This weekend wasn’t amazing like last weekend, but I got a lot of stuff done. We both did actually. It was a good weekend for getting ‘er done.
A couple months ago my husband created a list of tasks we want to complete. I participated in the creating of the list, but he’s the one who wrote it. And he’s the one who keeps coming back to it, prompting us to cross one more thing off the list.
This week’s thing was a bulky item pick up. We get two a year and we’ve had some items on a potential list for a while. So last weekend my husband finally went to the site and submitted the list and scheduled the pick up for the following Monday. That Monday is today.
I took the picnic table apart earlier in the week, but we got most of the rest of it ready this weekend. And last night we piled it all of it in front of our house for pick up.
I am not sad to see any of it go.
Other things I did this weekend… I put the weed whacker together and whacked some weeds.
Let me know if this works for you… It seem cool on my end but maybe you can’t move it like I can?
(You all know how much stress this backyard has caused it. It’s nice to have it “under control” again. And with this weed whacker I think I can keep it that way!)
I also went for a run on Saturday, and picked up some crickets for the dragon on Sunday. I stayed up way too late doing work Sunday night (and then stayed up even later writing this post). I think I have one more week of hard work and then the rest of the school year won’t be so bad. I just gotta get through the next week… I hope June isn’t as hectic as it usually is.
Next weekend we’re doing a little something for our daughter’s birthday with her closest friends (the ones we’ve been “podding” with during the pandemic). I started planning for that, and for her family birthday (in our backyard) the next weekend (see backyard before and after photos above). I need to run some errands before I’m really ready for either but it’s nice to have things planned.
And that was pretty much my weekend. Nothing super fun, but we crossed some unpleasant tasks off our to do list.
How was your weekend? Have you been getting things done?
Well my week started well, but it went down hill from there.
On Wednesday I had a really horrible zoom bomber incident where a student (or students?) from my class shared our zoom link, and the exact log-in names of several students so that people not in my class could log in under the names of students already in the class and wreak havoc.
It started with random sounds, so I set it so no one could unmute themselves. Then they went to the chat to say some horrible racist hateful things (whatever you are imaging, it is worse). I thought my chat was set to “host only” so it took me five seconds to realize all the kids could see what was bring written there. When I think about my students reading that shit it just shatters me.
When I closed down the whole meeting and sent them a private link to rejoin, the zoom bombers were back. Clearly someone in my class at that moment was participating.
At one point someone joined the second meeting on the private link with a name I recognized – a former student whose brother still goes to the school. So either the former students or his brother (using former student’s device) was involved. I’ve asked admin to follow up with the parents but nobody seems to really give a shit. This happened on Wednesday and I don’t think the parents have even been called yet.
I am so fucking tired of this shit. I’m so tired of teaching to an array of black boxes. I’m so tired of not knowing who is harassing me and my students because they can do so anonymously (students should have to log in wit their school accounts but there were so many problems with that at the beginning of the year that we just gave up on that requirement, which is why now anyone can log onto any of our meetings at anytime. It’s ridiculous). I just want this school year to be over and things to go back to normal in the fall.
I’m still processing what happened and how unsupported I feel in the aftermath. On Wednesday I took a sleep aid and went to bed at 9:30pm. I was an emotional wreck so there was no point in trying to be productive. On Thursday I felt a little better but I was stressed the whole time I met with that class again (even though I had the whole meeting shut down – no one could unmute or chat or rename or anything). I was already counting the days until the end of the year, but now I’m counting the minutes on zoom.
I’ve been teaching for 17 years and now the worst two experiences of my career have happened in the past 6 months. I AM SO FUCKING DONE. I just want to fast forward to June 11th. It cannot get here fast enough.
On Monday I got a massage. A 90 minutes massage. It was heaven. A full hour and a half to think about nothing but my own body, to revel in each blissful moment of being cared for.
