When do you think school will be back to normal?

[Anonymous]

Open schools. Have families sign waivers. Offer a full time DL option for families who want it. I’m not at all convinced that the part time options they floated in the survey will diminish risk of the virus. I’d rather my children get back to their five day routine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Open schools. Have families sign waivers. Offer a full time DL option for families who want it. I’m not at all convinced that the part time options they floated in the survey will diminish risk of the virus. I’d rather my children get back to their five day routine.

This. This is the only viable option. Every district across the country should be doing this. Done.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Open schools. Have families sign waivers. Offer a full time DL option for families who want it. I’m not at all convinced that the part time options they floated in the survey will diminish risk of the virus. I’d rather my children get back to their five day routine.

This. This is the only viable option. Every district across the country should be doing this. Done.

Yes, and decide this now so that teachers can prepare for one or the other. If a decision isn’t made until August, the dL curriculum will be awful. -WOTP teacher

[Anonymous]

If schools open, then everything needs to open. Parents need to be back on metro & offices ect.
Also- great question was asked in our PD yesterday. Is central office going to send us (teachers) back before they go back? The response was ‘lots of things are fluid’.

I’m in favor of opening it all up. Everything.
However- we’ve gotta dump things like school based before & aftercare. Having extra kids loosely supervised in classrooms/buildings is just going to prevent us from having a clean/safe environment. I’m also biased because having these kinds of things @ school has really blurred the lines between what school is and is not.

Open it ALL up. Provide PPE. Give teachers the right to refuse to teach kids who won’t wear it. Train & support teachers who don’t want to assume the new risks at 1 year salary to find a new job.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Open schools. Have families sign waivers. Offer a full time DL option for families who want it. I’m not at all convinced that the part time options they floated in the survey will diminish risk of the virus. I’d rather my children get back to their five day routine.

This. This is the only viable option. Every district across the country should be doing this. Done.

Yes, and decide this now so that teachers can prepare for one or the other. If a decision isn’t made until August, the dL curriculum will be awful. -WOTP teacher

Are you really a teacher and have you been participating in PD this week? Every single webinar revolves around DL. DCPS is building a DC curriculum and readying Canvas for online learning. You should 100% be preparing for hybrid learning.

Besides, if you look at the models and listen to any of the forecasting for the fall, this virus will again ramp up late summer into the cooler months. It is entirely likely we will repeat the March-June scenario at the beginning mid-October. This is the new reality until a vaccine is discovered and herd immunity is reached.

[Anonymous]

Ugh. Yes- the PDs are about DL because they had to fill 3 weeks of PD. Are you actually listening? They keep saying ‘we don’t know’ ect. We might be DL & we might be back in the classroom- but the PD are no indication.
I really hope you are the only poster asking of folks are really teachers. You litmus tests for deterring someone’s true professions, via the internet, are way off.
But yes- I do believe that you are really a teacher. The lack of critical thinking you exhibit is what I see daily during the year

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If schools open, then everything needs to open. Parents need to be back on metro & offices ect.
Also- great question was asked in our PD yesterday. Is central office going to send us (teachers) back before they go back? The response was ‘lots of things are fluid’.

I’m in favor of opening it all up. Everything.
However- we’ve gotta dump things like school based before & aftercare. Having extra kids loosely supervised in classrooms/buildings is just going to prevent us from having a clean/safe environment. I’m also biased because having these kinds of things @ school has really blurred the lines between what school is and is not.

Open it ALL up. Provide PPE. Give teachers the right to refuse to teach kids who won’t wear it. Train & support teachers who don’t want to assume the new risks at 1 year salary to find a new job.

I completely agree. Students ride the metro to school. Parents don’t get to decide to send teachers back and then sit around and home “working”.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If schools open, then everything needs to open. Parents need to be back on metro & offices ect.
Also- great question was asked in our PD yesterday. Is central office going to send us (teachers) back before they go back? The response was ‘lots of things are fluid’.

I’m in favor of opening it all up. Everything.
However- we’ve gotta dump things like school based before & aftercare. Having extra kids loosely supervised in classrooms/buildings is just going to prevent us from having a clean/safe environment. I’m also biased because having these kinds of things @ school has really blurred the lines between what school is and is not.

Open it ALL up. Provide PPE. Give teachers the right to refuse to teach kids who won’t wear it. Train & support teachers who don’t want to assume the new risks at 1 year salary to find a new job.

That train left the station years ago.

