Running thread of the disaster that is the new school year

[troph 24905]

It’s really great things are working so far. I’d love to be “wrong” in our decision to homeschool. I really would. Our kids are taking interesting classes so there’s that, but more importantly it means their friends are safe and we can consider going back in January. We will still enjoy the most of the fall as we can. I’m still a little concerned about high school as I’ve known some high schoolers to get it and it wasn’t fun for them either. But to prove out some of the hopes (and expectations) that kids don’t really get it or spread it is fantastic.

[MC Fresh Breath 4074]

Covid Testing results for Oregon have been on a trajectory that so far leads towards hybrid for K-3 in early October, for the rest of the grades in late October.  I'm leaning towards letting them go when its announced, and taking our chances like I suppose everyone else is.  A month or two ago I would have said "no way."  

[jkates 316]

Has any school that has been open in-person for over a month had an outbreak? I haven't kept up with the news nationwide.

[Message Board User 12396]

13 minutes ago, jkates said:

Has any school that has been open in-person for over a month had an outbreak? I haven't kept up with the news nationwide.

Define outbreak.

Have there been clusters of cases at isolated schools?  Yes.

Has there been a single hospitalization of any K-12 student or college student?  Maybe there has been, but I’m not aware of any out of the tens of thousands of “positives” since the school year began and college kids came back on campus.
 

Been saying this for weeks, but we need to open the schools to 100% of students, in person, nationwide.

[EE2B 1565]

Queen City ISD closed down all three campuses for three days due to an outbreak. They have also canceled all after school activities for the week.

Linden has canceled the next two football games due to two high school students testing positive. Apparently they’ve quarantined the entire football team. From the looks of their first three games, they should keep them quarantined.

[EE2B 1565]

Been saying this for weeks, but we need to open the schools to 100% of students, in person, nationwide.

Easy to say if you don’t have kids or have a kid that’s high risk for having pneumonia.

[Message Board User 12396]

13 minutes ago, EE2B said:

 

Easy to say if you don’t have kids or have a kid that’s high risk for having pneumonia.

 

I do have kids and put my “money” where my mouth is.

The school gave us the option of virtual or in person and we opted for in person as soon as possible.  So my 1st and 4th graders have been attending school, in person, wearing masks, daily since Sept 8.

Edited September 17, 2020 by Message Board User

[EE2B 1565]

I do have kids and put my “money” where my mouth is.
The school gave us the option of virtual or in person and we opted for in person as soon as possible.  So my 1st and 4th graders have been attending school, in person, wearing masks, daily since Sept 8.

I have a second grader and a four year old. The head of pulmonology at Children’s Hospital told us not to send our kids back due to the risk potential for our four year old if she caught it. Due to that, we are doing home school.

If you were in my position, would you still have sent both of yours back?

[Brisketexan 105267]

Just now, EE2B said:

I have a second grader and a four year old. The head of pulmonology at Children’s Hospital told us not to send our kids back due to the risk potential for our four year old if she caught it. Due to that, we are doing home school.

If you were in my position, would you still have sent both of yours back?

Whereas I know a physician, and she is connected with a large number of pediatricians in the St. Louis area, who have advocated for a return to in-person schooling.  I think we've got enough schools around the country going in-person that we can monitor them, and see if 1) there's any real harm to the kids themselves, and 2) whether those kids are functioning as vectors of infecting and harming vulnerable populations.

[BlueGreySky 1027]

Our school just announced we aren't back full on Monday as planned.  Hybrid through the first quarter (Oct 23).  Sigh.  We haven't had a case in 2 weeks and right now I am not sure we even have anyone home in quarantine.  Yet, let's be sure to play all our fall sports in full, especially football which exponentially increases the number of people those boys have second-hand contact with.

[GRHorn 105]

Almost done with week 4 in person here. We get almost daily emails of people on campus being sent home with “symptoms of Covid”, but to me it seems the list of Covid symptoms is overly inclusive, like Nausea or a headache. I get it. They’re being cautious. 