Yesterday I got adjusted. I had to find a new chiropractor because mine retired. The master at my dojo recommended someone and I went today. I really liked her. She does some deep tissues work, and electrical nerve simulation before she does the adjustment, which I think helped. My neck, which was a mess, feels much better. I’m excited to run to see if my knee and ankle feel better (I’m very confident they will as my hips felt amazing after she adjusted them). It’s a relief to have a new provider, especially one that is so close to home (my previous chiropractor was near my work). It feels amazing to be in my body right now.
I ran on Monday and I went to martial arts on Tuesday. I’m trying to make space for the things that make me happy. I’m trying to make space for self care. It’s hard, especially at the end of the school year.
I’m still not getting enough sleep. That is the next thing I need to work on.
We had a good weekend. It’s important to remember them when they happen. Especially these days.
FRIDAY
Friday my kids got home from school and had two hours before the normal 4pm video game start time. My daughter straightened her room, cleaned the bathroom and emptied the dishwasher to start early. My son cleaned up his room and vacuumed it, then read an extra book to start early. It felt like we were getting ahead of the curve!
That evening my daughter went to her friend’s house to watch a movie in the backyard and I had my son’s friend and his sister over for a movie in our garage (with the door open). It rarely works out for my son’s friend (and his younger sister, who I have over to entice the parents) to come over anymore because they are so busy with family and other things, so it was awesome he got a “friend movie night” too” I ordered pizza and poured Fanta. They had a great time.
SATURDAY
Saturday my kids and I met my parents at our local amusement park, where we have had season passes for several years. It was their opening day and only season pass holders of 3+ years were allowed to make reservations. I think they wanted only the steadfastly loyal there for their dry run.
It was awesome. No one was there and we went on a million rides, never having to wait. Right when we got there my favorite roller coaster opened as we were talking to the woman at the start of the line about when we could ride. We ran up and were the only two people on the first train. We got to sit at the front, which usually has an even longer line than the rest of the train (your feet dangle and there is nothing in front of you except for the massive drops and dips when you sit in the front). I haven’t ridden that roller coaster in probably 10 years because the line is always so long. It was so fun to ride it twice in a row.
Literally empty.
The kid area ended up being almost as crowded as it normally is (which is usually less crowded than the rest of the park), so we went on a lot of the adult rides that usually have longer lines than we want to stand in. We stayed for five hours and then felt like it was time to go. I was actually quite nauseous by the end – it turns out I can’t actually ride roller coasters all day and be okay. But it was super fun to be back at the park, and we felt really safe the whole time being outside with no crowds.
SUNDAY
Sunday my daughter went to soccer and my son hung out at home. I got the cat’s boxes cleaned (the big clean that takes longer) and steam cleaned the kitchen floors. I also steam cleaned the hall from the garage to the entrance to our unit (that is now our “master suite”) which we had to clear out for the fence to be fixed (so they could bring the materials through the hall to the backyard). I did a bunch of the laundry that is easy to put off (towels and blankets mostly), and put up the stuffie hammock I got for my daughter who sleeps on a thin sliver of her twin mattress because stuffed animals take up most of it. It was definitely a day to get things done.
I also played some games with my son, and we read a book together.
At 5pm my parents picked my kids up for a sleep over. Since I take them down there on Monday morning we figured they could just spend Sunday night there and sleep in instead of piling into the car with me at 8am.
My husband and I got Chinese food and watched all four of the final episodes of Watchmen, which I just loved. It was so fun to binge watch something I am really into. We haven’t done that in a long time.
You might have noticed I didn’t mention work at all. Besides grading some papers in the garage during my son’s movie night, I didn’t do any work. This came back to bite me in the ass Monday, but I got through the day. I had a ton of work to do Monday night but it was worth it.
Only three more weekends before summer! I’m so ready for the school year to be over.
I’m curious what people think of the CDC’s new recommendation that fully vaccinated individuals can stop wearing masks even in many inside, public places. I have to admit it surprised me, and I’m glad California doesn’t seem interested in adopting the advice as policy until at least June 15 when we officially “fully reopen.” It’s not that I don’t think fully vaccinated people can or should be allowed in public without a mask, it’s more that I’m not ready to go there myself yet.
