What the Fall may look like -- the hybrid model

[Anonymous]

Schools will not be full time in person next year folks, plan for it now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It really will vary based on the size and physical structure of the schools. Micro schools probably won't have to change much at all, for example.

Some schools are small enough and have enough space such that a few of those ideas are not needed, like splitting classes, staggering days, and having lunch in the classroom.

In a small grade where everyone takes the same classes, I could actually see combining some classes and using auditoriums for them to free up other classrooms for smaller sections of upper school classes. I can think of five areas in our school large enough to hold an appropriately distanced whole grade with the teachers rotating into the space. All of those spaces have direct exits to the outdoors too, so they wouldn't have to mingle in the hallways at all and could easily get outdoor free time. This frees up all the classroom for the grades where the students all have different classes and schedules (high school).

Also, keeping kids out of the halls and moving teachers around as much as possible would help a lot. Where changing classrooms is necessary (labs and specials come to mind), the hallway schedule idea is a good one, and you'd only have to alter the schedules by a few minutes.

Hopefully, weather will allow outdoor classrooms to be used more too.

OP here. Yes, the idea of all-purpose rooms being repurposed to mega-classrooms was also something discussed. At our kids school the facilities are simply too small to have the normal number of kids in a social-distanced environment, but an older gym could become a mega-classroom that could fit an entire grade or two (boy that would be noisy and distracting though). I suspect a number of schools are looking at some bigger rooms that could be repurposed as classrooms relatively easily.

Mega classrooms of students would t following the groups of 10 Or 15 or 20 rule some states may not lift.
Plus that makes contact tracing difficult, thus lean toward total shutdown of school if you’re intermingling large groups.

In middle and high school you have to intermingle the groups. They don't take all the exact same classes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It really will vary based on the size and physical structure of the schools. Micro schools probably won't have to change much at all, for example.

Some schools are small enough and have enough space such that a few of those ideas are not needed, like splitting classes, staggering days, and having lunch in the classroom.

In a small grade where everyone takes the same classes, I could actually see combining some classes and using auditoriums for them to free up other classrooms for smaller sections of upper school classes. I can think of five areas in our school large enough to hold an appropriately distanced whole grade with the teachers rotating into the space. All of those spaces have direct exits to the outdoors too, so they wouldn't have to mingle in the hallways at all and could easily get outdoor free time. This frees up all the classroom for the grades where the students all have different classes and schedules (high school).

Also, keeping kids out of the halls and moving teachers around as much as possible would help a lot. Where changing classrooms is necessary (labs and specials come to mind), the hallway schedule idea is a good one, and you'd only have to alter the schedules by a few minutes.

Hopefully, weather will allow outdoor classrooms to be used more too.

OP here. Yes, the idea of all-purpose rooms being repurposed to mega-classrooms was also something discussed. At our kids school the facilities are simply too small to have the normal number of kids in a social-distanced environment, but an older gym could become a mega-classroom that could fit an entire grade or two (boy that would be noisy and distracting though). I suspect a number of schools are looking at some bigger rooms that could be repurposed as classrooms relatively easily.

Mega classrooms of students would t following the groups of 10 Or 15 or 20 rule some states may not lift.
Plus that makes contact tracing difficult, thus lean toward total shutdown of school if you’re intermingling large groups.

In middle and high school you have to intermingle the groups. They don't take all the exact same classes.

+1

I could see how this could work in elementary school, but it isn't feasible in MS or HS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One thing that might be more workable was one week on, one week at home. That would make it a bit more predictable for child care and also, should there be an outbreak, would prevent it from being spread across the entire student body in a one day on, one day off model.

That’s ridiculous for everyone involved - young kids, employers, parents, childcare (you’d have to pay a retainer the off week anyway).

If DC area admin, teachers, or over politicized parent base wants to be Prima Donna of the World on this we will absolutely be calling up the school to defer for a year, and send our kids to live with out of state relatives and attend an in person school.

What state do you think is going to be having in-person school in the fall?

[Anonymous]

Day cares and preschools are opening in the area in June, with lists of precautions like temp taking, no walking in, no large groups, slippers, masks brought in, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Schools will not be full time in person next year folks, plan for it now.

Some private schools in the DMV will be, they have some good setups planned. Sounds like many parochials will be as well.

Agree that the more space and less students can really help.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No. No hybrid model. No thanks.

Things would have to be substantially worse in the hospitals or with the death rates than currently to do that in September.

You do realize that the alternative is 100% distance learning? September 2020 is not going to be the same as January 2020. Nor is January 2021 and probably not June 2021.

Is that a politician talking or a school??

[Anonymous]

Thank you, OP.

The hybrid model is the optimistic scenario for private schools.

Public schools will have difficulty implementing it because they are overcrowded (some incredibly so), so splitting up the student body to maintain physical distancing will be challenging. With this in mind, private schools will certainly face a certain amount of pressure if they open, however carefully, and public schools remain in distance learning.

