A rocky start to school
By Denise
@petatonicsca (7070)
Japan
August 30, 2020 5:23am CST
We've had a week and two days of in-person school after being online from March through June, then summer break.
It's amazing how being up and around is energizing and yet exhausting. I noticed that I had to really try hard when teaching from home to get over 4000 steps in, but the first day back to teacher meetings and setting up I had 10,000 steps. Then I got home and couldn't figure out why I was sore!
My voice also suffered from not having to project to a class or sing much. I have been warming up my singing voice daily for two weeks before we started, and it still tires faster than it used to.
Our first day with middle and high school students was a week ago Thursday. Half came in the morning and half in the afternoon, and they stayed with people of their grade level. This was fortunate, because on Friday there was someone absent and by Sunday we had heard they had tested positive for COVID-19. They shut down in-person high school for a day and their grade level for a week. Elementary was not affected because they came from Friday. There was contact tracing and testing done and all classes will be back (half days, half of the classes) from tomorrow.
The half-day half class thing is kind of a pain because we teach the same lessons to the same levels morning and then afternoon. I have 11 kids in my choir coming in the morning and only 7 (the shyest ones of course) in the afternoon.
Anyway, the high school proved that we can flip to distance learning at any time we need to. So I'm glad of that.
Hope you are all healthy. How is your workplace going with all the extra troubles we have?
3 people like this
4 responses
@LovingMyBabies (85923)
• Valdosta, Georgia
30 Aug 20
Sorry for the pain it is right now for teachers.
I work from home doing data transcription work so it doesn't affect me. My children have been Home Schooled for the last 10 years so this year isn't any different there either.
1 person likes this
@GardenGerty (169538)
• United States
30 Aug 20
Hey, Jennifer, @LovingMyBabies who do you do data transcription for, and what equipment is needed? Or is it a private local company?
1 person likes this
@LovingMyBabies (85923)
• Valdosta, Georgia
30 Aug 20
@GardenGerty It is a local insurance company. Just need a laptop and internet. They service the South. When a hurricane hits, a fire, or some other disaster I do the inventory for what's been lost in the home or business. I log it all into an excel spreadsheet for the company.
@petatonicsca (7070)
• Japan
31 Aug 20
I would think it would be hard to teach and work at home at the same time.
@Torunn (8606)
• Norway
30 Aug 20
I still haven't had any students in quarantine or any collegues, so I'm crossing my fingers it'll stay like that. The number of tests is going up but the number of positive tests is low and stable right now. Hoping it stays like that.
If someone's home because of cough or other mild symptoms we'll let them participate online if it's group work etc. I'm not going to stream my lectures, if it's a problem in november (they need 75 % attendance) it's less hassle for me to have an extra online lesson but I know everyone who does practical work is stressed because of the attendance limit.
1 person likes this
@petatonicsca (7070)
• Japan
31 Aug 20
I haven't heard much about Norway, so that's probably a good thing!
1 person likes this
@Torunn (8606)
• Norway
31 Aug 20
@petatonicsca That's a good point :-)
In this case, no news are good news. The infection rates are going down, the test rates are going up, some stupid people are having parties in caves and there's some local clusters, but not a lot.
@GardenGerty (169538)
• United States
30 Aug 20
We will not have kids for another ten days and hope that it goes well. Masks and social distancing. Here they call what you are doing hybrid model schooling. In our particular district we are choosing not to do that option, although in McPherson that is what they are doing. The scary thing is that our superintendent has tested positive and is quarantining. I know he has frequent meetings so I hope the rest of the staff of the district, like the principals, are not affected.
@petatonicsca (7070)
• Japan
31 Aug 20
Well, we are kind of hybrid but nobody is going to do virtual school except for last week (until another case shows up anyway). Hope your opening is smooth.
@cherriefic (10399)
• Philippines
31 Aug 20
You might need to have some herbal remedy or maybe you just need to rest more.
@cherriefic (10399)
• Philippines
31 Aug 20
@petatonicsca I guess you will get used to it again when you do it everyday.
@petatonicsca (7070)
• Japan
31 Aug 20
I think my muscles need to get used to not having breaks in the middle of the day.
