Is your school starting online or butts in seats?

How long until you go back or have you already? I am so thankful this group encouraged me to retire early. I had been on the fence. I have had teachers call me who are wrecks.
Even though there is a rule that you wear a mask, the principal and a few other teachers do not. A couple teachers believe it is all a hoax and don't know what 6 ft. distance is. To me, 6 ft distance is at least 10 if not 12 feet nowadays....
Here they started last week, butts in seats. Already over 1/2 of the schools have had to switch to online temporarily. They say "community transmission" that is rising at a certain rate in a set number of days is what they are basing it on individually in each community within the district.
Somethings are kept really hush hush, but I have heard rumors of at least 2 teachers w/ it. I am not close to getting the "whole picture", not being in the schools and do not hear what is happening in most schools either. ( Just 2 of them.)
To make matters worse, they are making teachers work from school even without kids.
To me, this is all about funding and trying to keep people happy who can't deal w/ their own kids. Most parents do not work in the area where I was working.
In other areas they do, and I feel for working parents. They have given teachers no consideration though. Even the general area has an attitude of : Teachers should be back at work.
I think they should have been smarter and just started everyone online for the 1st 9 weeks at least. ( Working from homes...)
I had a friend who used to teach in South Korea and she told me if she told a parent their kid did anything wrong, it was like "heaping coals of shame" on their heads. I feel like heaping coals of shame on our school district.

 

We start remotely Monday.

DH’s district stated remotely September 2.

 

Smart district! I seldom cuss, but feel like mine is full of a bunch of DA's.

 

We are in person. They pushed the student start date back earlier in the summer, so we've been back about 2.5 weeks without students. Things change so quickly. At one point in July I was extremely nervous about going back and felt certain that we'd be doing remote learning. Then numbers started improving again, and things have been very good here. About a week before we went back, I thought, "You know, these numbers don't really justify staying home" even though some districts had already announced remote learning.

I have actually been so happy being back. It's amazing the little things I took for granted. I feel so good actually having a reason to get up and get ready in the morning (rather than doing the minimum to zoom from my living room), and to have somewhere to go. People to see and talk to all day long (I live alone), laughing with my teammates at lunch again (socially distanced and outside), feeling busy and productive again, etc.

My district is taking the precautions very seriously and everyone is wearing their masks and staying physically distanced. Teachers can get tested for free every 2 weeks if they want, which I did sign up for. They gave parents the choice of 100% in person or 100% e-learning. E-learning is considered their own separate school with their own P and teachers. WAY more signed up for e-learning than anticipated.

They begged for teachers to switch and then ended up switching some involuntarily. Now we've reached a point where they can't pull anyone else from buildings and they have e-learning positions posted. That part made me feel better about going back too- everyone who wanted/needed an e-learning position got one. So there are't teachers at my school who are afraid to be in person but have to because of the paycheck. My teammate got pulled for e-learning. She cried and cried and cried.

My district is anticipating having to go back and forth between remote learning and in person all year long, just due to quarantines and health guidelines. I'm not sure how long we'll last in person. Some other districts started with students this past Monday. For everyone's sake, I hope it works, but I'm not sure. There is a general thought that we may be able to stay open until sometime in October and then will be remote all winter. That's going to be so hard for me to go back to. At least we'll have time with kids to teach them how to do everything they need for remote learning this time.

 

Wow! I am glad you are enjoying it, not worried, and people are following guidelines. It seems every guideline or rule here is stated unless_ or if ___. Some people take advantage of every if and others are trying so hard to be careful. It has already caused a great divide between teachers here. Some have been biting each others heads off.
That is amazing you all needed more distance ed teachers. Your district was smart when making a distance ed school instead of expecting teachers to do both. You all must have a lot of trust for your admin to keep it safe. I worked in a place for years where kids, parents, and admin would follow rules. Here people have more of an attitude of let's see how far we can push against rules. When admin lets them get away with it, it doesn't go well.

 

We start remote instruction a week from now. I can't wait. I hope once the students directly come back into the equation, all will calm down a bit. At least, I hope it'll help people focus on what is important.

 

You are fortunate to have a district that cares about teachers. I am happy for you. I hope you have a great year!

 

We have been back f2f since August 10. It's a complete sh*tshow. Teachers are expected to do simulataneous instruction for remote and in-person. Students are sent home and not tracked as being quarantined becasue the school nurse is apparently incapable of adding names to a Google sheet. Social distancing is haphazard at best. I have never felt so defeated as a teacher.