I’m all for the new guidance that people can be outside without masks. The science has shown that it safe for so long but the policy has lagged significantly behind those findings. When policy doesn’t reflect science people start to lose faith in the system. Information about outdoor transmission is still misleading on the CDC’s site (saying that less than 10% of transmission occurs outside is blatantly misleading when most scientists believe the number is less that 1%). We need to be embracing the safety that outdoors affords. If we truly did that, even kids could find some new freedom outside with friends.
I’ve started walking, running and biking outside without my mask. It clearly makes people uncomfortable, especially when I pass them running, but I’m holding strong. I’m fully vaccinated and I’m outside passing them for a couple seconds at most (and never that close). We need to start moving on with our lives in ways that are safe.
But the idea that I can go grocery shopping without my mask? I don’t even know if I’m there yet. It’s not that I don’t think the science supports the fact that I can (especially in an area with vaccination rates as high as ours and community spread as low as ours) I just don’t know if I can get out of my own head enough to do it. I also have kids who have to wear masks and when I’m with them I’ll probably be wearing mine like they have to wear theirs. It only seems fair.
I know there is all sorts of worry about people who are not vaccinated going places without masks. I understand the concern, especially in places where large swaths of the adult population don’t plan to get vaccinated, but I guess I assume they will do what they want anyway. They clearly don’t care about public health guidelines and they will never be vaccinated… if we wait for them it will be a long time before we can make public health policy that reflects what vaccinated individuals can safely do. I guess community spread in those less vaccinated areas will always be higher, and I’m glad I don’t live in one of them. A lot of those places already did away with mask mandates anyway…
I don’t know. I think it was the right move, because the science backs people making these decisions for themselves at this point. But I’m glad my state isn’t putting that decision in my hands just yet. I don’t think I’m ready to be the only person in the supermarket without her mask.
I’ve been struggling to show up here lately. It’s not that I don’t have anything to say… it’s more than I have too much to say. Or there is too much catching up I feel like I have to do to say it.
I tell myself I should open a tab and start writing. See what comes out. But it’s hard.
It’s Wednesday. With my new schedule I’m exhausted by Wednesday. Every Wednesday night I think, how is it only Wednesday?
Monday I take the kids to my parents house. Or better said, they switch cars at strip mall near my work and one of my parents takes them the rest of the way there.
I go to my classroom and teach my classes (via zoom) and get some work done. Lately I’ve been able to catch up on work I would normally get done on the weekend on Monday. It’s nice to start the week with childcare.
I try to run before I pick the kids up around 4:30. It’s nice to run down on the peninsula.
On Tuesday we have to take turns managing the kids in between classes and meetings. I try to go to martial arts on Tuesday night from 7:00 to 8:15. I’m not usually home until 8:45 or 9pm. Tuesday is a long day.
On Wednesday I teach for a long stretch. Some Wednesdays I have my son’s friend and his sister in my backyard or at the park. Some Wednesdays my son goes with his friend. My daughter plays soccer with her friends on Wednesday and I have to keep my son occupied in her absence. By Wednesday I am tired.
But then the kids go to school on Thursday. I’m teaching variations of things I’ve already taught the other class on Monday and Tuesday so I don’t have much prep to get done. Being prepared for Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday is a lot more work than being prepared for Thursday and Friday.
When I think about it, I prefer front loading my weeks like this. I like that right when I think I can’t keep up it gets easier.
My kids only have two more weeks of school. I have four, but I’m only really teaching for three of them. The fourth week I’ll be on campus quite a bit for special events. And then it will be summer.
I’m ready for summer. I’m ready to move on from this school year and I look forward to returning in the fall in a way that feels a lot more familiar. While I don’t miss my commute, I’m so tired of teaching on zoom. I really hope I get to be back in my classroom (our district has promised parents that we will return full time in the fall so I’m assuming I will be).
I’m also tired of being thoroughly disappointed by my kids’ school district. I just want them to finish out the year, so we can focus on starting fresh at new schools in the fall. I’m making myself assume they will be back in their classrooms because the alternative makes me crazy.