So far between my kids’ elementary and middle schools there’s been 2 positives. They don’t mention if it’s students or staff. For the school district of 25,000 students and I’m not sure how many faculty, we have 24 positives.  Again, they aren’t delineated between students or staff   

It’s been safe and well run. It can be done. The kids are so glad to be back. Kids that are still remote are being unnecessarily harmed imo. Teachers that are bitching or protesting going back are derelict in their duties honestly. Outside of the rare teacher with real dangerous co-morbidities. 

[Message Board User 12396]

15 minutes ago, EE2B said:

I have a second grader and a four year old. The head of pulmonology at Children’s Hospital told us not to send our kids back due to the risk potential for our four year old if she caught it. Due to that, we are doing home school.

If you were in my position, would you still have sent both of yours back?

I don’t know if your 4 year old has an underlying condition that would make her especially vulnerable to COVID-19.  So impossible for me to say.

But Covid isn’t going away completely even with a vaccine.  Just as kids get sick and die from the flu every year even with a vaccine, there will be some risk moving forward no matter what (even if the risk is small).  So while I would normally say heed your doctors advice, I’d also ask the doctor when will it be “safe” enough for her to return to school?

If your child doesn’t have an underlying condition, then absolutely I would suggest she return to school even if it’s against the doctors advice (it should be noted the American Academy of Pediatrics has endorsed return to in person schooling).

[Post Oak 20256]

The wife's coworker texted her last night that her kid has had a 102 fever since Monday.  Her school hasn't let her come to school but her mom went to work like everything was fine.  Last night at 9 was the first time she even mentioned it. She's been at work for the last 3 days.  Oblivious or inconsiderate I can't decide.  I'm royally pissed.  

She's either an idiot or an asshole or both. 

Oh yeah, my wife and this woman also work at a school.

 

Edited September 17, 2020 by Post Oak

[Newdoc 3448]

1 hour ago, EE2B said:

The head of pulmonology at Children’s Hospital told us not to send our kids back due to the risk potential for our four year old if she caught it. Due to that, we are doing home school.

Unless a child has significant underlying medical condition, I would ask the doctor for the specific reasons and data behind their opinion. Doctors are human and I’ve seen non evidenced based medical opinions all over the place and often not based on deductive reasoning either. That’s how we got essential oils and chelation therapy.

[utee94 15852]

7 minutes ago, Newdoc said:

Unless a child has significant underlying medical condition, I would ask the doctor for the specific reasons and data behind their opinion. Doctors are human and I’ve seen non evidenced based medical opinions all over the place and often not based on deductive reasoning either. That’s how we got essential oils and chelation therapy.

You can have my essential oils when you pry them from my warm, moist fingers!

 

[Message Board User 12396]

I found several ISDs Covid dashboards - I've found these to be a good resource but this list is by no means exhaustive and it's all North Texas ISDs.

Highland Park ISD -

 https://www.hpisd.org/apps/pages/index.jsp?uREC_ID=1939043&type=d&pREC_ID=2068375&fbclid=IwAR0cyNSBWX-FX-iwXnQcRx-Gi7FWvM89Sb-_uA7TqLDYyEUngbjElWSwo50

Grapevine-Colleyville -

https://www.gcisd.net/departments/health_services/coronavirus_covid-19/gcisd_covid-19_cases

Coppell - 

https://www.coppellisd.com/COVID-19Dashboard

Prosper - 

https://www.prosper-isd.net/domain/5970

Lovejoy - 

https://www.lovejoyisd.net/apps/pages/index.jsp?uREC_ID=1689056&type=d&pREC_ID=2034947

Argyle - 

https://www.argyleisd.com/apps/pages/index.jsp?uREC_ID=1718952&type=d&pREC_ID=2038832

Celina -

https://www.celinaisd.com/covid19/

Southlake Carroll - 

https://www.southlakecarroll.edu/Page/3265

Rockwall - 

https://www.rockwallisd.com/COVID19Dashboard

Keller - 

https://veoci.com/v/p/dashboard/uyn4axmq7p

Allen - 

https://www.allenisd.org/Page/59663

Frisco - 

https://www.friscoisd.org/departments/covid-19/active-cases

McKinney -

https://www.mckinneyisd.net/health-services-wellness/coronavirus-covid-19/covid-19-dashboard/

Aledo - 

https://www.aledoisd.org/Page/6609

Garland - 

https://www.garlandisd.net/content/covid-19-cases-location

Mansfield - 

https://www.mansfieldisd.org/parents-students/covid-19/misd-cases

Birdville - 

https://www.birdvilleschools.net/covid19dashboard

Edited September 17, 2020 by Message Board User

[NorthLoop 14222]

5th grader had to come home early today and we now have to quarantine for 2 weeks because her classmate tested positive. No more porn on my lunch break for awhile. 

