Mercedes Schneider teaches high school in Louisiana. She is supposed to resume full-time, in person instruction in a few weeks, although her state has a 14% positivity rate for COVID.
She describes how she will rearrange her classroom and how she will teach, in detail.
I am the teacher, and I am supposed to limit my movement in my own classroom. Is every conversation with a student to be said loud enough for all to hear? Am I to teach without being able to walk up to my students or have them walk up to me? Apparently that is the expectation. But let’s not pretend that what I will be able to do for my students in my COVID-era classroom is remotely on par with normal teacher-student and student-student interaction.
In short, what I will be offering in my room is a form of distance learning to students who happen to be seated in a space in which they can see me and I can see them.
In another post, Mercedes explained that she bought two HEPA filters for her classroom. It has windows, but they don’t open. It has air-conditioners but they don’t filter the air. She is doing what she can to protect her students and herself.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
“In short, what I will be offering in my room is a form of distance learning to students who happen to be seated in a space in which they can see me and I can see them.”
Welcome back Corona!
In-person Zoom
Is in the room
And Virus too!
We welcome you!
Virus Escape
Windows that don’t open?
Any rock will do
Here’s to simply hopin’
Virus likes it too
School Reopening
Lysol showers on the walls
UV lights in all the halls
Hazmat suits for all the kids
Haliburton making bids
My intention is not to make light of a serious situation but to highlight how absurd and idiotic the whole school reopenings are at this point.
The monkeys have taken over the zoo and are running amok.
Many teachers are finding themselves in a dangerous situation because the orange menace wants to pump up his numbers on the economy. The states are cash strapped, and McConnel wants states to “declare bankruptcy.”
School Startup—What’s the Hurry?
By Jack Burgess
It seems only fair to ask, “What are they thinking?” as area schools get ready to re-open. Having taught in three school districts, I wouldn’t want to be in any school right now. I’ll never forget my first week of teaching, when I ended up on Friday with strep, and nearly collapsed driving home. I learned lots of teachers get sick from all the “bugs” kids bring to school early in the year. This year that bug could be deadly. Coronavirus is picked up readily by kids and easily passed to adults—who tend to get sicker than the kids. Why some officials want to risk the lives of kids, teachers, and other school employees—and their families when they take it home–just to adhere to an artificial schedule, is beyond me.
Frankly, it’s a bit beyond me why we start school so early in Ohio anyway. Some of the states up north have laws that school can’t start before Labor Day. An Ohio Schools Boards spokesperson admitted the main reason we do it is to get kids ready for the statewide, standardized tests. It’s hard for me to believe that Ohio kids need more preparation than Michigan kids for the tests required to get Federal aid. Of course, the whole standardized testing fiasco is just a money maker for the testing corporations—and a way to make poorer school districts look bad. The national testing requirement grew out of W. Bush’s presidency and the law entitled “No Child Left Behind,” which sounded good in theory, but in practice forced schools to drop a lot of what they were doing and teach to the test. Ironically, none of the lawmakers—or test makers—ever had to take those kinds of tests. We old fogies of the 20th Century managed to invent most of the stuff we have today, create most of the major industries, start progress on civil rights—and win a couple of world wars without the benefit of the industry-developed, standardized tests.
Of course, there are other services that schools provide kids—especially feeding a lot of them. School lunches and breakfasts are great for the kids, but during this pandemic, a many parents are at home and can feed the kids themselves—if they have any money. Which is where the Federal assistance money comes in. As I write this, our “friends” in Congress are debating how much assistance to provide—and whether to cut the Social Security, “payroll tax.” That cut is unnecessary, and would just create a Social Security funding problem, with the President and his supporters wanting to cut benefits. Better that they raise the ceiling on Social Security taxes—I’ll bet most billionaires would never notice an increase in their Social Security tax.
Meanwhile, schools are finding ways to provide food for kids, without bringing them in to certain danger. So, I say, what’s the hurry to get kids back, risking their lives and those of their teachers, parents, grandparents and others? The Congress, the President, the Ohio General Assembly, if they’re so worried about the kids, let’s keep them at home for now. Oh, and if our politicians are so worried about the education and knowledge of our citizens, how about we work on getting broadband internet services to every household? The internet is here to stay, and all kids and their families need access. It can be used today to augment regular education, and help adults find jobs or work from home.
Let’s have a moratorium on the for profit, standardized testing nonsense, while teachers, administrators, school board members, parents, and politicians of all stripes work to provide better schools. That would take more funding and less fault-finding with teachers and kids. In Ohio, we should stop cutting the income tax—the fairest form of taxation for schools and everything else we need—including the healthcare expansion provided under Obamacare.
Frankly, if the politicians aren’t compassionate enough to see through this scheme to risk the kids for corporate profits in testing, I’d like to see my friends in the Ohio Education Association coalesce with the Federation of Teachers to withhold their teaching services until it’s safe to go back.
