I went back to school today.
And by that I mean I actually went back into the building where my classroom is located and started my sixteenth (!!!!!) year of teaching, and I realize how extraordinarily lucky I am that I can go back and feel safe doing so. I know not everyone is in that situation.
So, let me see if I can answer all the obvious questions:
NH has never had really high numbers of Covid cases, and most of the ones we have had have been in long term care facilities. Cases have also been declining pretty much all summer; they’re in the single digits where I live.
My school was built to hold roughly twice as many students as will actually be attending this year. Normally, that’s a bad thing because declining enrollment is not great, but right now it’s good because it means we have big classrooms, wide hallways, and acres of land on which to hold outdoor classes if the weather permits.
All excess furniture was removed from classrooms over the summer and tables were replaced with single-student desks to make distancing even easier. My desks are, in fact, six feet apart. They’re in rows, but I’m old school and have pretty much always had rows anyhow, so that’s not a big deal for me.
Our classes are capped at 15 students. We achieved that by switching from A/B block scheduling to 4x4 semester block scheduling, which is going to be an adjustment for all of us (including me), but is so smart for the situation we’re in.
Students will go to one classroom for the first half of the day. For the first forty-five minutes, they’ll work independently on stuff for any of their classes, and for the next ninety they’ll be in the course with the teacher whose room they’re in. They’ll go to another classroom for the second half of the day, same idea (lunch will be eaten in the classroom during that time, as well). They’ll have the same two classes everyday for two weeks, then switch to their other two classes for the next two weeks, and so on... It’s a little bit tricky to wrap your head around, so don’t worry if you read that and were very confused.
We have chromebooks for all of our students, and The Principal said today that we’re also getting headphones for all of them.
Masks are required for everyone in the building (and the district is providing them), there’s a daily screening tool we all have to fill out before arriving, and there are state guidelines for things like travel outside New England, what to do in the event of a potential exposure, etc...
Everyone’s workspace has to be cleaned at the end of class. The district is providing cleaning supplies.
There is an option for fully remote learning, which about 10% of families have opted to do; in that case, teachers either have a fully remote section of a course (if there are enough students to warrant that), or students are doing coursework on VLACs, which is NH’s online learning program. There are no hybrid classes.
I’m sure I’m forgetting to mention a thousand other things, but those should give you an idea of how we’re making this work. It took A LOT of planning, and input from the faculty, staff, students, parents, nurses, local pediatricians, and more. Our admin team really listened in order to figure out not only what would work, but what would be best possible plan for everyone involved. I know many of my colleagues still have questions and concerns, and that’s totally valid (many of my colleagues also have families and therefore have more to juggle than I do), but I’m confident that we’ll have a good start to the year.
Today was, of course, an atypical first day of in-service. There was no big breakfast gathering for the entire district, no first meeting with The Superintendent (and, alas, no bingo game for me and my cacophonous friends); instead, there was a temperature check from one of our nurses and a quick welcome back from The Principal, who basically did laps all morning so he could see everyone and wish them well.
I went and said hi to the other teachers on my floor, then went and checked in with Mr. N, the new teacher I’ve been assigned to mentor this year (our district has a formal mentor program for all new hires, even if they’ve taught elsewhere before, like Mr. N has). I’d actually met him over the weekend because Mrs. T and I invited both our mentees for coffee, but I figured he’d have some newbie questions for me today.
Time to set up classrooms was followed by Covid training via Zoom webinar with all the nurses in the district, and then lunch, which we did picnic-style on the football field. It was a beautiful day, so The Principal decided to hold our afternoon faculty meeting out there, as well. He and the other administrators went over the nuts and bolts stuff they usually go over, and that took us to the end of the day.
We have seven more days of in-service because there is a lot to do to prepare, and the school board agreed to let us take all the teacher workshop days that are usually spread throughout the year and drop them here at the start. So students will arrive on September 8th.
