The Flu

[Orange]

17 hours ago, KUGRDON said:

Good point missed it.  I just checked the date on the story.

Can't be bothered with that nonsense when there are dastardly, wealthy teachers to vilify, right?

[duckfandan]

On 8/4/2020 at 2:35 PM, Scscsc89 said:

We had distanced backyard dinner last night with our Kindergarten teacher friend.

her take:

Parents who are demanding schools reopen for “socialization“ reasons are in for a rude awakening when they find that all the “socialization” their kids have been missing has been removed from in-person physical learning as well.
 

(except in Georgia, apparently.)

She's right.  It's shocking to hear what some parents think 'socialization' would be during the pandemic.  Kids will be with the same 15 other kids all day, and sit at their distanced desk.  I wouldn't be surprised, honestly, if some teachers will be able to get more 'socialization' in through comprehensive distance learning than they would with in person classes.  Some people truly believe sending kids back to school just means everything is back to normal.

[KUGRDON]

I would be willing to bet that 2/3 of those seeking to re-open schools for socialization really want daycare.

[Orange]

2 hours ago, KUGRDON said:

I would be willing to bet that 2/3 of those seeking to re-open schools for socialization really want daycare.

What is it with your fucking rabid insistence on belaboring this point?

Yes, fuckstick, parents DO count on school for a form of daycare, as well as education.  Parents have to work, too, despite your rabid hatred of parents, single mothers, and other people who don't live life precisely the way you do.  

Though I suppose we should welcome it when you take a 10 minute break from bashing teachers.

[Orange]

12 hours ago, duckfandan said:

She's right.  It's shocking to hear what some parents think 'socialization' would be during the pandemic.  Kids will be with the same 15 other kids all day, and sit at their distanced desk.  I wouldn't be surprised, honestly, if some teachers will be able to get more 'socialization' in through comprehensive distance learning than they would with in person classes.  Some people truly believe sending kids back to school just means everything is back to normal.

Last spring, my son got 15 minutes of zoom/webX time about 4 days per week.  Yes, they would get marginally more "socialization" even with socially-distanced in-person schooling.  Though I think parents are pretty resigned that they're stuck working two full time jobs at home throughout the school year, and children will be in the house full-time.

No biggie.  No one ever gave a fuck about parents before the pandemic, though, so why should they now?  (this hostility is 0% aimed at you)

[duckfandan]

42 minutes ago, Orange said:

Last spring, my son got 15 minutes of zoom/webX time about 4 days per week.  Yes, they would get marginally more "socialization" even with socially-distanced in-person schooling.  Though I think parents are pretty resigned that they're stuck working two full time jobs at home throughout the school year, and children will be in the house full-time.

No biggie.  No one ever gave a fuck about parents before the pandemic, though, so why should they now?  (this hostility is 0% aimed at you)

The distance learning is going to look. a lot different this fall than it did last spring.  Last spring, teachers were basically told you have 1.5 weeks to transform your class to distance and directives from the state change weekly the first month of distance learning.  At the middle level we had an hour of 'office hours' which was not effective at helping students with their work.  What middle schooler struggles with an assignment at 2 am and then thinks, "oh, I'm going to remember to ask this specific question for my social studies teacher during his 11 am office hour."  It just didn't work.

This fall we'll be doing synchronous teaching with kids logging in to a google meets room at the same time for a class.  They'll spend about 30 minutes per class and have a daily schedule; with breaks and class they'll have a 3 hour day.  

I say there may be more socialization, because we should be able to do group work again with this set up and have break out rooms for kids to collaborate (which is one of the main skills we work on in middle schoolers).  In a distanced classroom, it will be nearly impossible to maintain social distance even for small things like a teacher moving in the room, or entering and exiting, let alone kids moving to make groups.  But I do agree that there is no replacement for person to person interaction as far as making connections go.

Also, we are put a lot of work into our advisory groups that will meet several days a week and focus executive functioning and mapping out their time for the week and building connection/socialization.

Distance learning has all kinds of issues still, but I think a lot of the public assume that this fall will just look like the spring of last year, which it won't.  It's been frustrating as a teacher not knowing the plans and how to start getting prepared (ex: I still don't know what classes I'm teaching and there's definitely going to be changes for a lot of us in this category), so I can only imagine how frustrating as a parent still being in the dark is.  Districts have been working to figure plans out, but haven't done a good job of communicating with families as they do that.  

[Orange]

7 minutes ago, duckfandan said:

The distance learning is going to look. a lot different this fall than it did last spring.  Last spring, teachers were basically told you have 1.5 weeks to transform your class to distance and directives from the state change weekly the first month of distance learning.  At the middle level we had an hour of 'office hours' which was not effective at helping students with their work.  What middle schooler struggles with an assignment at 2 am and then thinks, "oh, I'm going to remember to ask this specific question for my social studies teacher during his 11 am office hour."  It just didn't work.

This fall we'll be doing synchronous teaching with kids logging in to a google meets room at the same time for a class.  They'll spend about 30 minutes per class and have a daily schedule; with breaks and class they'll have a 3 hour day.  

I say there may be more socialization, because we should be able to do group work again with this set up and have break out rooms for kids to collaborate (which is one of the main skills we work on in middle schoolers).  In a distanced classroom, it will be nearly impossible to maintain social distance even for small things like a teacher moving in the room, or entering and exiting, let alone kids moving to make groups.  But I do agree that there is no replacement for person to person interaction as far as making connections go.