Jack Burgess is a retired Chillicothe teacher of American & Global Studies, and the former Executive Director of the Columbus Education Association.
Good morning Diane and everyone,
I’ve been waking up at 5 am wondering HOW on earth I’m going to teach French this year in the classroom. I’m stumped. With masks and distancing and this bit of sagacious advice from the New York State Education Department Reopening Guidelines that say and I quote,
“Turn desks (INCLUDING TEACHERS) to face in the same direction rather than facing each other to re- duce transmission caused by virus-containing droplets (e.g., from talking, coughing, sneezing).”
So, the students will be looking at my back while I teach to the wall in front of me. OR I will be looking at their backs while my desk is behind them. Of course, there will be NO walking around the room for anyone. There won’t be any collecting of papers. Even if I do collect them, they won’t be handled in a timely manner. So what does that leave teachers? It leaves us and the students doing all the work online. I totally agree with Mercedes. Going to school isn’t going to be fun for any of us – students or teachers. We will just be saddled with more stress. As much as people want to have their kids in school, they should realize that it’s not going to be school as they know or want it to be.
Cuomo is what you want to avoid
Mercedes is amazing. Thank you, Mercedes, for sharing your thinking about this perplexing problem with the world!
Oh, and I might also remind everyone of Governor Cuomo’s recent advice, “Indoors is what you want to avoid.” And that’s in a state with a 1% positivity rate.
the two-sided dictates coming with this moment are unending: we need to NOT be indoors so let’s open schools and put all of our kids and school staff indoors
And here’s a nice article on young children who are still having long- term effects on their health from this virus.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/10/health/children-long-covid-symptoms-intl-gbr/index.html
Some schools are opening up but for outdoor classes only. Parents are in charge of making sure their children are dressed appropriately. ??? Where is the weather in a steady state from morning to afternoon and in every season. This is a vague “option” tossed around by uninformed people.
In the desert coast of South America from the top third of Chile up to Ecuador.
I guess we can start school there, eh!
So worried, here, about my friends who, not by choice, are going to be spending their days in Coronavirus Exposure Chambers. Mercedes goes to the heart of the absurdity of this situation: the closest one can come to protecting one’s self, one’s students, and the society at large in this absurd situation that teachers and students are being forced into is to implement, as much as possible, distance learning within classrooms. The obvious question that this raises is, then why not do distance learning, as bad as it is, and avoid a situation that is OBVIOUSLY going to lead to massive surges in infections, deaths, and the long-term medical consequences of having been infected by this disease.
I can’t think about this issue without remembering comments made here by someone who calls himself Teaching Economist. Teachers, he implied, are being selfish in wanting not to go back into the classroom now, and they are no different from other essential workers, in healthcare, fast food, delivery services, etc. These arguments seemed to me mind-blowingly stupid. OBVIOUSLY, small enclosed classrooms in which people will be exposed for seven hours a day, every day, without sophisticated PPE (N95 masks, for example) or clear ways to distance (doing pick up only at fast food restaurants, doing no-contact deliveries) are a dangerous special case. And equally obviously, it isn’t just the teachers and their students at risk: it’s everyone. Reopening schools will lead to surges throughout society, just as not canceling Spring Break and not closing bars helped made Flor-uh-duh Number 1 in infections in the country.
Reopening schools now is insane. I’m trying to think of another public policy blunder of this magnitude in US history. Only the genocidal wars against native peoples and government support for slavery come to mind. The biggest question that I have now is this: how bad will things get before the heedless realize that they have to close schools again?
I’ve often wondered what Donald Trump will be remembered for–what will be the lead in the history textbooks. I now think that of his many depredations, this will be it. He downplayed the virus, spread idiocies about fake cures, shirked responsibility, avoided definitive action, and INSISTED THAT SCHOOLS OPEN FULLY, leading to a massive surge with catastrophic costs in lives and dollars.
What makes me so furious about this is that a lot of lives are at stake. We are creating an avoidable disaster.
If by some chance, they dodge a bullet, they will say “see, I told you so” but in the far more likely case that it leads to widespread infection and death, they will just blame it on infected school staff bringing infection from home, the way Cuomo did in the case of nursing homes.
These politicians never accept responsibility for anything.
The K-12 basal history textbooks are particularly bad. Yes, they have to cover a lot of ground, but the way they do this, inevitably, is to skirt the unpleasant truths or treat them as momentary unpleasantries that were resolved in course of our pursuit of perfection here in the greatest of all nations in the world in every conceivable way.
I have a suggestion for the title of such a basal history program: Lies We Like to Tell Ourselves
I’m sure that most history textbooks will whitewash the Trump presidency just like they are already whitewashing the GW Bush presidency and like they make the Fondling Father’s like TJ out to be believers that All Men were created equal.
Yup. Somehow it would be too time consuming for those textbook writers to explain that he was referring to white men and that by “equal” he meant had a right to the same scramble to place themselves atop a meritocracy. I often think that a truth-in-schooling act would require that our U.S. history programs be renamed American Mythology Studies.
