Why are most teachers too scared to return to in person teaching, but most parents want schools open

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Its like Teachers got frozen in time and are stuck on March 20th when the US shut down and we thought everyone who left their house would get COVID and die.

Fast forward, we know so much more now. People are SAFELY returning to work with PPE, safeguards, modifications to their work space/hours/business but we still hear teachers crying about not wanting to die.
It is like they haven't realized that 90% of us are back in offices, businesses and going about or daily lives with masks and other precautions.
Oh!!! But the kids can't be safe!!!
Well, yes they can as proven by Day cares, camps, sports and playdates. THey can also wear masks. Gasp, I know!!!
You can also turn gyms, cafeterias, libraries into classrooms to spread kids out. You can also change the schedule a bit. Hell have 2 groups, one in the am, one in the after. Or get even more creative and have an evening session for those who want/need.

Teachers just dont' get it and I don't get why they want to DL. By all accounts it is more stressful, more work and really limitied learning can take place at gradeschool level. Why in the hell are they wanting this?

It also makes me wonder about my children's safety in their care. What about fires, active shooters, hurricanes? Will they run away and leave the kids to fend for themselves because they don't want to die??

I honestly believe most teachers " do get it" and most don't really think it's that risky. And no, DL isn't necessarily more stressful and more work. For some subjects it probably is. And possibly even for lower elementary school as a whole. But for MS and above not really. And a lot of the stress we dealt with in the spring was because it was so suddent and we had no idea how to even approach DL and were spending hours and hours trying to figure it out. My guess is that for many teachers (at least those in the upper grades) once the kinks get worked out it will be a lot less stressful than it was in the spring.

As a primary teacher I have pointed this out in response to those who say teachers “won DL” or that teachers won’t want to give up DL, but IME nobody I know who teaches elementary grades sees this DL as being less stressful or easier. When I have posted this I have been told I speak for myself or “.00000001 % of the teachers”, but I honestly don’t know anyone looking forward to DL as a primary grade teacher.

I teach in a private elementary, and I feel the same way. DL is way more difficult, because it's not the way we know how to teach. It's stressful, because there are no boundaries. I was on my computer from 7 am to 8 pm most days this spring, trying to be responsive to every student/parent/staff need while somehow managing my own children's distance learning schedule. I spent every waking moment making videos, zooming, and trying to plan/prepare for the next day. Our curriculum had to be entirely rewritten for the tech. It SUCKS. However, did I (or anyone at our school) die? No. That is why I prefer Distance Learning.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why not? Serious question why could you not just log on to Zuma 8 a.m. and teach like you normally would. Several of us bring work home at the end of the day if we expect inclement weather and not being able to make it in. I see teachers being able to do the same now

Not every kid has access to a computer or internet. The burden would outweigh the benefits.

[Anonymous]

Are School hands out Chromebooks at the beginning of the year to every student so I don't see that being an issue

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Because the teachers don't want to die while the parents just want childcare.

C'mon, man, read any of the 29034723 threads on this topic that exist already.

You are saying then that parents want their kids to die? Idiot.

Given the "29034723 threads on this topic that exist already" you would hope that you would have learned something by now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't see how some teachers think they won't be distance teaching for snow days in the coming years. if you can do it now you certainly can do it the few snow days we have a year. Or is it just that you don't want to be inconvenience to have to find childcare like the rest of us?.
To quote several teachers on this board just be a parent and hire someone.

Like a snow day is the biggest perk of the job
I’ll gladly give up snow days to keep from getting sick and dying how bout you?

I don't know my job is never provided snow days. I've been expected to work remotely on those days and bring work home as needed. I suspect you will now be doing the same now that you've made the argument you can work remotely with no issue

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You guys,
My boss expects me to drive to work. I don't want to die. What should I do? I don't want to die. It is not like I can take safety precautions like driving the speed limit, not driving distracted, wearing a seatbelt.

You see the rate of traffic fatalities. He is such a jerk expecting me to do the job I get paid to do.

I'm honestly starting to think that this is something we will start to hear. That it's unfair for employees to risk their lives driving to work. After all look at how many thousands of people die in year in car accidents? How is it fair to expect employees to RISK THEIR LIVES driving to work?

In an average 6 month period, car accidents kill 16K Americans. During the same time period, COVID has killed 10 times that many people. During the same time period, COVID has killed more than twice as many working age Americans (18 to 65 year olds) as car accidents generally do.

