“Who’s Watching This Class?”: America’s COVID-Era Substitute Teacher Shortage
On November 09, 2020, my southern Louisiana school district will tentatively have all high school students return to the classroom every day. At this time, we are on a hybrid schedule in which approximately half of the students attend on alternating days.
More students in attendance means an increased likelihood of COVID-19 on campus, which, in turn, means a greater likelihood that teachers will find themselves in situations requiring a two-week quarantine.
As it is, on our current, hybrid schedule, our high school is short on substitute teachers. And a quarantined teacher means a substitute teacher is needed for not a day or two, but for two weeks.
I believe having all students on campus every day is a bad idea. One way in which that bad idea will reveal itself is in a possibly-daily frenzy to create a patchwork of adult supervision on the fly for multiple, unmanned classrooms full of students.
As it stands, we already have that frenzy multiple times per week.
Other states are facing substitute teacher shortages during the pandemic CONTINUE READING: “Who’s Watching This Class?”: America’s COVID-Era Substitute Teacher Shortage | deutsch29: Mercedes Schneider's Blog