White landowning men with a right to buy, sell , rape, whip, work and even kill non-white men, women and children.
I’d say that most history books written about one’s own people are mythology.
“how bad will things get before the heedless realize that they have to close schools again?
The Headless pay no Heed
The headless never realize
Cuz headless have no head
Nor brain or ears or any eyes
They more or less are dead
The headless cannot think at all
The headless pay no heed
Like talking to a solid wall
Or cat which has been treed
ROFLMAO! Another masterpiece, SomeDAM!!!
Fish heads, fish heads
Roly Poly fish heads
Eat em up yum!
Not much to say…Mercedes kind of says it all.
Take care.
Mirrors on the ceiling
The pink champagne on ice
We are all just prisoners here
Of our own device
“Consent of the governed” is a phrase found in the United States Declaration of Independence, the most sacred text in the American canon. A state built upon the consent of it’s citizens, IS taught as a core tenet of the American “civil religion,”
If NOW isn’t the time to “practice what you preach”, WHEN will it be time?
Do you think Nancy was off her rocker?
JUST SAY NO.
Yikes! What a repurposing of that Eagles lyric!
My World History class, all 28 of them, are carefully writing what they feel are the most important items exchanged in the process now dubbed the “Columbian Exchange.” They are not socially distanced. Most are not masked. The dice is rolled.
No. 1 Disease
So, your lesson is quite topical.
Thank you for sharing your blog with your plan and, wow, purchasing HEPA filters. The lengths that teachers go to take care of their children!
Louisiana heat and some AC units are not a good match for this virus.
(No doctor here, but what is in many publications from, you know, experts) –
the HEPA filters will make a significant difference… AND…
Ventilation is critical – but that must include outside air coming in at least in part – and not just recycling the air in the room. Even airplanes recycle through HEPA filters continuously and that is combined with OUTSIDE air.
All those posters should state: social distancing, masks, hand washing, and fresh air.
Fresh air ventilation should be on every school plan checklist, as well (and those are really long lists)
A friend of mine who is retired from CPS wrote me that some teachers are filing claimd of unsafe employment with OSHA in order to collect unemployment insurance. Worth a try, but I’m betting, w/this admin., OSHA’s not doing much these days.
Again, WHERE are the AFT & NEA leaders?! If you (Randi, Lily & the rest of you at the top) can’t protect your rank-&-file & STUDENTS, WHAT are you being paid (way too much) for????
Today was my first day of Zoom teaching and I’m beginning to think it could be wonderful for the introverted students that I rarely get to engage with because of the barely-containable effervescence (to put it diplomatically) of the socially dominant kids. Every school year, towards the end, I start to feel angry that that I know the quiet kids so little compared to the loud, attention-grabbing kids. Today, with each kid in his separate Hollywood Square, unable to interact with others, there was such peace in the “classroom”. I could already tell the “nerdy” kids weren’t quite as guarded as they usually are. Eliminating classroom social interaction, which the edu-establishment glorifies unduly, could really be a boon to learning, and the psyches of the less “popular” kids. I’m looking forward to actually getting to talk with the quiet kids and having the power to easily mute the attention hogs. Too bad we need technology to solve this culture problem.
This piece from today’s Times helped me crystalize these thoughts. If you read the comments, you’ll hear a refrain of “freedom from loud classrooms”. We have a problem, America. Our classrooms are often very stressful places because of noise and malign social pressures given free rein by an overly-permissive license to talk at will.
Yes Ponderosa, you bring up a dirty little secret of teaching.
I also think a lot of the clamor for “socializing” kids comes from extraverts who love being out there all the time interacting with everyone. I’m a serious introvert. I remember being in middle school. At lunch, sometimes I sat with a friend but I usually liked to sit and eat alone and read a book. One of the teachers who had lunch duty complained to my parents that I was antisocial. My parents being unusually progressive for their generation, understood my need for solitude. I was shy and quiet and was mildly bullied or ignored by most other kids. I’ve seen it many times. Students who are more introverted and studious have to deal with kids searching for attention, acting out and taking up the teacher’s time. I can definitely see how being at home can be beneficial to many students.
Wow I can totally relate, Mamie. Your post brought me instantly back to my decade working in a corporate “bullpen”– exactly like a classroom, but filled w/rather boisterous 20-& 30-somethings. It was in downtown NYC, so going & coming was as crowded & noisy as a school bus… This social-ineraction-loving extrovert spent every lunch hour blissfully alone on a quiet Battery park bench watching boats on the harbor.
I wrote at Mercedes’ blog my outrage that teachers at her school (& perhaps most? Definitely the ones for poor kids)— are responsible for dealing with the excess desks?! Why the h aren’t they out of there on day one?! That could have been a summer-long job for one measly FT janitor. Put them in rented storage– reimburse later w/ covid school aid. There’s a few more CF for breathing, & a calm space instead of a jumble of unused furniture. WTH??!