And yet we accept, without argument, all sorts of rules to make driving safer for everyone. For example, my life would be much easier if my 10 year old could drive himself places. He could run errands, take himself to soccer, etc . . . . But we have a society have decided that it's not safe to allow 10 year olds to drive. If I demanded the right to let him do so anyway, in the name of personal freedom, my neighbors would be calling the police the second they saw him get behind the wheel.

Why are restrictions and modifications that protect us from COVID, people are up in arms. Why is the state allowed to make rules about my 10 year old driving, and not about where my 10 year old spends his days? Why do people think my state should be allowed to require me to have insurance, but not to require me to have a mask? What is the difference?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't see how some teachers think they won't be distance teaching for snow days in the coming years. if you can do it now you certainly can do it the few snow days we have a year. Or is it just that you don't want to be inconvenience to have to find childcare like the rest of us?.
To quote several teachers on this board just be a parent and hire someone.

Like a snow day is the biggest perk of the job
I’ll gladly give up snow days to keep from getting sick and dying how bout you?

I don't know my job is never provided snow days. I've been expected to work remotely on those days and bring work home as needed. I suspect you will now be doing the same now that you've made the argument you can work remotely with no issue

I have no problem doing my job - dying I have a problem with so enjoy your kid at home.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why not? Serious question why could you not just log on to Zuma 8 a.m. and teach like you normally would. Several of us bring work home at the end of the day if we expect inclement weather and not being able to make it in. I see teachers being able to do the same now

In a few years from now, once this is all far behind us, schools won't even have Zoom accounts any more. Most kids and teachers probably won't even remember how to do it. It takes a considerable amount of time to put together a DL lesson, it's not like you can just do the exact same thing that you would do in class. In some cases, you probably could, but certainly not all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You guys,
My boss expects me to drive to work. I don't want to die. What should I do? I don't want to die. It is not like I can take safety precautions like driving the speed limit, not driving distracted, wearing a seatbelt.

You see the rate of traffic fatalities. He is such a jerk expecting me to do the job I get paid to do.

I'm honestly starting to think that this is something we will start to hear. That it's unfair for employees to risk their lives driving to work. After all look at how many thousands of people die in year in car accidents? How is it fair to expect employees to RISK THEIR LIVES driving to work?

In an average 6 month period, car accidents kill 16K Americans. During the same time period, COVID has killed 10 times that many people. During the same time period, COVID has killed more than twice as many working age Americans (18 to 65 year olds) as car accidents generally do.

And yet we accept, without argument, all sorts of rules to make driving safer for everyone. For example, my life would be much easier if my 10 year old could drive himself places. He could run errands, take himself to soccer, etc . . . . But we have a society have decided that it's not safe to allow 10 year olds to drive. If I demanded the right to let him do so anyway, in the name of personal freedom, my neighbors would be calling the police the second they saw him get behind the wheel.

Why are restrictions and modifications that protect us from COVID, people are up in arms. Why is the state allowed to make rules about my 10 year old driving, and not about where my 10 year old spends his days? Why do people think my state should be allowed to require me to have insurance, but not to require me to have a mask? What is the difference?

Should none of us drive until traffic fatalities are in 0? Asking for a teacher friend who says they won't go back to work until there are no more covud cases

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why not? Serious question why could you not just log on to Zuma 8 a.m. and teach like you normally would. Several of us bring work home at the end of the day if we expect inclement weather and not being able to make it in. I see teachers being able to do the same now

In a few years from now, once this is all far behind us, schools won't even have Zoom accounts any more. Most kids and teachers probably won't even remember how to do it. It takes a considerable amount of time to put together a DL lesson, it's not like you can just do the exact same thing that you would do in class. In some cases, you probably could, but certainly not all.

but I thought distance learning was so great and kids were getting the same education as they would in person.....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Your premise is faulty. A majority of parents don’t think it’s safe to reopen. It’s the reopen mob that screams their heads off.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/context/july-24-31-2020-washington-post-schar-school-poll-of-parents/f7552bde-6f87-4e1a-83a2-268953720ff5/?itid=lk_inline_manual_1&_gl=1*17dza6l*_ga*elRHTEpPMkZlcWtSRXNCTk16ZkczNGJ1R3hjODh1dGQtMWFoUjlQc3lvTTRldmNsTlVKQXFLRnhRUnlWTWVGVQ..

