The week in coveducation: New school quarantine policy met with criticism

The week in coveducation: New school quarantine policy met with criticism

The week in coveducation: New school quarantine policy met with criticism

A new state policy that gives school districts the option not to require students to quarantine if they’ve been exposed to someone with COVID-19 — as long as their school district is enforcing a masking policy and other preventative measures — was met with criticism by school leaders.

Catch up on that and a packed week of education news with this collection of headlines from reporters around Oklahoma.

New policy seeks to incentivize schools to offer in-person options

On Tuesday, Gov. Kevin Stitt announced a new policy from the Oklahoma State Department of Health that would gives districts the option to allow asymptomatic students exposed to someone positive for COVID-19 not to have to quarantine if their school is enforcing a mask policy and protocols like social distancing.

NonDoc reported that Stitt also announced increased delivery of COVID-19 tests to school districts, increased delivery of personal protective equipment to school districts and the start of vaccinations of teachers age 65+ this week.

Oklahoma Superintendent of Public Instruction Joy Hofmeister, the Oklahoma Education Association and the Oklahoma City American Federation of Teachers released statements CONTINUE READING: The week in coveducation: New school quarantine policy met with criticism

As Louisiana Returns to Phase 2, Superintendents Want Shorter Quarantine | deutsch29: Mercedes Schneider's Blog

As Louisiana Returns to Phase 2, Superintendents Want Shorter Quarantine | deutsch29: Mercedes Schneider's Blog

As Louisiana Returns to Phase 2, Superintendents Want Shorter Quarantine

As Louisiana moves back into a modified Phase 2 due to “the aggressive third surge of COVID-19 across all regions of Louisiana,” several Louisiana school superintendents are calling for “looser quarantine rules” for students who come into contact with individuals testing positive for coronavirus.

When Louisiana moved into Phase 3 on September 09, 2020, my school system chose to delay full, in-person learning for our high schools (and retaining a “hybrid” attendance schedule) until the beginning of the second quarter, November 09, 2020. I was able to arrange my classroom so that I could maintain six feet from my students and my student desks so that at most, a student testing positive was within six feet of only two other students.

By day three, students began being called out for quarantine. The cause?

Adults deciding to rent a party bus and create an off-campus Homecoming party for students.

In the end, one in three of my seniors ended up in either a confirmed or suspected quarantine for two weeks.

So, in reality, I taught full classes for only three days and then ended up teaching a partially-quarantined, partially-in-person, “hybrid” arrangement likely brought about by some of the very adults who insist that These Kids Need to be in School.

The Louisiana district superintendents who want to reduce the quarantine period have asked the state health department to alter its guidance; however, the Louisiana Department of Health (LDH) maintained that it would continue following guidance offered by the Centers CONTINUE READING: As Louisiana Returns to Phase 2, Superintendents Want Shorter Quarantine | deutsch29: Mercedes Schneider's Blog

Help Me Teach Your Kids in Person. Don’t Rent a Quarantine-Producing Party Bus. | deutsch29: Mercedes Schneider's Blog

Help Me Teach Your Kids in Person. Don’t Rent a Quarantine-Producing Party Bus. | deutsch29: Mercedes Schneider's Blog

Help Me Teach Your Kids in Person. Don’t Rent a Quarantine-Producing Party Bus.

My district just began our second quarter of the 2020-21 school year. For high schools, the first quarter entailed a hybrid schedule whereby approximately half of the student body attended on any given day.

We have almost finished the first week in which all students have returned to campus each day.

The first day, I had no students in quarantine.

The second day, I had one, and the third day, I had another, right at the end of the day.

Then today happened, by the end of which 16 more of my students had been assigned two weeks of quarantine.  During the second class period, the remaining students were abuzz about the situation, and it was then that I heard the first one mention a “party bus.”

From what I have been able to determine, it seems that some adults tried to create a homecoming celebration for students, which apparently included a party bus and an improvised homecoming dance. As one might expect during this pandemic, COVID also attended these festivities, the result being number of students in quarantine.

Okay. The principal argument for our returning to full attendance is that These Kids Need CONTINUE READING: Help Me Teach Your Kids in Person. Don’t Rent a Quarantine-Producing Party Bus. | deutsch29: Mercedes Schneider's Blog

This School Year Has Been Unlike Any Other - The New York Times

This School Year Has Been Unlike Any Other - The New York Times

This School Year Has Been Unlike Any Other

Some examples of how the world of education has responded to the pandemic.

This article is part of our latest Learning special report, which focuses on ways that remote learning will shape the future.

A fall semester unlike any ever known is underway in America.

The coronavirus is lurking around every corner like a ghoul in a Halloween cornfield, waiting to leap out and frighten — if not sicken or kill — anyone who dares pass by.

It has created chaos in the world of education, as some schools refuse to open while others do, only to close again as cases rise. Some are online, while some are in person — or both. The pressure on students, teachers, administrators and parents is immense and has aggravated educational inequalities. Schools, after all, do more than deliver an education: they are a source of food, socialization and internet connections to the rest of the world — along with child care providers for working parents.

The instability for so many who depend on all that is grim.

But wait. In every dark time across history some people rise up and cope — more than cope really. They demonstrate resilience, creativity and an ability to innovate.

Some experts look at these efforts and hope that many will change — for the better — how students are taught and learn in the future.

Chris Cerf, who started his career as a high school teacher, served as the New Jersey education commissioner, deputy chancellor for New York City’s Department of Education, and is a founder of a nonprofit called Cadence Learning, is one of the optimists.

“I absolutely believe that we are going to come out of this pandemic having learned a great deal about how to deliver quality instruction to students,” he said.

You’ll find a handful of examples — snapshots, if you will — here and throughout our Learning section of creativity in a time of crisis.

#Coronavirussyllabus

It developed, as many things do these days, on Twitter.

In March, Anne Fausto-Sterling, an emerita professor of biology at Brown University, tweeted that professors should “teach the virus” whatever their discipline. CONTINUE READING: This School Year Has Been Unlike Any Other - The New York Times

Quarantined and Disrupted | JD2718

Quarantined and Disrupted | JD2718

Quarantined and Disrupted

Glanced down at my phone to see who was texting. Today. Middle of the day. It was a former student. Now a teacher herself. Middle school. Why was she texting from work? She’s teaching in person. The text cleared things up.

Quarantined

She was unceremoniously sent home, to quarantine. One of her students is positive.

Disrupted

So she’s already been tested, and with some luck will be negative. But the teacher is home. Class moves to fully remote. They are disrupted. But is this a surprise? They were already doing some weird “in one day, out the next” kind of thing. Maybe every third day? I should ask. And there was weird recorded lessons, or live stream… I don’t know the details. But the class was already disrupted.

Every class in the city has already been disrupted. At best – at best – classes are 50% in person. Every third day is more common than every other day, and there are schools on less frequent rotations than that. Each school is different.

Little side note: this does not mean that each school chose what it thought was best. The DoE’s insistence on a full rotation with daily instruction outside of as well as inside of school, and the UFT’s insistence on “blended learning” straight-jacketed most schools. Some were able to go through the necessary hoops to get “exceptions” accepted – but remember how the first schools that decided they wanted to go remote were shot down? The schools chose, unless the Chancellor wanted them to choose something else.

As September passed, a new disruption developed: many schools offer in building instruction – via the internet. Students, mostly in some high schools, come to school, open a lap top, and zoom into their CONTINUE READING: Quarantined and Disrupted | JD2718