten tested otherwise.

Sovande > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
07/08/2020 at 12:02

I think the hybrid model will quickly go by the wayside in my area. I don’t see an how an increase in cases (they are starting to trend upwards a bit in Virginia) will allow kids to go to school to essentially become spreaders. I really don’t think that teaching online to a 10 year old is going to be effective. I think it will be a joke and I really don’t feel that it will be the fault of teachers, Luddites or not. I also don’t think that the expectation that parents will be able to be involved is feasible. I can either work full time and pay everyone’s bills, or teach school subjects to my kid, but I can’t really do both. My job is all in all day long.

ITA97, now with more Jag @ opposite-lock.com > davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com
07/08/2020 at 12:05

True, but I think it may provide a snapshot of what we can expect if we try to reopen school and universities next month.

davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com > ITA97, now with more Jag @ opposite-lock.com
07/08/2020 at 12:10

Yes. I did find this interesting:

https://www.pasteur.fr/en/press-area/press-documents/covid-19-primary-schools-no-significant-transmission-among-children-students-teachers

ITA97, now with more Jag @ opposite-lock.com > davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com
07/08/2020 at 12:16

That is interesting.

davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com > ITA97, now with more Jag @ opposite-lock.com
07/08/2020 at 12:21

Definitely needs more study, but would be very good if confirmed.

ITA97, now with more Jag @ opposite-lock.com > davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com
07/08/2020 at 12:28

It would be good, at least for elementary schools. It suggests that result may not scale up to adolescent children, but the under 12 set is probably the least likely to be successful distance learning and the set that requires the most supervision during the day when not in school.

gmporschenut also a fan of hondas > avalonian
07/08/2020 at 22:46

A close family friend is a middle school teacher in middle class/upper middle class district and what she finds so concern ing is how many parents don’t care. Kids not turning in assignments etc. and being 2020 it doesnt take long to google a persons address and see the house they live in. So she’ ll call the home number. “ Where were you” , “oh we were all by the pool”