What routines and procedures do you plan to put in place now with social distancing? How will students turn in work, notebook, or paper? All turned in online? How will you handle absences, especially with a variety of kids to track face to face or online? How will you handle group work? Borrowing materials such as pencils, markers, etc. Those are a few off the top of my head. I know for some districts they are eliminating the paper trail, I do not think my district is doing that. I have noticed at doctor's offices they have a clean/dirty bin for pens, maybe that is an idea for us to use for pencils. What other routines/procedures have you modified? Thank you in advance!
How will students turn in work, notebook, or paper? All turned in online? We are 1:1 Chromebooks, so most everything is online except the weekly writing and grammar. That’s one sheet a week. I may work on figuring out a way to check them, then let the kids keep them or just toss them. How will you handle absences, especially with a variety of kids to track face to face or online? I assume the district will have guidelines for that. I’ll do what they tell me to do, How will you handle group work? That’s going to be a bear. I have no idea what to do with that. Some can be made independent or virtual, but some may just have to be stopped. Borrowing materials such as pencils, markers, etc. I’m going to have a “used materials” bin for kids to out stuff in after they use it. I’ll clean it and put it back.
If I was still in the classroom, I'd have a Classroom Custodian as a daily student job. They'd wear disposable gloves and help sanitize things with Clorox Wipes (or something along those lines).
I'm trying not to think about this much until I know for sure what going back will look like, but if we are on a blended schedule, this is what I think it will look like,
In my district, we are still waiting to hear what next year will look like. The one thing that we have been told is that all students will have their own school-provided supplies. So there will be no borrowing or sharing of materials. Beyond that, I don't know, but I'm sure our admin will tell us what is acceptable and what's not.
I found this article very enlightening on the situation we all know exists -- how can schools be expected to provide for the safety of students in a pandemic while slashing budgets? https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-new...tXZpGdYt55JZzobysHaPU8HB9-9tJC-tQxnMPjYYgW6XI As to the "class custodian" suggestion, while I totally "get it" and realize that is a can-do attitude in the midst of a national disaster, I simply do not believe the chore of properly sanitizing shared supplies is an appropriate thing for a 8 year old (or whatever age in elementary school) to be doing. What's next? Class toilet scrubber? (In my part of FL, our restrooms are actually inside the classrooms, and they don't have a sink! You have to leave the restroom and walk all the way across the room to use the class sink.) Returning to the initial suggestion, what if the child doesn't do it properly, forgets his/her gloves, or just glosses over it? If a teacher has the time and ability to properly supervise the child doing it, well..we all know, the teacher doesn't have the time to do it, or she/he would do it herself/himself. Our government has got to pass an education relief bill, or our schools cannot open safely. Yes, some of the richer schools may be able to swing it, but the average public school, or the super low income school that is losing millions in tax revenues already? Dream on. In many schools, especially low income schools, our custodial services are already outsourced to the lowest bidder, and now we need to make budget cuts? Our schools already barely get cleaned. Our bathroom soap supply already runs out by Tuesday and it may take until Friday for the work order to refill it to be done. We already have to bag-up our own garbage cans and leave the bags outside the classroom, or our trash doesn't get picked-up at all. Your school may be well-maintained, but in struggling districts, this isn't always so. Our budgets have been slashed for so long that what most assume are basic services, aren't. As an individual teacher, we can come up with all the routines and procedures in the world, but if we are still forced to cram 36 students in a classroom that was made to hold 18, and share textbooks on a communal bookshelf because our student desks are so outdated and have no storage capacity inside of them, and we have to beg parents to send in basic things like handsoap, sanitizer, and paper towels, what good are those routines? Most of school don't have extra classrooms, so even if we could magically hire double the teaching staff, to reduce our class size for social distancing, where would the additional teachers go? I worked in a school once that was so overcrowded, we built wooden patrician walls in the gym and the auditorium (flat floor auditorium) but that took months to accomplish. It couldn't be ready by next month for the start of school. And even then, those work spaces were a nightmare, because of the noise level caused by the heavy density and high ceilings. It also put a stop to PE and Music classes that had previously been held in those spaces. And even if schools that hire-out the custodial services suddenly had a huge amount of money to hire people, people hired by the school to be there during school hours have to be vetted, fingerprinted, etc, and the hiring process requires a certain number of HR employees. You have to advertise the job, vet the prospective employees, complete the paperwork, hire them, and then somehow magically train them? on procedures that don't yet exist formally? With supervisors who aren't supervisors now, and who will also need to be trained? It can be done, but it takes time, and money. Lots of money. And where is the money magically going to come from to provide face shields for teachers and front-line staff, plexiglass sheets for reception areas, sanitizing products for communal phones, masks for the children who need them, wand thermometers for the entrance, and all the hand sanitizer and hand soap that is going to be needed? The money has to come from somewhere, and districts that are being forced to lay off teachers right now, are not exactly plush with money.
I think, bill or no bill, schools cannot open safely. They may open, but none will be able to open safely. No matter how we open, there is a going to be a risk to all those within the school building. You can't bring that many people into a building (even if you bring in only half at a time) and expect to call it safe when the number of positive cases is surging like it is right now. I don't know how it works in places with warm weather, where your "hallways" are outdoors, but I can't imagine how we can safely parade groups of students through narrow indoor hallways during arrival and dismissal. And obviously that's not the only issue with risk. Also, if anyone knows the answer to this, I'd appreciate you sharing. I keep hearing that many places (at least in my local area) are requiring masks only for those age 9 and up. Anyone 8 and under is allowed to move about freely without a mask. I work in a PK-2 building, so every student is age 8 and under. This means that our entire student population could potentially be in the building without a mask (to be clear, my district has not announced specific expectations yet, but they have stated that we will follow guidelines from our local health dept.). My question is this: What is the basis for this seemingly arbitrary age limit? Is there scientific evidence that supports the cutoff at age 8/9? I have done a Google search, but I can't find anything to explain it.
bella84, I agree with you 100%. The general population seems to think that because they "need" their children cared-for so they can return to work magically makes it safe to do so. And it just isn't! I understand their desperation, truly I do. But reality is reality -- and returning to in-person education right now is not tenable.
I am assuming we won't have Plexiglas. If we do have Plexiglas, some of these restrictions could be removed. This virus is so contagious, strong measures are needed to help keep all safe. If I error, I'd rather it be on the side of safety. Do I feel bad for the students? You bet. That is why I plan on doing more fun activities than normal next year (in a safe way) to try to make up for this as much as possible.
