Safety of teachers and school staff when returning to a school setting in August

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I love how parents are challenging teachers to come up with a solution as if the district has EVER factored our voices into any the decisions they’ve made thus far. Our own union rep had to fight to be on a reopening committee in which sat NO teachers or school professionals.
We are human capital to the district.
Even if we had a plan it wouldnt be the one the district would choose because then they’d have to admit we actually have brains and can think for ourselves as a collective teacher unit. So why bother wasting the energy hypothesizing some utopian outcome where everybody’s needs are equitably met? Won’t happen. Somebody’s getting screwed. Lube up in preparation for the May 22nd announcement.

But this isn't "prepare to get f***ed". It's, depending on your age, health, and the age/health of your loved ones, prepare to spend a few weeks in intensive care and maybe die, or watch your loved one go through the same because you brought it home.

If, in DC, the only reason for this is the few kids in really rough family situations who would be safer at school than at home, or the bunch of kids who aren't doing their teleschooling, send the social workers and the teachers to them. Don't pile up hundreds of people in a building.

There are so many more - orders of magnitude more - infected students and staff now than there were on March 13th. Putting even half of each school back together at a time into its building would kickstart a catastrophe.

I'm praying that she doesn't announce sending the students and teachers back into school buildings, but sending more Chromebooks and social workers to students homes.

[Anonymous]

^^ by social workers, you mean CSFA, right? We’ve gotta start calling a spade a spade. If a child is unsafe in your home it is not a school social worker issue. It is a child & family services issue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:^^ by social workers, you mean CSFA, right? We’ve gotta start calling a spade a spade. If a child is unsafe in your home it is not a school social worker issue. It is a child & family services issue.

DP

Not teleschooling (or whatever you want to call it) and being in really rough family situations can be two very different things. I have a handful of elementary school kids who are not doing any work because there isn't anyone at home holding them accountable. These are kids that live in stable, safe homes and all appear to be higher SES families. It's shocking to me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^^ by social workers, you mean CSFA, right? We’ve gotta start calling a spade a spade. If a child is unsafe in your home it is not a school social worker issue. It is a child & family services issue.

DP

Not teleschooling (or whatever you want to call it) and being in really rough family situations can be two very different things. I have a handful of elementary school kids who are not doing any work because there isn't anyone at home holding them accountable. These are kids that live in stable, safe homes and all appear to be higher SES families. It's shocking to me.

These are the families most likely to blame the teacher when the child doesn’t attempt to complete work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^^ by social workers, you mean CSFA, right? We’ve gotta start calling a spade a spade. If a child is unsafe in your home it is not a school social worker issue. It is a child & family services issue.

DP

Not teleschooling (or whatever you want to call it) and being in really rough family situations can be two very different things. I have a handful of elementary school kids who are not doing any work because there isn't anyone at home holding them accountable. These are kids that live in stable, safe homes and all appear to be higher SES families. It's shocking to me.

Same here. I have a lot of kids with parents also at home right now working (just like me) who have stable homes and have done no work at all. I of course have a select few students who lived in unstable homes who are also not doing the work.

I do wonder, if the main concern is bringing students to school due to their home environment, why was this not an issue before the pandemic? People are okay with them being at home (or not if they’re homeless) after school and on weekends? This has ALWAYS been an issue, but suddenly now people are using it as an excuse to open up schools when it isn’t safe, probably because they don’t want to deal with their own kids at home.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Teacher here, and I completely agree. But that’s because as educators we’re ALWAYS expected to put the children before ourselves.
ie: spending our own money when schools don’t provide resources, working after contract hours without additional pay, not missing too many days of work because it will hurt the children etc.

OK. But my health and family's health comes before my job now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^^ by social workers, you mean CSFA, right? We’ve gotta start calling a spade a spade. If a child is unsafe in your home it is not a school social worker issue. It is a child & family services issue.

DP

Not teleschooling (or whatever you want to call it) and being in really rough family situations can be two very different things. I have a handful of elementary school kids who are not doing any work because there isn't anyone at home holding them accountable. These are kids that live in stable, safe homes and all appear to be higher SES families. It's shocking to me.

Same here. I have a lot of kids with parents also at home right now working (just like me) who have stable homes and have done no work at all. I of course have a select few students who lived in unstable homes who are also not doing the work.

I do wonder, if the main concern is bringing students to school due to their home environment, why was this not an issue before the pandemic? People are okay with them being at home (or not if they’re homeless) after school and on weekends? This has ALWAYS been an issue, but suddenly now people are using it as an excuse to open up schools when it isn’t safe, probably because they don’t want to deal with their own kids at home.

Yes, I have parents who are doing nothing to enforce the work. These are wealthy families.

[Anonymous]

New York closed its schools ONE WEEK later than we did, and 21 teachers DIED.

I'm a parent, and exposing our teachers to that kind of risk is simply not an acceptable option.

There are tons of better options -- we just don't have the political will to get there.

