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Teachers and Educators in the Times of Covid


JanasTattooParlor

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And just like that we are closed for the rest of the week. Not enough staff to safely run the schools. Ugh.

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We got an email from our school district nurses today that, in a nutshell, says that they can't contact trace and also care for the kids that need them during the day, it's one or the other at this point.  So they're prioritizing care for the students and leaving the rest up to parents, to monitor for Covid symptoms, etc.  I totally understand it and get why they have to do that, but it just feels so defeating...  We're in a place where everyone is just giving up, not necessarily because they want to, but because they have to.  I just want this all to be over.

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My daughter’s school (she is a dean of students) will return to virtual school on Monday. 1/3 of the staff and kids (who replied to the survey) have Covid, including my GD. My SIL and son also tested positive despite being vaxed and boosted. The hubs, our daughter and I are still negative. We are all together on a vacation. Crazy times.

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On 1/5/2022 at 4:22 PM, WiseGirl said:

And just like that we are closed for the rest of the week. Not enough staff to safely run the schools. Ugh.

My neighbor has been substituting this week, and says she expects the fifth grade, at least, to have to shut down.  Kids are getting sick, teachers sick, few substitutes to be had.  Some of it is just the regular stuff that hits schools, but mostly Covid (including a few children being hospitalized), but staff is stretched so thin.  She’s so discouraged.

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I could have put in the meme thread but it feels more appropriate here.

 

FB_IMG_1641852189347.jpg

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Dubuque is considering setting up a permanent online school. 

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Dubuque Community School district officials are looking into what opening a permanent online school would look like for the district. District leaders said interest in learning, fully-online, has been consistent since the start of the pandemic.

“It really comes down to the number of students that we have currently enrolled in our online offering,” Mark Burns, the district’s executive director of secondary education, said. “We have about 300 students.”

Burns explained, first, district officials need to make sure opening an online school makes sense both for students’ learning and for the district’s finances. He added, they believe this could be a great opportunity for some students.

I think there’s still something to be said about in person learning and it should be encouraged once the pandemic becomes less of a threat. Online makes sense in some cases (severe bullying, mental illness, health, etc) but I think otherwise students should go to a traditional school some of the time so they get the interaction with others that they need.  And they get that exposure to people different than them that they might not get at home. 

Edited by 47of74
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2 hours ago, 47of74 said:

Dubuque is considering setting up a permanent online school. 

I think there’s still something to be said about in person learning and it should be encouraged once the pandemic becomes less of a threat. Online makes sense in some cases (severe bullying, mental illness, health, etc) but I think otherwise students should go to a traditional school some of the time so they get the interaction with others that they need.  And they get that exposure to people different than them that they might not get at home. 

One of the weirdest things about the argument over online schooling in Australia is that we have had School of the Air running since 1950, and no one has raised an eyebrow. They do have get togethers for sports days and social events (which is a big ask when you look at how spread out they are), but otherwise the kids know each other via their online classroom. I think online is perfectly reasonable, but would have the option of in person classes for things like metalwork, art or drama, and possibly hybrid systems available. 

The big question for me would be whether this leads to a further high income/low income split, where in person school becomes indicative of being unable to afford the resources to be online - and for that reason I would push for hybrid/in person, or all kids given access to the technology needed.

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Lawrence Kansas has had a virtual school as part of its school district for over a decade.  It helped provide “homeschooling” options for families with good curriculum and the like.

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People I am safe at school now. I have received my ONE N95 mask from the district. 

This is ridiculous. 

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Faculty, students, and parents have called for the Iowa Board of Regents to actually fucking respond to the pandemic;

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As students and faculty at Iowa's three public universities prepare to return to campus for the start of the spring semester, students, faculty members, and parents of students are calling on school leaders to "do more to protect our campuses from COVID-19."

More than 250 people signed an open letter to the Iowa Board of Regents, University of Iowa President Barbara Wilson, University of Northern Iowa President Mark Nook, and Iowa State University President Wendy Wintersteen. The Iowa Board of Regents oversees Iowa's three public universities.

The letter said Story, Black Hawk and Johnson Counties are already seeing an increase in COVID-19 activity, and the return of students from winter break could accelerate that.