[Guest Lobo]

Narrator:  "The term 'awhile' and 14 days wouldn't end up synching for NorthLoop."  

[Post Oak 20256]

My wife has another coworker who is waiting on a test result.  She lost her sense of taste and smell.  Seems pretty likely she has it.  If she does her office will have to shut down and a lot of students that depend on them for survival are going to be hurt.  

[Moby Ric 2058]

About to finish up week 5, I think it's week 5.  But all is good.  In fact I expect a flood of kids coming back the second six weeks.  

[dingleberryswitzer 2724]

What would you say if when the kids come back to school, they just sit on their laptop with headphones in, listening to a zoom meeting that the teacher is conducting 15 feet away?  That'd be stupid right? 

That sort of defeats the purpose doesn't it.  I only say tht because that's what's going on at our local high school.  They let in special ed and esl kids for the last 2 weeks.  There's maybe 30 kids in a building meant for 3000.  Meanwhile probably 50 football players are put into 2 busses to go play a scrimmage. 

[dcbc 14507]

Kids just finished their first week back in person after the clusterfuck of understaffed remote learning.  They report that most people are on their mask game.  Very few reported cases from either of their schools (large, public middle school (1,200 + students) and high school (3,400 students).  Of course, neither is near full in person attendance at this point.  Like mentioned above, the second 6 weeks is going to be interesting.

Meanwhile, a friend of ours lost his 50 year old sister to covid related illness and his mom is in the hospital now. 

[smoky 840]

What would you say if when the kids come back to school, they just sit on their laptop with headphones in, listening to a zoom meeting that the teacher is conducting 15 feet away?  That'd be stupid right? 
That sort of defeats the purpose doesn't it.  I only say tht because that's what's going on at our local high school.  They let in special ed and esl kids for the last 2 weeks.  There's maybe 30 kids in a building meant for 3000.  Meanwhile probably 50 football players are put into 2 busses to go play a scrimmage. 

I think there has to be a tipping point for the teacher to switch and start addressing the people physically in the classroom. But it'll take enough people to elect to come in even if the message is "zoom in the classroom"

Eventually, teachers will resort to being teachers and start teaching to the physical kids with a camera broadcasting to the physical kids. It'll happen naturally as long as there are kids in the room.

[Hawndoh 2386]

5 hours ago, dingleberryswitzer said:

What would you say if when the kids come back to school, they just sit on their laptop with headphones in, listening to a zoom meeting that the teacher is conducting 15 feet away?  That'd be stupid right? 

That sort of defeats the purpose doesn't it.  I only say tht because that's what's going on at our local high school.  They let in special ed and esl kids for the last 2 weeks.  There's maybe 30 kids in a building meant for 3000.  Meanwhile probably 50 football players are put into 2 busses to go play a scrimmage. 

It's not like the teacher is ignoring the existence of people in their classroom. They join the zoom so they can hear the discussions and the answers kids at home are giving...

I've just finished up my 3rd week of co-seated classrooms. All 7 of my classes throughout the day have kids face-to-face on campus and kids at home. I still look at and talk to the kids physically in the room exactly the same as I always have, I also just look into the camera and speak to the kids at home, too. I call on kids in the room to answer questions, and I call on kids at home to answer questions.

If I want to stick kids in small groups I can do that with Zoom. Zoom can split them all off into little groups and then automatically bring them all back together after whatever time limit I set. The kids physically on campus can just join the Zoom call so they can be part of small group discussions with the home kids.

It's really not that hard.

I share my projector screen on the Zoom call, so what is being displayed on the wall by the document camera is also being streamed to the kids at home. So everyone in the class is still seeing the same thing, it's just kids in the room look at the wall, kids at home look at a screen.