Here’s to Wednesday. Thursday and Friday always feel like a relief.
As I always seem to need to start posts these days, I’m still here. And I’m still struggling.
TLDR: There is good and bad these days. I’m just so tired that it’s harder to appreciate the good, and it’s harder to slog through the bad. Skip to the end for the bearded. 😉
GOOD. After a week of brutal wind and fog we finally saw some sun this week. On Wednesday it was 72 degrees in the city! Wednesday was a good day.
GOOD. I’ve been feeling really strong and fast when I run. I don’t know exactly what it is, but my regular runs feel so easy, and are over so quickly, that I’ve been adding mileage. I know I haven’t really gotten that much faster, but it’s great to feel so good when I run. I was considering trying to train for something but I think I’ll just keep doing what I’m doing – which is strength videos and martial arts 2-3 times a week and running 1-2 times a week.
Some much appreciated sun after what felt like weeks of fog and wind.
GOOD. My son was able to get into the most recent in person cohort at the dojo so he got to attend martial arts classes in person for three weeks. Now he gets two weeks off in between in person cohorts. He also tested and did really well, which was important because his last test was not a positive experience (he was not prepared).
BAD. I didn’t make it to the dojo this week, because I signed up for the wrong day once and they cancelled the class because too few people were signed up (if I had signed up on the right day it wouldn’t have been cancelled). This was the class I like the best, but didn’t go to when my son was going in person because I couldn’t handle driving to the dojo that many times in one day. I hope I can manage going next week.
BAD. I’m feeling even more isolated from my colleagues now that they are back in person and I’m not. I’m used to being isolated, but it’s still really hard.
GOOD. I am going to campus once a week on Mondays when my parents take my kids. It’s so nice to have an extra day of childcare on top of the two mornings my kid are in school.
GOOD. My kids are both going to school two times a week now (this Thursday and Friday were my daughter’s first days)! It’s amazing how much I get done when I don’t have to manage them, and how nice it is to not have to check their work and help them get it done. I love in person learning! (And they love it too!)
BAD. I wish they were in school more days a week. And I still have no faith in my district returning in person next fall. Only if the state requires it will it happen. Our board continues to act disgracefully and it’s really frustrating to feel like there are no adults in the room when it comes to the education of my kids and their peers.
BAD. The principal at my daughter’s new middle school is leaving. He’s regarded as turning the school around and there is a lot of fear that in his absence all the ground they’ve covered will be lost. (He’s leaving because he lives VERY far away and just had a baby, which is the best possible reason for him to leave.)
GOOD. The AP at the school (who has been there the whole time) is staying and may interview for the principal’s position. We also went to an Earth Day event at the school (that went off without a hitch despite a fair amount of rain last Sunday) and I really liked the vibe there. I’m feeling a lot better about my daughter attending the school, which I really need right now. The school is definitely on the district’s radar (they spent $$$ on a brand new campus in historically under served parted of town and it’s supposed to be their flag ship school for successful integration). It’s nice going to a school the district cares about – it certainly did NOT care about my kids’ current school. At all.)
BAD. I haven’t heard anything from my son’s new school. I know we are coming in at a weird grade but still, it’s frustrating. I need to reach out to them.
GOOD. SF’s Rec and Park program is offering free camps (to SFUSD students) through their Summer Together program. I really hope I can get my kids into one of them.
BAD. It will surely be incredibly difficult to get into any of them.
GOOD. I don’t NEED the coverage, so I’m not stressing too much. We also have some non-camp fun planned this summer. I’m actually looking forward to the summer quite a bit. (Though my husband did inform me that he would “prefer they be in organized activities this summer.” Um yeah… so do I?! When he says things like that I think we are living in two completely different realities.)
