What the Fall may look like -- the hybrid model

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Universities are opening in the Fall. The schools here will open. Cases are slowing and vaccine research is continuing (a lot of pharmacy/ iota has companies have abandoned further vaccine development). Sadly, the majority of deaths were in nursing homes and NY. A very large number of deaths were counted as Covid related but are not. We will know even more by August. What has happened is horrible, but we are turning the corner and better days are ahead.

I love the fact that so many of you write with such authority about all this. You don't know shit about what is going to be happening.

And neither do you.

And I never said I did. None of us do. Not even you, Einstein.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Trying to bring this back to the original topic.

Inside Higher Ed did an imaginary "day in the life" of the new school environment.

https://www.insidehighered.com/digital-learning/views/2020/05/27/envisioning-day-life-physically-distanced-classroom-opinion

"You try to listen to your instructor give directions for the day. It’s a little challenging, since the mask muffles her voice. Then it comes time to work with your partner at the table. Sitting six feet apart and wearing a mask means you have to raise your voice to be heard -- but so does everyone else in the room. After doing this for two earlier classes, your throat is pretty sore. This doesn’t help your anxiety, since you can’t help wondering if this might be a COVID symptom.

Your partner tries to show you something on their computer, but you can’t see it from six feet away. Plus, the Plexiglas shield down the middle of the table distorts your vision (you wonder when it was last wiped down). So instead you work together on a shared Google Doc.

You notice another pair of students has had the brilliant idea to bring in headsets, and they're collaborating via a Zoom meeting while in class. It makes you wonder why you aren’t all just doing this from your dorm rooms. Then you notice that their brilliant idea doesn’t work, because the two mics in the same room are creating feedback. They take the headsets off in frustration and go back to muffled shouting."

This post and article articulate why it will be near impossible to have return to schools (in-person) or return to work (as in going into an office) for some time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My question about a hybrid model is about staffing. Do schools hire twice as many teachers or are they expecting teachers to expose themselves to the same
Number of children pre-pandemic? These ideas about teachers floating in to a static student group still scare me as a parent. Whose to say one teacher doesn’t pick up something from one student group and pass it to another?

If that is how you feel, you will likely need/want to keep your child home, which will likely be an option. Honestly, I think your fears are pretty unfounded given the regulations that will have to be followed and how rare it is for children to get seriously ill from the virus, even if they get it. I think our biggest enemy is fear, to be honest. Google to see what they are doing in Denmark. It is going very well, and they are not even wearing masks.

Isn’t Denmark the example of how herd immunity doesn’t work?

[Anonymous]

^ you're thinking of Sweden.

[Anonymous]

When the second wave hits in October everything will shut down again. You will have two months of hybrid tops.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My question about a hybrid model is about staffing. Do schools hire twice as many teachers or are they expecting teachers to expose themselves to the same
Number of children pre-pandemic? These ideas about teachers floating in to a static student group still scare me as a parent. Whose to say one teacher doesn’t pick up something from one student group and pass it to another?

No additional teachers, kids come half as often. Either half days or 2 days a week or every other week (4 days a week).

Right, but this way the teachers are still mixing between cohorts. I don't see a way around that for larger privates with more than 18 students per class. Current CDC guidelines recommend no more than 10 per cohort total, including the teacher. (So, one teacher and 9 students.) The teachers can absolutely be vectors between cohorts, rendering the model pretty ineffective for transmission control (and contact tracing--the idea of stable cohorts was to allow one cohort to be absent due to illness while others carried on, if there's cohort mixing even by staff, then it renders a whole-school or whole-grade shut down more likely).

How many “guidelines” are there and who is monitoring things?
The state guidelines and phase status takes precedence.
The WHO and CDC have already failed on several issues since January.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When the second wave hits in October everything will shut down again. You will have two months of hybrid tops.

No. Stop fearmongering.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Universities are opening in the Fall. The schools here will open. Cases are slowing and vaccine research is continuing (a lot of pharmacy/ iota has companies have abandoned further vaccine development). Sadly, the majority of deaths were in nursing homes and NY. A very large number of deaths were counted as Covid related but are not. We will know even more by August. What has happened is horrible, but we are turning the corner and better days are ahead.

I love the fact that so many of you write with such authority about all this. You don't know shit about what is going to be happening.

Stop the cursing, especially if you keep proving you don’t understand or acknowledge the demographics behind the current stats.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When the second wave hits in October everything will shut down again. You will have two months of hybrid tops.

No. Stop fearmongering.

Look at history. The Spanish Flu in 1918 killed the most people in its second wave in the fall.

