why can't teachers just wear masks in the fall?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:That picture is adorable but not happening in America. Even in China, how do the poor dears pee?

This would never fly in U.S. schools- we just don't hold our kids to the behavioral standards necessary to pull this off. There is no discipline and kids have no consequences for their actions.

[Anonymous]

Well, parents should get a letter that if students are acting out or misbehaving in class, they will be pulled out and spend the rest of the day doing work in detention with a teacher away from his classmates . I met a public school teacher from Carrolton, Texas where this type of discipline is implemented in elementary schools. In the school I teach, those kids who act out get modified schedules with a SPED teacher including twice a day computer time, which is fun for them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:Do you give speeches in mask?

Yes, we do patient rounds on them every day.

That’s very different. Patient rounds involves asking questions and listening. Teachers are constantly talking.

Huh? I'm a teacher, I do plenty of asking questions and listening.

I think that OP is nuts, but she's not wrong about that.

I think PP means talking to someone for 15-20 min in a 12 inch voice rather than 40-45 in a room-sized voice. Think about how your throat feels at the end of the first week of school.

My child’s teacher wears an amplifier for the hearing impaired students, she never raises her voice. It’s pretty cool! They could probably do that when the schools reopen.

You realize that the amplifier doesn't make the teacher's voice more clear or loud for the rest of the class right? The amplifier only "projects" the teacher's voice straight into a hearing aid device the kids with hearing impairments wear. It doesn't work for the general population.

This is totally wrong. I’m a teacher who has used an amplifier. It’s basically a microphone you wear around your neck like a lanyard. It makes your voice louder for the whole class. They’re wonderful and I think all classes should have them, but they are expensive and most classes only have a few. They will only give them to teachers who have a hearing impaired child in their class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do you give speeches in mask?

Yes, we do patient rounds on them every day.

That’s very different. Patient rounds involves asking questions and listening. Teachers are constantly talking.

Huh? I'm a teacher, I do plenty of asking questions and listening.

I think that OP is nuts, but she's not wrong about that.

I think PP means talking to someone for 15-20 min in a 12 inch voice rather than 40-45 in a room-sized voice. Think about how your throat feels at the end of the first week of school.

My child’s teacher wears an amplifier for the hearing impaired students, she never raises her voice. It’s pretty cool! They could probably do that when the schools reopen.

You realize that the amplifier doesn't make the teacher's voice more clear or loud for the rest of the class right? The amplifier only "projects" the teacher's voice straight into a hearing aid device the kids with hearing impairments wear. It doesn't work for the general population.

This is totally wrong. I’m a teacher who has used an amplifier. It’s basically a microphone you wear around your neck like a lanyard. It makes your voice louder for the whole class. They’re wonderful and I think all classes should have them, but they are expensive and most classes only have a few. They will only give them to teachers who have a hearing impaired child in their class.

Most schools only have a few.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are masks available for teachers?

Surgical masks will absolutely be available.
I just bought 25 from Amazon (directly--they ship from Amazon) for $25 and they will ship this week.

Surgical masks can be worn for at least a week.
I work as an RN and my DC hospital gives all all one per week.
We wear them for 5-7 days.

By fall I'm sure even N95 masks could be available.

Are you suggesting teachers buy their own masks?

[Anonymous]

I can’t wait to hear how many teachers pass out from hypoxia. At least medical professionals can step outside or even take off their masks periodically.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I teach preschool students. I’m happy to wear a mask. But do you think they will keep them on?! Based on how long it takes me to train them to cover their coughs and sneezes, most parents don’t bother requiring their children to do so they will be coughing and sneezing and wiping boogers all over their other classmates. I know they aren’t getting as sick as adults, but surely they will bring this home to grandma.

I miss my students, I want my own kids to go back to school, I’m all for starting in the fall with precautionary measures,but I don’t think it’ll work. We are going to see a huge huge spike in cases in the fall and will have to shut down again.!

Gosh I can see why you're a preschool teacher. Critical thinking is not your strong suit.

You wear the mask, not your students!

Do you think patients with Covid are wearing masks when they have breathing difficulties? NO, doctors and nurses are wearing the masks.

Right back at you.

When both people wear masks, the chance of transmission decreases. Duh!
So you want an symptomatic kid to make other kids sick.

Who is the one without critical thinking skills?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What would happen to masks at snack time or lunch?
My friend teaches at a school where they eat breakfast in the classroom.
How is this really going to work?
How about when a student needs to blow his nose? What happens to the mask then? Imagine an 8 year old trying to negotiate this.
How do you get the younger students to respect each other's space?