Everything is going pretty well and the kids who are coming to campus are enjoying being around other kids regularly again, even with all the extra procedures. They wear masks all the time except lunch. Lunch is very spread out. I have to spray a disinfectant/viricide on each desk a kid sat at between class periods, we minimize the use of shared resources and keep everything digital as much as possible.

Edited September 19, 2020 by Hawndoh

[Hawndoh 2386]

Actually I just finished two weeks of coseated, not three. Working a lot of hours, feels like three.

[Hagbard Celine 10908]

The Crushing Reality of Zoom School

We're only a few weeks in. We can't keep doing this.

Spoiler

 

By Dan Sinker

Sep 16, 2020

"Are you muted?"

The first thing my five-year-old learned in kindergarten, set up at a tiny desk in the corner of our dining room, is to always stay muted. It's probably the wrong thing to teach a child, but not everyone remembers, and then life bleeds in. Zoom school becomes a portal into worlds you never see as a parent making awkward smalltalk at pickup.

You can hear a mom working a job doing collections for medical billing. Call after call.

A dad who calls his sister on speakerphone. They fight most days.

Grandparents asking how long it’s going to take. There are babies wailing.

"Zoom school," the author writes, "becomes a portal into worlds you never see as parent making awkward smalltalk at pickup." A student and his mom share the kitchen table.

TVs, so many TVs, an endless buzz of TVs. The weather. The news. Game shows and talk shows.

Are you muted?

Of course Zoom school is a nightmare—with the lack of time to properly plan and the lack of funds to make anything work, how was it going to be anything else?—but every school option right now is. Depending on where you live, school has started as an endless navigation of web logins, unmutes, and dropped connections at home; attempts at confusing part-time hybrid schedules that help only the calendar industry; or the fuck it approach that has already lead to sick kids and teachers, with many more to come.

Every choice has been terrible since the start of the pandemic, when we were told we had to choose life or an economy, a false dichotomy from the start—mass death and sickness are also bad for the economy—but the awful choices we face as parents at the start of school feel especially difficult because we’re all burnt out. The idea of facing all of this for one more day, let alone the seemingly endless months ahead, feels basically impossible. The pandemic balancing act for parents—choose two: your kids, your job, or your health—has always been difficult, but six months in it's in full collapse.

"Making school work in September required vision, action, funding, and resolve on the part of people far above your teacher or school board member in the spring when everything shut down. None of it came."

The blame is not with the teachers. They’re trying their best to make the unworkable work. It doesn’t land on the administrators and school boards, despite the half-measures they passed that led here. The blame lies with the president—the incompetents, grifters, and yes-men he surrounds himself with—and his enablers in Congress, who are watching and doing nothing (in fact, they've gone on vacation) as Americans suffer in countless ways.

Six months in, with an unknowable amount of time ahead, my wife and I fantasize about simply spending a weekend in silence.

The lesson we refuse to learn with COVID-19 is that decisions we make today have no bearing on right now, but have a huge effect in a few months. That’s why locking down in March reduced the number of deaths in May. Why opening bars in May brought deaths right back up in July. Why parties on Memorial Day left us with COVID numbers nearly twice as high on Labor Day, and why reopening in-person school in September will likely do exactly what you’d expect come November. The delay between action and reaction means we keep half assing our way through a pandemic that kicks our asses in return.

Making school work in September required vision, action, funding, and resolve on the part of people far above your teacher or school board member in the spring when everything shut down. None of it came. The entire point of the shutdowns was to buy time, to make plans, to lay a foundation for a return that would work. All that time got flushed away by a president more obsessed with hyping miracle cures than doing the hard, thankless work of grinding out a workable plan with scientists and educators and then funding it at a level that could make it actually feasible. That’s what happened in pretty much every other country on the planet. None of them are foolproof, but they've done better than just the state of Florida alone, which had more than 10,000 kids under 18 test positive since their aggressive push for schools to reopen last month.

And so we go it alone, with makeshift workspaces, a rearranged room, a tiny desk in a corner, a stool at the kitchen counter, a place on the couch, your brother on one side, sister on the other, all trying to hear through the din of each other’s zoom rooms.

Are you muted?

