COVID-19 closing

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Whelp, the governor of OH has closed all k-12 schools for the next 3 weeks, starting Monday. I have no idea how this is going to play out. We're on spring break this week, but the kids had to leave their 1-to-1 laptops at school because we were supposed to be doing MAP testing next week, so computers were to be left charging in classrooms. From what I understand, the district had no plan for this. It's a mess. Since I teach music, I'm going to have to completely re-design some sort of curriculum they can do at home with no access to instruments, youtube, and half the interactive websites won't work consistently. I guess it's a learning adventure for everyone. At least I already use google classroom frequently, so they're used to it.
Ideas?
 
You can only do what you can do... music class is a rough one to do online.

Have them research classical musicians, listen to famous songs and write the emotions and patterns they notice, or have them define vocabulary words and give examples or sentences for those terms.
 
Best I can tell, Ohio has 4 confirmed cases. But it very likely has or will go up daily as test availability increases.

Not to be callous, but this would be a great teaching moment for a high school stat class. Among many questions, some of which I don't know the answer to:

How good are raw counts as measures of the problem?

Counts are being reported by region, but regions vary in population by no small degree. Why aren't cases being reported as percentage of population being given as well?

What is the shape of the growth curve? Does that change with the initial number of cases?

Does the growth in incident count vary from region to region?

Given the lack of test kits available in some areas, can we infer a better count in regions with less testing ability from those with more testing ability?I

I've got to say that I am disappointed in the news reporting. Some of these questions could be answered there. I tried to find data sets listing counts by region over time. I see a few good graphs, but no nice spreadsheets that could be easily used to produce my own. I started to build one from WHO situation reports. But gave up pretty quick.
 
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otterpop said:
Has OH been hit hard by the virus or is this mainly precautionary?
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It's precautionary. We only have 5 confirmed cases, though I do expect we have more than that. They haven't been testing many people. I wasn't expecting to close so soon.

I've found resources to get me through the last two weeks with this batch of kids, but I'm not looking forward to starting my last quarter group via internet. I have no idea how I'm going to handle some of my IEP students either. Not sure how I can accommodate the ones who need paper copies of assignments.

The state standards are so awkwardly specific, it's even harder to find non-participation lessons that meet standards. Thanks to PBS for a few things. I feel bad that I pretty much have to cut out the broadway unit though. A webquest hardly touches on the topic, but it may be the best I can do.
 
I’m in Kentucky. My school is closing for two weeks plus spring break starting Monday. All of our kids grades 8 to 12 are 1:1 Chromebooks and only a few of ours don’t have internet at home. Grades 7 and below are another matter.

DH’s school is closing for three weeks plus spring break starting Monday.

Both of us had upcoming out-of-state field trips. Ours was cancelled. His hasn’t yet, but likely will be.

He isn’t sure if teachers report or not. We are supposed to report, but I haven’t heard the hours yet. I figure it will be abbreviated hours. I could be wrong. We find out tomorrow.
 
My district closed starting tomorrow. We will use AMI days for the rest of this week and all of next week. The week after is Spring Break, so we return on March 30. We gave paper packets to the students, but it’s busy work that will take 30 minutes a day, tops. As teachers, we have to monitor our email and grade work when it comes back. I’m in central Arkansas, with 6 confirmed cases in the state. The first case was confirmed yesterday and by 12:30 today the state department had determined we needed to close.
 
My district closed starting tomorrow. We will use AMI days for the rest of this week and all of next week. The week after is Spring Break, so we return on March 30. We gave paper packets to the students, but it’s busy work that will take 30 minutes a day, tops. As teachers, we have to monitor our email and grade work when it comes back. I’m in central Arkansas, with 6 confirmed cases in the state. The first case was confirmed yesterday and by 12:30 today the state department had determined we needed to close.
 
agdamity said:
My district closed starting tomorrow. We will use AMI days for the rest of this week and all of next week. The week after is Spring Break, so we return on March 30. We gave paper packets to the students, but it’s busy work that will take 30 minutes a day, tops. As teachers, we have to monitor our email and grade work when it comes back. I’m in central Arkansas, with 6 confirmed cases in the state. The first case was confirmed yesterday and by 12:30 today the state department had determined we needed to close.
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Wow. Wonder what the number will be for us to shut down.
 
I was wondering why no1 had posted on this before now. I somehow missed the post. Our school asked us Friday if it became an issue if we'd teach online.
 
whizkid said:
I would imagine if you live in a moderate to high population it might.
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I don't actually, but some schools in the district might be considered moderate. People are freaking out and buying up certain stuff here like crazy.
 
Woohoo! We just found out that we are closing schools too. They told parents before teachers!
 