I think it would be good to reopen schools, but how do we do this in a way to protect the students, faculty and staff?

And how do we get the students picked up by parents immediately if there is any fever?
And what will be the policy..one positive covid and the school shuts down? For how long?
So many unanswered questions.

My school serves free breakfast in the classroom. We also have to allow certain students to eat in class if they arrived late to school and missed breakfast. Or were too upset when they arrived at school to eat —this happens way more than you would think. Students make up in the morning and find dad passed out on the living room couch or mom wakes up and discovers the older sister snuck out last night and screams at the other kids for two hours before school.

Our rooms are also poorly regulated when it comes to temperature so we have to allow students water bottles.

Masks will be off constantly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are masks available for teachers?

Surgical masks will absolutely be available.
I just bought 25 from Amazon (directly--they ship from Amazon) for $25 and they will ship this week.

Surgical masks can be worn for at least a week.
I work as an RN and my DC hospital gives all all one per week.
We wear them for 5-7 days.

By fall I'm sure even N95 masks could be available.

Are you suggesting teachers buy their own masks?

If I have to buy my own masks, I will not be able to buy anything else for my classroom for 2020-21.

[Anonymous]

This alleged RN is suggesting that teachers use one mask a week against manufacturer guidelines and CDC recommendations. Reusing masks was something medical personnel were never allowed to do until they started operating under crisis protocols. Nurses all over the country are striking over how dangerous this is. I’m not going to work under conditions that they repeatedly insist is dangerous.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:I don't believe most of the people on here saying they are teachers are actually teachers, for one. Second, every single teacher I know is planning on going back to work once the governor lifts the order. I don't know anyone independently wealthy who can afford to stay home. I could see a handful of young teachers with small children at home deciding to take another year's worth of unpaid leave, but it won't be more than a very small percentage. Yes, I know, the people on this board would love to see teacher's be out of a job. I know you don't think we deserve our pay or our job security. You'd love to watch teachers be told "you're out". But it isn't going to happen. You are stuck with us, just like we are stuck with you. The decision to open schools or not is 100% in the hands of the governor. No one else.

That’s sad! I don’t want to see teachers out of a job. I love my child’s teacher. I think the fact that everyone wants teachers to go back to school is a positive thing, right? I feel like it’s the teachers that are refusing to return to work that bother parents.

No, parents are just mad at everyone. Teachers are doing what they're supposed to do, last month, this month, and in the fall.

Ditto. I am a teacher and a parent. I see both sides but I am patient and understand sacrifices must be made for the greater good. Their may be challenges and you might be uncomfortable. That is life sometimes. Also, I have had some tragedies in life so I have a different outlook. Everyday, I am so thankful to be alive and I go from there. Teachers: I, along with most at my school, are rock stars and have had no parent complaints. We have awards for assignment completion, zoom lunch bunches and game shows, enrichment, book clubs, scrapbooks for the kids, words with friends groups, and 1.5 hour zoom sessions. We love and want to be there for our kids. They always want to stay on longer on zoom. I even have a virtual play and field trip for the next two weeks. Please do not equate one bad experience with a teacher to all of us. Now, my parent hat: I love my kids but sometimes I could cry because I miss going to school, my commute, my alone prep time. I now teach my own 3 kids, including a preschooler and they mostly are tired of me being teacher at home. I try to balance just Mom and teacher Mom but it is hard. But, that is life and each day I try to shake it up a little.

But, since I am a cancer survivor, I try to see the positive in each day. Unlike most quarantine families, I absolutely cannot leave my house. My husband took leave as he has a high contact job. We save tons so I am good there but feel terrible for being the reason he stopped working and my kids can absolutely have no contact with the neighbors. I try my hardest not to complain and remind myself that if I die, my husband will have to raise all 3 on his own. Now, I will return to school as that is my duty to contract and will have a lot of sanitizer, Clorox wipes, a swifter steam mop, and I already ordered N95 masks to last me a while. I am used to wearing them. Once I returned from med leave after chemo, I learned to teach with masks. My kids and their families were so kind to keep sick kids home and send extra cleaning supplies. I can and will do it again. Now, there are 4 other teachers who are battling/ survived cancer and 2 retired and the other two are switching to .8 support positions. So, even compromised teachers can do this as well. OK. My book is over. I just wanted to share.