When you’re a parent and the unthinkable happens—lose your job, partner gets sick, grandparent dies—someone reminds you that kids are resilient, adaptable. It’s true, mostly. For many kids, this terrible version of school will quickly become normal. My five-year-old now mutes and unmutes like the salesperson of the month on a conference call, and yours probably will, too. But parents? We’re not so resilient anymore.

It’s been six months since everything shut down: schools, offices, restaurants, etc. Six months of uncertainty, economic collapse, and death. So much death. It's a long time to wait when nothing has fundamentally changed in how we deal with the virus.

When it was a few weeks, you made it work. When it became a few months you, well, adapted, sort of. But now? Now things get weird. Six months in, with an unknowable amount of time ahead, my wife and I fantasize about simply spending a weekend in silence. Pacing around our four-room home, I’m jealous not just of the rich with their second homes and “learning pods,” but literally anyone with an extra room, a place for their kids that is separate from everything else. I look at Instagram pics of kids beaming inside a wholly separate home office and I wonder how I can achieve this grandeur. Of course that jealousy isn’t fair, but what is now?

"There's a lot of humanity visible through the zoom windows. Every day we log on—teachers, children, parents—and, invited or not, we enter tiny portals into each other’s lives."

I spent the first week of Zoom school despondent, feeling like my life had ground to a halt. All I did was sit next to a five-year-old to ensure he stopped pulling his shirt up, didn’t hit the beckoning “leave meeting” button, and always stayed on mute. By the time it was over I was wrecked for the day. But also I know he’s lucky to have a parent next to him (let alone two), a solid internet connection, and food and snacks when he needs them. There are so many kids that lack these essentials, and all of this is more terrible for them. The divide falling largely along race and class lines already exacerbated by the pandemic makes this all the more crushing. None of this is fair, but it has been fairer for some than for others. To forget that is to forget our humanity.

There's a lot of humanity visible through the zoom windows. Every day we log on—teachers, children, parents—and, invited or not, we enter tiny portals into each other’s lives. In our home, it's a child, head in hands, struggling to listen through the noise, whispering "I'm tired of this," water bottle at his side as instructed, a dog running past to bark at a delivery person, and two parents just off camera barely hanging on, desperately asking if he's muted.

Elsewhere, the gym teacher lays on her kitchen floor, talking kids through a leg lift.

An art teacher sits in her front seat, a baby in the back, parked to teach the lesson, clearly coming from something unexpected.

The kindergarten teacher opens every morning asking children if they had breakfast, knowing not every answer will be yes. Gently, he asks one girl “are there any grown-ups around that can help you?” She shakes her head no, unable to speak because she can’t find the unmute.

 

 

Edited September 19, 2020 by Hagbard Celine

[Knoxtnhorn 6065]

@Hawndoh I'm running things similarly in my classroom.  We're supposed to be 100% asynchronous at my grade level; however, I made the "mistake" of letting a couple of my families watch me teach live.  Now they're asking to join, so I turn the dedicated Google Meet computer towards the front of the room so that they can participate as is.  (Not really a mistake; just an added layer of responsibility.)

Both synchronous and asynchronous students complete the same work.  Those in class must check with me before submitting their work.  

It's all very different.  On one hand, the days are FAR more hectic.  When I get home, I don't even want to deal with my own kids, or my wife, or noise.  On the other hand, the two things that I hate the most about teaching are currently not in play:

1. Random visits from principals.  Too many trips to the principal's office as a child continues to scar me this day.  The second one walks in the room, I begin an internal panic attack - even if things go perfectly.  

2. The structure and rigidness of the curriculum.  I know it's a necessary factor of teaching these days; however, I dislike all the oversight from above.  "Did you write your objective on the board?  Where's the exit ticket?  Did you ask at least 3 higher-order questions?  Show me differentiation.  Why is this student off task?  How does your assessment measure the mastery of the objective?  Why is your lesson plan a day off?  (We currently only have to do IPCs.) How are you allowing the students to teach you? Etc..."  In my defense, I do all these pretty much naturally.  It's just nice not to have to think about a checklist for each lesson.

[MissingInAction 25169]

Whew! I cant be the only one glad a woman never allowed me to impregnate her.