[Anonymous]

Stop the gross speculation. Just stop.

[Anonymous]

DC's reopening plan is here:
https://cdn.flipsnack.com/widget/v2/flipsnackwidget.html?hash=funqraelc&t=&fullscreen=1

On page 19 there is a chart by sector, for K-12 education Phase 1 is “distance learning only” and Phase 2 and 3 are lumped together. In terms of when they expect to change phases, Phase 1 is “Declining virus transmission” and will start on Friday, Phase 2 is “Only localized transmission” and the Mayor said could happen by August 10.

On page 32 there is specific guidance for K-12 schools. The things that jump out at me are a limit of 10 people in a classroom at a time, strict physical distancing and enhanced cleaning. Pages 34-38 are “Recommended Safeguards” for schools.

Phase 4 is a vaccine or a cure.

Bowser has said that DC is going to coordinate with MD and VA in the DC region.

Independent schools can be stricter but they can't be less strict than the guidelines.

[Anonymous]

SOUNDS LIKE YOU READ MY MIND. THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT I WOULD DO. DOCTOR MOM WITH KIDS IN DC INDEPENDENT SCHOOLS.......

Anonymous wrote:I’ve been reading quite a bit in the education press and in taking to some of our administrators about what the Fall might look like. From what I’ve gathered so far, it appears there are probably three options for the Fall: back to normal, distance learning, or a hybrid of the two. At this point most of the planning seems to be directed at a hybrid model.

I’m not saying this is the best or worst, just trying to create an outline of what might be the case this Fall, and welcome any other comments you might have heard from your school or administration. If you want to talk about Sweden, Malaria Pills, the Hoax, Trump, etc—please find the political forum and go at it over there so other parents can use this thread to help plan for the Fall.

The Hybrid Model:

Schools may start in early- or mid-August and go through Thanksgiving. There will be no Fall break, and any professional/training days for teachers may be pushed until after the holiday dismissal. There will be no in-person parent-teacher conferences, back to school events, or other social/academic gatherings to start the term.

Schools will reopen on a staggered schedule. This will either mean daily 1/2 days for all students (some AM, some PM) or more likely some kids at home one day and at school the next. Classes will be split into two sections. The kids at home would tune into class digitally while the other section attends the in-school lessons. Some families will have the option of all online school if for some reason they need to stay extra safe (elderly in the home, immunocompromised family member). One administrator suggested the sections would be geographically based to minimize bus/carpool arrangements, but added that it might be too complicated to coordinate.

No large assemblies in school. No chapel services for religious schools. Students will eat in their classrooms. Libraries opened on a rotating schedule or individual visits. Different grades will be on different class movement schedules so they don’t mix in the hallways. No after school care. After school athletics and physical education limited to social distance appropriate activities. No locker rooms. Children will be allowed to use the restrooms individually during class to avoid grouping up between classes.

Any other insight?

[Anonymous]

Hilarious. No basis for the below statement and not grounded in science or facts. Sheesh.

Anonymous wrote:Universities are opening in the Fall. The schools here will open. Cases are slowing and vaccine research is continuing (a lot of pharmacy/ iota has companies have abandoned further vaccine development). Sadly, the majority of deaths were in nursing homes and NY. A very large number of deaths were counted as Covid related but are not. We will know even more by August. What has happened is horrible, but we are turning the corner and better days are ahead.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DC's reopening plan is here:
https://cdn.flipsnack.com/widget/v2/flipsnackwidget.html?hash=funqraelc&t=&fullscreen=1

On page 19 there is a chart by sector, for K-12 education Phase 1 is “distance learning only” and Phase 2 and 3 are lumped together. In terms of when they expect to change phases, Phase 1 is “Declining virus transmission” and will start on Friday, Phase 2 is “Only localized transmission” and the Mayor said could happen by August 10.

On page 32 there is specific guidance for K-12 schools. The things that jump out at me are a limit of 10 people in a classroom at a time, strict physical distancing and enhanced cleaning. Pages 34-38 are “Recommended Safeguards” for schools.

Phase 4 is a vaccine or a cure.

Bowser has said that DC is going to coordinate with MD and VA in the DC region.

Independent schools can be stricter but they can't be less strict than the guidelines.

Thanks for that link. Our school head said ‘we won’t necessarily follow what the DC public schools opt to do, but we will absolutely follow the public health guidelines as a minimum’. I think this really indicates that ‘full classes school’ is highly unlikely barring a near miraculous decrease in cases.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Stop the gross speculation. Just stop.

+1