What does going back in person look like?

[Anonymous]

We live in a different state in a community that started the school year DL only. As I read some of the "get teachers back at all costs" posts, both the rage at teachers and the "all costs" seem to reflect a lack of understanding of the realities of school decision making and school funding in many public schools across the country. I wish we could remember that this situation is difficult for all of us and that most of us are doing everything we can to make our personal and professional situations work as well as we can. My perspective as the parent of a kid currently in DL and as the spouse of a teacher who is shifting from DL to DL + in person follow.

DH teaches middle school in an affluent community in our county in a district of around 25K students. While the school year started off full DL, teachers were still required to teach from their classrooms. Middle school students will return full time (or can continue to be full distance) during the first couple of weeks of November. Our numbers re the virus are far worse than, for example, Montgomery County.

I'm horrified by the rage I see against teachers. DH and his colleagues have spent so many extra hours changing how they teach, reaching out to individual parents and students, and doing everything they can to provide a great educational experience under the circumstances. They ARE afraid of the potential health risks to having students return en masse (and are encouraged by the recent NY Times articles about in person thus far), but timing of return is completely out of their hands. They will continue to do their best to accommodate DL and as return occurs, the combination of DL and in person. They aren't getting a ton of support from the district and they, like teachers in the DMV area, are the target of a lot of anger (and truly, they have NO say in when students come back).

What does return to in person school look like for teachers, students, and parents? Well, first let's consider the option for 5 days a week instruction OR 5 days a week DL. It sounds like some of you in VA and MD are looking at similar options. While the district is comparatively well-funded, there are no funds for extra teachers or extra support staff. What this means is that teachers will be teaching in person and DL simultaneously. This is an interesting logistical challenge given that no funds have been allocated for additional equipment (we'll get to that in a minute). Fortunately his school does have smart boards, which makes a simultaneous presentation easier. No guidance on best practices has been given to staff other than a suggestion that for a 90 minute class, after 60 minutes the in person students should be told to quietly work at their desks while the teacher fields questions from DL kids. There are no extra staff to help with moving DL students in and out of zoom breakout sessions, so this is also a bit challenging in terms of using time most effectively. I'm also having difficulty imagining a group of 7th graders sitting quietly with no intervention for 30 minutes while the teacher works with DL kids.

If you are in person in DH's district, guidelines are that everyone is masked, but due to lack of extra staff, district deems it acceptable to aim for 3 feet of separation between students. There will be more lunch periods, but students will be inside and together -- winter is cold here. Cleaning: the district provided teachers with Lemon and Pine Quat so that they can clean regularly. As it turned out, these products are dangerous to use without goggles, gloves, etc. No budget for those; district does not yet have a solution. One of the music teachers did create a pretty awesome ode to lemon quat, though.

Let's get back to the simultaneous in person and DL. In addition to staffing challenges, there is no budget for extra equipment. Thus far DH has purchased: 1)industrial strength fan (school is pretty much hermetically sealed. His plan seems to be to set it up to suck air out of classroom. But I think into the hall (this needs more review!). 2) His own plexiglass shield around his desk. 3) His own microphones and speakers for use in the classroom so that students doing DL will be able to hear him and also questions from students that are there in person and vice versa; 4) Many, many cables to accommodate speakers, projectors, and other devices that will need to be re-positioned to make the in person + DL work. 5) And of course, more PPE because the district hasn't committed to providing anything. We are out over $500 so far...this is manageable for him. He's been in the district almost 30 years and our HHI is high enough that this isn't particularly painful and there will be a tax deduction. What about a first year teacher making $32K/year? It's a real problem.

When it comes right down to it, he and his colleagues will make it work and they will do a good job. But as some of you rage against "lazy teachers" please keep in mind that most of them are doing everything they can, often at considerable expense to themselves, to navigate a pretty complex situation with very little support from their districts and in the face of misdirected anger from a vocal minority. None of us has all of the answers, but most are doing our best to make it work.

[Anonymous]

Somehow it seems we haven't figured out that mitigation takes resources. Whether we are trying to mitigate the spread of COVID or the limitations of distance learning, it is isn't possible without resources. Everyone wants to blame the schools and teachers but what exactly are the schools supposed to do without sufficient funds to address the issues they are facing?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Somehow it seems we haven't figured out that mitigation takes resources. Whether we are trying to mitigate the spread of COVID or the limitations of distance learning, it is isn't possible without resources. Everyone wants to blame the schools and teachers but what exactly are the schools supposed to do without sufficient funds to address the issues they are facing?

Many of the complainers were not advocating for tax increases to better fund public schools before the pandemic. I'm sure they will say that money is wasted on bloated administrative salaries, but the truth is, administrators are limited by budget constraints and choice made for years before COVID-19 existed.

[Anonymous]

At the very least you need more ppe than is currently available and greater capacity for rapid testing than what’s available.

[Anonymous]

I don't blame the teachers. I think its great your district has the teachers teaching from the buildings. That is one less hurdle to get over.

I have moved over the kids I could get spots for to private in person 5 days a week. In person is going great. Teachers are teaching concurrently for the families that chose distance learning. Kids are wearing masks. Desks are spaced apart. Those teachers are working their butts off and they are awesome.

Kids are happy.

Its working. Why do people keep complaining that it cannot be done?

What rage against teachers are you experiencing in real life?

[Anonymous]

I am OP. I do believe it will work, but more funding for needed equipment and PPE along with practical planning would be great. DH and his colleagues are beyond after school meetings called to discuss things like ‘how to clean a table’.

