I Work in a Cares Room AMA

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why would a parent refuse to let their child be tested and why is that allowed?

Paranoia. DCPS doesn’t get enforce anything even if it is a policy. Students don’t even have to be vaccinated to attend school.

+1

And things like this will lead teachers to take various forms of leave to avoid the classroom. DCPS will not enforce ANY policies when it comes to students. This is regarding discipline, being sick at school, COVID testing, throwing chairs at teachers, spitting on teachers, etc. The mistrust has been there for years. Teachers don’t trust they will ever actually be supported by DCPS. Allowing a family to refuse COVID testing in a damn pandemic is just icing on the cake.

[Anonymous]

Come on, not in every DCPS school, not in 2020. There are at least two dozen DCPS elementary schools where this just isn't true, plus Deal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Excellent, probably because CARES classrooms are taught by a regular classroom teachers at our school. The arrangement is only around 50% DL. We're at Brent where there's at least one CARES classrooms taught by a teacher for almost every grade, with more planned to open in Feb.

Huh? This is an AMA.

This Brent poster Keeps posting to showboat. It’s getting old.

No, what’s getting old is that most DCPS schools haven’t done their best to get teachers back in classrooms like Brent has. I want to know why not.

DP here, but the answer is the Principals. It's easier for them to suck up to teachers rather than have issues with WTU. At our school, the Principal made it very clear that she supported WTU efforts to keep schools closed and she thought that DCPS was wrong to try to reopen. She went so far as saying she was in the middle of teacher evaluations and she had trouble coming up with any areas for improvement for them due to their amazing performance. Our school has some of the most entrenched WTU teachers with conduct and performance issues that go unaddressed, and has horrible test scores to prove it. Our Principal spoke as if all parents agreed with WTU and thanked us for being so supportive of the teachers. She never even solicited our input. Then the parent survey came out and showed that most parents wanted in person learning for their children. She no longer acts like parents don't want schools to reopen. However, she already set the tone with teachers that they're entitled to stay home, so of course they're not volunteering. Some grades don't even have an IPL class for 2/1/21, only CARE classrooms. She did a crappy job of setting expectations for how a school should support educating children. She runs our school like a jobs program for teachers, not an educational institution for children. Our PTA President actually sent pro-WTU propaganda urging parents to join forces with WTU to keep schools closed, so no one is holding the Principal accountable.

That said, this is ultimately the Mayor's fault for not reopening schools despite WTU pressure to keep schools closed.

What school is this PP?

I'd also like to know what school this is! I've been through 3 principals at my school and have yet to have one who sucks up to the teachers. The ones I've had never seemed to care much at all about what teachers think.

I’m curious too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All I read was:
- when kids eat, 11 masks are off indoors and it is conducive to transmission, aka "rough."
- At least 1 kid out of the 11 is never tested. Could be more, and teachers are not informed.
- "when one kid gets it, they will all get it."
- 6ft distance cannot be maintained when helping with technical issues.

Hell to the no thank you.

Right...but I bet you have a “bubble” that is larger than you could ever imagine because your “bubble” people are not 100% transparent about the “bubble” they have with another family that also has a “bubble”.

This. You need to assess actual risk, not react based on fear. Some of the parents supporting teachers to keep schools closed have their kids in pods in someone's 100 year old basement, no masks. I know one parent who has her kids in two different indoor pods with six families. They decided what the hell, since the kids are all inside all day together the parents can all hang out and party together with food and drinks. So that's six families worth of parents and children all hanging out together indoors without masks. The parent who told me this also goes on vacations and has elderly grandparents visiting/visit them. This doesn't even account for grocery shopping and other errands for this one family. What are all the other families doing too?

I guarantee that unless you live alone, see no one else, get all groceries and supplies delivered, and never go inside anywhere but your home that you don't allow anyone into, then your bubble is already far bigger than you think.

This. There's a lot of self-righteous posturing and hypocrisy fueling those who are loudly shaming anyone who wants schools open. There is already a lot of risk happening outside the schools. Keeping them shut is not compared to a perfect isolation scenario, but many many scenarios of risk taking for many purposes.

Those who are screaming about keeping schools shut need to look at their own lives and all the ways the virus could enter in, thanks to their daily choices.

CARES staff people, we thank you, but we wish more people would take your calculated risks instead of their own secret ones.

We are one of those very few families that have kept ourselves away from everyone because we are extremely high risk. I’d actually love it if the majority went back to school and DL was kept up for the minority of us that won’t send our kids in. It would work so much better. Right now I see proposals for 11 kids per classroom, meaning the DL classrooms will be like 35 kids per class. Horrible. I’d much rather have it reversed with only 11 kids in DL and the rest of the kids in the real classroom!

+1000
This is the most sensible suggestion I’ve read in this thread.