BAD. Things between my husband and I are not great right now. Things with him are really not great which means I’m stepping up in all kinds of ways to pick up slack, which I wouldn’t mind as long as it were recognized. Last night, after two weeks of being the only parent to wake up early and get the kids ready (six times total over two weeks), I mentioned that I’d be sleeping in on the weekends to which he responded, “oh it will never feel fair,” which honestly? really irked me. Will it never feel fair because it doesn’t feel fair to him? Does he think he’s doing more? Or does he know I’m doing more and he thinks I should just get used to it? I actually have felt things were fair for a lot of this year, and I told him that. Upon later reflection I realized that if I thought things were fair he certainly perceived them as not being fair – as him doing more than me. It’s like when you try to level the playing field with policies that work to undo white privilege and the people who enjoyed that privilege feel suddenly like things are very unfair. When you’re used to shit being easy, it feels hard when it’s just regular hard. (I wish I cared enough to link to John Scalzi’s essay about how straight white men live life at the the easiest difficulty setting. Okay fine I found it.). I haven’t brought any of this up with my husband again because he’s such a downer right now. Maybe at some point I will ask him to clarify.
GOOD. My husband got a basketball hoop and we managed to put it together last weekend. It’s really nice and the kids really enjoy it, especially our son.
BAD. It took five hours, and was REALLY hard to assemble. I was sore for days afterward. Also our fence is falling down. Again.
BAD. My new schedule is really tiring and it’s harder to find time to rest and shed some stress. The days of uninterrupted work are helping but I’m still spending 9:30pm to 12:30am working most nights, along with about 5-6 hours total over the weekend and a full night on Sunday. I also have to wake up earlier (and my son is waking up a lot in the night), so I’m way more exhausted than I was.
GOOD. I’m not seeing my least favorite class for two weeks because of standardized testing. I am so, so happy to have a break in prepping, teaching, and grading for that class. I’m really hoping these two weeks provide me with the breathing room I need to get through the final four weeks of school that come after it.
GOOD. We only have six more weeks of school, and really it’s five weeks because admin has told us to assume the final four days will be a wash.
BAD. My kids only have four more weeks left and I still don’t know how I’m covering that two weeks where they are done and I am not done. None of the camps start until after I’m out which is… not helpful. Hopefully grandparents can swoop in and save the day.
GOOD. Grandparents! Oh my god grandparents are back in our lives! It’s been almost a month and I still never take it for granted!
And now for the bearded….
Finally, the best news is that we adopted a bearded dragon from a friend. Which may seem weird, but it really was kismet. Some context:
My daughter loves reptiles. She has been wanting a snake for YEARS. Her grandfather, who used to have many snakes, told her she’d have to wait until she was 11 (this didn’t bother me because at the time she was surely NEVER going to be 11!) My daughter turns 11 in early June. She’s also OBSESSED with dragons. Like totally obsessed. She actually really believes in them. (Who knows, maybe they exist and I can’t see it anymore because I’m an old ass adult with no imagination.)
So one day I text my friend and after she responds she adds:
Weird but serious. Would you be interested in taking our dragon? We have to re-home him because of the move.
And I was like for real? Someone is offering us a dragon?! With my daughter’s birthday only weeks away (and I’m starting to stress that I don’t really have anything to get her…)
So I went over and met the bearded dragon. He was awesome and I felt sure I could mange him way better than a snake, especially with my friend to help me when I had questions. She even offered to take him back if it wasn’t working out for us.
A coupld days later she gave us her bearded dragon, and everything for him (they are evidently hard to find and expensive) and we couldn’t be happier. My daughter is thrilled and he provides endless entertainment.
So now Bilbo Baggins, the bearded dragon, is a much welcomed new member of our family.
He is super chill, doesn’t mind being held, and loves being outside. He even takes baths! And sits on drink floaties!
Just chillin’.My friends say that Bilbo is living my best life. They are right.BilZilla!
On Wednesday, when it was so warm, we filled our old sand box with water and he LOVED it. Nothing makes me smile quite like this face.
Yesterday morning, my son stepped foot on his campus for the first time in over 400 days. He was excited. He was ready. He was so relieved to be back in school.