Both FCPS (https://www.fcps.edu/survey) and MCPS schools summer surveys showed more parents wanting schools to open, and most teachers not wanting the too (or should I say teachers' associations?), but approx. a 10 percent difference.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Are School hands out Chromebooks at the beginning of the year to every student so I don't see that being an issue

I teach at a private school that went to distance learning on snow days a few years ago. I'll be honest and say that distance learning on snow days is less fun that playing outside with my kids on snow days, but I do think that the practice is one of the reasons that we pivoted to DL so well during COVID.

But one of the reasons why it works is that 100% of our kids have devices, because we're a 1:1 school, and while we do have families with challenges with internet access, we already problem solved those issues before the shut down happened.

I think one of the questions that I have is whether LEA's that are providing 1:1 devices for students during DL will continue to use that model when we return to in person learning. If so, I think that continuing with DL for snow days makes a lot of sense, because it will keep teachers' and students' skills with the technology fresh.

Another reason why the pivot went well for me is that as soon as it became obvious that DL was coming, I started teaching my classes virtually in the classroom. So, for the last week or two of in person school in March, I was having my kids log in to the platform we knew we'd be using, and participate as if they were remote (e.g. going to our online portal to find and submit in class work, participating through tools like the chat function, and google forms rather than verbally, etc . . . ). We also had several high risk teachers who moved to teaching from their homes, with kids learning from the classroom under the watchful eye of a substitute. My guess is that when we return to school, we'll continue to do some learning in this way, so that the skills are maintained.

But whether public school could do the same things, depends on whether they're going to continue to support the 1:1 technology once we're back to in person learning. I don't think that's at all clear.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:anyone else feel like this is some psychology experiment? Like teachers who had very little power in the past now get a little bit of power by refusing to work and are now becoming these tyrants she'll claim parents want them and their children to die?

OP here. I actually do find it fascinating that teachers (and their organizations) have been so willing to finally take a hard line stand to something, when normally teachers put up with an unreal amount of expectations to give up their free time for work. I think the expectation that teachers should be willing to just give up all their personal free time for "the good of the kids" is just so entrenched that they don't feel comfortable speaking up against it. However, Coranavirus is a new issue, and now they have a "good excuse" to take a stance against something. They now have the argument that their health would be put at risk. And for those saying DL is more work. Well in some cases yes, but as a PP said - during DL in the Spring she was on the computer from about 7am - 8pm. Honestly, during in person teaching I work these same sort of horrible hours. If I had to choose, I'd rather work these crappy hours from the comfort of my home, where I can at least take some small breaks, and throw in a load of laundry. And did I mention, how glorious it is to not have to deal with crappy discipline issues from middle schoolers?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Like someone else said. Say goodbye to snow days!!!
Now there is no reason they can DL on those days.
Oh, and don't forget to find childcare for your kid as well since he/she will be DL and you can't be the support since you will be 'working' leading your own DL sessions.

Welcome to the real world.

OP again. Actually I don't buy that there will no longer be snow days (once things return to normal) It's not at all realistic to think that 2-3 years from now, when school announces at 6am that school will be canceled, teachers will be able to suddenly put together a DL lesson for that day, and kids will be able to just login to Zoom and join a class.

When we pivot back to fully in-person learning I am guessing MCPS would make sure that students bring their Chromebooks back to school and probably would not let elementary School students take them back and forth.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:anyone else feel like this is some psychology experiment? Like teachers who had very little power in the past now get a little bit of power by refusing to work and are now becoming these tyrants she'll claim parents want them and their children to die?

OP here. I actually do find it fascinating that teachers (and their organizations) have been so willing to finally take a hard line stand to something, when normally teachers put up with an unreal amount of expectations to give up their free time for work. I think the expectation that teachers should be willing to just give up all their personal free time for "the good of the kids" is just so entrenched that they don't feel comfortable speaking up against it. However, Coranavirus is a new issue, and now they have a "good excuse" to take a stance against something. They now have the argument that their health would be put at risk. And for those saying DL is more work. Well in some cases yes, but as a PP said - during DL in the Spring she was on the computer from about 7am - 8pm. Honestly, during in person teaching I work these same sort of horrible hours. If I had to choose, I'd rather work these crappy hours from the comfort of my home, where I can at least take some small breaks, and throw in a load of laundry. And did I mention, how glorious it is to not have to deal with crappy discipline issues from middle schoolers?

I think the teacher is very well know that whatever plan the school puts out it will be inadequate and it will probably fall on them to fill in the gaps, whether that means buying masks for students or their own cleaning supplies or other things.