Safety of teachers and school staff when returning to a school setting in August
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Anonymous
Thank you! |
Anonymous
This is a huge issue, PP. I worked at a school last year where almost all of the subs were older people, many of whom were retired teachers. Will older subs be willing to come in when we reopen? How will we be able to keep ratios low if no sub can be found for a sick teacher? I'm also not hearing people talking about how to make sure sick children are kept home. It was very, very hard to get parents to pick up sick children in the special education program I worked in last year - some kids sat at school for hours in the nurse's office waiting for a parent to return calls and then finally agree to pick up their kid. Temperature checks aren't going to mean much if there isn't a way to ensure parents will pick up sick kids in a timely fashion. Of course, this also means employers need to allow employees time to care for sick kids. |
Anonymous
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They're not going back and teacher safety is one of the main reasons for this.
This is all a dance to make sure the per-pupil federal funding is in place. |
Anonymous
Thank you so much!!! |
Anonymous
Yes! I am not a teacher and have 3 school age kids at home “learning” while I WFH. I understand people’s desire (and for some desperation) to get kids back into school; however, the teachers’ input should be given significant value when considering next steps and planning for the fall. |
Anonymous
| Not a teacher, but a parent and health care professional (and child of a teacher). I am concerned that people have always and will continue to send sick kids to school (often unwittingly). I understand that this is often due to issues with jobs etc., but regardless of reason, this is how we wind up with outbreaks of stomach viruses, strep, lice etc every year. Only in this situation, the stakes are much higher. I am not sure of the best answer at this point, but scientifically informed careful consideration and collaboration are absolutely imperative. |
Anonymous
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As a parent, I ask all the teachers commenting on this thread - what are you proposing? It’s a serious question because from where I sit, opening schools for in person instruction in the Fall (with face masks and hand sanitizer) is the “least bad” option from number of bad options.
Unfortunately, it is going to be impossible to make the classroom a COVID-19-risk-free environment. Classrooms never were entirely free from communicable diseases. Yes, it would be better if we could test everyone before entering a school, but even that is no guarantee, and not realistic in the near future. Yes, we could and should improve the hygiene practices in schools and this will have the added benefit of hopefully decreasing the spread of flu, colds and other illnesses. But we have to start considering the non-COVID-19 physical, emotional and yes economic (because without money, many kids don’t eat or get medical attention when they need it) injuries occurring every day now when deciding how to precede. Ideally no one would have to be exposed, but parents bristle when teachers argue that they should continue to be paid, while teaching about 1 hour a day, And expect the rest of society to just suck it up. You ask the supermarket workers and delivery workers and UPS workers and farm workers and meat packers and truck drivers to all risk their own health, because you definitely have obtained groceries in the past 8 weeks. Shutting down schools was the right thing to do on an emergency basis - but not a long term one. |
Anonymous
| The ignorance is just so endless. I woke up at 3 am today and planned, recorded and uploaded videos for lessons for next week, planned and subsequently led two 45 minute guided reading sessions, led a morning meeting, called three families for 20 minute one-on-one sessions, held an open lunch office hour and provided individualized support in using a remote learning website to a student and parent during that time, updated our class blog and more. It’s 1 and I’ve been working for 10 hours and won’t be done for several more. |
Anonymous
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Schools are not going to reopen to all kids or all staff in the fall. Medically fragile staff and students will be asked to stay away and continue virtually -- probably with a lot of others who can't be accommodated with in-person instruction given the social distancing requirements that will be in place.
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Anonymous
Thank you for this! I am so sick of people asserting that teachers aren't working just because their kid had one our of live instruction. There are multiple classes happening a day, plus admin meetings, plus tutoring, plus office hours, plus the expectation of calls to kids who aren't engaging. Then there's the time it takes to plan a lesson, create and upload all the assignments and grade assignments. |
Anonymous
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A story in the Guardian that's related to this thread:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/21/i-feel-expendable-australian-teachers-sound-alarm-about-schools-and-coronavirus |
Anonymous
I prefer when people bring this kind of stuff up in real life and then I can relate it to their particular job. For instance, I have a friend who is in sales. She was talking about how it's ridiculous that teachers are only working for 45 minutes a day (I'm in MCPS) and getting paid for a full day. I asked her if she considers only time spent in front of clients as her time spent working. She said of course not, she has to spend time looking at data, have strategy meetings with people who support the sales process, create presentations for the client meeting, make calls on cold and warm leads when she's not working on that particular deal etc. I asked her how she would feel if people only considered time spent in front of clients as time that she's working and thought that she should only get paid for that time. Of course she said she would feel annoyed and frustrated because there's a lot of work that goes into one client meeting. I said, "bingo". I did a similar exercise with a friend who's a lawyer. A lot of times people don't understand unless they can personally relate it to their own situation. |
Anonymous
I felt this way the whole past year even before Coronavirus! We had no subs, so I knew if I called out sick, it'd be my colleagues picking up the slack and ruining their schedule for the day. Until I had the flu I never took a day off. |
Anonymous
Also, how long does it take to individually text and respond to parents trying to give updates on each kid, schedule conference, tech support, etc. I've spent hours each week just communicating with parents one on one. How many of these lawyers or sales people have 30(+) open accounts that they have to follow up on every single day? |
Anonymous
Agreed. There is no way to keep the teachers safe and as a parent, I would never expect them to put their lives on the line like this. |