Also, we are put a lot of work into our advisory groups that will meet several days a week and focus executive functioning and mapping out their time for the week and building connection/socialization.

Distance learning has all kinds of issues still, but I think a lot of the public assume that this fall will just look like the spring of last year, which it won't.  It's been frustrating as a teacher not knowing the plans and how to start getting prepared (ex: I still don't know what classes I'm teaching and there's definitely going to be changes for a lot of us in this category), so I can only imagine how frustrating as a parent still being in the dark is.  Districts have been working to figure plans out, but haven't done a good job of communicating with families as they do that.  

This is good info. Our district has communicated 0% of it.  I do wonder how well 6-8 year-olds will fair looking at a class computer screen 3 hrs per day.  I would imagine it’s not as much of an issue for high schoolers.  
 

It absolutely blows my mind, however, that no one even bothered to bring up in the media the economic and psychological effects of our government doing absolutely nothing to tamp down the virus so schools can open.  I get that most citizens are not parents, and even fewer are parents of children between the ages of 5-11 (and therefore most affected, economically and psychologically, by school closures), but still.  It’s not a difficult line to draw between schools closed—parents not working—economic crash—-...... and oh yeah, young children (particularly those who are poor and learning disabled) being set backward in development YEARS. 

but as we’ve seen from people like @KUGRDON, this shortsighted, child-like view of the world is rampant.  

[duckfandan]

9 minutes ago, Orange said:

This is good info. Our district has communicated 0% of it.  I do wonder how well 6-8 year-olds will fair looking at a class computer screen 3 hrs per day.  I would imagine it’s not as much of an issue for high schoolers.  
 

It absolutely blows my mind, however, that no one even bothered to bring up in the media the economic and psychological effects of our government doing absolutely nothing to tamp down the virus so schools can open.  I get that most citizens are not parents, and even fewer are parents of children between the ages of 5-11 (and therefore most affected, economically and psychologically, by school closures), but still.  It’s not a difficult line to draw between schools closed—parents not working—economic crash—-...... and oh yeah, young children (particularly those who are poor and learning disabled) being set backward in development YEARS. 

but as we’ve seen from people like @KUGRDON, this shortsighted, child-like view of the world is rampant.  

Yea...and I can only really speak for my district, but it is one of the big 5 in Oregon, so what we are doing will be in general line with what the other big 5 will be doing.   I'd assume most of the valley districts (maybe outside of the tiny one town districts, like Amity) will generally follow along as well.

I haven't heard what the plans for elementary are, but I wouldn't be surprised it's different, as you're right, the capabilities are very different by age and devices/attention.

And you're absolutely right, our national focus starting in May should have been what do we need to do in order to open schools in September,  Choices and action would've looked much different if that as our priority, instead of 'getting back to normal' being the priority.  But then, that would have taken Americans accepting science, delaying gratification, and thinking of the community above their self.

[glduck]

On 8/4/2020 at 10:10 AM, Scscsc89 said:

 

yikes

 

Sounds like the girl who took and shared this picture has been suspended for taking and sharing this picture. 

[KUGRDON]

9 minutes ago, glduck said:

Sounds like the girl who took and shared this picture has been suspended for taking and sharing this picture. 

Lazily I ask, was it pursuant to a general rule regarding in school photos?

[Orange]

10 minutes ago, glduck said:

Sounds like the girl who took and shared this picture has been suspended for taking and sharing this picture. 

Props to the school for teaching her what it would be like to be an inspector general in the Trump administration.

[Orange]

1000 deaths today.  FL, TX, and AZ leading in deaths, four months after the NY outbreak.

 

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/us/

[glduck]

3 hours ago, KUGRDON said:

Lazily I ask, was it pursuant to a general rule regarding in school photos?

Sounds like that’s what the school is saying, “unauthorized use of a cell phone in hallways,” which seems to be a bonkers and never-enforced rule in its own right, it being 2020 and all. Considering they’re high schoolers and Snap, Insta, TikTok, and a bunch of other apps I’m too old to know/understand exist, I would think tens of thousands of pics/videos are made and shared on school premises every year at a school that size (2k+)??

The student is alleging that the principal said any public criticism of the school would be grounds for punishment, which both sounds like something an administrator would never say out loud AND the exact reason this student was punished. 

[KUGRDON]

Yes more than likely. Pretty sad situation. Stupid

[azgreg]

Good thing kids are immune oh wait............

 

[Orange]

11 hours ago, azgreg said:

Good thing kids are immune oh wait............

 

This is fucking terrifying.

I'm beginning to think Vitamin D deficiencies have a lot more to do with this than we realize, too...

https://www.healio.com/news/endocrinology/20200724/vitamin-d-deficiency-more-common-among-covid19-patients-admitted-to-icu

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/landia/article/PIIS2213-8587(20)30268-0/fulltext

[Scscsc89]

 

[azgreg]

 

[KUGRDON]

Executive Orders re Covid relief horrible idea, horrible precedent, destructive of democracy.  Specific relief from payroll taxes is also a horrible precedent and terrible for undermining stability of social security and medicare, particularly if it breaks down feeling of the sanctity of these programs.

[Orange]

But he’ll pick up votes from the mouthbreather contingent on this.  YOUR cohort, Dawn, who don’t understand how government works, believe the “both sides” myth of a dysfunctional congress (Thanks to you and your ilk pushing this narrative since Clinton), and who think he’s being “tough and “strong” by illegally attempting to steal the power of the purse from congress. 

Republicans reap what they sow.