He had a great day. He loves school again! He’s so excited to go back today.
I’m worried what Monday will bring when he’s back on zoom, or having a meltdown because he doesn’t want to be back on zoom.
It’s bittersweet. I’m happy that he’s back and angry that it took so long for him to get there, and that he doesn’t get to be there more. I’m frustrated by the needless delay in returning in person and the failure to return in the ways that were promised. I’m furious that no one is being held accountable.
I know I’m a broken record on this, and that lots of people don’t share my belief that returning in person is important. I know a lot of people are keeping their children in distance learning because they are doing fine, or community spread is out of control in their areas. I’m glad distance learning works for some kids; my daughter is doing fine in distance learning, even if I know it’s not ideal for her. I hope that families continue to have choices about how and where their children will learn moving forward. It’s the lack of choice here that makes me so angry. It’s everyone telling us it’s been fine, when it hasn’t, that makes my blood boil.
I hear my colleagues say we shouldn’t have come back, that they can cover their curriculum online, that they can teach the essentials just fine. That may be true – I think I’m covering material well, though I can’t get through nearly as much of it – but it’s not the point. School is about so much more than the curriculum that is being covered. Even for the kids who don’t depend on school for social services, the classroom is about so much more than what is taught. It’s about friends, and mentors, and independence, and figuring out who you are away from home. For a lot of kids, it’s about being happy.
I can’t tell you how many meetings I’ve gone to where parents describe happy, out going students who, after a year of distance learning, can’t get out of bed in the morning. I can’t tell you how many students tell me they are trying to get work done, but they just can’t. These are the kids that distance learning should work well for – the kids with highly educated parents, stable incomes, and reliable technology at home.
At the beginning of the pandemic, when we knew less and the virus was raging out of control, it made sense when we said that distance learning was good enough. It had to be because the alternative was death. That is just not the case anymore (not in places like the Bay Area where community spread is incredibly low and vaccinate rates are high). Now, for the great majority of students, continuing in distance learning because it’s what we’ve done, and it’s been good enough for this long, is dishonest and dangerous. I know that isn’t going to be a popular opinion, but it’s mine. We need to figure out how to return students and teachers to the classroom when conditions warrant it. No, it won’t be zero risk, but nothing in life is zero risk. We do things all the time that carry some amount of risk because we have decided, independently and as a society, that the risk is worth it.
It didn’t need to be this way. Mistakes were made. I know I’m lucky to have lived in a place where the virus did not decimate communities like it did elsewhere, but that doesn’t negate the damage that was done by our school district in our specific situation.
I’m not asking for things to go back to normal. I’m not spurning public health guidelines. I’m just asking our society to value the importance of students being in schools (which public health experts say can be done safely). Distance learning is no longer good enough for most students, and we can’t keep pretending that it is.
Sorry for the absence. I’m still here. Still struggling. It feels like we’re in this in-between space, where normalcy is edging its way into my life, but nothing feels easier. Things are opening up here – in San Mateo County masks aren’t required in big open spaces anymore! – but for our family things mostly feel the same. Traffic is getting worse, but my kids still aren’t in school. I’m starting to panic about next fall – that things will be open in all the ways that don’t help me, but not back to normal in the ways I need. Will schools be open full time? Will there be aftercare that I can access and afford? What happens if I have to be back in my classroom full time and I can’t find adequate coverage for my kids?
I have no faith in society anymore. I fear I will absolutely be hung out to dry. Ultimately I am an afterthought. The government really doesn’t care about creating the circumstances in which women can work.
But they don’t care about anyone, do they? That’s the whole point. Our country expects its citizens to figure shit out for themselves. It’s a family’s business how they arrange care for their kids. If you want to have kids, you gotta deal with them.
It feels like everyone is either back to their old lives, or they’re not but that is their choice and they are okay with it. I feel like I’m being asked to do more and more, but am given nothing to make doing more manageable. I’m so tired and so burned out.
