The 2021 School Year and Coronavirus

[Emily1830]

I’m a high school teacher and a parent to two small kids. I’m terrified of going back. After being extremely careful for months, I now feel like it’s just a matter of time before I get Corona if we go back to school. The numbers keep increasing and my kids are not required to wear masks in the classroom. (Our school announced we’re going half time.)

What most people who aren’t teachers don’t realize is that teaching live during a pandemic will not be the same as before the pandemic. I will not be able to do group work, I will not be able to walk around the room to ensure kids are on task, and I will have to wear a mask all day. The kids may or may not wear a mask, and they are coming on public transport or buses. We won’t be able to have assemblies, we won’t be able to have kids come into the office to get help like we used to, and we won’t be able to eat together in the cafeteria. If I am sick, who is going to sub for me? How are half of the kids going to learn remotely and the other half learn live? I will have to plan two lessons for the same lesson, which is double the work. How will we have faculty meetings? How long will it take to enter the school building if the kids are getting temperature checks? And who is going to watch my kids half the time while I work full time? And what happens if a kid gets Covid? Will all of us have to quarantine for 14 days? This is a logistical nightmare waiting to happen.

 

[KittyKat65]

What a horrible choice and I hope that your union will intervene soon with more alternatives than either "show up at this day/time or resign".

I schedule the ARDs for the Special Ed kids at my school and an elementary school. A lot of these kids have physical disabilities, and a few are on ventilator devices, the remainder have IEPs or other accommodations. We had to cancel 3 months of ARDs that I had scheduled, which will all need to be rescheduled, in addition to regular scheduling. It's a complete mess. Meanwhile, many teachers I know resigned last night or this morning. The ones who are not resigning are going back because they have no other choice. I will go back to substitute teaching when it is clear to do so, but I will NOT put myself or my son in that school with 3,000 students. It will suck because he has a full load of AP classes this year, but I will try and help as best as I can in addition to his online learning.

 

[RT1]

I'm in North Texas which is a hot spot. My kids are going into 6th and 4th grade. We will be doing remote for the first 9 weeks and see how that goes. I really want thing to go back to normal but it's too risky imo. My husband works in health care and that is the consensus among his peeps. I also worry there will be a shortage of teaches/ subs/ other staff members (cafeteria workers/ bus drivers) and their health of course.

Yes, I completely agree with you in keeping your kids home for the first 9 weeks.
We have no idea when "normal" will return, if ever!

We're all in this "state of confusion" and I do not think the school districts have a clue on how to correctly handle this situation!

 

[Emily1830]

I saw this today and it shows how I feel.

 

[Staci_W]

Our schools haven't announced what they are going to do yet.

My son did terrible in homeschool. It was me having to sit with him and do the work with him in order to get it done. He had learning disabilities. He's not good at organization and self motivation. I do not want to take on a full load of sophomore classes in the fall. I'm working from home myself.

I also do not want things to go back to normal. We can't act like there's nothing going on.

I don't have an answer. It's all very stressful.

 

[ultravisitor]

New York Times: Internal CDC documents warn full reopening of schools is 'highest risk' for coronavirus spread

 

[p3b]

This stresses me out as I am high risk. Thankfully two of my sons are long out of K-12, but I have my youngest son, who is a senior for the upcoming year. The district sent out a family survey and I answered that I wanted him to do remote. He doesn't want to of course as he was miserable staying home and not being able to socialize with friends or his girlfriend. ***** is threatening to defund public schools if they all don't return so that is putting stress on the schools as well. I just don't see how it can possibly be safe to have school buses, cafeteria meals (breakfast/lunch), and then going class to class for 6 classes per day. They are considering doing only 3 classes per day in a quarter format instead of 6 in a semester format, but that still doesn't take away all of the other exposure opportunities.

I replied that if certain populations need to go back in person because homelessness, needing additional assistance, etc, then they should go back and keep the rest on the remote platform. However, they need to hold students accountable this time as the "only can raise grades, but never lower" meant so many kids never attended the Zoom meetings or did the work! My son often told me that there were only 3-5 other kids in his Zoom meetings for each class. That is sad.

 

[Nibb]

I don’t have kids but for reasons beyond me the high school in my town apparently opened up the summer athletic programs and announced yesterday they had to close because in 3 of the programs students were testing positive for Covid.

View attachment 4782414

The wealthiest pro teams in the world with highly trained staff can’t keep Covid under control how are underfunded public schools supposed to deal with it?

 

[Staci_W]

This stresses me out as I am high risk. Thankfully two of my sons are long out of K-12, but I have my youngest son, who is a senior for the upcoming year. The district sent out a family survey and I answered that I wanted him to do remote. He doesn't want to of course as he was miserable staying home and not being able to socialize with friends or his girlfriend. ***** is threatening to defund public schools if they all don't return so that is putting stress on the schools as well. I just don't see how it can possibly be safe to have school buses, cafeteria meals (breakfast/lunch), and then going class to class for 6 classes per day. They are considering doing only 3 classes per day in a quarter format instead of 6 in a semester format, but that still doesn't take away all of the other exposure opportunities.

