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On my way to work this morning.


MoseySusan

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Teacher meeting and work days for a week. I opted to attend online from my classroom. Fewer distractions than at home. The students start remote on the 12th, and I’ll be teaching from my classroom. Students will hopefully return to the building in smaller cohorts after Labor  Day. 
 

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9 minutes ago, roadsue said:

Students will hopefully return to the building in smaller cohorts after Labor  Day. 

I wouldn't wish that on any school system.

But, better them than me, I guess.  I sort of like cutthroat living! Maybe it thins the herd way faster than in the past.

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I just learned that what I thought I knew I did not know.

I assumed cohorts were ones companions.  Jim and his cohorts were up to their usual tomfoolery.

Instead I learned a cohort is a group, and has military roots.

That said, my definition is the first one Websters defined as a companion or colleauge.

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3 hours ago, Razors Edge said:

I sort of like cutthroat living!

Returning to work this year has an adventuresome feel. If there was coronavirus in my classroom in mid-March, or if any of the custodians who polished the floor in July brought it in, I've got it now. 

It's a bit of a waiting game at this point. My assigned custodian and I will be the only two people in and out of this room for the next few weeks.

I have yet to hear a consistent message about testing. One day it's people with symptoms only, but the next it's anyone who suspects exposure.    

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35 minutes ago, roadsue said:

If there was coronavirus in my classroom in mid-March, or if any of the custodians who polished the floor in July brought it in, I've got it now. 

It really can't live on a surface that long.  Maybe 24 hours for most surfaces (too lazy yo UTG to find the chart).. If it is there on a Friday it will be dead by Monday am.

 

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51 minutes ago, roadsue said:

Returning to work this year has an adventuresome feel. If there was coronavirus in my classroom in mid-March, or if any of the custodians who polished the floor in July brought it in, I've got it now. 

It's a bit of a waiting game at this point. My assigned custodian and I will be the only two people in and out of this room for the next few weeks.

I have yet to hear a consistent message about testing. One day it's people with symptoms only, but the next it's anyone who suspects exposure.    

I wish you the best of luck, roadsue.  There were 3 students with covid at a school recently in our school.  But they didn't shut down the school. 

Masking will be required for students age 10 and up in Alberta. There are exceptions..ie. child who can't remove a mask themselves can be exempted.  Children under 10 will be encouraged to mask. 

highlights what's happening in our jursidiction now and parents' concerns:  https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/not-realistic-alberta-parents-say-mandatory-masks-fail-to-address-issue-at-core-of-concerns-1.5674031

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4 hours ago, roadsue said:

Teacher meeting and work days for a week. I opted to attend online from my classroom. Fewer distractions than at home. The students start remote on the 12th, and I’ll be teaching from my classroom. Students will hopefully return to the building in smaller cohorts after Labor  Day. 
 

God bless you and good luck.  If you're going to have classes half full, that might work ok.  Keep a lot of spray disinfectant around and check what kids are bringing into yout room.  When I helped develop a Nutrition Science curriculum to replace Home Ec, I was assigned to co-teach it for a year and one of our labs involved putting Scotch tape on various surfaces, pulling it off (pulling bacteria with it), and then rinsing the Scotch tape with a softened nutrient gel and letting it harden in Petri dishes.  It was amazing how many germs were growing in lockers, under tables kids stuck gum to, etc.

If I was still teaching, I'd be terrified if I had full classes of 25-35 kids in a classroom/labroom in a  combined building complex with 2900 kids in the high school and two middle schools attached to the same cafeteria/auditorium/etc. of 1100 each, all sharing the same recirculated air and often showing up sick because of the rule that 15 absences in a semester means automatic failure - I hope they'll do away with that rule when my county goes back to school.

Our countywide school system, centered on Annapolis with 12 large high schools and their feeder schools, is starting the school year with remote classes and will reevaluate later, probably around the end of the first quarter in November.  Anyway, that's what our county's top health officer said this week on a local PBS show. He said that was agreed after he had a meeting with our county's superintendent of schools.

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WoKzoo is a school bus driver.  She is in for a treat.  k-6 5 days a week face to face.  7-12 in 2 groups - M, Tu and Th F.  How do you force kids to wear masks AND drive a school bus.  Disinfect the bus before the morning run. Disinfect the bus before the afternoon run.  With her runs there is barely enough time to get done what she needs to.  Half days and early outs are impossible already.  Adding the extra work and extra stress is goin got put her over the edge.

