Students started moving into dorms at U of Alabama this weekend. We have a friend starting there, so will report back what is being seen 'on the ground'. Large Public - so I guess we will see how it goes in the next few weeks before most in the Northeast go back.
TEST + TRAIN + CHECK = WELCOME BACK
August 3rd, 2020
In just a few days, we will welcome everyone back to UA for the Fall 2020 Semester. As you prepare to head back to campus, make sure you follow these simple steps:
Test – Every student and employee must be tested for COVID-19 and receive a negative result before returning to campus or participating in any campus activity. Learn more about testing.
Train – Students and employees are required to take an online training course that includes important information about health and safety expectations as well as useful steps to take at home and in the community. Learn how to access the learning plan.
Check – Everyone should begin checking their symptoms daily through UA’s Healthcheck, a simple 30-second assessment tool that allows you to report any COVID-19 related symptoms, exposure history and testing history. You should use the tool as frequently as each day, but once every three days is required.
Remember, we must all do our part to have a healthy and safe semester.
TEST + TRAIN + CHECK = WELCOME BACK!
When is the next test of the UA Alert System?
Weather permitting, the University will test its emergency notification systems, including UA Alerts, the public address system and digital signage Wednesday, Aug. 5, at 11:55 a.m.
Some are wondering why anyone would want to attend a large lecture with students spread out over a large space. Some professors are amazing lecturers who do well in a live setting. I live in Austin, TX and the Austin thing is to attend live music as the numerous smaller venues for an intimate experience. However, crowds still flock to Austin City Limits where huge crowds watch the show, many from quite a distance. An experienced professor who is good at handling a large lecture hall is fun to watch. Back when I was in graduate school, a friend invited me to attend an undergraduate lecture just for fun. It was a class in pseudoscience where the professor would debunk pseudoscience. It was like telling you how magic tricks work. In any case, this class was fun to attend in person in a large lecture hall.
Total lack of leadership in a very large school district. Have had all spring and summer to figure out the approach to reopening and are scrambling around now. I realize they were teaching online in the spring, but what about the administrators?
Just recently went from not requiring masks, to requiring masks to delaying opening for two weeks (essentially to give the teachers time to figure out how to set up their rooms in a covid environment and how to switch to online teaching should that be necessary.)
Why can’t the superintendent or at least a Prinicpal stand up and say, “Look, this is what we’re doing. Every class will have desks in a row, six feet from each other. We’ll have desk shields or plexi glass in certain areas, there will be know group settings, every kid will eat lunch at their desk, etc.”
My wife teaches at a private school (that’s a bit different as they don’t have to follow the district’s guidelines) and we have plenty of public school teacher friends. They all have no idea how things will work and school starts in two weeks. In my wife’s school, the message changes constantly. Just heard the other day that they ordered desk shields. Then were told they were back ordered so ordered a different product. Then were told, “oh those are too expensive so we’re not doing that”. How did they go from ordered to we’re not doing that? Think they were lied to. Now it’s each teacher decides how best to set up their room.
In certain areas of the country, I would think the best financial play would be to have as many in person classes as possible. May allow you to pick up some public schools kids upset their schools are all online. The more the private schools move to online classes, the more you risk losing kids to their local public schools who are also online. Won’t be true of all private schools or areas of the country.
I agree that, if done safely, it would be better to have kids in school. I also agree that if the privates just go online, they’ll lose “members” . Wife’s Principal has basically beat that in to their heads. OK. Then it’s the Principal and Trustees job to make sure the school can open safely. That means an organized, structured plan has to be in force. It needs to include all things like taking kid’s temperatures prior to entering (every kid, every day), distancing the kids in class, limiting volume in the hallways, addressing lunch issues, minimizing large groups at drop off and pick up.
I get why they have no executable plan. It’s a logistical nightmare. It takes a skill set that resides outside a typical school setting to develop, communicate and execute.
More like an operational consulting firm.
I was thinking this morning that in person schooling is probably most important for the younger kids. It’s good for all of them, but really important k-6. Why not have HS and middle schools go online and use their facilities to spread out the density of elementary school? Minimize crowds before, during, and after school.