[Willfully Horn 8046]

As my MIL, who is a gem, lives with us, is in her mid 80s and has lived most of her life with but one kidney, zoom was the choice we made for our HS sophomore. 
 
I agree the reporting suggests we can be cautiously optimistic. OTOH, my buddy reports two LT middle school teacher’s within the same department, have suddenly quit due to perceived flaws in safety protocol. I don’t know specifics, just that two teachers felt unsafe, and quit. The remaining teachers are feeling overwhelmed by the news. So, that fucking sucks.

[MNLonghornFUKM 8817]

2 full weeks in Less than 10 cases between students and staff in our district of 8K kids. We’re in hybrid which is 2 or 3 days a week of in person and the other 2 or 3 days online depending if you’re group A or B . Our high school is going full online next week for 2 weeks due recentl spike in county cases, thanks college. HS athletics still in session tho

 

No issues on buses yet district wide. Buses @ 50% less kids is about as chill as it could ever be. Lol. I would think life in the class rooms is also the same. It’ll be a slap to the face by reality whenever we go back to full bore all in.

[bschoolprof 6271]

On 9/18/2020 at 3:22 PM, dingleberryswitzer said:

What would you say if when the kids come back to school, they just sit on their laptop with headphones in, listening to a zoom meeting that the teacher is conducting 15 feet away?  That'd be stupid right? 

That sort of defeats the purpose doesn't it.  I only say tht because that's what's going on at our local high school.  They let in special ed and esl kids for the last 2 weeks.  There's maybe 30 kids in a building meant for 3000.  Meanwhile probably 50 football players are put into 2 busses to go play a scrimmage. 

This is how my son's middle school is conducted and it's why we are keeping them at home.  There's no point in messing with the hassles of physically traveling to and from school to sit on zoom calls.  

[Hawndoh 2386]

But that's the thing. They aren't just sitting on Zoom calls when at the building. It's way easier to keep them on target, it's way easier to answer their questions, it's way easier to solve technical glitches for the kids in the building. So learning is way more efficient. 

I just gave my first unit test and there is a pretty clear statistical difference in the scores between the kids in the building and the kids at home, and we've only been in the building about 2 weeks.

I have 10-15 students that have raised their grades a full letter grade after returning to the building compared to what they were doing at home the first few weeks.

So from my experience, there is definitely a "point" to the hassle of getting them to school.

Edited September 20, 2020 by Hawndoh

[bschoolprof 6271]

2 hours ago, Hawndoh said:

But that's the thing. They aren't just sitting on Zoom calls when at the building. It's way easier to keep them on target, it's way easier to answer their questions, it's way easier to solve technical glitches for the kids in the building. So learning is way more efficient. 

I just gave my first unit test and there is a pretty clear statistical difference in the scores between the kids in the building and the kids at home, and we've only been in the building about 2 weeks.

I have 10-15 students that have raised their grades a full letter grade after returning to the building compared to what they were doing at home the first few weeks.

So from my experience, there is definitely a "point" to the hassle of getting them to school.

It sounds like the way you are teaching is far different than my sons' experience, and much closer to the way I teach my college students now.

My middle sons' experience is he rode the bus each way 25 minutes, sat on zoom calls in the classroom, and had tons of downtime at school during asynchronous time.  He and I both concurred that it seemed like a waste, so he went back to virtual.  

Edited September 20, 2020 by bschoolprof

[Hagbard Celine 10908]

6 hours ago, Knoxtnhorn said:

2. The structure and rigidness of the curriculum.  I know it's a necessary factor of teaching these days; however, I dislike all the oversight from above.  "Did you write your objective on the board?  Where's the exit ticket?  Did you ask at least 3 higher-order questions?  Show me differentiation.  Why is this student off task?  How does your assessment measure the mastery of the objective?  Why is your lesson plan a day off?  (We currently only have to do IPCs.) How are you allowing the students to teach you? Etc..."  In my defense, I do all these pretty much naturally.  It's just nice not to have to think about a checklist for each lesson.