 

I am so sorry! Teachers here are dealing w/ the same problems. Maybe I should say, "Are trying to deal...." It is hard, and I can only imagine. We had a teacher quit halfway through the 1st 2 wks. She just said, " I can't do this!" and left. She was a vet too.
I read an article on how they are not keeping track now federally of teacher/students sick numbers. Around here, they are told it is all hush, hush. ( Saying confidentiality and they can't tell you and you better not say anything you heard....) I think a lot of schools are known for that culture.
The only advice I have for anyone in this situation/doing both is to just survive the yr. Don't even strive for proficiency! lol OK I know, that sounds bad. What I mean is just do the best you can, and try to do fun/ relaxing stuff at home. Leave school the second you can this yr. Good luck!

 

Teachers “return” for PD middle of this week in my district, but it’s all virtual PD over Zoom. Remote learning starts for students Sept 1. Teachers are being strongly encouraged (and somewhat pressured, in my opinion) to teach virtually from our classrooms, but we do have the option to teach from home. I am hoping to mostly teach from home, only going on site to get materials, but I often succumb to pressure, so who knows. We don’t know how long we’ll be remote, but it’s likely to be several weeks. I have a feeling that in person instruction probably won’t last very long once we do go back.

 

For some reason, they are doing the same here IF the school has to switch to remote, they want teachers' butts in seats at school. It makes me wonder if parents complained about teachers not working. Most I know worked harder in some ways.

 

I think it’s the opposite here. Most parents who have been vocal on social media have been supportive of keeping schools closed for teachers’ safety. The school board members mostly stated something similar. But the admin presented to the board that teachers would be given the option to come in. Since it was said to be totally optional, the board agreed. Only after that did the admin change their wording from “optional” to “strongly encouraged” with a “you need to tell us why you can’t come in if you choose to not come in” sort of attitude. It’s as if they don’t trust us, even though they keep saying they do.

 

We start today on a hybrid model. We have about 1/3 of our students who chose virtual, then 1/3 on A days and 1/3 on B days. So far, it seems to be doing what it's supposed to be doing and getting us small enough classes to social distance in the classroom.

 

There may be more than that. It may be how education is expected to be delivered in the fall is not conducive to taking care of your own children (or your laundry) at home while trying to do the job.

In cases I am sure parents complained in cases. There were probably teachers who phoned it in because they were overwhelmed with the technology on top of having to do their own childcare (and extra education tasks) while working. As we know, it is often the small minority that end up having new rules (or laws) that impact the majority.

 

Teachers go in every day.

Students are broken up into two cohorts, the cohorts go in on alternate days for four days a week. Seating is separated, and there are two periods a day so a desk is only used by one student/day. The non-attending cohort for the day participates online, and the fifth day of the week everyone is online and all periods are held.

All students are being issued new apple powerbook laptops. The first two days will also be all online.

Originally the schedule was supposed to be 3 cohorts, but about 38% of the parents opted for their kids to do all-online learning.

 

I hope you teach HS. That schedule would not work well w/ younger kids who need consistency. I wish you the best of luck and am curious how it works out. I hope well.

 

Yep! I figured since I didn't have to drive to work, it was no biggie to throw in extra time. The more I think back, I actually remember having a hard time quitting work while at home. It took me awhile to learn to walk away from the computer... .
All I could figure is someone got seen at the grocery store, goofed around, or didn't get stuff done. I forget sometimes about teachers with small kids at home too. It'd be really hard to teach online if you had a 2 yr old zipping around! Also, if you had 1 too young to work online independently, it'd be tricky w/out a babysitter.

 

So far..so good! I am happy for you! To me, that schedule would be tricky for smaller kids. HS kids might like it though! It is good your class sizes are low enough to social distance too.

 

We're doing distance learning, but teachers are teaching from their rooms. Anyone with a doctor's note can teach from home. Lots of teachers district-wide have gotten a doctor's note.

 

Yeah, principals can be tricky like that! I think P's from all over learned to "strongly encourage" teachers to come in too. I'd think they'd have been happy with the money they saved on heating and cooling the schools last yr. I noticed my electric bill went up a lot during online time. It was OK though b/c I saved the gas $$$.

 

That is great for high risk teachers or ones who are trying to be extra cautious for an older or sick relative.