In terms of rage, in DH’s district everything from parents throwing rocks through schools’ outside marquees, to posting their critiques of individual teachers’ DL classes on social media—literally making recordings of zoom sessions that their kids are in and posting them, and my favorite, organizing parent car brigades who follow teachers if the they leave the school campus during the day. It’s a bit over the top (and in some cases scary!)

In the county itself (there are many districts in the county) organized protests outside the county commissioner’s home to protest that full contact sports were not allowed to resume in the first 6 weeks of school. Note that our county commissioner/council did not formally prevent schools from reopening, but did prohibit sports involving contact from having full practices and games until mid-October.

[Anonymous]

.... don’t you think people have the right to a peaceful protest??

[Anonymous]

I do. I am just illustrating the general atmosphere. Personally I don’t think it is unreasonable to delay full contact sports when an area’s positive test rate is over 14 %, but peacefully protest away!

[Anonymous]

I think you’re trying to make the simultaneous learning thing too complicated than it needs to be. My DC’s school uses an iPad on a tripod that is focused on the teacher. During Q&A, one of the students is tasked with keeping an eye on a feed where kids who are DL can ask questions & alerting the teacher when a question is asked.

Everyone provides their own masks, usually cloth (don’t teachers already have these?) The kids wipe down their desks before every class before they sit down. Assigned seats, so contact tracing can be done. Kids eat lunch with the same group every day. Some other procedures, but nothing that isn’t manageable. They’ve been back two months, and it’s been fine so far.

It’s more than a bit disingenuous to deflect anger by emphasizing that the teachers don’t control when schools return when the teacher’s unions are using every bit of political power that they have to delay reopening.

It’s also interesting to hear teachers continue to raise endless lists of logistical “barriers,” as if schools across the country haven’t been doing this for months, successfully.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think you’re trying to make the simultaneous learning thing too complicated than it needs to be. My DC’s school uses an iPad on a tripod that is focused on the teacher. During Q&A, one of the students is tasked with keeping an eye on a feed where kids who are DL can ask questions & alerting the teacher when a question is asked.

Everyone provides their own masks, usually cloth (don’t teachers already have these?) The kids wipe down their desks before every class before they sit down. Assigned seats, so contact tracing can be done. Kids eat lunch with the same group every day. Some other procedures, but nothing that isn’t manageable. They’ve been back two months, and it’s been fine so far.

It’s more than a bit disingenuous to deflect anger by emphasizing that the teachers don’t control when schools return when the teacher’s unions are using every bit of political power that they have to delay reopening.

It’s also interesting to hear teachers continue to raise endless lists of logistical “barriers,” as if schools across the country haven’t been doing this for months, successfully.

That sounds horrible to the kids at home. And, that's only realistic with small classes.

[Anonymous]

Like going to Walmart. Only everyone wears masks and washes their hands after picking their noses.

[Anonymous]

We live in a district in the different state, and my kids have gone back to their public elementary school in hybrid format. They have halved the class size by doing am/pm - school is 2.5 hrs a day with a 15 minute recess, with Wed all online for deep clean, and focus is on math and English Language during school time. Students have option to do online, which is the same class streamed. This cuts down the in person class size even more - my 2nd grader’s am class has 7 in person and 7 at home. I believe teacher has an iPad on a stand facing them for streaming, and another laptop showing the the tile of online kids, which they sometimes “share” on the smart board so in person kids can see online kids.

They are using “Florida Virtual” curriculum for everyone. Masks mandatory, social distancing during recess (kids have “stations” of activities like jump rope, balls, etc that they rotate weekly),

It’s been a month and it’s going well - fingers crossed; 100% thanks to our amazing teachers who somehow manages all this unprecedented and new processes and materials. Parents are so greatful!

[Anonymous]

My sixth grader is DL while his teacher is teaching in person simultaneously. He connects via zoom four times a day for about 30-40 minutes for whole group instruction. He asks questions at the same time the other kids who are there in person ask questions. Between classes he works independently.

I suppose that it’s a given that if you choose extended campus, there is significantly more parental involvement than there would be for in person learning. I like this about it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think you’re trying to make the simultaneous learning thing too complicated than it needs to be. My DC’s school uses an iPad on a tripod that is focused on the teacher. During Q&A, one of the students is tasked with keeping an eye on a feed where kids who are DL can ask questions & alerting the teacher when a question is asked.

Everyone provides their own masks, usually cloth (don’t teachers already have these?) The kids wipe down their desks before every class before they sit down. Assigned seats, so contact tracing can be done. Kids eat lunch with the same group every day. Some other procedures, but nothing that isn’t manageable. They’ve been back two months, and it’s been fine so far.

It’s more than a bit disingenuous to deflect anger by emphasizing that the teachers don’t control when schools return when the teacher’s unions are using every bit of political power that they have to delay reopening.

It’s also interesting to hear teachers continue to raise endless lists of logistical “barriers,” as if schools across the country haven’t been doing this for months, successfully.

That sounds horrible to the kids at home. And, that's only realistic with small classes.

Why? How is it different from classes that are all DL?

[Anonymous]

Joyful! I am a full-time substitute teacher in the midwest. It's a COVID position. Kids are back in class learning with mask on, and are happy to be there. The school system is good at quarantining those who are near an infected person. The sources of infection are NOT from school, however. Parties, church, and other places are the super spreader events.