"Our campus and Regents leaders can and must do more to protect our campus communities, with special attention to children of faculty, staff, and students. These children are too young to be vaccinated or ineligible for COVID vaccine boosters," the letter said. "This group tends to be forgotten in the conversation about campus and community COVID mitigations, and yet the impact of caregiving needs on the campus workplace, student success, and mental health is significant."

Of course since the board is composed of Branch Trumpvidians I'm not expecting all that much of them right now.  They probably have all sorts of bullshit excuses at the ready why they can't help here.

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My district will be going back to remote learning on Wednesday(tomorrow being MLK Day, and Tuesday will be a prep day for teachers).

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Locally, the mask mandate for the school district will be returning in a few days.  And they have 3 scheduled days they’ve made public coming up late next week due to staffing shortages.  

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Meanwhile in Misery (Missouri) the AG is resuming the battle against the evil school districts and mask mandates as the number one legal agenda,  

 

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People, I am no longer safe at school.  My ONE N95 mask was recalled.  You can't make this stuff up.

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My neighbor, who is my go-to source for local school updates, reports that the fifth grade has been canceled at a grade school a mile up the road.  Just not enough healthy staff to keep it going.  This is in a district where everyone masks.  She is nearing the end of her latest substituting stint, and even though she is in high demand, she’s going to take a long step back, if she returns at all.  I feel for all concerned.  ❤️ 

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Victoria and NSW released back to school guidelines yesterday (our first term is due to start next week).

I'm still working through the guidelines, but so far what I've seen is:

Spoiler

Victoria:

- staff and students need to take 2 x RAT per week (I have no idea where these tests are coming from)

- at specialist schools, which cater to an overall more medically fragile population, it's 5 RATs/week. 

- early education encouraged to do 2 RATs/week

- masks for everyone from third grade up, strongly recommended for younger students

- air purifiers being installed in high risk areas (staffrooms, gyms, classrooms)

- teachers need to have had 3rd dose by Feb 25th

NSW: 

- also 2x RAT/week for first four weeks

- positive cases should be kept home, not sure about family members

- camps, excursions can go ahead.

There's still a lot of detail coming out (like are the school providing the RATs?), and frankly I'm still expecting another spike in Feb as kids return. Both governments are saying at this point that schools won't close - based on last year and every other bloody industry I think that will depend on how many staff are off sick/isolating. My parents are both former teachers, and my dad still does emergency relief teaching - I am going to need to talk to him about whether this is a good idea, given he's 78 this year. It wasn't an issue last year or in 2020 as everything was remote and there was much less need, but if we're all back on site again there will be.

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  • 4 weeks later...

My (U.S.) state has dropped mask mandates for schools.  Districts are supposed to figure it out themselves.  Other districts have weighed in already.  What's that sound the district I teach in?  *crickets chirping* or silence.  Great leadership */s

On the other hand I did receive two more masks from my school.  Yes two.  Brings it up to a grand total of 3 since all this started.  I guess I will save them for when this rebounds on us all.

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@WiseGirl, my sympathies on the masks. Once schools reopened after the initial lockdown in 2020, the school district gave us 2 crappy cloth masks. Students also got them. The next school year they gave us 2 more. Those were  much better quality multi layer cloth masks. Still no N95s, although recently a local manufacturer (Vitacore Industries) donated a whack load of N95s to the Teachers Union for the Province. Nice of them, but it translated into 2 N95s each. I picked mine up last week. The school board did give out 2 free rapid tests to each of us. The problem is that with so few (N95s and tests) available, you end up saving them instead of using them,just in case things get worse than they already are. 

 

 

 

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  • 1 month later...

Got three test kits from my district today. Interesting timing. Anyway lots of kiddos still wearing masks. Given the amount of allergies and colds going around yours truly is masked up and bathing in hand sanitizer. I reviewed that everyone should sneeze into their elbows today lol.

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  • 1 month later...

We went to garage sales in two neighborhoods over the past couple of days.  The amount of homeschooling materials and equipment being offloaded was amazing to me.  One household was selling a lectern, desks, and lots of unopened teaching packets and boxes (i.e., science experiments).  This particular neighborhood is newer and tends to have more young families.  From what I saw, several of the families may have been teaching a similar curriculum or perhaps teaching together with their neighbors during the worst of the pandemic.  

One other observation.  A good percentage of the buyers and sellers were masked, even though it was an outdoor event in pleasant weather.  Ironically, we don’t see that many maskers anymore in indoor shops.  🤷‍♀️ 

 

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