This is going to be bad…

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wish people would atop posting Missouri, Louisiana, Florida and Texas news bits. We have different community conditions with high numbers of vaccinated and school mask mandates.

Does Virginia work for you? See above.

Oh no!!! (...but they're back open on Monday after hundreds of teachers tested clean).

Good. I am trying to stay positive for next week but I am so scared everything is going to be shredded at a moment’s notice and I am going to have to rethink my courses and lesson plans and use the brand new applications FCPS bought to teach virtually.

I think I was naive to think covid was dying out, that school would be “normal” in the fall. The world has changed fundamentally and irrevocably and I am fairly certain that teaching for the next ten years is going to rely heavily on digital tools that accommodate virtual learning even if there are a good many of us who would like education to be all about face to face interactions and in-person communities.

Denial is a powerful weapon against the trauma of realization, but I suppose I need to face our changing reality rather than believe I can wish them away. I am going to have to be smarter and stronger and more flexible if I want to continue to be employed as a teacher.

That was a confusing post. I am saying that the reality is that people HAVEN’T agreed upon in-person school only, and there are enough people worried about and preparing for lockdowns or quarantines, that I am being asked to be prepared to shift teaching modes at any minute and to create and maintain a kind of “digital back-up” for my course. More and more parents are using the digital resources to monitor their kids’ learning so that even if they insist on “in person only” they don’t always realize that those digital resources they like have already shifted the emphasis from paper, pencil, and textbook to a laptop-centric education.

Americans are fickle consumers who are accustomed to over-accommodating customer “service.” People say they want X and not Y, and while it’s true that they want X at the present time - they may be all about X today and tomorrow and the day after that - it’s likely they will want Y at some point in the near future. So I have to do both. It’s true I am not doing “concurrent teaching,” in the way I did it in the spring (thank God) but I can’t say I am truly returning to a school where most teaching and learning happens in-person. It is sad that Education has become a service for consumers, but I don’t see much evidence to disprove that reality.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wish people would atop posting Missouri, Louisiana, Florida and Texas news bits. We have different community conditions with high numbers of vaccinated and school mask mandates.

Does Virginia work for you? See above.

Oh no!!! (...but they're back open on Monday after hundreds of teachers tested clean).

Good. I am trying to stay positive for next week but I am so scared everything is going to be shredded at a moment’s notice and I am going to have to rethink my courses and lesson plans and use the brand new applications FCPS bought to teach virtually.

I think I was naive to think covid was dying out, that school would be “normal” in the fall. The world has changed fundamentally and irrevocably and I am fairly certain that teaching for the next ten years is going to rely heavily on digital tools that accommodate virtual learning even if there are a good many of us who would like education to be all about face to face interactions and in-person communities.

Denial is a powerful weapon against the trauma of realization, but I suppose I need to face our changing reality rather than believe I can wish them away. I am going to have to be smarter and stronger and more flexible if I want to continue to be employed as a teacher.

It is wrong to say you are scared. You are quite honestly giddy for it to happen. Been digging up links all day to prove yourself right. You want schools to close so you can come tell the internet all your fearmongering was accurate.

No, I really don’t want it to go virtual. I am particularly screwed if we go all virtual next week because I am so inept with our new digital platforms. What I don’t like is that other people have scared me enough to think in person learning is the rug about to be pulled out from underneath me. I resent that I can’t put all my energy into preparing in-person activities because 1. I am not convinced I will actually get to do them, and 2. FCPS pretty much requires all learning activities have a digital counterpart or backup posted on Schoology.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wish people would atop posting Missouri, Louisiana, Florida and Texas news bits. We have different community conditions with high numbers of vaccinated and school mask mandates.

Does Virginia work for you? See above.

Oh no!!! (...but they're back open on Monday after hundreds of teachers tested clean).

Good. I am trying to stay positive for next week but I am so scared everything is going to be shredded at a moment’s notice and I am going to have to rethink my courses and lesson plans and use the brand new applications FCPS bought to teach virtually.

I think I was naive to think covid was dying out, that school would be “normal” in the fall. The world has changed fundamentally and irrevocably and I am fairly certain that teaching for the next ten years is going to rely heavily on digital tools that accommodate virtual learning even if there are a good many of us who would like education to be all about face to face interactions and in-person communities.

Denial is a powerful weapon against the trauma of realization, but I suppose I need to face our changing reality rather than believe I can wish them away. I am going to have to be smarter and stronger and more flexible if I want to continue to be employed as a teacher.