[Anonymous]

I agree- but it can be reclaimed, now. Under the guise of health. We’ve gotta retool schools. A large part of this parent panic! Was that they honestly believed children should be at school from 7-6. It’s outrageous that little kids were ever at school for 11 hours a day! And now, it’s just not possible.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Open schools. Have families sign waivers. Offer a full time DL option for families who want it. I’m not at all convinced that the part time options they floated in the survey will diminish risk of the virus. I’d rather my children get back to their five day routine.

This. This is the only viable option. Every district across the country should be doing this. Done.

Yes, and decide this now so that teachers can prepare for one or the other. If a decision isn’t made until August, the dL curriculum will be awful. -WOTP teacher

Are you really a teacher and have you been participating in PD this week? Every single webinar revolves around DL. DCPS is building a DC curriculum and readying Canvas for online learning. You should 100% be preparing for hybrid learning.

Besides, if you look at the models and listen to any of the forecasting for the fall, this virus will again ramp up late summer into the cooler months. It is entirely likely we will repeat the March-June scenario at the beginning mid-October. This is the new reality until a vaccine is discovered and herd immunity is reached.

Yes, I’m a teacher. I’ve taught in DC for 12 years. However, there will be a HUGE difference in what my lessons look like with 1 day a week vs 2 days a week vs 1 week in person every third week. If I don’t know how often I see kids in person, there’s no reason to plan right now. My subject doesn’t get a curriculum from downtown so it’s all on us. I need lead time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Open schools. Have families sign waivers. Offer a full time DL option for families who want it. I’m not at all convinced that the part time options they floated in the survey will diminish risk of the virus. I’d rather my children get back to their five day routine.

This. This is the only viable option. Every district across the country should be doing this. Done.

Yes, and decide this now so that teachers can prepare for one or the other. If a decision isn’t made until August, the dL curriculum will be awful. -WOTP teacher

Are you really a teacher and have you been participating in PD this week? Every single webinar revolves around DL. DCPS is building a DC curriculum and readying Canvas for online learning. You should 100% be preparing for hybrid learning.

Besides, if you look at the models and listen to any of the forecasting for the fall, this virus will again ramp up late summer into the cooler months. It is entirely likely we will repeat the March-June scenario at the beginning mid-October. This is the new reality until a vaccine is discovered and herd immunity is reached.

Yes, I’m a teacher. I’ve taught in DC for 12 years. However, there will be a HUGE difference in what my lessons look like with 1 day a week vs 2 days a week vs 1 week in person every third week. If I don’t know how often I see kids in person, there’s no reason to plan right now. My subject doesn’t get a curriculum from downtown so it’s all on us. I need lead time.

Another teacher, and I agree. There is no way to really plan now when we have no idea what next year will look like. I'm not blaming DCPS for this, but I do hope that they will give us more information soon. We know that if we are still in (or back in) phase 1, it will be all distance learning. We know that until there is a widely available vaccine or effective treatment it won't be school as normal. But I would love more information on what they are planning for phases 2 and 3.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I suspect schools will be open this fall as normal. Rightly or wrongly, the world is moving on. By August, I bet coronavirus will not get nearly the same attention is does now.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/10/us/politics/coronavirus-washington-trump.html

This is because it is summer. People are outside a lot more which helps limit the spread. If we look at Fauci’s statements, and the history of the Spanish flu, once the weather gets cooler things will change. Being in a school, let alone a tiny classroom with almost 30 kids, is a recipe for disaster. We don’t all teach young children. My students are 17-18 years old, nothing says they can’t spread the virus like a typical adult.

Summer weather doesn’t last forever. We have to think about the full year, not just right now. Health always always always needs to come first!

But Covid doesn't kill like the Spanish flu. It kills mostly people over 65. For the vast majority of younger people, the risk is minuscule. That is a scientific fact. When you weigh the education of millions against the health concerns of a small minority, it is not obvious that health must come first. We need to make accommodations for those at risk while recognizing the essential importance of education for millions of kids.

Please stop spreading false facts. You do not have to be old, you can be 30 and die. If you are overweight (which many Americans are), have Diabetes, etc. you have a much higher risk. That is a scientific fact.

For people under 30, the risk is lower than from the regular flu. BY A LOT. For kids under 18, they have a higher risk of being hospitalized as a result of NOROVIRUS (i.e., the regular old stomach bug) than COVID. This is not dangerous for kids. To the extent we're locking down, it is for vulnerable populations, but let's not pretend we aren't making kids and young workers bear the brunt of the costs while AN ENTIRELY DIFFERENT POPULATION is the most at risk (and, in the case of retired folks, BY FAR THE LEAST AFFECTED economically).

