I feel the usual surge of adrenaline when I look at my fall class lists: I love the beginning of a new school year.
But I also feel a tightening in my chest. The unknowns are rife.
Our administrators were not ready to roll out details Wednesday, but hopefully if we are now agreed to return in person, we can move forward with the logistics of how we can do this safely. (Wait. Is "safe return to in-person learning" is an oxymoron?)
Here are the changes and plans that spun through my head yesterday:
1) I've contacted my eye doctor about getting contacts because of the fogging/misfit of a face shield with my glasses.
2) The custodial staff is removing my many sofas and chairs from my "soft" classroom and replacing them with desks that can be wiped down and distanced.
3) I'm checking into plexiglass dividers to place between the computers in the journalism lab.
4) I'm wondering what passing time will look like.
5) Will we use block scheduling to limit the contact students have with others on a given day?
6) Will we be able to find substitutes to come into the school to teach when teachers take the required two weeks off after exposure?
7) How will I prepare for and teach the students in front of me as well as those who will be taking classes online (by choice or because of quarantine after exposure) without additional prep time?
8) How will I teach if I can no longer walk all over the room? I'm going to have to wear a leash and nail it to the front wall.
9) How can I restructure writing conferences so I'm not sitting beside a student as we discuss her writing?
10) What will lunch look like?
11) How can I run a broadcasting lab while keeping students distanced and not touching common surfaces?
12) Are face-to-face interviews a thing of the past?
13) What do my discussion-based classes look like when students are all facing forward instead of looking at each other's faces?
14) Will we have hot water for handwashing?
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| AHSneedle.com Editorial Cartoon by Kaylee Pappal, 2016. "Students are encouraged to keep a positive attitude at AHS, as the many posters around the school attest. With this in mind, we can tell ourselves the cold water in the bathroom sinks is warmer than…ice." |
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Yesterday our administration sent out a survey about faculty wellbeing and emotional health, asking if we had strategies to deal with stress in our lives and support people we could talk to. They also asked "What are some things your building teams could do to help foster connections between staff?"
I'm concerned about this one. Will we be a split staff, with some prioritizing COVID-responsible behavior and others--like a lot of our community--ignoring safety recommendations?
This is what I wrote for my answer:
"Encourage everyone to wear masks. Leadership wear masks. This is not a political issue; it is hygiene. Our relationships will be stronger if we look at one another and know we are easing each other's anxiety and caring for each other's physical wellbeing by wearing a mask."
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I think I'm fighting a losing battle on masks. "We won't be wearing masks" was one of the first things the superintendent said in unveiling the plan Wednesday. Even if there is a groundswell of concern and support for masks by teachers, parents, and the school board, if the administration is not enthusiastic about this safety measure, there is no way it will be enforced with fidelity.
We can look at the current mask/unmask chaos in our country for what this looks like when leadership is not united on a coherent policy.
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Dan had his second COVID test yesterday, 15 days after his exposure. He feels fine, and we're expecting a negative test result. As soon as we get that, I'll retrieve my parents from Newton for three more weeks in my basement!
Enough.
Be well.
Write.
Allison
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