I think it's hilarious that all of the people who are now working remote are being subjected to the equivalent of a Sales Forecast Review that those of us in commercial IT have endured for decades.  In the IT business, as a salesperson, you are responsible for balancing the force, bending spacetime, and using jedi mind tricks in the form of silent astral projection to cause people to buy stuff they don't need or don't want to buy when your boss wants them to buy it at the price your boss wants them to pay.  And if they don't do it, you get shot.  So, not much sympathy for people delivering remotely for the first time.

[Knoxtnhorn 6065]

4 hours ago, Hawndoh said:

But that's the thing. They aren't just sitting on Zoom calls when at the building. It's way easier to keep them on target, it's way easier to answer their questions, it's way easier to solve technical glitches for the kids in the building. So learning is way more efficient. 

I just gave my first unit test and there is a pretty clear statistical difference in the scores between the kids in the building and the kids at home, and we've only been in the building about 2 weeks.

I have 10-15 students that have raised their grades a full letter grade after returning to the building compared to what they were doing at home the first few weeks.

So from my experience, there is definitely a "point" to the hassle of getting them to school.

Def true for me as well.  Plus, I know the students are doing the work and not mom, dad, or a sibling.  I have one distant student that is apparently ready to write his senior thesis.  I have no doubt he'll show up needing to learn how to use simple punctuation.

[CHIEF 5094]

On 9/18/2020 at 3:22 PM, dingleberryswitzer said:

What would you say if when the kids come back to school, they just sit on their laptop with headphones in, listening to a zoom meeting that the teacher is conducting 15 feet away?  That'd be stupid right? 

That sort of defeats the purpose doesn't it.  I only say tht because that's what's going on at our local high school.  They let in special ed and esl kids for the last 2 weeks.  There's maybe 30 kids in a building meant for 3000.  Meanwhile probably 50 football players are put into 2 busses to go play a scrimmage. 

On younger kids, it means that no one has to stay home to watch the kids, if the kids are back at school. A lot of Surly has jobs where you can work from home, that isn't the real World reality of most folks. The reality for most of America is that they are a dual income family that has had at least one bread winner having to stay home for childcare, and helping with schoolwork. Having been off since March means any savings they had has been exhausted in the last six months. There is a lot of arrogance in the crowd that can afford for the wife or husband not having to work, or can work from home. Those in the real World have fucking bills to pay. What is worse, your 8 year old has a higher risk of getting COVID, or you get 4 months behind on your mortgage? There are some really tough choices having to be be made by families that need both incomes to make ends meet.

CHIEF

[dingleberryswitzer 2724]

I understand and agree.  Maybe to clarify my point, I am advocating for more kids to come back.  At my kids school they are slowly allowing kids back and I mean like 20 per elementary and maybe 30-40 for a high school.  1 kid sitting on the other side of the room with headphones on listening to his teacher through the internet is not what I would consider "opening the school back up".  

[Message Board User 12396]

Open the schools.  Now.

• School closures and attendant loss of other protective systems for children (such as limited social care and health visiting) highlight the indirect, but very real, harms being disproportionately borne by children and teenagers as a result of measures to mitigate the COVID-19 pandemic. In the UK, it is estimated that the impact on education thus far may lead to a quarter of the national workforce having lower skills and attainment for a generation after the mid-2020s, leading to the loss of billions of dollars in national wealth (11). Additionally, there are a variety of other harms to children’s health, including the risk of reemergence of vaccine-preventable diseases such as measles because of disruptions to immunization programs.

  There are many other areas of potential indirect harm to children, including an increase in home injuries (accidental and nonaccidental) when children have been less visible to social protection systems because of lockdowns. In Italy, hospitalizations for accidents at home increased markedly during the COVID-19 lockdown and potentially posed a higher threat to children’s health than COVID-19 (13). UK pediatricians report that delay in presentations to hospital or disrupted services contributed to the deaths of equal numbers of children that were reported to have died with SARS-CoV-2 infection (14). Many countries are seeing evidence that mental health in young people has been adversely affected by school closures and lockdowns. For example, preliminary evidence suggests that deaths by suicide of young people under 18 years old increased during lockdown in England (15).

