I mentor two kids who are in first grade and PreK, all online. The first grader has 3 hours in the morning (literacy and math, I think), then a 2 hour lunch break, then another 1.5 hours in the afternoon. I don’t know how much learning is happening, but it is better than it was in March (Kindergarten, her 3rd of the year) when she didn’t go online at all. It does give her some structure so that when they do go back to the classroom she is used to her teacher, her classmates, to the routine.
The pre-k just started after labor day and I’m not sure how it is going. Again, just the routine of being with the group for an hour or so per day.
It is terrible hard on the parent because someone has to BE there all the time. This father is lucky because he has his grandfather there to help and an aunt. He works from home but can’t BE at the table with the kid all the time.
Here is what we are doing that is different from when we opened in early September:
We’ve expanded testing capacity and reduced turnaround time, so we can now be much more aggressive in testing to stop infections in the residence halls.
We are working to reduce the concentration of students in the residence halls, encouraging voluntary departures and allowing more students to move into single rooms. We are also prohibiting residence hall students from bringing guests into their hall and limiting the number of people allowed in individual rooms and common areas.
We will continue to hold our students accountable for not following guidelines including emergency suspension, and I’m hoping the county will partner with us in other solutions downtown and in neighborhoods, including continuing to enforce their public health orders in bars and other off-campus spaces linked to the spread of infection.
While we will return to on-campus instruction, it will likely be more limited than before.
WVU just announced no in-person visitors to campus until April 30. I’m afraid this is going to happen at most schools and 2021s will not get admitted student days on campuses. It makes sense. How could colleges have a few hundred prospective students file through campus during Covid?
My next door neighbor and two other families have created a pod where they do online school (the minimum) and then have tutor(s) in the afternoon with a curriculum. Each family has a nanny that “manages” the online part, and then one nanny is there in the afternoon for the tutor session. I think the curriculum is derived from a home school curriculum. Obviously they have a lot more money than I do.
I think it’s working really well. All of the kids including the kindergartner seem to be learning and happy. We our transitioning to a hybrid system with some f2f learning, so it’l be interesting to see if they keep the tutored pod going.
The college my friend teaches at has a pretty good number of in-person classes, but they all have the ability to be viewed online as well. As a result, some professors are reporting that kids just aren’t bothering to come in person. One problem is that online classes back to back with in-person means students that live off campus don’t have time to get back to apartments or place to do an online classes. (The school has set aside a number of spaces around campus with wifi and plugs for students do online class, so not sure if they are full up or students just prefer to stay at home).
There will always be students who don’t bother to come to classes. That’s part of the college experience, the novelty of not having to go in all the time like in high school and being in change of how you conduct your own learning. In my day the professor would upload their PowerPoint presentations a day before a lecture. Some people in my class would just use those to aid their own self study and skip the in person session.
Local university student reports to my S that he and “about 20 others” in the dorm have Covid. They have called the university repeatedly to find out how, when, to get to the designated quarantine dorm but so far have been told to “sit tight for now”.
i don’t feel this way. My family isn’t getting together for Thanksgiving. I have a father in his 90s and a child at school in SC. I don’t think she is even coming home until later in December, and she will need to be tested again before she does.
The University of Michigan Marching Band leadership told their members that per the Big 10 that there will be no “no band, cheer or mascot” participation at the games.
While I’m sad for my MMB son that this is the case, I applaud the decision.
Fortunately, he is a junior and that he had two “normal” years and hopefully one “almost normal” year next year.
Then you can’t open. Michigan State looked at thier plan, looked at student behavior and spread in the southern schools, and decided not to bring the students back.
Cornell is testing around 5500/day. They are still testing UGs twice a week. On their dashboard it shows they have .02% infection rate and their quarantine capacity is at 98%. There was an outbreak few weeks ago because of a party. The school went to yellow alert after the outbreak and now is back to green again.
I would like to hope that any campuses that close to visitors in Spring will find a way for prospective student visits to happen. Since this type visit is led by staff and can be managed (mask compliance, no eating or drinking so no unmasked conversations, distance), it seems quite different than just general “visitors” if those visitors are college students socializing.
I hate to think about all of the younger students (primary) whose families can’t afford a nanny/tutor/pod/etc. The education gap will just get bigger. This seriously keeps me up at night.
I’m feeling pessimistic about prospective student visits. A friend of mine was on a virtual meeting with some AOs from different schools and they said they are already planning virtual admitted student days. They did it last year and can do it again.
Interesting update on the Covid impact on enrollment.
First Look Fall 2020 (As of Sept 10)
As the COVID-19 disruptions continue, the concerning enrollment trends identified during the summer sessions are becoming clearer for fall 2020.
With 22 percent of colleges reporting as of September 10, undergraduate enrollments are running 2.5 percent below last year’s level.
International undergraduate enrollments are down 11 percent, along with American Indian and Native Alaskan students (-8%), White students and Black students (-6% each), and community college students overall (-8%).
