Yeah, I didn’t expect to completely disappear like that. But my lack of planning until the last minute (Going? Not going? 
) resulted in a lot of planning-on-the-go and then having to adjust for ongoing Covid and other disruptions. Plus spotty connectivity…and poof! I disappeared from the virtual Disney bubble…
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I figured y’all were having fun!
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We sure did! Lots and lots of hiking and takeout. Dared one outside full service patio that was pretty empty and the staff was clearly super cautious. Avoided most inside places fairly stringently.
Mask wearing was fairly good for most of Texas and Colorado. Amarillo was sort of scary, which isn’t good with their meat packing plant issues. SE Colorado was significantly less than the rest of the state.
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Hmmmm…trying to prioritize which threads to catch up on… Did anyone have ROTR hit by lightning on their 2020 disaster bingo card? 
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My calander says pigs might start flying, look up (for every day of 2020)! Does that count.
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Totally agree. Look at us in CA. We were the first to lockdown. We kept the number of cases down and never overwhelmed our hospitals during those early weeks. BUT, came very close to overwhelming hospitals in Los Angeles County and San Diego County in July. Patients were being flown around the state. While we lead the nation in the number of cases, our number of deaths is a fraction of NY’s.
The vast majority of SF Bay Area residents are working remotely (Downtown SF and Downtown Oakland are ghost towns); extracurricular activities are still closed or operating with very limited number of people. Yet around the traditional afternoon commute period, there is traffic! It’s not nearly as bad as pre-COVID but nevertheless traffic. We are obviously not staying home! DS20 and I stay home but DH is essential and goes to work and gives us those reports.
Are we in CA trending downwards? I don’t know. You have probably heard in the news that we have a backlog of tests to post so our numbers have been really high for about a week now. 
Most of the state has had a mask mandate for awhile, almost since the beginning. As some immunity spreads, I hope the infection cases will drop and level.
There is no way we will do another lockdown UNLESS the death rate skyrockets. The economics are hard. As a CA state employee, I will feel the results of the lockdown in my paycheck for the next 2 years, -10% every pay period. Then, there are those out of work, lost their businesses, close to losing their businesses…
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Hugs!
Hang in there! Staff was back on campus this week and gosh it felt great.
There were clearly different levels of concern over social distancing. Fortunately, those who were making choices I wouldn’t won’t affect me directly - I do not work in the same building with them.
Some parents won’t send kids to campus because they don’t want their kids wearing masks.
Some parents won’t send their kids to campus because they don’t want the risk and will be virtual, with specified points of re-entry through the year.
Kids will be in cohorts and keeping full distance from kids not in their cohorts.
My brain is swimming with all of the changes - trying to plan for the things that never go to plan on the first day of school. I hope it’s all enough. But I’m craving getting back to something with trace amounts of normalcy. I am sorry that more teachers do not feel the same way. I listened to an interview of a cardiologist treating COVID patients here in Houston who did not elaborate on what he thought the “thoughtful way” to open schools would be but did say he’s sending his kids back in person. Nonetheless that felt reassuring.
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I am glad it is going well for you.
For now. It still feels like a weird experiment. Training and room set up was this week. We don’t go back until the Wednesday after Labor Day
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Funny you mention this.
I frequently will ask doctors, “What would you do if it were your ____________?” I find I get really good answers then. It’s like I crack through the shell and hear what I need to hear most.
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It’s a liability thing.
It’s not direct advice, but just a description of what they’re doing, so there’s less responsibility if things don’t turn out.
Doctors do lots of things all the time that they wouldn’t formally advise others to do. They will place their own bets- but they have to be much more sure to place a bet for you.
But it’s a very clever tactic to find out what they really think.
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From a kid perspective in person makes the most sense. It won’t make sense for teachers with preexisting conditions. But I agree. I’m fortunate to have some great doctors and nurses among my family - they help guide my concerns. Usually they aren’t wrong.
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I appreciate them laying out the medical options. But I also like to ask what they would do. It’s not always the most extravagant option. At the end of the day they could be in my shoes…
I do this as well. It has seemed that some doctors are not at all adverse to providing information in this manner.
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I need to ask another school related question. If you are signing your child(ren) up for your remote option. Do you expect it will be a dedicated full time teacher from your current school? Do you expect that you are still a full time student in your in-person school? A member of that PTA/PTO? Your child(ren) will attend any/all school planned events?
My kids are doing in person, but our district changed their plan to three options: 1. Full time in person but may go remote at any time, 2. Full time virtual through a 3rd party online academy working at your own pace, but having access to a district teacher for help if needed, 3. Full time remote attending classes from home through zoom (follow a normal schedule but watching classes through a live feed). The school asked that no matter what you choose, all students are considered part of the district and should be included in open houses and school pictures that are coming up.
Our district voted to go hybrid for the first quarter at least. I will have one group Monday/Thursday and the other group Tuesday/Friday. Wednesdays will be online for everyone. We as teachers are responsible for the in person learning as well as expected to provide online learning every day of the week for each group’s off campus days. We are also expected to separately provide the online learning portion for those students who are doing 100% virtual rather than using a third party online resource as originally planned. I am not sure yet how all of this will “look”, but we have two weeks to figure it all out and plan everything.
This is in no way aimed at this thread or anyone on it, but I think this is a timely reminder that not everything is somebody’s fault.
It also highlights a great many curious things about this virus, and how the only way to really know what works & doesn’t work is to analyze the data:
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Our school sent out a survey to determine how many people will be choosing the remote option versus the voted upon hybrid model. If the numbers remain low it will be outsourced to a third party vendor with no interaction with town teachers.
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