Some would say they have not competed in years.
Not really a surprise since they are no longer affiliated with a conference which would make finding opponents difficult. I believe they also mentioned the football program loses money.
Many Illinois HSs are going fully remote, yet some low risk fall sports are being played and fully remote kids get to participate in those.
Our HS (so far) is hybrid, and on the remote days they can still participate in fall sports or go to the school for certain after school activities (which aren’t finalized yet).
Smith had a Zoom meeting with Northampton residents a couple of days ago; my mother was on the call, I haven’t yet talked to her about it, but I wonder if residents’ concerns influenced Smith’s decision. Many locals definitely uneasy about the 5 colleges welcoming students back to campus.
We have one (big and affluent) school district still doing in=person classes, although at the hs level they are hybrid/block schedule. All the other districts in the metro area have gone to online for the first quarter.
The Catholic grade schools are having F2F classes, but also offering an online option. For the online option, you still pay the school tuition (which vary) but log on and do most classes as a group and then have a tutor assigned for help from 3-5 every day. The online is designed so that the student can return to the classroom at any time.
Charter schools are mostly going F2F, and are full with waiting lists. The per student allotment of state and federal money (about $7k per student, but does vary by district) follows the child to charter schools and because of the recent Supreme Court ruling, may be available as a voucher to private schools too (depends on the county and may have eligibility based on need).
Here’s the reopening plan for my child’s private high school in Southern California, assuming the county’s COVID numbers improve and the county gets off the state’s watch list, allowing for campus reopening. The privates all talk to each other, generally and especially during the pandemic, so I’m assuming other privates are doing similar:
de-densify campus by having students on campus every other day; online learning the other day
For on campus days, students will be in a small (less than 20), stable cohort; each cohort will primarily stay in one classroom, with teachers coming to them, with limited exceptions such as science labs
classes held only in classrooms and other spaces that are well ventilated, which luckily the school's architecture allows for. Air conditioning will not be used, and I assume they won't use heat over the winter either. Of course, this is only possible because it's coastal SoCal
desks spaced 6 feet apart and facing forward
all students, faculty and staff in masks at all times, except lunch and mask breaks
all classes live streamed, and no penalty for students to stay home on the on-campus days, either long term or on any particular day
all clubs, academic teams, and teacher office hours online, even on on-campus days
no sports until Dec. 15 at the earliest, per California mandate
daily symptom/health check-in via an app
closed campus; no visitors, no off campus lunches for upperclassmen, etc.
lunches preordered, boxed, and delivered to students to eat with their cohort, outside unless it's raining
everything you'd expect in terms of sanitizing surfaces, hand washing, hand sanitizer, etc.
expectation that students and families will follow best practices outside of school - no large gatherings, small gatherings discouraged but if they happen, there should be masks and physical distancing, etc.
Students who cannot or will not follow the rules will be required to go all online
And, again, as strict as this plan is, it won’t even happen until the county gets its COVID spread under better control.
Where did you see the photo of Tulane students in the new classrooms? Classes have not started yet and I have not seen that photo on any of their feeds. My S will have a class in one of these classrooms (large intro lecture) and I am glad he has somewhere to go out of his room instead of sitting in the dorm with the screen all the time. He also has one class in the basketball stadium. At this time, 2 weeks before classes start, has only one class online, a very small class whose professor likely opted for online. As should be possible for them to do, I think. As a freshman, he is so eager to go meet new people that being on campus sounds worth it to him. I did read in one email that some of the large temp classrooms are to be used for performing arts like dance. So I thought that is kind of cool that they’ll still be holding such classes. The temp classrooms have their own new HVAC systems and A/C. Time will tell if what they are doing is enough and whether students will mask up etc. But they sure have invested a lot in this and will have all this infrastructure ongoing since the virus is not close to “going away.”
I attended a very small LAC and leaned toward those choices for my S (early fave was Bates) but he decided he needed a larger school and loved the idea of being in the city. So I hear you on the large classes being not your favorite thing! Tulane does seem to foster a lot of community despite being mid sized. we’ll know more when we get there in a matter of days.