School in the 2020-2021 Academic Year & Coronavirus (Part 1)

Back to K-12 (or maybe K-6) schools that have in-person classes…

Suppose a teacher tests positive for COVID-19 and has to go into isolation or quarantine for a while. Will the students in that teacher’s class(es), having been exposed to that teacher, have to go into isolation or quarantine? Will a substitute teacher be afraid to teach that class because some of the students were exposed?

Harvard requiring professors to provide between two-four hours of “live interaction” each week.

https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2020/7/10/harvard-fall-academics-reactions/

@homerdog

You and I have discussed this. I believe Wesleyan would consider these, hybrid classes.

@austinmshauri & @circuitrider

Re: Activity levels in NYC metro area.

I grew up an hour outside of NYC and have family members living in the area now. While everyone had been completely shut down this spring, I worry that many have interpreted the reopening as ‘All Clear; Carry On’. Following family FB posts, I see youth sports teams posing for group photos with 15 eight year olds next to each other, and group social gatherings. All outside, but no one wearing masks and far closer to others than they should be.

I am an hour outside NYC in CT, and I hear that our HS fields have hundreds of students and coaches practicing w/o masks. I see teens driving around in cars with other teens, and am assuming they are not all siblings. I keep watching the local #s, hoping they do not take off again. I would like to hope these are the exceptions, but no way to know. The beaches and clubs are all open, and a lot of people are out and about.

@momofsenior1 – Interesting about the saliva test. During a recent Town Hall, the dean of Yale Med school commented that they would like to use the saliva test but have been unable to obtain the chemical needed to thin the saliva (??). I found the sourcing problem disconcerting, as Yale New Haven Health runs a 1400 bed hospital, a Med School and a School of Public Health, in addition to having deep pockets.

@AlmostThere2018 – That is a good question and I do not know the answer either. I know that tuition insurance did not cover the school shutting down due to a pandemic, but I don’t know if it would cover an individual student’s need to drop out due to COVID. We have not yet received the mailer from the tuition insurance provider, but that is probably b/c we have not yet seen the term bill from school. I am curious what you find out.

Only students who were in close contact with the teacher (less than 6 ft for >=15 minutes) would be considered as exposed, and need to quarantine. I hope that would mean exactly zero kids were exposed to an infected teacher.

Mandating masks (both teacher and students) would further cut down on the risk, as would other protocols (e.g., plexi shield around teacher, improved ventilation in classroom).

I am happy to see this, and hope others schools require the same. D19’s last semester had 2 of 4 teachers conduct zero classes live once they went remote (selective LAC).

I understand that, and didn’t raise the issue with admin, but now that there is time to plan this fall’s remote classes I expect all profs to have at least some ‘live’ class time.

@CT1417 I have the same concerns at the Jersey Shore. Far too little social distancing among most of my neighbors and kids’ friends families for my liking. I feel that it is only a matter of time before our numbers start heading up again and openings are rolled back. At this rate, I have little faith that people can forgo their “wants” long enough to ensure that some of the societal needs (like in-person k-12 schooling) can resume any time soon.

No fall sports for Patriot League.
https://patriotleague.org/news/2020/7/13/general-patriot-league-announces-decisions-surrounding-fall-sport-season.aspx

@Mwfan1921 wrote:

I’m confused. Who was taking “live” classes after everyone (presumably) went home for the semester?

Ugh. Anyone see how any football can be played at the D1 level? Football is football. If all of these other leagues are cancelling, then how can the big schools go ahead? They are dealing with the same virus.

so I guess this isn’t looking good for high school football either. D21 is a sad pup.

I used ‘live’ to mean synchronous, remote classes, which is how I read Harvard’s requirement…

My point was that did not happen in 2 of 4 D19’s classes in the spring. Although that was understandable IMO (some may disagree about that), it won’t be ok for the fall.

S19 was taking “live” classes. His history class and his writing seminar met “live” on Zoom just like his real class would have. Met at the exact times each week that he did on campus. It was like being in the class but on the screen.

Same for D19’s other two classes.

@homerdog wrote:

Wasn’t that one of the courses DS swore he’d never go through again?

Love how Harvard refers to “course staff”. So “live” means some poor teaching assistant/fellow will be on zoom in the middle of the night for those in distant time zones. This works for Harvard, but not all colleges provide their faculty with staff, I believe.

Yes. At the end of his courses, which were taken in this house with all of us at home at the beginning of the pandemic and all of the stress of that time, he indeed said never again. He felt alone in the house as the one who had to buckle down every day and these classes are hard. D21 was doing school but her classes let up a little on the rigor or were almost finished because they were APs and they were done studying content. S19’s classes also required a lot of study time in addition to class time He couldn’t go anywhere else to take class or study because no where was open. At school, he does little to no work in his dorm room and studies with classmates in different locations all over campus. So, to be alone, in his childhood bedroom and taking class was way less than ideal even when it was synchronous. He spent ten hours a day at a little desk in his room.

Even taking remote class while living in Maine with his friends would have been way better because he would have been surrounded by classmates all focused on the same thing and they could study together and motivate each other. But at home? Yeah, it was not good. Not the fault of the professors. Just the situation.

@roycroftmom wrote:

No LAC would task that to a non-faculty member unless it was part of a larger pedagogical scheme. For example, Wesleyan undergraduates sometimes lead language conversation practice groups as part of an ongoing class. But, no. Faculty are in charge of teaching.

Right! Which is exactly why I disagree that them, and us in NJ, or other Northeast states, should open up our K-12 schools as if it is “safe” here. Certainly outbreaks can happen, even with our carefulness (and it’s certainly not uniform to begin with, see: knuckleheads visiting the Jersey Shore.)

So I disagree that we are similar to the European or Asian countries that have opened up schools. We share the same country with states that are burning up right now. We will only continue our low numbers with serious safeguards.

My D got an email today that UPenn has decided to suspend the Quaker Consortium for the fall semester.

Depends on your definition of “hit hard”. Israel perhaps?