Not true, especially not for babies under 1. 11% of babies under 1 will become critical if contracted. 7% of 1-4 year olds will be critical and 4% of 5+ children. Think about the huge number of kids in schools. That translates into a lot of hospitalized critical kids. Even if the death rate is super low, i don’t want what I consider a pretty significant chance of my two young kids and infant being hospitalized and in critical condition.

You're numbers are way off:
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/covid-data/covid-net/purpose-methods.html

Look at the hospitalization rates for kids. It's minuscule. We can't keep making policy decisions impacting 99.9% of folks to potentially/maybe reduce impact on the .1%

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If schools open, then everything needs to open. Parents need to be back on metro & offices ect.
Also- great question was asked in our PD yesterday. Is central office going to send us (teachers) back before they go back? The response was ‘lots of things are fluid’.

I’m in favor of opening it all up. Everything.
However- we’ve gotta dump things like school based before & aftercare. Having extra kids loosely supervised in classrooms/buildings is just going to prevent us from having a clean/safe environment. I’m also biased because having these kinds of things @ school has really blurred the lines between what school is and is not.

Open it ALL up. Provide PPE. Give teachers the right to refuse to teach kids who won’t wear it. Train & support teachers who don’t want to assume the new risks at 1 year salary to find a new job.

I completely agree. Students ride the metro to school. Parents don’t get to decide to send teachers back and then sit around and home “working”.

Are you angry at parents with work-from-home options? I can understand being envious if that arrangement doesn't work for you. However, the "if I have to go back, then everyone has to go back" argument is short-sighted. If everyone goes back to work at once, the chances of kids being exposed and bringing vius to school is much higher.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Open schools. Have families sign waivers. Offer a full time DL option for families who want it. I’m not at all convinced that the part time options they floated in the survey will diminish risk of the virus. I’d rather my children get back to their five day routine.

This. This is the only viable option. Every district across the country should be doing this. Done.

Yes, and decide this now so that teachers can prepare for one or the other. If a decision isn’t made until August, the dL curriculum will be awful. -WOTP teacher

Are you really a teacher and have you been participating in PD this week? Every single webinar revolves around DL. DCPS is building a DC curriculum and readying Canvas for online learning. You should 100% be preparing for hybrid learning.

Besides, if you look at the models and listen to any of the forecasting for the fall, this virus will again ramp up late summer into the cooler months. It is entirely likely we will repeat the March-June scenario at the beginning mid-October. This is the new reality until a vaccine is discovered and herd immunity is reached.

Yes, I’m a teacher. I’ve taught in DC for 12 years. However, there will be a HUGE difference in what my lessons look like with 1 day a week vs 2 days a week vs 1 week in person every third week. If I don’t know how often I see kids in person, there’s no reason to plan right now. My subject doesn’t get a curriculum from downtown so it’s all on us. I need lead time.

+1000

The unknowns mean I'm not doing any planning right now. And it also means the DCPS PD, though well intentioned, is totally vague and not useful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If schools open, then everything needs to open. Parents need to be back on metro & offices ect.
Also- great question was asked in our PD yesterday. Is central office going to send us (teachers) back before they go back? The response was ‘lots of things are fluid’.

I’m in favor of opening it all up. Everything.
However- we’ve gotta dump things like school based before & aftercare. Having extra kids loosely supervised in classrooms/buildings is just going to prevent us from having a clean/safe environment. I’m also biased because having these kinds of things @ school has really blurred the lines between what school is and is not.

Open it ALL up. Provide PPE. Give teachers the right to refuse to teach kids who won’t wear it. Train & support teachers who don’t want to assume the new risks at 1 year salary to find a new job.

I completely agree. Students ride the metro to school. Parents don’t get to decide to send teachers back and then sit around and home “working”.

Are you angry at parents with work-from-home options? I can understand being envious if that arrangement doesn't work for you. However, the "if I have to go back, then everyone has to go back" argument is short-sighted. If everyone goes back to work at once, the chances of kids being exposed and bringing vius to school is much higher.

The virus is going to be much higher even if schools open. People will be going to the salon and getting their nails done. That means everyone should just go back to work. You can’t have it both ways. Calling teachers lazy and saying they aren’t actually working from home and then using the excuse well I have to work from home because the virus will spread faster if I go to work. It makes no sense. Either it’s safe or it isn’t. Teachers and students ride metro. If it’s safe for them....it’s safe for you.