That was a confusing post. I am saying that the reality is that people HAVEN’T agreed upon in-person school only, and there are enough people worried about and preparing for lockdowns or quarantines, that I am being asked to be prepared to shift teaching modes at any minute and to create and maintain a kind of “digital back-up” for my course. More and more parents are using the digital resources to monitor their kids’ learning so that even if they insist on “in person only” they don’t always realize that those digital resources they like have already shifted the emphasis from paper, pencil, and textbook to a laptop-centric education.

Americans are fickle consumers who are accustomed to over-accommodating customer “service.” People say they want X and not Y, and while it’s true that they want X at the present time - they may be all about X today and tomorrow and the day after that - it’s likely they will want Y at some point in the near future. So I have to do both. It’s true I am not doing “concurrent teaching,” in the way I did it in the spring (thank God) but I can’t say I am truly returning to a school where most teaching and learning happens in-person. It is sad that Education has become a service for consumers, but I don’t see much evidence to disprove that reality.

I understand what you’re saying. It’s a shame. When I need to “create”, think in an abstract way, commit something to memory, etc., I use pen and paper to engage my brain. The computer is just used for the final manifestation of that exercise. I’m sure there are plenty of people that will shout me down, but I just think that a computer-first learning model is superficial, “transactional”, and bite sized. And I’m actually in data analytics, cloud, etc. so, if anything, I should be biased that way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wish people would atop posting Missouri, Louisiana, Florida and Texas news bits. We have different community conditions with high numbers of vaccinated and school mask mandates.

Does Virginia work for you? See above.

Oh no!!! (...but they're back open on Monday after hundreds of teachers tested clean).

Good. I am trying to stay positive for next week but I am so scared everything is going to be shredded at a moment’s notice and I am going to have to rethink my courses and lesson plans and use the brand new applications FCPS bought to teach virtually.

I think I was naive to think covid was dying out, that school would be “normal” in the fall. The world has changed fundamentally and irrevocably and I am fairly certain that teaching for the next ten years is going to rely heavily on digital tools that accommodate virtual learning even if there are a good many of us who would like education to be all about face to face interactions and in-person communities.

Denial is a powerful weapon against the trauma of realization, but I suppose I need to face our changing reality rather than believe I can wish them away. I am going to have to be smarter and stronger and more flexible if I want to continue to be employed as a teacher.

It is wrong to say you are scared. You are quite honestly giddy for it to happen. Been digging up links all day to prove yourself right. You want schools to close so you can come tell the internet all your fearmongering was accurate.

No, I really don’t want it to go virtual. I am particularly screwed if we go all virtual next week because I am so inept with our new digital platforms. What I don’t like is that other people have scared me enough to think in person learning is the rug about to be pulled out from underneath me. I resent that I can’t put all my energy into preparing in-person activities because 1. I am not convinced I will actually get to do them, and 2. FCPS pretty much requires all learning activities have a digital counterpart or backup posted on Schoology.

That rug could only temporarily be pulled. Last year isn’t this year. Shutting down for an extended period will result in more noise than anybody is willing to deal with. And again, Delta is temporary.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wish people would atop posting Missouri, Louisiana, Florida and Texas news bits. We have different community conditions with high numbers of vaccinated and school mask mandates.

Does Virginia work for you? See above.

Oh no!!! (...but they're back open on Monday after hundreds of teachers tested clean).

Good. I am trying to stay positive for next week but I am so scared everything is going to be shredded at a moment’s notice and I am going to have to rethink my courses and lesson plans and use the brand new applications FCPS bought to teach virtually.

I think I was naive to think covid was dying out, that school would be “normal” in the fall. The world has changed fundamentally and irrevocably and I am fairly certain that teaching for the next ten years is going to rely heavily on digital tools that accommodate virtual learning even if there are a good many of us who would like education to be all about face to face interactions and in-person communities.

Denial is a powerful weapon against the trauma of realization, but I suppose I need to face our changing reality rather than believe I can wish them away. I am going to have to be smarter and stronger and more flexible if I want to continue to be employed as a teacher.

It is wrong to say you are scared. You are quite honestly giddy for it to happen. Been digging up links all day to prove yourself right. You want schools to close so you can come tell the internet all your fearmongering was accurate.

… and I would be a masochist to be giddy about the workload involved in preparing for two different modes of instruction. It is overwhelming. I doubt all schools will close down at the same time this year but I am anticipating partial closures a few days or a week here and there where I will just be expected to shift gears seamlessly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wish people would atop posting Missouri, Louisiana, Florida and Texas news bits. We have different community conditions with high numbers of vaccinated and school mask mandates.