[Anonymous]

Lunch time sounds like a public health issue, why do the kids not eat outside, if not raining ect?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Excellent, probably because CARES classrooms are taught by a regular classroom teachers at our school. The arrangement is only around 50% DL. We're at Brent where there's at least one CARES classrooms taught by a teacher for almost every grade, with more planned to open in Feb.

Huh? This is an AMA.

This Brent poster Keeps posting to showboat. It’s getting old.

We have friends that are pulling out of Brent PK4 in mid-Feb to start at a private just for the rest of the year in order to get in person instruction, so clearly not everything is rainbows & light at Brent either.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have a strict policy on maintaining distance during outdoor recess (I'm in a CARE room too) and it's easily the hardest part about the day. How is your assigned school handling recess/social distancing?

Recess is tough! Only 1 class outside at a time. I am watching and the students are good at saying '6 feet!'. but things happen. I focus on what I can control- masks up/tight, hand sanitizer ect.

I have thought about sectioning the playground in quads, and placing 2-3 kids per section. But at the end of the day I am just not sure if it would be worth it. I would love to hear about what your school does!

I find the focus on keeping kids 6 feet apart while masked outdoors bizarre because, if this is anything like our DCPS, the same kids are all playing together on the playground afterschool (masked, but definitely not 6 feet apart). There is virtually no evidence of outdoor masked transmission; when you add in that these are kids, who appear to transmit somewhat less (degree unclear) in general, it actually seems like an unnecessary precaution. Parents who are willing to send their kids back to school are willing to have them free play masked outdoors.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Excellent, probably because CARES classrooms are taught by a regular classroom teachers at our school. The arrangement is only around 50% DL. We're at Brent where there's at least one CARES classrooms taught by a teacher for almost every grade, with more planned to open in Feb.

Huh? This is an AMA.

This Brent poster Keeps posting to showboat. It’s getting old.

We have friends that are pulling out of Brent PK4 in mid-Feb to start at a private just for the rest of the year in order to get in person instruction, so clearly not everything is rainbows & light at Brent either.

. Why, because they didn’t get an in-person spot? Most families haven’t been offered spots.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Excellent, probably because CARES classrooms are taught by a regular classroom teachers at our school. The arrangement is only around 50% DL. We're at Brent where there's at least one CARES classrooms taught by a teacher for almost every grade, with more planned to open in Feb.

Huh? This is an AMA.

This Brent poster Keeps posting to showboat. It’s getting old.

No, what’s getting old is that most DCPS schools haven’t done their best to get teachers back in classrooms like Brent has. I want to know why not.

DP here, but the answer is the Principals. It's easier for them to suck up to teachers rather than have issues with WTU. At our school, the Principal made it very clear that she supported WTU efforts to keep schools closed and she thought that DCPS was wrong to try to reopen. She went so far as saying she was in the middle of teacher evaluations and she had trouble coming up with any areas for improvement for them due to their amazing performance. Our school has some of the most entrenched WTU teachers with conduct and performance issues that go unaddressed, and has horrible test scores to prove it. Our Principal spoke as if all parents agreed with WTU and thanked us for being so supportive of the teachers. She never even solicited our input. Then the parent survey came out and showed that most parents wanted in person learning for their children. She no longer acts like parents don't want schools to reopen. However, she already set the tone with teachers that they're entitled to stay home, so of course they're not volunteering. Some grades don't even have an IPL class for 2/1/21, only CARE classrooms. She did a crappy job of setting expectations for how a school should support educating children. She runs our school like a jobs program for teachers, not an educational institution for children. Our PTA President actually sent pro-WTU propaganda urging parents to join forces with WTU to keep schools closed, so no one is holding the Principal accountable.

That said, this is ultimately the Mayor's fault for not reopening schools despite WTU pressure to keep schools closed.

What school is this PP?

I'd also like to know what school this is! I've been through 3 principals at my school and have yet to have one who sucks up to the teachers. The ones I've had never seemed to care much at all about what teachers think.

I’m curious too.

Also curious, I've only been at 2 schools but I have many teacher friends. Principals do not generally care about the WTU or teacher's opinions. They may drop a survey or look at the insight survey we receive but they just 'look' at it, no action.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have a strict policy on maintaining distance during outdoor recess (I'm in a CARE room too) and it's easily the hardest part about the day. How is your assigned school handling recess/social distancing?

Recess is tough! Only 1 class outside at a time. I am watching and the students are good at saying '6 feet!'. but things happen. I focus on what I can control- masks up/tight, hand sanitizer ect.

I have thought about sectioning the playground in quads, and placing 2-3 kids per section. But at the end of the day I am just not sure if it would be worth it. I would love to hear about what your school does!