Just giving some context here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The social development piece that is missing cannot be recaptured in a hybrid, socially distant environment for the vast majority of kids. It just can’t happen. On so many levels it just wishful thinking. If kids go back to their school in a completely new way, expecting to invest a ton of energy in just learning and adjusting to this new normal it will not move the needle and it took a lot for everyone to adjust to DL and I think hybrid might just really make it so much for palpable as to what they have lost. I think it could make the kids really sad and demoralized. We may wish going to school hybrids will make things better but it might make things worse, emotionally and socially and be a distraction from for kids and potoential efforts to refine DL

If hybrid doesn’t work for your kid, he/she can almost assuredly do everything online. The hybrid provides optionality. My kid would do better with the hybrid, that I know for certain. You’ll have choices.

In Israel, the hybrid model was flat-out rejected as unsatisfactory for student learning and for parents.

Because they tried it for so long? Ran studies? Did comparative analyses?

You either/or people kill me. I Don’t know if you’re in the total lockdown camp or the open everything camp, but both camps are clueless about both disease and economics.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One thing that might be more workable was one week on, one week at home. That would make it a bit more predictable for child care and also, should there be an outbreak, would prevent it from being spread across the entire student body in a one day on, one day off model.

That’s ridiculous for everyone involved - young kids, employers, parents, childcare (you’d have to pay a retainer the off week anyway).

If DC area admin, teachers, or over politicized parent base wants to be Prima Donna of the World on this we will absolutely be calling up the school to defer for a year, and send our kids to live with out of state relatives and attend an in person school.

Maybe one day people like you will finally realize that life in a pandemic is going to be a little bit different. It sucks, but so do wars and other horrors that humans throughout history have had to live through and sacrifice for. Now it is us who have drawn the historical short straw. It is us who will have to adapt and sacrifice for a bit.

The only prima donnas are people like you who think sacrifice and compromise during a global emergency are too much for the universe to ask of you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One thing that might be more workable was one week on, one week at home. That would make it a bit more predictable for child care and also, should there be an outbreak, would prevent it from being spread across the entire student body in a one day on, one day off model.

That’s ridiculous for everyone involved - young kids, employers, parents, childcare (you’d have to pay a retainer the off week anyway).

If DC area admin, teachers, or over politicized parent base wants to be Prima Donna of the World on this we will absolutely be calling up the school to defer for a year, and send our kids to live with out of state relatives and attend an in person school.

Maybe one day people like you will finally realize that life in a pandemic is going to be a little bit different. It sucks, but so do wars and other horrors that humans throughout history have had to live through and sacrifice for. Now it is us who have drawn the historical short straw. It is us who will have to adapt and sacrifice for a bit.

The only prima donnas are people like you who think sacrifice and compromise during a global emergency are too much for the universe to ask of you.

Hold your horses a Chicken Little. Pandemic. Horrors. Sacrifice. Global emergency. The universe!

Come September when you both compare school openings amongst various countries, states, and DC area private schools, we’ll know who the irrational prima donna is. Stay tuned....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No. No hybrid model. No thanks.

Things would have to be substantially worse in the hospitals or with the death rates than currently to do that in September.

You do realize that the alternative is 100% distance learning? September 2020 is not going to be the same as January 2020. Nor is January 2021 and probably not June 2021.

Is that a politician talking or a school??

Neither. But I keep up with the news and I've read the reopening plans. School won't return to the way it was until there is a cure or a vaccine. They're saying that right now. It's not up to the individual school, the Health department is setting rules they all have to follow. Unless a school has the staff and facilities to make every class nine or fewer students they're going to have to do some sort of staggering. Plus they have to be prepared to switch to distance learning if there is a second wave.

OP had it right, the only thing missing was how little choice the schools have and how much will be determined by the health officials.

[Anonymous]

The hybrid plan isn't feasible.
1.Too many teachers, aides, administrators, cafeteria workers, etc. have elementary aged kids. What are faculty and staff going to for with their own kids if the adults are working full time and the kids are only going to school part-time.
2. What to do with the staff members who have health issues who won't go in?
3. What are working parents going to do?
4. If teachers are working with one group they can't also be directing lessons online.

[Anonymous]

If we are in phase 2 or 3, why are they saying only ten kids per room? Phase 2 allows gatherings in one room of 50 people.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No. No hybrid model. No thanks.

Things would have to be substantially worse in the hospitals or with the death rates than currently to do that in September.

You do realize that the alternative is 100% distance learning? September 2020 is not going to be the same as January 2020. Nor is January 2021 and probably not June 2021.

Is that a politician talking or a school??

Neither. But I keep up with the news and I've read the reopening plans. School won't return to the way it was until there is a cure or a vaccine. They're saying that right now. It's not up to the individual school, the Health department is setting rules they all have to follow. Unless a school has the staff and facilities to make every class nine or fewer students they're going to have to do some sort of staggering. Plus they have to be prepared to switch to distance learning if there is a second wave.

OP had it right, the only thing missing was how little choice the schools have and how much will be determined by the health officials.

A cure or vaccine? Neither of those is certain. We could never have either one. Neither of those is certain. Might as well just go back to regular school in the fall.