Does Virginia work for you? See above.

Oh no!!! (...but they're back open on Monday after hundreds of teachers tested clean).

Good. I am trying to stay positive for next week but I am so scared everything is going to be shredded at a moment’s notice and I am going to have to rethink my courses and lesson plans and use the brand new applications FCPS bought to teach virtually.

I think I was naive to think covid was dying out, that school would be “normal” in the fall. The world has changed fundamentally and irrevocably and I am fairly certain that teaching for the next ten years is going to rely heavily on digital tools that accommodate virtual learning even if there are a good many of us who would like education to be all about face to face interactions and in-person communities.

Denial is a powerful weapon against the trauma of realization, but I suppose I need to face our changing reality rather than believe I can wish them away. I am going to have to be smarter and stronger and more flexible if I want to continue to be employed as a teacher.

It is wrong to say you are scared. You are quite honestly giddy for it to happen. Been digging up links all day to prove yourself right. You want schools to close so you can come tell the internet all your fearmongering was accurate.

No, I really don’t want it to go virtual. I am particularly screwed if we go all virtual next week because I am so inept with our new digital platforms. What I don’t like is that other people have scared me enough to think in person learning is the rug about to be pulled out from underneath me. I resent that I can’t put all my energy into preparing in-person activities because 1. I am not convinced I will actually get to do them, and 2. FCPS pretty much requires all learning activities have a digital counterpart or backup posted on Schoology.

That rug could only temporarily be pulled. Last year isn’t this year. Shutting down for an extended period will result in more noise than anybody is willing to deal with. And again, Delta is temporary.

Yes, but preparing for “temporary pulling” means virtual ends up becoming the primary mode of learning because it is the only one that can sustain both in person and remote classrooms. The in person classroom these days is a shadow of the one based/ housed online. At least it seems that is how I am being asked to construct my coursework.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wish people would atop posting Missouri, Louisiana, Florida and Texas news bits. We have different community conditions with high numbers of vaccinated and school mask mandates.

Does Virginia work for you? See above.

Oh no!!! (...but they're back open on Monday after hundreds of teachers tested clean).

Good. I am trying to stay positive for next week but I am so scared everything is going to be shredded at a moment’s notice and I am going to have to rethink my courses and lesson plans and use the brand new applications FCPS bought to teach virtually.

I think I was naive to think covid was dying out, that school would be “normal” in the fall. The world has changed fundamentally and irrevocably and I am fairly certain that teaching for the next ten years is going to rely heavily on digital tools that accommodate virtual learning even if there are a good many of us who would like education to be all about face to face interactions and in-person communities.

Denial is a powerful weapon against the trauma of realization, but I suppose I need to face our changing reality rather than believe I can wish them away. I am going to have to be smarter and stronger and more flexible if I want to continue to be employed as a teacher.

It is wrong to say you are scared. You are quite honestly giddy for it to happen. Been digging up links all day to prove yourself right. You want schools to close so you can come tell the internet all your fearmongering was accurate.

No, I really don’t want it to go virtual. I am particularly screwed if we go all virtual next week because I am so inept with our new digital platforms. What I don’t like is that other people have scared me enough to think in person learning is the rug about to be pulled out from underneath me. I resent that I can’t put all my energy into preparing in-person activities because 1. I am not convinced I will actually get to do them, and 2. FCPS pretty much requires all learning activities have a digital counterpart or backup posted on Schoology.

That rug could only temporarily be pulled. Last year isn’t this year. Shutting down for an extended period will result in more noise than anybody is willing to deal with. And again, Delta is temporary.

Yes, but preparing for “temporary pulling” means virtual ends up becoming the primary mode of learning because it is the only one that can sustain both in person and remote classrooms. The in person classroom these days is a shadow of the one based/ housed online. At least it seems that is how I am being asked to construct my coursework.

Sorry, another comment I want to make is that, like OP, I expect people at the helm to overreact to positive COViD cases and actually cause the kind of interruptions and chaos we want to avoid in a child’s education. I moved here about 5 years ago from a place where government entities did the minimum work possible, so I have been continually astonished to find myself living among people much more cautious and vigilant than I am!

[Anonymous]

I would love to know which school is telling teachers to prepare for any pivot to virtual because mine and nobody else’s I know (I know a lot of teachers in nova) are being told that. It is quite literally full speed ahead on normal plans.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wish people would atop posting Missouri, Louisiana, Florida and Texas news bits. We have different community conditions with high numbers of vaccinated and school mask mandates.