We’re on spring break starting next week, then we’re closed an additional week there after. Which would be great except there’s supposed to be a pre-test for state testing so that’s proving to be a nightmare to reschedule. I think it should be a simple thing... just conduct the same schedule/order for the week after. But the auditor from the state doesn’t like that week, so there’s that.
 
Here in Ontario, we have our spring break next week and it was announced yesterday afternoon that all schools will be closed for 2 weeks after that, until April 6th. There has been no direction beyond that announcement, so we'll all be closely monitoring our email today.
 
My students are bussed in from other districts and one district closed today so I'll have one less student. For how long, who knows! I have been seeing 2-3 week closures.
I also have seen teachers post that their schools were closing and THEY had to go into the schools to clean.
 
Nothing yet, but we are hearing words about thinking about putting stuff on Canvas.

I'm more concerned about the possibility of summer school.
 
Backroads said:
Nothing yet, but we are hearing words about thinking about putting stuff on Canvas.

I'm more concerned about the possibility of summer school.
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I saw something that said some states might implement a 20 day waiver so if your state has schools in session 180 days a year they might allow for 160 days, etc.
 
I don't know which states will do this or if they will go ahead with this idea. I guess people are trying to come up with some solutions ahead of time.
 
So far I've heard it's us in OH, plus KY and MD who have all shut down. I have to go in Monday and we'll find out WTH is going on moving forward. We've been offered two e-learning products free through the end of June. I guess we'll learn about those Monday. I think at this point I'm better off sticking to GC, which the kids already use, than trying to learn a new system fast enough to teach them. If I'm really lucky, they'll cough up a little money and get me the program I wanted in the first place. I doubt it, but here's hoping. I don't think we have to worry about extending the year yet because my school has longer days than the public schools.

I have no idea what's going on with MAP and OST testing. MAP was supposed to happen next week.

My poor band kids are just going to have to miss 3 weeks of lessons. I can give them some tools and music, but there's no substitute for hands-on direct instruction.

In other news, Comcast is offering 60-days free internet for low-income families in areas where schools close.
 
whizkid said:
Looks like I need deal on water, tissue, laundry detergent
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Too bad we are so far away! I could make a deal on all of those. Have you ever heard of a Big Berkey water system? It is gravity fed. They are only about 300 bucks! The military used them to filter filthy water.
I keep stocked w/ the other 2.
I was upset about the lack of bread and prices! Now I have to dust off an old bread machine. :)
 
TeacherNY said:
My students are bussed in from other districts and one district closed today so I'll have one less student. For how long, who knows! I have been seeing 2-3 week closures.
I also have seen teachers post that their schools were closing and THEY had to go into the schools to clean.[/QUOTE]

Wait a minute, what?
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otterpop said:
For everyone closing - will you have to make up the days? That’s my worry. I don’t mind teaching online but they better not take away our summer break.
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No, if you teach online, they can't make you teach in the summer. They'd have to pay per diem. Our district would cry, "Too poor!"
 
As Future math would say, " Nope, Nope, Nope!"
Not my job, talk to the union!
 
otterpop said:
For everyone closing - will you have to make up the days? That’s my worry. I don’t mind teaching online but they better not take away our summer break.
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For us right now they’re saying as long as we can fulfill the state’s time table for state testing then no, we won’t have to make it up. But once the time table is comprised, they’ll add days at the end of the year in order for us to be in compliance with that time table.
 
Tired Teacher said:
No, if you teach online, they can't make you teach in the summer. They'd have to pay per diem. Our district would cry, "Too poor!"
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Our district would say suck it up and deal with it. I’m afraid they’ll have us work to establish online classrooms, then find out the state is requiring us to make up the days, and then have us work in the summer too. Maybe they’d pay extra. I don’t know. But I find it concerning that I haven’t seen an explicitly stated plan in any state announcements.
 
Aces said:
For us right now they’re saying as long as we can fulfill the state’s time table for state testing then no, we won’t have to make it up. But once the time table is comprised, they’ll add days at the end of the year in order for us to be in compliance with that time table.
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They should cancel all testing this year. It’s not a good environment for it, students don’t need the extra stress, and instruction has been interrupted.
 
otterpop said:
I’m afraid they’ll have us work to establish online classrooms, then find out the state is requiring us to make up the days, and then have us work in the summer too. Maybe they’d pay extra. I don’t know. But I find it concerning that I haven’t seen an explicitly stated plan in any state announcements.
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That's what I've had in the back of my mind. It's not the best attitude, I know, but I'm NOT working past my contract. I have no plans to re-sign for another year, so unless the state forces it, I'm not working past my contracted date. I have summer plans involving other employment that requires me to be available. It's also not crucial that the kids have band after their spring concert is over mid-May (assuming we can gather for one at all), so no guilt there.

I'm hoping it won't come to that though, that either our extended day will save us, or that the typical rules will just kinda go out the window this year. Extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures, yes?
 
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