I replied that if certain populations need to go back in person because homelessness, needing additional assistance, etc, then they should go back and keep the rest on the remote platform. However, they need to hold students accountable this time as the "only can raise grades, but never lower" meant so many kids never attended the Zoom meetings or did the work! My son often told me that there were only 3-5 other kids in his Zoom meetings for each class. That is sad.

My boss attends meetings at the governor's office. In one meeting, they were discussing schools. He said almost 30% of children hadn't even logged into their online accounts. Homeschooling was a disaster. The school gave out Chromebooks and offered to pay for home wifi. Not much more they could have done. Admittedly, my son missed his zoom meetings. Luckily I'm proficient enough at algebra, English, and science that I could understand his work to show him.

Kids were just not doing their work. It was a failure.

 

[p3b]

My boss attends meetings at the governor's office. In one meeting, they were discussing schools. He said almost 30% of children hadn't even logged into their online accounts. Homeschooling was a disaster. The school gave out Chromebooks and offered to pay for home wifi. Not much more they could have done. Admittedly, my son missed his zoom meetings. Luckily I'm proficient enough at algebra, English, and science that I could understand his work to show him.

Kids were just not doing their work. It was a failure.

It is not surprising when schools (ours at least) basically told them they didn't have to in so many words. So kids (and parents) decided it was just one long spring break. I stayed on top of making sure my son did every Zoom meeting and assignment.

Our schools have always assigned Chromebooks for middle/high school, but gave them to elementary as well during this pandemic. The district didn't pay for Internet, but many providers were offering Internet for no charge for 90 days (for students).

 

[Miss Curly]

To be honest, it is all a mess. I have one week until I go back to work. One! My state is now the worst in the world. I am very concerned about how all this will play out. I don't feel like there are any real protections in place. I really don't know what to say or do about any of this. It's not like I have an option to quit. My anxiety is starting to climb each day. All I know is there is no way that at least my position and my other coworker in the office will be allowed to work from home (at least not at the beginning). We will be expected to be in office dealing with the general public all day long. I will do my best not to offend people, but I am for sure wearing gloves (and a mask) when I have to touch people's documents. You would be shocked at how people keep important documents like birth certificates and such. I would get grossed about before when people would hand me stuff, now it's even worse.

In terms of online learning, I know our district has said it will not be the same online learning they did in the fourth quarter. They purchased a whole curriculum to ensure better learning with this go around, but who knows? Students are going to be required to do the work, attendance will be taken (how I have no idea yet), and generally held more accountable. Time will tell on that.

There is just so much uncertainty and guess work going on and that just adds to the stress. Maybe in a week I will have more positive comments to make once we get more info on how everything is going to be implemented and we get training on all the new processes.

On the upside, I received my air purifier today so that makes me feel a little better. Just the thought that it might help a little.

 

[Kitty157]

Teachers should never have to be put in this predicament all to satisfy a political agenda. Unions need to step in. This job with its low pay, tremendous workload, safety risks (school shootings) and now health risks makes it just not worthwhile to teach anymore.

 

[limom]

This stresses me out as I am high risk. Thankfully two of my sons are long out of K-12, but I have my youngest son, who is a senior for the upcoming year. The district sent out a family survey and I answered that I wanted him to do remote. He doesn't want to of course as he was miserable staying home and not being able to socialize with friends or his girlfriend. ***** is threatening to defund public schools if they all don't return so that is putting stress on the schools as well. I just don't see how it can possibly be safe to have school buses, cafeteria meals (breakfast/lunch), and then going class to class for 6 classes per day. They are considering doing only 3 classes per day in a quarter format instead of 6 in a semester format, but that still doesn't take away all of the other exposure opportunities.

I replied that if certain populations need to go back in person because homelessness, needing additional assistance, etc, then they should go back and keep the rest on the remote platform. However, they need to hold students accountable this time as the "only can raise grades, but never lower" meant so many kids never attended the Zoom meetings or did the work! My son often told me that there were only 3-5 other kids in his Zoom meetings for each class. That is sad.

he has zero power defunding the schools. We are not in a dictatorship.

Teachers should never have to be put in this predicament all to satisfy a political agenda. Unions need to step in. This job with its low pay, tremendous workload, safety risks (school shootings) and now health risks makes it just not worthwhile to teach anymore.

Unions will not step in. Once the pediatrician association deemed going back to schools is better for children, it became an uphill battle, imo.
My neighbor retired rather than being forced to teach live.
Maybe the teachers who are special need can be allowed to take a leave of absence?

 

[p3b]

he has zero power defunding the schools. We are not in a dictatorship.

I know this, but obviously he does not lol

 

[GhstDreamer]

he has zero power defunding the schools. We are not in a dictatorship.

Unions will not step in. Once the pediatrician association deemed going back to schools is better for children, it became an uphill battle, imo.
My neighbor retired rather than being forced to teach live.
Maybe the teachers who are special need can be allowed to take a leave of absence?

Doubtful. One year a teacher colleague's breast cancer came back and she was mandated to go back to work or lose her job. Union worked it out so that she can return part time and get her chemo treatments in in the afternoon to keep her job.

I don't know how the new school year will go as I may be working with children who are already medically fragile and school is suppose to resume at least half time.