Does Virginia work for you? See above.

Oh no!!! (...but they're back open on Monday after hundreds of teachers tested clean).

Good. I am trying to stay positive for next week but I am so scared everything is going to be shredded at a moment’s notice and I am going to have to rethink my courses and lesson plans and use the brand new applications FCPS bought to teach virtually.

I think I was naive to think covid was dying out, that school would be “normal” in the fall. The world has changed fundamentally and irrevocably and I am fairly certain that teaching for the next ten years is going to rely heavily on digital tools that accommodate virtual learning even if there are a good many of us who would like education to be all about face to face interactions and in-person communities.

Denial is a powerful weapon against the trauma of realization, but I suppose I need to face our changing reality rather than believe I can wish them away. I am going to have to be smarter and stronger and more flexible if I want to continue to be employed as a teacher.

It is wrong to say you are scared. You are quite honestly giddy for it to happen. Been digging up links all day to prove yourself right. You want schools to close so you can come tell the internet all your fearmongering was accurate.

No, I really don’t want it to go virtual. I am particularly screwed if we go all virtual next week because I am so inept with our new digital platforms. What I don’t like is that other people have scared me enough to think in person learning is the rug about to be pulled out from underneath me. I resent that I can’t put all my energy into preparing in-person activities because 1. I am not convinced I will actually get to do them, and 2. FCPS pretty much requires all learning activities have a digital counterpart or backup posted on Schoology.

I’m a returning (new) full time teacher this year and I feel the same. And while prepping this week, so many colleagues kept saying “WHEN” we go virtual and I can’t listen to it. I’m focused on teaching in person and doing that the best I can. I can’t even let myself think about any other option.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would love to know which school is telling teachers to prepare for any pivot to virtual because mine and nobody else’s I know (I know a lot of teachers in nova) are being told that. It is quite literally full speed ahead on normal plans.

My school isn’t saying that but I’ve had many colleagues say “WHEN” we go virtual while we were prepping this week. Also heard our health aid say we aren’t going to be in past November. Way to be negative and start off on the wrong foot!

[Anonymous]

Also although did the schoology and zoom trainings, I have a million other things to focus on besides learning them in depth. So virtual will be a major teacher fail on my part.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would love to know which school is telling teachers to prepare for any pivot to virtual because mine and nobody else’s I know (I know a lot of teachers in nova) are being told that. It is quite literally full speed ahead on normal plans.

My school isn’t saying that but I’ve had many colleagues say “WHEN” we go virtual while we were prepping this week. Also heard our health aid say we aren’t going to be in past November. Way to be negative and start off on the wrong foot!

Perhaps school specific? That’s not the conversation at our school at all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m a teacher. I really don’t think it’s going to be bad HERE. We have masks and many vaccinated adults. We just have to make it to when 5-11 can get the vaccine which shouldn’t be too long. It’s really going to be fine. Staff are confident at my school that some kids may quarantine here and there but outbreaks and true spread in school will be minimal. When kids quarantined in spring it was always because someone at home had tested + but rarely did the kids themselves test +.

I hope you are correct.

However you are wrong to compare with last year. Delta is 225% more transmissible.

Yeah I understand that but again, we have a full mask mandate and vaccinated adults so it’s less likely our kids will come in having been exposed at home. I do not think it’s going to be some doomsday scenario and I don’t think we will close schools again.

You realize vaccinated individuals can transmit Covid to unvacced? So yes — they could get it at home and even if they don’t over a million school-age kids all congregating together will definitely transmit it. Half of the school-age population is unvaccinated and rushing into the buildings is only going to make a fall lockdown inevitable rather than potential.

A lockdown isn’t coming. You going to be disappointed when your doomsday prediction doesn’t come true and DL for all doesn’t happen?

+1. Two things.

First, we aren’t Mississippi, which has what, a 37% vaxx rate and no one wearing a mask? We literally have twice the vaxx rate, even among ages 12-18. Plus mandatory masking. Plus an ever increasing number of indoor places you cannot access without a vaccine. Comparing us to KS on COVId mitigation is apples to oranges.

Two, you are misrepresenting the article. It says that if you are vaxxed AND GET COVID you can be fined or jailed if you don’t quarantine. Vaxxed people with COVID have always been supposed to quarantine. They just weren’t in MS, and now the law has some teeth. It does not say there is a lockdown.

