Community Chat

[Oznell]

The article in "Science" magazine that I recently posted, which outlined the creative ways that schools in Europe, even ones in terribly Covid hard-hit nations, managed their re-openings, is quite encouraging.  The point was, there is no one-size-fits all, and institutions must be flexible depending on their conditions at any given time, but the gist was that safe opening can be done, in a custom-fit way.  It's an eye-opening article.    

[suzyQ3]

We can't compare us to European countries unless we had modeled them from the beginning.

And I would wager that their countries back up any step they take with enough money to make it effective.

[Oznell]

For anyone who missed the piece in "Science" magazine online, and may be interested, here's the title which if googled, will bring up the article:

"School Openings Across Globe Suggest Ways to Keep Coronavirus at Bay, Despite Outbreaks".

[Isobel Archer]

So now I'm reading that teachers' unions in various places don't want to go back to school AND they don't want to do online either.

They claim they had to work too many hours this past year answering questions.  Additionally, they are saying that it is too stressful for them to have to do this from home.

From the Chicago Tribune:

Unions in some of America’s largest school districts have called for restrictions on the number of hours and days that teachers would be required to work from home during the pandemic. They have also pushed back against the expectation that teachers conduct lessons live at fixed times, and on the ability of principals to sit in on lessons conducted over Zoom or other video platforms.

Union officials said they were fighting to make sure New York’s teachers were not forced to work more in a day than the six hours and 20 minutes in their contracts. A politically progressive caucus within the union is calling on its leaders to push for “less academic work” during the coming months, and to lobby for a moratorium on student grades and teacher evaluations

Other unions have fought for, and won, limits on teacher workloads. In Brevard County, east of Orlando, Florida, the union and district agreed in late March to limit teachers’ instructional time to three hours per day. The district also agreed that it would not require teachers to communicate with families using their personal cellphones, and that it would not formally evaluate teachers’ online instruction.

In Los Angeles Unified School District, the nation’s second largest, the local union has fought aggressively in recent weeks to protect teachers from what it called unreasonable demands on their time, such as long, repetitive remote staff meetings and inflexible schedules. The union and district announced an agreement to limit instruction and student support time to an average of four hours per day per teacher, and to limit staff meetings to one hour per week. Live teaching via video platforms will be encouraged, but not required.

[on the bay]

I say good for them!

[Isobel Archer]

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@on the bay wrote:

I say good for them!

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Because it's all about the kids - just like the AFT says.

[on the bay]

Hopefully, it's a good plan that is all about everyone, teachers, children and staff.

I like what one parent said-

"I don't want my child to be an experiment." on his concern about kids in live classrooms.

I don't know aside from money what parents will do who need child care during their work hours, whether at home or at office, if there are schools that have chosen all remote learning. Such a stressful situation all around isn't it?!

Also from feedback from real parents in different states, the remote learning during these past months was mostly relying on parents to download and supervise videos or be there for zoom sessions all the time they themselves are working from home and maybe having different age children with different programs. Trying to do the impossible I feel so badly for all involved. Hopefully there will be learning and improvements in all these new to everyone situations,

so it can all run more smoothly.

[jubilant]

Please know that I am not targeting anyone here. I find myself one day thinking....."there must be a safe way to open schools" and the next day thinking....."maybe we should wait a few weeks even if that means school in the summer months".

I would like to address the issue of child abuse. Someone said they didn't think it would be as bad in rural areas and I think it is.  It's much more prevalent than we realize. 

My DD was supposed to start her new job today. I think her title is Domestic Violence Director. The victim will always have a policeman with them when they are brought to her so please keep in mind that we need our police and so do these children.   The victims are in more danger than we sometimes know.    

Please say a prayer for her as you pray for these children....  both the special needs and abused.  DD was anxious to start her job today and has come down with something and has to get a Covid test. She is 50 so I am a little concerned.  She is anxious to start this job but they told her this morning she probably wouldn't get test results for 19 days.  That's a bummer.

[suzyQ3]

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@jubilant wrote:

Please know that I am not targeting anyone here. I find myself one day thinking....."there must be a safe way to open schools" and the next day thinking....."maybe we should wait a few weeks even if that means school in the summer months".

I would like to address the issue of child abuse. Someone said they didn't think it would be as bad in rural areas and I think it is.  It's much more prevalent than we realize. 

My DD was supposed to start her new job today. I think her title is Domestic Violence Director. The victim will always have a policeman with them when they are brought to her so please keep in mind that we need our police and so do these children.   The victims are in more danger than we sometimes know.    

Please say a prayer for her as you pray for these children....  both the special needs and abused.  DD was anxious to start her job today and has come down with something and has to get a Covid test. She is 50 so I am a little concerned.  She is anxious to start this job but they told her this morning she probably wouldn't get test results for 19 days.  That's a bummer.

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@jubilant, I hope that your daughter gets well quickly, regardless of what she might have.

[Cakers3]

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@Oznell wrote:

The article in "Science" magazine that I recently posted, which outlined the creative ways that schools in Europe, even ones in terribly Covid hard-hit nations, managed their re-openings, is quite encouraging.  The point was, there is no one-size-fits all, and institutions must be flexible depending on their conditions at any given time, but the gist was that safe opening can be done, in a custom-fit way.  It's an eye-opening article.    

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@Oznell   Thank you. 

I am certain that we can do this safely and intelligently; and it doesn't matter how any country handled the pandemic.  

It is sad to see some always only thinking about a down-side; it's time to start putting things back in order without blame and "what-ifs".

The article in a science magazine certainly has merit and it was well written.