COVID School: Breathing the Air, Staying Apart, and Shortening the Day
As one might expect, since I am a classroom teacher, I have been thinking a lot about the COVID-19 school day.
In this post, I offer a number of thoughts on physically returning to school during this coronavirus pandemic.
To begin, I have been thinking about how children may not be manifesting COVID symptoms and still have the virus. Too, it is possible that even though these children actually have coronavirus, their parents and guardians are not ill.
Some would like to take this as proof that such children will not infect their teachers.
But here is a thought:
What happens when several such children are together in the same classroom for at least one class period multiple days per week? The presence of COVID-19 is concentrated in the classroom, and the teacher is regularly exposed to this concentrated COVID-19 in a manner that parents and guardians with a single child carrying COVID-19 are not.
The potential for COVID-19 concentration matters, and I am concerned that even if I have only 10 students in my room at any given time, other students and I, who may fall ill from the virus, are being repeatedly exposed to a coronavirus concentration.
This brings me to my next thought:
Fresh air circulation matters.
Given that COVID-19 is airborne, recirculated air only aids that potential virus CONTINUE READING: COVID School: Breathing the Air, Staying Apart, and Shortening the Day | deutsch29
