Hey all! Still here! Still moving through the motions.
Honestly, it hasn’t been a weird week for us. At least not yet. SFUSD is considering a (not officially union sponsored) sick out tomorrow so Friday might be a bust, but otherwise life has been pretty normal in our neck of the woods.
We are still down quite a few teachers, but I have not yet had to give up my prep period to cover classes. I saw the unvaccinated teacher today in the copy room so her PCR test must have come back negative.
A ton of students are out right now. My kids report the same at their schools. I’m falling back on digital copies (from last year) of a lot of assignments so that students don’t fall too far behind (assuming they are feeling well enough to get work done, of course). Today at my son’s school they have such low numbers that they are combining some classes and moving teachers around to cover staff absences. My son’s class will be with some other 2nd grade class while his teacher covers in 1st grade.
My friend’s PCR test came back negative. He told us on Tuesday. I had made an appointment for a PCR test at my school for Wednesday, just in case, and I ended up keeping it because my throat has been scratchy all week. I’m pretty sure it’s just the strain of speaking through a heavy mask again after two weeks of blissful, (mostly) mask-free living, but it’ll be good to be sure.
If we were able to make it through this week with only minor disruptions I do think we’ll make it through the omicron wave relatively unscathed. Actually, I think we’ll all be emotionally and mentally exhausted at the end of this month, which is maybe not “relatively unscathed.” It’s so easy to discount the mental health toll of all this, when we’re just trying to make it through each day, but it’s real. I know medical professionals are already resigning in droves; I’m sure there will be a mass exodus from teaching at the end of this school year too (there absolutely was one last year). This is just really hard and people are very much at the end of their ropes.
I think teachers everywhere will be limping to the finish line this spring, if they make it there at all.
How has your first week of re-entry been?
I am happy to hear your positive report of what has to be a VERY HARD school week for all. My week is super quiet and isolated… fully inoculated but risk factors so isolated again.
Hope your test comes back negative.
Hope you get to hear VP and P re Jan 6 not just read it.
Sunday night I received the unexpected news that we would start remote on Tuesday due to the number of staff out. Monday was a teacher institute day. It has been rough being back to remote teaching. Still waiting to find out what the plan is for next week.
Our principal said that Wed (kids first day back) had record number of kids out and I noticed at pick up yesterday there was tons of parking so I can assume it was the same yesterday too. Thank you for hanging in there as an educator. I don’t think people realize how hard it is to work in education