We could pay people to stay at home and take care of their children
We could put more resources toward teachers -- what if there was a tech support staffer for every three teachers, and the teachers put the lessons together, but the tech person put them online and organized everything for a streamlined experience? What if we added more support teachers so that teachers had fewer students per teacher?
We could make sure that unemployment payments for families were adequate, (and pay people to take care of their children)
For teachers that are also caregivers, we could make sure their extra burden and contribution to the community is recognized, both financially and time-wise

But we don't do any of this. We assume family responsibility is not work, we them blame people for not having the resources to manage it, frame reproductive work and raising the next generation as "individual" choice -- and worse, we let billionaires siphon all of the money out of the economy so we are fighting over the scraps.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:New York closed its schools ONE WEEK later than we did, and 21 teachers DIED.

I'm a parent, and exposing our teachers to that kind of risk is simply not an acceptable option.

There are tons of better options -- we just don't have the political will to get there.

We could pay people to stay at home and take care of their children
We could put more resources toward teachers -- what if there was a tech support staffer for every three teachers, and the teachers put the lessons together, but the tech person put them online and organized everything for a streamlined experience? What if we added more support teachers so that teachers had fewer students per teacher?
We could make sure that unemployment payments for families were adequate, (and pay people to take care of their children)
For teachers that are also caregivers, we could make sure their extra burden and contribution to the community is recognized, both financially and time-wise

But we don't do any of this. We assume family responsibility is not work, we them blame people for not having the resources to manage it, frame reproductive work and raising the next generation as "individual" choice -- and worse, we let billionaires siphon all of the money out of the economy so we are fighting over the scraps.

i don't agree with ANYONE coming back if it is not safe or if it's not possible to make it safe. Social distancing works in stores when people (mostly adults) are only there for a few moments and have little interaction with each other. School is not like that. However, the suggestions for paying people more and other financial investments ignore the real constraints that cities are going to face. The reality is that we are likely to see cuts everywhere including in education. People are going to stay home because it isn't safe and our teachers are going to lose jobs like in other industries. And our kids are going to fall farther behind academically and socially.

Parents and teachers and anyone supporting education need to make their voices heard. We need our politicians to support robust distance learning, letting teachers and families stay at home and provide the resources to do so - even though it may mean cuts elsewhere.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

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.

What about the special teachers who we have barely heard from? They are being paid still. Some of the regular teachers are barely working either.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

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.

What about the special teachers who we have barely heard from? They are being paid still. Some of the regular teachers are barely working either.

Are you in a DCPS school or a charter? You need to raise this as an issue because it is school specific. The sped teachers are in our virtual classes and also doing the normal pull-outs virtually. The one on one attention now from sped teachers at my charter is better because there are fewer distractions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^^ by social workers, you mean CSFA, right? We’ve gotta start calling a spade a spade. If a child is unsafe in your home it is not a school social worker issue. It is a child & family services issue.

DP

Not teleschooling (or whatever you want to call it) and being in really rough family situations can be two very different things. I have a handful of elementary school kids who are not doing any work because there isn't anyone at home holding them accountable. These are kids that live in stable, safe homes and all appear to be higher SES families. It's shocking to me.

Same here. I have a lot of kids with parents also at home right now working (just like me) who have stable homes and have done no work at all. I of course have a select few students who lived in unstable homes who are also not doing the work.

I do wonder, if the main concern is bringing students to school due to their home environment, why was this not an issue before the pandemic? People are okay with them being at home (or not if they’re homeless) after school and on weekends? This has ALWAYS been an issue, but suddenly now people are using it as an excuse to open up schools when it isn’t safe, probably because they don’t want to deal with their own kids at home.

Yes, I have parents who are doing nothing to enforce the work. These are wealthy families.

What? Are you people mental? People can not adequately do their jobs and be full-time teaching. They can probably/ maybe squeeze in 1-2 hrs/ day outside of work. Some are choosing to not do their jobs or to only do the minimum, and that is an extremely valid choice. But many of us actually need our incomes, have meetings all day, and cannot oversee remote learning during the workday. People cannot do two things well at once. There are no good choices here and I feel for all teachers. But blaming parents for being lazy is not the answer and you need to cut it out right now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

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.

What about the special teachers who we have barely heard from? They are being paid still. Some of the regular teachers are barely working either.

Wow. What do you consider “work”?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

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.

What about the special teachers who we have barely heard from? They are being paid still. Some of the regular teachers are barely working either.

The specials teachers at my school have 700 students so they create a video for each grade and that does take a lot of work. Since you feel entitled to make gross generalizations, I can too. You are a disgusting pig.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:NP. More complaints about being unappreciated, and yet no teacher actually is offering any solutions. You may be putting in tons of time, but it doesn't change the fact that the amount of education delivered is much less than a full day of in-class instruction. Across DCPS the students are mostly in varying degrees of falling behind where they would be expect to be at the end of this year and we have no real data on how much they are suffering in other ways. So teachers just want to continue next year exactly as we are now? That's your proposal?

Eh, I wouldn’t say teachers feel unappreciated- they are tired of being s#it on.

You would like a khaki wearing middle management bureaucrat. Government worker with a ridiculous title. 40 something year old. Probably doesn’t work well with people so you create trackers. Maybe trial trackers. Your job is to remind people to update trial trackers. Yeah, deputy counsel of trial trackers. You can do your job well at home because really, all you do is remind people to fill out their trial tracker. So, you have a useless job that can be done from your basement. Congratulations to you.