Anonymous wrote:OP, you are insane. With the current mortality being about .3%, it does not make sense to shut down until fall 2021. This is madness,, you people have no sense of proportion and the risk that exists every single day you walk out the door and could be killed in hundreds of ways. The seasonal flu last year killed hundreds more children than this virus has.

It might not make sense to shutdown but I think that that is what is going to happen.

Anonymous wrote:Hey, I have an idea. Why don't we have all the middle and high schoolers stay home (legal age to stay home alone) and divide up all the elementary students throughout the county's elem/middle/high school facilities?

Under the current distance learning plan, the high school and middle schoolers are learning very little. That is not sustainable if we want this group to be educated.

For comparison, 100 grocery store workers have died of COVID-19 so far. You could argue that more poverty and health problems are part of this, but that is a pretty good comparison than could happen to teachers.

Anonymous wrote:As a middle school teacher I want to be back in the classroom.
I don’t hate online teaching but I find it extremely frustrating.
I am not worried about getting sick. But I am worried about someone in my family sick (immunocompromised, asthma, frequent bronchitis). I feel like I might need to separate myself from my family if I go back to work just to protect them.

I’m not doing that. I live with my family. I’m going to do what? Rent a room for $1,000 a month and live like a leper so I can continue serving the community? That’s ridiculous. I have a life and my life includes my home and my family. You can make that choice if you want to but that’s crazy. I didn’t become a soldier or an emergency room doctor, and I don’t get hazard pay/benefits to pretend I did now.

As a middle school teacher I want to be back in the classroom.
I don’t hate online teaching but I find it extremely frustrating.
I am not worried about getting sick. But I am worried about someone in my family sick (immunocompromised, asthma, frequent bronchitis). I feel like I might need to separate myself from my family if I go back to work just to protect them.

Just another perspective on teachers. My 26 year old daughter is a fifth year teacher. She started quietly crying last week when she talked about her kids. She teaches in an autism classroom. She is worried about her kids. She is worried about their parents. She misses them. She misses being at school. She misses her coworker. I was a teacher for many years. I still have a lot of teacher friends. Every teacher I have spoken with wants to be back in the classroom.

Anonymous wrote:Meanwhile a lot of the senior on my HS kid's Instagram are in Ocean City at Beach Week.

Yes. I have seen and heard this too.

I’m a teacher too. Most of my friends are teachers. All of us in elementary school. No one, no one prefers distance learning to classroom teaching. It sucks trying to engage with young children over a screen. As the weeks drag on, fewer are showing up, the ones that do just want to chat with their friends (and who can blame them?). I feel guilt every time I end a zoom because I know there are kids on the other side of that computer crying because they miss their friends. It sucks and this is with a group of kids we had already bonded with face to face for more than half of the year.
No one knows what 2020-21 will look like yet. We can all speculate, demand and spin scenarios as much as we like but parents turning on teachers and vice versa serves no one, least of all the children.

Meanwhile a lot of the senior on my HS kid's Instagram are in Ocean City at Beach Week.

God I wish we could go back in the fall as normal. I miss my students tremendously and I miss my co-workers. The only things I don't miss are 270 and the crazy ass behaviors some of my 4th graders displayed this year. It's nice to not be cussed out, have my classroom trashed, etc. Not surprisingly, these few students have not been showing up for Zoom calls or doing any assignments. One parent told me she can't get her son to do anything but play video games. The other one said it's too early in the morning and she wants me to call each day an hour beforehand to help them get up. WTF!?!

*protections

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sorry folks, I love it this way. Some effort but a full paycheck. Knowing MCPS I'm 100% sure they won't open for a long time.

You're a teacher apparently? I have two friends who teach elementary and they've both said they enjoy working from home. Now that they figured out how to use Zoom, they're settled in and don't want to go back.

I don’t know anyone saying this IRL. Every teacher I know says DL is much harder than being in the classroom. We’re frustrated at how little we’re allowed to do —at least at my school which permits no more than two 45 min live sessions a week (neither can be mandatory) and just two gradable assignments. Everyone I talk to is concerned about how to engage unmotivated students who are in the same room as their pet, video games, a sibling (who they might be babysitting) or just a bed.

I have serious health concerns about reopening normally. But there’s nothing fun, relaxing, or easier about DL. It’s only preferable because I don’t want to die.

I agree. This wasn’t my long game when I became a teacher. I never anticipated working from home.
At the same time, my husband has a history of serious lung problems. He is in law school and I’m our sole breadwinner now. I’m sick of people saying, “okay then quit”. No. I worked for my masters in education. I paid for it. I’m not going to quit. They’re going to have to put predictions in place to decrease density, keep sick children out of school, provide me with cleaning supplies, provide testing and tracing, etc. If not? Then distance learning is our only choice. I don’t want it to be. I’m not asking for a vaccine. But if they won’t create and enforce strict policies regarding health and safety then we can’t go back.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sorry folks, I love it this way. Some effort but a full paycheck. Knowing MCPS I'm 100% sure they won't open for a long time.

You're a teacher apparently? I have two friends who teach elementary and they've both said they enjoy working from home. Now that they figured out how to use Zoom, they're settled in and don't want to go back.

I don’t know anyone saying this IRL. Every teacher I know says DL is much harder than being in the classroom. We’re frustrated at how little we’re allowed to do —at least at my school which permits no more than two 45 min live sessions a week (neither can be mandatory) and just two gradable assignments. Everyone I talk to is concerned about how to engage unmotivated students who are in the same room as their pet, video games, a sibling (who they might be babysitting) or just a bed.

I have serious health concerns about reopening normally. But there’s nothing fun, relaxing, or easier about DL. It’s only preferable because I don’t want to die.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Daycare will be open in the fall probably before. Interestingly Maryland has 2200 daycares open for essential workers since March and only 50 have had to close temporarily due to a case. If daycares are open without outbreaks people will be asking why schools cannot be open with appropriate precautions.

What sort of social distancing measures have the essential worker daycares put in place?

A lot. My daycare sent a link from the state and said they will be following similar guidelines. No parents will be allowed inside, staff do curbside drop off pick up, staff wearing masks and face shields, daily temp checks, limits to outside walks, etc. It doesn’t seem like a pleasant environment.

I can only imagine how the youngest kids will react to a bunch of masked strangers on the first day of school. Some kids in kindergarten who went to daycare and preschool have to be peeled off their parents.

Do you have similar concern for the kids who are currently in childcare, or the kids who will be in childcare (assuming their parents can find any) if the schools don't open?

Anonymous wrote:Sorry folks, I love it this way. Some effort but a full paycheck. Knowing MCPS I'm 100% sure they won't open for a long time.

You're a teacher apparently? I have two friends who teach elementary and they've both said they enjoy working from home. Now that they figured out how to use Zoom, they're settled in and don't want to go back.