Are there any teachers here that are back in the classroom? How's it going?

[The empressof all]

My husband is returning to the school building today for the first time since last March. He's been teaching elementary special ed on line since then. I know, no easy task. His kids have been in school two half days a week with his co teacher. There are less than 5 kids in the class and only special ed kids have been back in the building. In the last month there were two positive covid reports. So now they are bringing back his class four half days.

He is going in for prep and training's today and tomorrow. I know the teachers in class now are teaching in PPE and shields. I don't expect that to change. Since his kids have challenges that sometimes need hands on assistance that is someone of a relief to me.

We both have one dose of Pfizer in arm now with our second dose hopefully around the 20th of this month. Our community and state spread rates are on the lower end but I'm really struggling with this as I am high risk and tend towards being overly compulsive about safety precautions

I know every school district is different, but how is it going for you? Are you getting good reinforcement to use and enforce precautions in the classroom. I am having a hard time wrapping my head around what this is going to look like for him.

[underpants]

1. Stopping in to see responses.

[Squinch]

2. NYC has been doing that since the beginning of Jan with SPED classes. They close

the building when two or more positive cases show up in a week.

I worked in 4 buildings (just retired a week ago. Yay!). All 4 were closed more often in January than they were open because there were new cases all the time.

[The empressof all]

4. They aren't closing our building with positive cases

They are contact tracing and testing and requiring quarantine with positive tests. This seems extremely lax to me and makes me really question how "safe" things will be.

[Squinch]

5. That's horrifying. And this push to open things when we are literally weeks away from

being able to do it safely is totally inexplicable.

[The empressof all]

8. I'm just heartsick and a nervous wreck

It just doesn't make sense at all to me especially with the new strains raising their ugly heads and not knowing how that is going to shake down. Frankly, I'm just pissed off that these decisions have been made in what seems to me to be a capricious way. I understand many parents want their kids back in school. Survey in our district is about 50/50 but his school will be having about 60% returning. 3 hours in a classroom four days a week with social distancing and limited social interaction among the kids just seems weird to me.

[onecaliberal]

3. We've had teachers and students back since November.

Lots of sickness. Bouncing from room/zoom switching teachers students. They’re following county guidelines that allowed them to open with 0% ICU. About 300 SpEd teachers were vaccinated, the other 5,330 are still waiting.

[captain queeg]

6. My ex went back for hybrid classes last week

We didn’t talk about it much but she said she was surprised that her school (private catholic) had done so well during the pandemic and leading up to starting classes again that it was a total cluster**ck the first week back. Not sure what all went wrong but it wasn’t smooth. My sister works for the public school and is getting her first shot this week, they’ll be going back soon.

[radical noodle]

7. My daughter is a teacher

She's been in school since August and has been quarantined twice (so far). She hasn't had covid but was once exposed to an aide who tested positive and once was quarantined because of a sinus infection they thought might be covid. She enforces a strict mask mandate in her room and has them use hand sanitizer when they enter her room. She cleans and sanitizes things constantly. Her case is a bit different since she is a special ed teacher and so has kids from 7 different classrooms coming and going all the time. They need but do not have dividers. Few of her students have tried virtual school, although it is available to parents who want it for their kids.

I should add that they do not close school if someone tests positive. Only those directly exposed to that person are quarantined for 10 days.

[Sancho]

9. My wife just retired last summer (41 years), but I'm still going...

She is diabetic and was the music teacher. Her last day in person was last March, and she finished the year on line. Another music teacher here (51 yo) died of the virus. That was it for her, so she didn't go back in the fall.

I'm teaching 100% on line. We have had the vaccine, but I haven't been back in a classroom for months. Like everything else in Florida, safety varies widely from school to school. There is pressure to move back face-to-face.

Personally, I think that masks are not enough. Serious PPE needs to be available, and different situations need different safety.
Buildings need upgraded ventilation with UV and virus capable filters. Some rooms need barriers (curtains and plexiglass). Six feet of distance is not enough, so fewer students in a room is important. Schools need to be much tougher on testing, communication when someone is positive, and leave to take care of family.

[The empressof all]

10. Is there anything you are doing at home to keep your family safer?

We've decided he will dump his clothes in the washer when he returns home, not wear shoes ever in the house and will shower immediately on arrival. Until we get the second dose in a few weeks he'll be sleeping in the guest room. He knows I'm going to minimize close proximity to him for a while which he has been understanding about.

[Sancho]

11. Yes..but we are very happy to recently get our second shots

...there were some days when we thought I was exposed that I stayed in another room.

...we installed a UV scrubber in the air handler at home, and I have a portable air purifier with UV and a filter to put in whatever room we need to for visitors or whatever. I plan to carry it to any classroom where I have to teach face-to-face (get them at Costco or HSN).

