Teaching During a Pandemic, Week 1 by Vikki Reid

 

📚”WhAt I LeArNeD In ScHoOl ThIs WeEk”📚
 🦠😷Teaching During A Pandemic-WEEK 1😷🦠

My classroom ranged from 47-55 degrees because the windows are all open to increase circulation, except for Thursday, when it was 84 in my classroom because the heat was on.

My 12 desk stations are spaced 5 feet apart to fit my class sizes, and in one class I have 13 students.

The school was to supply one mask for each student/staff member, but we received an email that we ran out on Tuesday before the end of the day.

Teachers were provided one 16 oz. bottle of hand sanitizer for each classroom, refillable at the bookstore during limited hours.  

Teachers were provided one 24 oz. bottle of Dr. Joe’s spray for teachers to sanitize the desks during the five-minute passing period; it takes 11 minutes for the spray on the desks to dry. Teachers were instructed to NOT wipe it off.

Teachers were provided with a brown lunch bag of 20 Band-Aids, two tampons, one sanitary napkin, five fabric masks, and one ice pack to treat students who have minor incidents instead of sending them to the nurses office.

Teachers are to recognize students with masks on, who we have never met in person, and be engaging and welcoming, while we balance remote learning students Zooming who are projected on the screens for their classmates to interact with, through a remote mic and speaker.

I share a classroom with a teacher from another department during lunch study hall, so I have nowhere to work unless I sanitize a new location in a shared office space.

The cockroach that I stepped on Monday in my classroom was still on the floor today. 🐜

“Deep cleaning” is only happening when a student who is Covid positive has been in a classroom location, instead of every Wednesday during remote learning, according to the Buildings and Grounds staff.

Teachers are being asked to track who leaves their seat, who uses the washroom, who removes their mask, how long their masks are off, who eats during class, and are asked to create seating charts for evidence of investigation and contact tracing should a student become Covid positive.

The women’s faculty washroom in the B wing has not been cleaned since last Friday, as evidenced by the unsanitary matter that still remains dried after dripping down the door.

The faculty restroom only runs cold water, unless it runs for over 4 minutes and 24 seconds before beginning to wash your hands.

Two feeder schools have sent out emails this week that they currently have students quarantining after contact tracing from positive Covid tests within their building.  

On Thursday, OUR school sent families an email that there has been at least one positive test result for Covid in one building, as contact tracing continues.

Tragically, a 2020 alum lost his battle with Covid this week.

Several of my colleagues are in isolation after this week, from school and personal exposures.

And this afternoon, a friend and colleague headed to the ER and was just admitted to the hospital, after having a fever of 102 for several hours, with awaiting a Covid test result.

Is this virus still a hoax???? (That’s a rhetorical question, of course.) 😷

We are...💙💛
$ 67,759,012—Annual Tax Revenue, 2019 School Report Card
4,050 students