You know what we are though? Virginia. I await with eagerness you picking this apart and then the rising cases next week and the schools announcing immediately closures in September.

The 'OMG how could this happen?!' when we've literally been living this exact scenario for 18 months is just incredible.

It takes a special brand of a@@hole to root for kids to get COVID and against kids getting in person school— in many cases for the first time in 1.5 years. So congrats on the having no soul thing.

Also ROVA =/= NOVA. No one knows what will happen until we try. But, we’ve waited 1.5 years. At some point, we have to try.

Oh good grief. If you've gone to the point of vilifying someone with a different opinion to the point of accusing that person of rooting for kids to get covid, I suggest you take a deep breath and try regain some measures of perspective. People can't see the future so they are trying their best to try make some sense of what will happen in the future. The truth will likely be somewhere in the middle. No, not every child will get covid and trigger the beginning of apocalypse. And no, things will probably not go back to normal in the immediate future and covid will continue to dog us, whether we like it or not.

Reasonable people can disagree and the best situation may be different for each family and their situation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m a teacher. I really don’t think it’s going to be bad HERE. We have masks and many vaccinated adults. We just have to make it to when 5-11 can get the vaccine which shouldn’t be too long. It’s really going to be fine. Staff are confident at my school that some kids may quarantine here and there but outbreaks and true spread in school will be minimal. When kids quarantined in spring it was always because someone at home had tested + but rarely did the kids themselves test +.

I hope you are correct.

However you are wrong to compare with last year. Delta is 225% more transmissible.

Yeah I understand that but again, we have a full mask mandate and vaccinated adults so it’s less likely our kids will come in having been exposed at home. I do not think it’s going to be some doomsday scenario and I don’t think we will close schools again.

You realize vaccinated individuals can transmit Covid to unvacced? So yes — they could get it at home and even if they don’t over a million school-age kids all congregating together will definitely transmit it. Half of the school-age population is unvaccinated and rushing into the buildings is only going to make a fall lockdown inevitable rather than potential.

A lockdown isn’t coming. You going to be disappointed when your doomsday prediction doesn’t come true and DL for all doesn’t happen?

+1. Two things.

First, we aren’t Mississippi, which has what, a 37% vaxx rate and no one wearing a mask? We literally have twice the vaxx rate, even among ages 12-18. Plus mandatory masking. Plus an ever increasing number of indoor places you cannot access without a vaccine. Comparing us to KS on COVId mitigation is apples to oranges.

Two, you are misrepresenting the article. It says that if you are vaxxed AND GET COVID you can be fined or jailed if you don’t quarantine. Vaxxed people with COVID have always been supposed to quarantine. They just weren’t in MS, and now the law has some teeth. It does not say there is a lockdown.

You know what we are though? Virginia. I await with eagerness you picking this apart and then the rising cases next week and the schools announcing immediately closures in September.

The 'OMG how could this happen?!' when we've literally been living this exact scenario for 18 months is just incredible.

It takes a special brand of a@@hole to root for kids to get COVID and against kids getting in person school— in many cases for the first time in 1.5 years. So congrats on the having no soul thing.

Also ROVA =/= NOVA. No one knows what will happen until we try. But, we’ve waited 1.5 years. At some point, we have to try.

Oh good grief. If you've gone to the point of vilifying someone with a different opinion to the point of accusing that person of rooting for kids to get covid, I suggest you take a deep breath and try regain some measures of perspective. People can't see the future so they are trying their best to try make some sense of what will happen in the future. The truth will likely be somewhere in the middle. No, not every child will get covid and trigger the beginning of apocalypse. And no, things will probably not go back to normal in the immediate future and covid will continue to dog us, whether we like it or not.

Reasonable people can disagree and the best situation may be different for each family and their situation.

Reality shades toward staying open and working through quarantines. Or temporarily closing and reopening. There is not a single jurisdiction in the US that has embraced DL for all for a year. And this is in the storm of DL, which will blow through in a matter of weeks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Also although did the schoology and zoom trainings, I have a million other things to focus on besides learning them in depth. So virtual will be a major teacher fail on my part.

Yes, me too! Unfortunately, we ARE being told at MY school to be ready to pivot. Plus, they changed my classroom just this week and I need to rotate out and in with three other teachers. I just feel so underprepared on every level, it is making me sick. Being a decent and effective teacher makes me feel right and whole, so I am distraught - so much so, that I am posting way too much on this forum for anonymous folks.