I’m a music teacher in Florida. Our school board just voted to comply with the state mandate that schools are to open 5 days a week in August. If they refuse to open, or start the year with all students online, it is possible that they could be removed from their jobs by the state and replaced by someone who will open brick and mortar schools. They have more concern for their part-time 42k salary jobs than for the thousands of students and staff in the district.
They do have a few e-learning options for parents and students, and are counting on the number of students taking advantage of those to “de-densify” the classrooms, instead of hiring extra teacher units to ENSURE that social distancing can be enforced. Also, masks are only encouraged, not required. I am an elective teacher. My classes are REGULARLY a minimum of 30 students, and I have not been told that my class sizes will be reduced.
I am personally very anxious. I haven’t slept correctly in a week or more. It’s just me and my partner (who is also a teacher) at home, and I can’t even imagine what it is like for teachers with children, elderly dependents, and immunocompromised family members. In addition, there are multiple immunocompromised TEACHERS at my school who are terrified to teach in August.
I don’t want to go back right now, but honestly I don’t know what else I would do. I am looking into freelancing as a copy-editor/proofreader because that is something I have always been interested in, in addition to writing, but I have no experience or educational background to back me up.
I am a U.S. High school teacher in a public charter school. My MIL is a SPED Elementary teacher at a public school district.
Thinking more specifically at the differences between young adults and children, it is not fair at all. I have confidence in my kids and believe they can handle themselves well. I trust that they understand the issues at hand when it comes to their assignments. I have the ability (teaching high school) to post assignments at the beginning of the week and “forget about them” for the rest of the week, so to speak.
With younger children, that does NOT work. I have a toddler and I can only imagine how much more stimulation she is going to require once she is school age. My MIL has students with special needs and disabilities that limits what they can do in a digital setting. Keeping the attention of a child is hard enough as it is…imagine not physically being there with them?? It is like wrangling cats.
Now there comes the students who are not as privileged as others who have to work to help pay bills, watch their younger siblings, or just do not have internet or anything to help them…what are we supposed to do for them? How do we help, as teachers, make them feel like they are just as important as everyone else if they cannot access the same materials at the same time as everyone else? What do we do for those students?
Now, what about teachers and parents…or teachers who are parents? What do we do about them? How do we force teachers (yes..FORCE) teachers to choose between resigning or coming back to school(face-to-face)? Personally, I am very grateful for my job. I have literally been working towards this career for several years. I LOVE MY JOB. I also love my daughter. If given the option, thankfully my district is awesome and I didn’t have to, to choose between my job or my family… well, fuck you I am choosing my family.
I am TERRIFIED of my president or governor forcing us to go back to school because its in THEIR best interest…not OURS. I am a nervous wreck. I wait daily for the email telling us what is to happen to us in the coming weeks…I just want my students to be safe..I want to be safe…
I’m scared, and despite being in a high-risk group, I’ll go to work and do my job because I came to the conclusion that it won’t be for long. We’ll go back and I’ll be super careful about everything for a week and then things will get shut down all over again and we’ll lose all the progress we’ve made. THAT is my frustration, even more so than worrying about going back to school, that the whole country will ultimately be losing ground on this, not gaining it.
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I’m a music teacher in Florida. Our school board just voted to comply with the state mandate that schools are to open 5 days a week in August. If they refuse to open, or start the year with all students online, it is possible that they could be removed from their jobs by the state and replaced by someone who will open brick and mortar schools. They have more concern for their part-time 42k salary jobs than for the thousands of students and staff in the district.
They do have a few e-learning options for parents and students, and are counting on the number of students taking advantage of those to “de-densify” the classrooms, instead of hiring extra teacher units to ENSURE that social distancing can be enforced. Also, masks are only encouraged, not required. I am an elective teacher. My classes are REGULARLY a minimum of 30 students, and I have not been told that my class sizes will be reduced.
I am personally very anxious. I haven’t slept correctly in a week or more. It’s just me and my partner (who is also a teacher) at home, and I can’t even imagine what it is like for teachers with children, elderly dependents, and immunocompromised family members. In addition, there are multiple immunocompromised TEACHERS at my school who are terrified to teach in August.
I don’t want to go back right now, but honestly I don’t know what else I would do. I am looking into freelancing as a copy-editor/proofreader because that is something I have always been interested in, in addition to writing, but I have no experience or educational background to back me up.
I do not think everyone has a fair advantage.
Let me explain…
I am a U.S. High school teacher in a public charter school. My MIL is a SPED Elementary teacher at a public school district.
Thinking more specifically at the differences between young adults and children, it is not fair at all. I have confidence in my kids and believe they can handle themselves well. I trust that they understand the issues at hand when it comes to their assignments. I have the ability (teaching high school) to post assignments at the beginning of the week and “forget about them” for the rest of the week, so to speak.
With younger children, that does NOT work. I have a toddler and I can only imagine how much more stimulation she is going to require once she is school age. My MIL has students with special needs and disabilities that limits what they can do in a digital setting. Keeping the attention of a child is hard enough as it is…imagine not physically being there with them?? It is like wrangling cats.
Now there comes the students who are not as privileged as others who have to work to help pay bills, watch their younger siblings, or just do not have internet or anything to help them…what are we supposed to do for them? How do we help, as teachers, make them feel like they are just as important as everyone else if they cannot access the same materials at the same time as everyone else? What do we do for those students?
Now, what about teachers and parents…or teachers who are parents? What do we do about them? How do we force teachers (yes..FORCE) teachers to choose between resigning or coming back to school(face-to-face)? Personally, I am very grateful for my job. I have literally been working towards this career for several years. I LOVE MY JOB. I also love my daughter. If given the option, thankfully my district is awesome and I didn’t have to, to choose between my job or my family… well, fuck you I am choosing my family.
I am TERRIFIED of my president or governor forcing us to go back to school because its in THEIR best interest…not OURS. I am a nervous wreck. I wait daily for the email telling us what is to happen to us in the coming weeks…I just want my students to be safe..I want to be safe…
I’m scared, and despite being in a high-risk group, I’ll go to work and do my job because I came to the conclusion that it won’t be for long. We’ll go back and I’ll be super careful about everything for a week and then things will get shut down all over again and we’ll lose all the progress we’ve made. THAT is my frustration, even more so than worrying about going back to school, that the whole country will ultimately be losing ground on this, not gaining it.