That’s lovely for you that you had that experience, but you do understand that not all teachers work in the same conditions as you, correct? I work in a high FARMS school. Do you know how many donated cleaning supplies I receive each school year? Zero. Do you know how many parents send their sick kids to school every day? Many. Some have been given a fever reducer in the morning before school so we don’t even know they’re not feeling well until it wears off halfway through the day. Some arrive in the morning and announce they threw up in the middle of the night but their parent made them come to school. Do you know how many parents won’t come to pick their kids up even when the health room does call (which is not always a guarantee)? Many. Sending a letter home stating a policy will do absolutely nothing to get parents to comply. So with all due respect, you don’t get to decide what immunocompromised teachers can or should feel or do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do you give speeches in mask?

Yes, we do patient rounds on them every day.

That’s very different. Patient rounds involves asking questions and listening. Teachers are constantly talking.

Huh? I'm a teacher, I do plenty of asking questions and listening.

I think that OP is nuts, but she's not wrong about that.

I think PP means talking to someone for 15-20 min in a 12 inch voice rather than 40-45 in a room-sized voice. Think about how your throat feels at the end of the first week of school.

My child’s teacher wears an amplifier for the hearing impaired students, she never raises her voice. It’s pretty cool! They could probably do that when the schools reopen.

You realize that the amplifier doesn't make the teacher's voice more clear or loud for the rest of the class right? The amplifier only "projects" the teacher's voice straight into a hearing aid device the kids with hearing impairments wear. It doesn't work for the general population.

This is totally wrong. I’m a teacher who has used an amplifier. It’s basically a microphone you wear around your neck like a lanyard. It makes your voice louder for the whole class. They’re wonderful and I think all classes should have them, but they are expensive and most classes only have a few. They will only give them to teachers who have a hearing impaired child in their class.

+1 The amplifier projects for the entire class, not just the hearing impaired.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm a nurse married to a doctor and we've been working in the hospitals since this began. I work on a Covid unit and my husband works in the ER.
Most of our coworkers have kids as we do too. Many of us do have various health concerns.

We have worn masks religiously since this started. Sometimes we wear a N95 and more recently we wear surgical masks. We wear them non-stop for 12 hour shifts.

It's not fun (the masks are hot, it's a pain) but we've worn them each and every day for almost 2 months. Why can't teachers do this?

There is a shortage of PPE, surely you've heard that. Are you suggesting that hospital staff do without so that teachers can have the masks?

Is there really though? Because my siblings are both doctors in large hospitals and both have told us there's no PPE shortage in both their hospitals and clinics. In fact, both of them told me they are handing out masks to anyone who enters the clinic. They were given extras to take home to their families.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do you give speeches in mask?

Yes, we do patient rounds on them every day.

That’s very different. Patient rounds involves asking questions and listening. Teachers are constantly talking.

Huh? I'm a teacher, I do plenty of asking questions and listening.

I think that OP is nuts, but she's not wrong about that.

I think PP means talking to someone for 15-20 min in a 12 inch voice rather than 40-45 in a room-sized voice. Think about how your throat feels at the end of the first week of school.

My child’s teacher wears an amplifier for the hearing impaired students, she never raises her voice. It’s pretty cool! They could probably do that when the schools reopen.

You realize that the amplifier doesn't make the teacher's voice more clear or loud for the rest of the class right? The amplifier only "projects" the teacher's voice straight into a hearing aid device the kids with hearing impairments wear. It doesn't work for the general population.

This is totally wrong. I’m a teacher who has used an amplifier. It’s basically a microphone you wear around your neck like a lanyard. It makes your voice louder for the whole class. They’re wonderful and I think all classes should have them, but they are expensive and most classes only have a few. They will only give them to teachers who have a hearing impaired child in their class.

Depends on the amplifier. The one we have can only be heard by the DHOH child with the receiver.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Well, parents should get a letter that if students are acting out or misbehaving in class, they will be pulled out and spend the rest of the day doing work in detention with a teacher away from his classmates . I met a public school teacher from Carrolton, Texas where this type of discipline is implemented in elementary schools. In the school I teach, those kids who act out get modified schedules with a SPED teacher including twice a day computer time, which is fun for them.

I am sorry, this will not work. Many parents won't come pick up their kids if they refuse to wear a mask. SPED teachers are not meant to babysit misbehaving kids or run in school suspension. And in these circumstances you are suggesting all kids who refuse to wear masks get sent to one room with a teacher who is just stuck with them until someone picks them up? That sounds like a disaster and I don't know anyone who would volunteer to monitor that room.