  The role of children in transmission of SARS-CoV-2 remains unclear; however, existing evidence points to educational settings playing only a limited role in transmission when mitigation measures are in place, in marked contrast to other respiratory viruses. In the event of seemingly inevitable future waves of COVID-19, there is likely to be further pressures to close schools. There is now an evidence base on which to make decisions, and school closure should be undertaken with trepidation given the indirect harms that they incur. Pandemic mitigation measures that affect children’s wellbeing should only happen if evidence exists that they help because there is plenty of evidence that they do harm.

[Brew 3049]

We’re into week 7 here, we have had 10 total positive cases in the school with 0 currently out. None were traced back to school contact and there were no additional contact quarantines in the school. Masks are on when around other kids, classrooms are distanced, etc. Some of the surrounding districts have had a lot of problems with it and have been in and out of school at this point with short term shut downs.

We’ve played 5 HS football games, plus middle school football, HS soccer, volleyball, etc and have had only one player get quarantined and the football HC quarantined with a contact trace. However, the next couple games have been forfeited because of Covid issues and that is starting to happen more from what it looks like on upcoming games in the region. Contact quarantines are hitting some teams pretty hard.

[huge 3795]

My K kid started sept 8 in person. Masked up. Plexiglass dividers. He likes it and thankfully we don’t have much to worry about outside of my Winston smoking mother. But her mom smokes Marlboro 100s and is 92. I think the women on that side are too stubborn to die.

Anyway. Thank Jeebus for SBISD allowing parents to choose.

[troph 24905]

High school - we are still remote / private, son’s tight group, one has Covid, everyone but my son was exposed. Best friend is pulling her son out of school. He was back in person for all of 2 hours before they found out. Of that group all are now quarantining, 5 of them excluding my son because he hasn’t seen them in 2+ weeks.

[Guest]

Lubbock Roosevelt( not part of the larger Lubbock ISD) is cancelling online learning.  

Reason: failure rate was too high.

Edited September 22, 2020 by slorch

[Enchubben 5510]

CyFair ISD kindergarten going great for my son.  Zero issues so far and he doesn’t know any better about the mask so he doesn’t complain. Just don’t hope that the mask and the dividers don’t become permanent.

The virtual learning parents have been complaining nonstop, and I don’t really blame the teachers. When you have 10-15 5/6 year olds in your presence to watch over, you prioritize them over a video screen. Probably need to change something for the virtual kids, but I’m guessing half of them come back in person after this first 9 week option period.

[fuggled 576]

Here in Richardson kids optionally went back to in-person classes 2 weeks ago (my kids are still virtual).  As of this week, our school has had to quarantine one kindergarten class and one first grade class.  This is at a small school where there are only 3 classes per grade.  They haven't given much detail on why or what the protocol is for those classes to return.

On a positive note, I've discovered that I actually like teaching my first grader (when I have time) and I'm 100% confident that I'm doing a better job than his teacher would.

[Tailgate 3022]

Vandy doing well. Really happy my youngest (freshman) will be on campus the whole fall semester.

No senior prom and no graduation. She really didn’t want remote and glad she got to campus.

[High Plains Drifter 11050]

3 hours ago, fuggled said:

 

On a positive note, I've discovered that I actually like teaching my first grader (when I have time) and I'm 100% confident that I'm doing a better job than his teacher would.

 

 

Edited September 22, 2020 by High Plains Drifter

[fuggled 576]

1 minute ago, High Plains Drifter said:

 

 

Yeah, I know.  Without getting into specifics, this isn't our first rodeo with this particular teacher and there are several capabilities lacking.  I'm not taking a shot at all teachers.  But in this instance, I'd like my odds in a first grade cage match.

[JohnLocke 115]

Some serious chatter in Austin ISD about going back to regular school early October..  Decision soon.

[Brisketexan 105267]

7 minutes ago, JohnLocke said:

Some serious chatter in Austin ISD about going back to regular school early October..  Decision soon.

I gotta tell you....while I think they still need to allow some sort of remote option for kids who are particularly vulnerable, or who are regularly in close proximity to someone vulnerable....I'm really leaning more and more towards in-person schooling being the right call, ON BALANCE.  That doesn't mean there aren't cons/risks.  It just means that I think when we take all factors into account, it's looking more like the right call.

[Message Board User 12396]

Open the schools. All of them.

Edited September 23, 2020 by Message Board User