 

I will be teaching 5 days a week in person after Labor Day. We will be cleaning desks between classes - of course they couldn’t clean tables For teachers in between our in service meetings. I’m amazed at all the things that will change.

 

Oh, yeah! My friends who are now teaching butts in seats have dealt with a lot of change in a short time. I am trying to think back to when schools started to use teachers as custodians too. We used to have custodians who seriously cleaned.
Now teachers can use Clorox wipes ( ones they paid for) if they want things sanitized.
I wish you the best going back after Labor Day. I think a lot of schools start then. We used to, but they changed that too. It will be interesting to see what happens w/ Covid counts once school starts full force butts in seats.

 

We are having to do both. Schoology and moderate ID special ed don't mix.

 

We start school next week--bums in seats. Parents in Ontario were given the option of having their students return to school or to enroll in virtual classes. Virtual classes will be taught by teachers dedicated to the virtual program and students will be able to transfer back to face-to-face at 3 predetermined points during the year.
Classes that were decreased in size due to students not returning to face-to-face are being reorganized to full capacity--could be 30+ students/class. Teachers with lowest seniority are being redeployed to virtual teaching or to another school. As of right now, we have no idea what we will be teaching or how many students we'll have. We have been told that "hopefully" we'll know before the end of the day on Friday. It's a sh**show. The hands of administrators and the school boards are tied by the funding that the government is (or isn't) providing.

 

The hybrid model was going ok until the hurricane wiped out power to most of our state. Trying to be flexible, but admin doesn't always feel the same way about it...

 

We start tomorrow. I will be teaching both in-person and virtual at the same time, but the virtual must be asynchronous. My largest class will contain 29 students, myself, and an aide. Students will be sitting 1'-3' from each other as that is the best I can do.

 

That seems strange to me. I would think those with greater seniority would either get a choice or, generally being older, be the ones placed as virtual teaching staff.

 

All staff have had more than one opportunity to volunteer for virtual teaching. One of the "perks" of seniority is not being one of the first displaced from a school whenever there are surplus teachers.

 

Same here. People were given numerous opportunities to switch over if they wanted. Especially at the elementary level, almost no one wanted to. In deciding who got moved over it was partially based on numbers in each building, but within the buildings it seemed to be based on seniority. While I'm really glad I didn't have to go to the e-learning school, I hear the sped team is having a rough time because they're all new- mostly a mix of first and second years.

 

I do understand. I am hearing daily from teachers trying to Zoom and teach kids in seats at the same time. It is not working. Too bad they did not ask teachers before doing it. Right now, I could be making some $$$ w/ counseling services! Our SD did not use their brains when planning this out.

 

None of our teachers, even high risk older ones, were given a choice. There are no seniority perks here. It sounds like your SD is smarter than a 5th Grader!

 

We began last Thursday (NYS). We are remote until after Columbus Day. Then, slowly resuming full in-person instruction (with the exception of 1 deep cleaning day until MP3) for groups over two months.
After Mid-winter recess, the deep clean day will become a 1/2 day for in-person and 1/2 remote. Once March hits, it is expected that we will have full 5-day in-person instruction.
At any point, we could return to remote or speed up/slow down with the phased resumption of in-person instruction. It depends on the cases. The infection rate must be below 1%, in order to move on to the next phase.
My district is trying their best to make school as normal as possible. If the guidance does not change, the district will probably extend remote learning.

 

Teachers are actually required to come into the school in my district, unless they are medically vulnerable.

 

Awww...I am sorry that this happened to you.

 

I like the plan you are using!!!
When we return, our students must be 4 feet away from each other, but face-coverings are optional for students and teachers. Each individual class can only go to lunch for 10 minutes...to grab their lunches. Must eat in their classroom or outside for the remaining 20 minutes.
Specials are occurring as much as possible. PE is outside.
Shared materials are allowed, but they must be cleaning after each use. Each child is safe, but school is very close to how it was when they left in March of 2020. Safety was the priority, but so was normalcy.
Gatherings are allowed to happen, but only at 25%.
At least when we do resume in-person instruction....

 

Wow! I just saw this. I am so sorry the hurricane wiped out the power. I hope it gets back on soon and you all are OK. You have no choice but to be flexible now. Admin doesn't always know what teachers do! <3

 

Wow! 29 is a lot of kids during this time. 1-3 feet is insane. Keep us informed on how it goes, please! I wish you the best!

 

Same here.

 

Which is odd because they were once...........teachers?