I think it’s that my schedule got a lot more intense in “Phase 4,” but we actually lost child care because my kid’s virtual learning schedule no longer works with my district’s child care (because they are back in person). Also, despite SFUSD making 5 days a week of in person learning an “unwavering priority,” my kids will only be going back 2 days a week, even though so few students are coming back in each class that they can all fit in the same cohort. The reasons my kids’ school can’t accommodate 5 days of in person learning, despite space not being an issue (which is the ONLY reason the district states would be a reason) are myriad and bureaucratic, and they sap any confidence I have in the district’s commitment to return full time in the fall. I really hope they figure things out, but so far, I don’t have a lot of faith. SFUSD is not a district that learns from its mistakes. Or anything really.
Having said that, I’m excited for my kids to return to their classrooms and I’m excited their teachers will be in those classrooms so they won’t just be doing “zoom in a room” which is happening at a lot of other schools. Over 500 teachers and other staff at SFUSD were allowed to stay home despite having the opportunity to be fully vaccinated before they returned. No other district in the vicinity is allowing more than a handful of teachers to stay home after being vaccinated. It really doesn’t make any sense.
On a related note, in the next five weeks my husband and I get two days a week in which we can just do our own work for 5.5 hours a day. I can’t even fathom what that will be like.
I wish we got more days.
In more positive news, our numbers, and the numbers of SF’s neighboring counties are still very low (Marin county almost entered the yellow (least restrictive) tier this week). We’re far enough out from spring break to feel confident that people’s travel did not mess up our downward trends. At least 65% of people over 16 in San Francisco have gotten one dose, and 45% are fully vaccinated. That is with eligibility only opening to everyone 16+ this Monday. I know a 19 and 20 year old who have gotten their first shots! I think we have every reason to expect that a large portion of San Franciscans will get vaccinated – I guess ultimately we’ll have to worry about tourism propagating virus spread, once people start traveling again. There is also the influx people from neighboring counties once they start commuting again for work (did you know SF used to double its population during the work day?!), but neighboring counties should eventually be vaccinated at about the same rate as we are in SF.
So there are lights at the end of this tunnel, I just worry that none of them will be the lights I really need. I am so worried about the fall; it keeps me up at night. I really don’t think anything could assuage my fears – nothing is guaranteed during a pandemic – so I’m going to have to figure out how to deal with the uncertainty and maybe start brainstorming some plans B, C, D through Z.
At one point I mentioned that my school was returning in our full “hybrid” schedule and someone asked me what that looks like for us. I thought I’d take a post to describe what in person learning looks like at my district and at my kids’ district.
{Semantic note: When the pandemic thrust us all into distance learning, we needed new words to talk about our new teaching and learning experiences. Like any vocabulary that is introduced quickly and haphazardly, words that describe different kinds of learning are used incongruously across the country. I will be using words to mean what they do here, and I apologize if I’m using a word for one kind of learning when that refers to something else in another area.}
In my district the K-3 elementary schools went back in person with a “hybrid” schedule about a month ago. At that district, families that assumed they would want to stay in distance learning applied for an online “Connections” program that they knew would continue throughout the school year. Once it was clear that the district would be returning, in some capacity, to the classroom, families were given another chance to join the Connections program, which would mean a change in teacher and classmates if they didn’t want to return in person.
My understanding is that all families that applied to the Connections program were accommodated, so there are no students remaining at home in the classes that returned in person. This means that the K-3 elementary teachers in our district are either teaching entirely online (through the Connections program) or in a hybrid schedule. For us, “hybrid” means that students receive a portion of their school day in person and a portion online via zoom and/or asynchronous work (but not that students in the classroom are being taught at the same time as students at home, which we refer to as “simultaneous” teaching or learning).
Right now the elementary students come to school four mornings or afternoons (M/T/T/F) a week and have asynchronous work to complete when they are not in school. So if students see their teacher in the morning, they have asynchronous work in the afternoon and vice versa. Wednesday is entirely online for everyone. So teachers are teaching half their class in the morning and half in the aftenroon and assigning asynchronous work four days a week. This will be their schedule for the rest of the year, despite the new CDC (and locally adopted) guidelines suggesting 3 feet between students in the classroom, and despite our very low numbers in San Mateo County and the Bay Area as a whole.