I find the focus on keeping kids 6 feet apart while masked outdoors bizarre because, if this is anything like our DCPS, the same kids are all playing together on the playground afterschool (masked, but definitely not 6 feet apart). There is virtually no evidence of outdoor masked transmission; when you add in that these are kids, who appear to transmit somewhat less (degree unclear) in general, it actually seems like an unnecessary precaution. Parents who are willing to send their kids back to school are willing to have them free play masked outdoors.

Very true. Have you been to a playground lately? Some parents don’t even bother with masks for their kids, we’ve taught ours to run far from those kids, but most wear masks and all play together normally.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have a strict policy on maintaining distance during outdoor recess (I'm in a CARE room too) and it's easily the hardest part about the day. How is your assigned school handling recess/social distancing?

Recess is tough! Only 1 class outside at a time. I am watching and the students are good at saying '6 feet!'. but things happen. I focus on what I can control- masks up/tight, hand sanitizer ect.

I have thought about sectioning the playground in quads, and placing 2-3 kids per section. But at the end of the day I am just not sure if it would be worth it. I would love to hear about what your school does!

I find the focus on keeping kids 6 feet apart while masked outdoors bizarre because, if this is anything like our DCPS, the same kids are all playing together on the playground afterschool (masked, but definitely not 6 feet apart). There is virtually no evidence of outdoor masked transmission; when you add in that these are kids, who appear to transmit somewhat less (degree unclear) in general, it actually seems like an unnecessary precaution. Parents who are willing to send their kids back to school are willing to have them free play masked outdoors.

Very true. Have you been to a playground lately? Some parents don’t even bother with masks for their kids, we’ve taught ours to run far from those kids, but most wear masks and all play together normally.

We’ve been going to the playground daily for months now. I consider it a pretty safe activity. And most older kids wear masks. Younger kids, including mine, don’t. I do feel bad for teaching kids to run away from other kids without masks. I get it but it seems to create anxiety in kids who get really scared if another child comes near them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have a strict policy on maintaining distance during outdoor recess (I'm in a CARE room too) and it's easily the hardest part about the day. How is your assigned school handling recess/social distancing?

Recess is tough! Only 1 class outside at a time. I am watching and the students are good at saying '6 feet!'. but things happen. I focus on what I can control- masks up/tight, hand sanitizer ect.

I have thought about sectioning the playground in quads, and placing 2-3 kids per section. But at the end of the day I am just not sure if it would be worth it. I would love to hear about what your school does!

I find the focus on keeping kids 6 feet apart while masked outdoors bizarre because, if this is anything like our DCPS, the same kids are all playing together on the playground afterschool (masked, but definitely not 6 feet apart). There is virtually no evidence of outdoor masked transmission; when you add in that these are kids, who appear to transmit somewhat less (degree unclear) in general, it actually seems like an unnecessary precaution. Parents who are willing to send their kids back to school are willing to have them free play masked outdoors.

Very true. Have you been to a playground lately? Some parents don’t even bother with masks for their kids, we’ve taught ours to run far from those kids, but most wear masks and all play together normally.

We’ve been going to the playground daily for months now. I consider it a pretty safe activity. And most older kids wear masks. Younger kids, including mine, don’t. I do feel bad for teaching kids to run away from other kids without masks. I get it but it seems to create anxiety in kids who get really scared if another child comes near them.

I didn’t want to teach my kid to run away but he did it on his own. He asked to leave when a little unmasked kid wouldn’t leave him alone.

It’s just a sad sad situation we are in

[Anonymous]

And the problem is not the masked kid who doesn’t want to be near the unmasked kid. That is not being scared, that is being smart. The problem is the unmasked kid whose parents can’t be bothered to teach their kids how to be safe or considerate.

[Anonymous]

So true.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have a strict policy on maintaining distance during outdoor recess (I'm in a CARE room too) and it's easily the hardest part about the day. How is your assigned school handling recess/social distancing?

Recess is tough! Only 1 class outside at a time. I am watching and the students are good at saying '6 feet!'. but things happen. I focus on what I can control- masks up/tight, hand sanitizer ect.

I have thought about sectioning the playground in quads, and placing 2-3 kids per section. But at the end of the day I am just not sure if it would be worth it. I would love to hear about what your school does!

I find the focus on keeping kids 6 feet apart while masked outdoors bizarre because, if this is anything like our DCPS, the same kids are all playing together on the playground afterschool (masked, but definitely not 6 feet apart). There is virtually no evidence of outdoor masked transmission; when you add in that these are kids, who appear to transmit somewhat less (degree unclear) in general, it actually seems like an unnecessary precaution. Parents who are willing to send their kids back to school are willing to have them free play masked outdoors.

more distance is more better. I agree children are far less likely to spread outdoors and masked, but once you remove that 6 foot verbage they will be in maskless puddles wrestling on the ground in no time. You have to draw the line somewhere. Not a normal year....