...we have NOT seen family or been to any parties or gatherings at all. We have been pretty careful to stay away from others.

...we have used masks and face shields and gloves to meetings with students and other teachers, but that stopped last fall because everything is on TEAMS or ZOOM now. Sometimes, others thought we were silly until a few people died, and several ended up in the hospital. Until the cases are fewer, I will wear PPE, change shoes entering the school, etc. We use Lysol on counters and have sanitizer everywhere.

....Schools seem to have fewer cases here than the general public, but there are certainly cases of teachers and students getting very sick or dying. If you can believe the reports, our public positivity rate is about 9-10%, and schools are more like 4-5% here.

....they are TRYING to get the vaccine to teachers and staff, but started with those who were older. Now there is not enough vaccine for everyone who is in a school.

...we use wipes on phones, car steering, tv controllers, etc.

[GreenPartyVoter]

12. Been in school all year in my part of Maine, except for a few

Yellow and Red weeks due to covid flares. We seem to be doing well with masks, purifiers, sanitizer, deep cleaning, and spacing.

I work in primary Sped. Keeping to protocols hasn't been as hard as I would have thought.

Good luck to your hubby. Hope hubby has a good time of it.

[CRK7376]

13. I teach in a Title 1 high school in NC

The faculty have been required to be in our classrooms regardless if we have students in the building or not. For me that's not a bad thing. I can get more accomplished at school than at home with cats, dogs, family around and wanting to play go through the pasture down to the creek etc....We've just started our 2nd week with Freshmen in the building, but not many of them. I suspect we have between 30-45kids in the school. I help screen the kids at the drop off point in the morning, and there are few kids being dropped of by parents.... We also have out Special Needs kids in the building. Upper classmen return in 2 weeks Only teachers to have received vaccinations are those in their 70s. We are all using Zoom or MS Teams to teach and communicate with the kids and their famlies. It's not fun and for a non-tech type like me,it is challenging. The first day the 9th graders were back the buses and parents dropping off kids, we had 21-25 kids on campus. Today we had maybe 45-50 kids present. Our school usually has about 1800 kids on campus. We are hearing the kids want to be in school with friends/teammates etc....but when there are only 1-2 other kids in the room with the teacher it's no fun. The teachers are always calling on those 1-3 kids that are in the classroom to answer the questions or solve the problem.....It's been tough year since we shut down normal educaton for remote learning. Teachers, kids, their families want us all back in the classrooms, as do we teachers want kids in our rooms, BUT we want to be safe and healthy and live to cash in those HUGE retirement checks a few years down the road......We jsut want to be safe and healthy.

[CRK7376]

14. High School History here in NC

2 weeks ago 9th graders returned. maybe 50 kids.....Monday I had 3 kids between my 3 classes. two were in American 2 and 1 was in American 1. my classroom is set up for 12 kids. talking with other teachers it looks like we had a total of 45 up[per classmen show up for class Monday.....out of 1800 kids we would normally have....and I'm excited to have 3 kids back in class....Question is will they return. Our Juniors took their ACT test today. Again room was set for 12 kids, I had 5 show up.....I hate remote learning, the kids love it to some extent. Our system has just started giving our teachers vaccines....I'm excited about that but I'm not on the list yet. I'll be 63 next month with no serious health issues, but I want this vaccince pronto.

[Lulu Latech]

15. I hear you...We are both getting our second Pfizer shot tomorrow

Honestly it has relieved much of my anxiety about him being back in the classroom. He teaches second grade level special ed. There are two paras and a teacher in the classroom and right now he has 4 kids that attend regularly..They all have pretty serious challenges. He's doing 4 half days in the AM and then rushes home to do an hour of on line 5 days.... It's rough for him. Most of the kids won't keep their masks on so they have to wear protective gear, KN95s and shields. There is just too much hands on with these kids to be safe without the extra protection. I was able to get us both into the vaccines early here as I am medically compromised and since I need him to live independently and he has some health issued I was able to squeak him into a higher priority level. Thankful to my medical provider for helping with that. That second shot tomorrow morning is like gold to me.

[VarryOn]

16. My wife teaches 6th grade and my son is in 2nd grade...

Both have been going since August. Twice, my wife was quarantined out of caution, but all was well. All in all, it seems to have gone pretty well, with only a handful of cases with none serious. At least for their school, returning was the right thing. In fact all the public and private schools in our two-county population of 500k went back in August, too. Again, with no significant outbreaks. The risk was acceptable, and the regions children aren't down a year of learning.

My wife had 6 out 65 students whose parents would only all their kids to participate remotely. It took almost as much time and effort taking care of those kids as it did the 59 other students. Over the course of the year, four of those students decided to return to the classroom.