I’m pretty sure the 4th and 5th grade “upper elementary schools” are doing something similar (K-3 and 4-5 are separated in our district because of space issues at the elementary schools).
At the middle school level, where kids have 4-6 teachers depending on whether they are enrolled in an elective and/or PE, it’s a lot more complicated. In anticipation of a return to the classroom, our school did group students in one “class” that stays together for core instruction. So one set of 32 kids stays together for English Language Arts, History/Social Studies, Math and Science. This is not usually the case at my school – kids usually meet with different groups all throughout the day, but this year they grouped them for the core classes so that if we returned to the school we could more easily split them into stable cohorts for their core instruction.
We did not, however, create and populate a “Connections” program because that was a lot harder to manage at the middle school level due to staffing and credentialing issues. The absence of a Connections program at the middle school level made distance learning a lot easier, but is making it much harder to come back now.
The hybrid schedule that the two middle school in my district are using is… nuts. I will attempt to outline it here, but for how confusing it seems, know I am omitting the most confusing parts.
The students coming to school were split into A and B groups (in their core class). The A kids have 1st and 2nd period in person on Monday mornings and 3rd and 4th in person on Tuesday mornings. They go home before lunch, to eat and finish their asynchronous assignments for the core classes they didn’t see those days (so they do asynchronous work for 3rd and 4th period on Monday afternoon and for 1st and 2nd period on Tuesday afternoon. They also might have an elective or PE in the afternoon.
Everyone meets entirely online on Wednesday.
On Thursday and Friday the A group students have electives or PE via zoom (or time to complete asynchronous work) in the mornings, then they meet with their 1st and 2nd period teachers on zoom on Monday afternoon or their 3rd and 4th period teachers on Friday afternoon.
So the core teachers are teaching half of the students in two periods in person in the mornings and the other half of the students in those same two periods on zoom in the afternoon on M/Tu then do the opposite on Th/F. They see all their students together in every class on Wednesday. This means that a teacher meets with a student three times during the week, and assigns two asynchronous assignments.
The C (Connections) group always meets online in the afternoon with the students who are not on campus that day. So that means teachers cannot really refer back to what was done in class when they are online because there are always students in a class who never come in person.
I was super lucky and they scheduled all the students from any class in a specific group, so I don’t have to teach the same thing to half my class and then again to the other half of it. This means all of my 1st period goes to school in person on Monday and Tuesday so I can meet with them on zoom in the morning on Thursday and Friday (we also meet on Wednesday). (I have to meet my classes in the mornings so the Connections kids can meet with me, because they ALWAYS meet with their core classes in the afternoons).
To make it all more complicated, the 6th grade has their own stand alone Connections class that meets in the mornings, so they can have their elective classes in the afternoons. And to make it even more complicated, some teachers teach core class for some periods and elective classes for other periods, and some teachers teach at different schools (either the 4-5 elementary and the 6-8 school or both 6-8 schools (like I do). One teacher has an ELA/Social Studies core AND teaches an art class at the 4-5 school and another 6-8 art class that students from both 6-8 schools attend). It’s a logistical nightmare.
But somehow, they made it work, and 6th-8th grade students can come back two mornings a week, while remaining in their elective classes. It’s a classic example of a compromise that makes nobody very happy, but we are “returning in person” and that is all that matters now!
(Not to say I don’t think we should be doing this – at the very least it’s good practice for a full(er?) return to the classroom next year. And students are VERY EXCITED for the opportunity to return to classrooms so it’s not, in my eyes, for nothing.}
I’m curious to hear what other districts that are just coming back (and have been back) are doing. This ended up being a long post, so I will attempt to tackle what is happening at my kids’ school separately and soon. The reality is I’m not really sure what their plan is yet, because, to my limited understanding, what they are doing and what the district said would be done are VERY different.
What in person return plans are happening in your part of the world?