Not worth it.

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10 minutes ago, Kzoo said:

WoKzoo is a school bus driver.  She is in for a treat.  k-6 5 days a week face to face.  7-12 in 2 groups - M, Tu and Th F.  How do you force kids to wear masks AND drive a school bus.  Disinfect the bus before the morning run. Disinfect the bus before the afternoon run.  With her runs there is barely enough time to get done what she needs to.  Half days and early outs are impossible already.  Adding the extra work and extra stress is goin got put her over the edge.

Not worth it.

Definitely not worth it.

She could go ALL windows open ALL the time and just keep pushing the germs back into the kids and out the back.

Public buses were doing the load and unload from the rear door only here.  Keeps the germs more in the back as long as the air is not being circulated all over.

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1 hour ago, MickinMD said:

God bless you and good luck.  If you're going to have classes half full, that might work ok.  Keep a lot of spray disinfectant around and check what kids are bringing into yout room.  When I helped develop a Nutrition Science curriculum to replace Home Ec, I was assigned to co-teach it for a year and one of our labs involved putting Scotch tape on various surfaces, pulling it off (pulling bacteria with it), and then rinsing the Scotch tape with a softened nutrient gel and letting it harden in Petri dishes.  It was amazing how many germs were growing in lockers, under tables kids stuck gum to, etc.

If I was still teaching, I'd be terrified if I had full classes of 25-35 kids in a classroom/labroom in a  combined building complex with 2900 kids in the high school and two middle schools attached to the same cafeteria/auditorium/etc. of 1100 each, all sharing the same recirculated air and often showing up sick because of the rule that 15 absences in a semester means automatic failure - I hope they'll do away with that rule when my county goes back to school.

Our countywide school system, centered on Annapolis with 12 large high schools and their feeder schools, is starting the school year with remote classes and will reevaluate later, probably around the end of the first quarter in November.  Anyway, that's what our county's top health officer said this week on a local PBS show. He said that was agreed after he had a meeting with our county's superintendent of schools.

My classroom is larger than others because it’s the newspaper room, and was built to accommodate cutting and light tables. While I’ve been there, I have a number of desktop computers for layout work. I started with 12, but they’ve been failing steadily, so I’m down to four. Students will not be sharing devices this year, so the computers are in storage which had freed up a lot of floor space. My largest class is 33, but class size always changes from the start of the year. I can easily arrange 15 desks with six feet of distance in the space I have. 
And we were told today that numerous families are waiting to see what remote classes look like before they decide whether to transfer their children to the area private schools. That one makes me laugh because every year I get students whose parents transferred them out of the neighborhood Christian school because the kids weren’t doing well there. I suspect we will see a lot of mobility this year as parents try to find the best location for their children. 
My sister in Colorado wants to bring her granddaughters to her in-law’s ranch in the south central part of the state to go to school because there are fewer cases and lower rate of spread. We could have kids moving all year.

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3 hours ago, roadsue said:

Returning to work this year has an adventuresome feel. If there was coronavirus in my classroom in mid-March, or if any of the custodians who polished the floor in July brought it in, I've got it now. 

It's a bit of a waiting game at this point. My assigned custodian and I will be the only two people in and out of this room for the next few weeks.

I have yet to hear a consistent message about testing. One day it's people with symptoms only, but the next it's anyone who suspects exposure.    

Testing is an up down kind of thing isn’t it. We are. Urgently offering it free to those who want it but not mandating it. Our governor may change his mind. 

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1 minute ago, Airehead said:

Testing is an up down kind of thing isn’t it. We are. Urgently offering it free to those who want it but not mandating it. Our governor may change his mind. 

It all seems to pivot on the concept of enough. A person I know who works as an OT has been getting tested every Monday. But our governor announced that only people with symptoms should get tested because the state is running out of supplies. I would really like to know whether I have antibodies because I was flu-like sick in mid March. I can wait until I have symptoms to get tested. 

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If you give blood, the Red Cross here has been doing free antibody tests. WoW came back negative a couple weeks ago. 
As of last week, things were still very fluid based on teachers I know. Very concerned for them and all of you in classroom situations. 

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