@doschicos
Thank you. I appreciate your kind words.
Our ‘specials’ teachers have been helping the school work to improving test scores in Math, Science, and ELA for some years by teaching thematically and including things that cover these areas with a focus on Common Core State Standards, so all are familiar with supporting these goals. In our school all are pretty sharp cookies and if they are not up for helping with math, then they are with helping with ELA. I think it might be a small group support role more than anything but I don’t know and think our school leaders are waiting for more info from the state.
I have not caught up with reading the whole thread so maybe this has been posted, but China build special hospitals and facilities and used school gyms and etc, filling them with beds. They had everyone measure their temps each day and this was checked by citizens who were in charge of certain sections of cities that were under lockdown. Anyone with a fever was removed (cooperatively or forcibly) to one of these sickness hospitals. Sometimes it was done very brutally and there was quite disturbing video showing this happen multiple times in the early part of the pandemic. People living there were also very good about wearing masks, even at home in the case of someone in the family being sick.
I have no idea what South Korea did. I can’t imagine they had human rights abuses to enforce things the way China did
The state is waiving the certification requirements temporarily so we can teach off cert if needed from what I understand. Nothing is finalized yet. I think the idea is that properly certified teachers would lead things and PE, etc teachers would work with some students to create smaller groups. I respect my coworkers and believe all can do a good job at whatever the principal will assign them to do (and that she will only assign them to things she knows they are capable of doing). Many of us have many cross-endorsements. I can teach quite a lot of different things myself per my certs.
I’m sure this sounds horrific to my kid by it’s 100% what I think they need in order to approximate the learning that would happen in person. My school district had a total of 60 minutes per week per class in Zoom lessons, compared to ~45 minutes per day per class in person pre-covid. There’s NO WAY these kids learned anywhere near as much as they should have these past 3 months. If learning will be distance in the fall, they need to shift to synchronous full time schedule.
I haven’t heard the whole plan because I’m not on that committee, but I get updates and yes, there are general plans and guidelines that will come from the state and direct what all districts in the state do. Our state is using data to guide decisions and the situation is changing so they don’t know now what will happen in fall. We are tasked with planning for a normal year (unlikely), having students in 5 groups, 6 groups, more groups, etc, etc. We made groupings that can work in various possible scenarios.
As for when this will end, I don’t know but I trust the decisions are going to be data-driven.
If the teachers’ schools aren’t in person, then it’s likely neither are the teachers’ kids’ schools in person, so how will teachers who have young kids themselves be able to teach live? I have no idea the proportion of teachers who have preschool or elementary school aged kids, but I expect it’s not insignificant.
S21’s precalc teacher has young kids and taught zero classes live in Q4. I don’t fault the teacher at all, it’s just the reality of the situation we were all faced with, but no way that S21 is ready for AP Calc to start in 8 weeks. And this is at one of the best public high schools in the country.
The teachers met in teams with all teachers who work with each grade level (core teachers, special education, speech, ELL, etc) and discussed placement, who should not be together, who needs intervention, enrichment, etc. We looked at math level, reading level, writing level, etc. Normally we make 4 or 5 groups out of the students at the end of the year for each subject but this year we know we may have many more groups.
We also have to make sure we comply with Special Education law and student accommodation plans.
After we do this, we went it to our principal who makes the final decisions. We do sometimes recommend certain students not be together but those are kids who either really don’t get along or who get along too well.
How does any professional with young kids at home, successfully keep up with their full work-load while working from home?
My hats off to everyone struggling with childcare issues. I am lucky that my youngest is in middle school, and relatively self sufficient with distance learning.
Our state is deciding what will happen. Our school and district are not able to decide the main things. We will be told if we will be open or not from what I understand. How we deal with that guidance is up to us within the guidelines we will be given. It isn’t teachers unions driving decisions. The number of students the state will allow in each class will drive what we do along with if we are allowed to be open, have to be closed, or some hybrid model.
Also, students will likely stay in one room with teachers rotating, thereby minimizing having lots of people crowded in the hallways. Students will be in one room all day. They won’t have PE or music or sports. Running around, singing, etc all spread the virus. Students might stay in school until lunch, get a prepared lunch and take it home. Or they might eat in the classroom. If they need to take a break they can take a walking break around the school to get out of the classroom. masks will be expected. We are looking at a possible increase in homeschooling and how to help parents who decided to do that. There is more I’m forgetting, I"m sure. Teachers are no the deciders of these things. We are being told. The most we can do is give input to the union committee that gets to give input to the superintendent and also give input to the staff member on the reopening committee. But even those people are being told most of what we will do by the governor.
In Illinois it’s my understanding that it’s up to each school district whether to be in person, remote or hybrid…as long as the decision isn’t at odds with what phase the state (actually 4 separate regions within the state) is in.
This past week, a relatively affluent HS district in suburban chicago announced they will start the fall fully remote, to the surprise of many. Illinois is on track to enter phase 4 June 26, which allows schools to operate in person, with restrictions like masks, social distancing, heightened cleaning practices, etc.
If an affluent school district isn’t jumping at the chance to offer in person instruction, I’m not sure how the less affluent schools will either, including Chicago Public Schools. Maybe additional fed funding is on the way, time will tell.
For my kids and their k-5 classes at a Catholic school (so mostly the same 40-50 kids), there were also multiple siblings and cousins with parents who requested they either be together or far, far apart. For my own, I didn’t care and they were together for k, 2-4 and separated for 1st and 5th.
If schools are thinking of alternating days or am/pm, they have to make sure all the kids in a family are on the same days, and if a parent is a teacher that the teacher/kids have the same schedule, and that might go over several schools.
A family I’m working with has one in pre-k, 3rd grade, 4th grade and 2 in middle school. The mom is a school nurse at 2 different schools. She feels the middle schoolers can handle being at home together, the 4 year old is fine at preschool, but the 3rd and 4th graders can’t be home unsupervised. She’s looking at private school for them. I really think the district will figure out a way to have all the kids in school for the entire day. I think there is a max class size of 22 for k-5 anyway.
I simply can’t see how not reopening the great majority of K-12 schools this fall is a viable option. This is a case where the cure is indeed worse than the disease, on multiple levels. I get that modifications will be necessary, but the long-term social ramifications of keeping schools closed for in-person instruction for longer than the few months they already have been will be a disaster.