Fogbow

Houston Chronicle
@HoustonChron
·
19m
Houston ISD cited a rise in COVID cases and pointed to Judge Lina Hidalgo's move to raise Harris County to its highest COVID threat level in keeping campuses and offices closed Tuesday

Still surging here. Hospitals are filling. Hawaii set a new record with 6,252 new cases today. We seem to have a new record every week.

Slowly one by one, some schools are switching to remote learning. DOH had consistently refused to do so, but now it's run out of teachers, substitute teachers, and administrative employees. It just reduced substitute teacher requirements. To qualify, applicants need a high school diploma & pass an online course. Yeah, that will be better than having an experienced teacher provide remote learning.

DOH has still not stated its criteria for moving to remote learning.

“For teachers, how do you start a lesson when half the class is not there? And for our students there’s no teacher. So how do they get the lesson in that case?

https://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/2022/01/1 ... -learning/

Obviously, some students will need to learn remotely for at least a month (likely more several months). They shouldn't lose class time because they are quarantined due to a close contact or an at risk family member, let alone students who are sick.

Reuters
@Reuters
·
2h
Hong Kong to shut secondary schools from Monday over COVID fears http://reut.rs/33N9mK6

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/202 ... rs-omicron

New Mexico has asked national guard troops to serve as substitute teachers, as schools struggle to keep classrooms open amid surging Covid-19 infections.

Michelle Lujan Grisham, the state’s Democratic governor, announced on Wednesday the unprecedented effort to reopen classrooms and shore up staffing across the state.

New Mexico has been struggling for years to recruit and retain educators, leaving teaching routinely to long-term substitutes who do not have full teaching credentials.

poor kids to meet a boot camp instructure instructor well before deciding to join the armed forces.



ETA OMSFM what is happening today with all these invading tyops

RTH10260 wrote: ↑Thu Jan 20, 2022 12:26 pm poor kids to meet a boot camp instructure well before deciding to join the armed forces.

Eh. They are just streamlining the school-to-military pipeline many poor students face.

My college is going to require that staff/students receive a booster if they want to physically be on campus. Boosters are expected 5 months after jab 2. Boosters are to be reported in mid-Feb.

Los Angeles school district tells students to upgrade from cloth masks

https://www.npr.org/2022/01/23/10752064 ... witter.com

The district announced updated guidance on Friday requiring students to wear "well-fitting, non-cloth masks with a nose wire" both indoors and outdoors. Employees will have to wear surgical grade masks or higher.

Students and employees will be able to get masks from the district if they need them.

"Our in-school [coronavirus infection] rates have dropped but we are continuing to be diligent and agile in creating the safest learning environment," district spokesperson Shannon Haber told the Los Angeles Times.

The new policy takes effect on Monday, the newspaper reported.

https://www.theguardian.com/global-deve ... e-to-covid

The scale of the number of children who have lost out on their schooling during the pandemic is “nearly insurmountable”, according to UN data.

Up to 70% of 10-year-olds in low- and middle-income countries cannot read or understand a simple text, up from 53% pre-Covid, the research suggested.

Classroom closures continue to affect more than 635 million children globally, with younger and more marginalised children facing the greatest loss in learning after almost two years of Covid, according to children’s agency Unicef, which called for intensive support to help students recover.

Across the world, from Ethiopia to the US, children have lost basic literacy and numeracy skills and their mental and physical health has suffered.

Certainly true here.

Our daughter the teacher keeps us informed. Mrs. V. was a teacher and our daughter and Mrs. V. taught in the same school together for several years so our daughter unloads most evenings to Mrs. V. about what is happening. Undoubtedly good for our daughter's mental health.

Some observations from me (who can't help but overhear .)

Very few trained substitutes are available so classes are staffed with any available adults who can pass a background check. Alternative staffing is not on a long term basis so classes may have different untrained adults in front of them from day to day.

School districts are under financial pressure to stay open because state aid depends on the number of students in classes as long as there are enough adults on campus to meet minimum state requirements. Asymptomatic students are expected to attend even if everyone in their household is positive and symptomatic. Our daughter has 2 of those.

Notwithstanding the above, a shortage of school bus drivers makes it hard for some students to get to and from school.

Many students are dependent on school breakfasts and lunches for basic nutrition (in the richest country in the world ). The heroic efforts to continue to provide school meals which were made earlier in the pandemic seem to be waning in many places. When schools have to close now meals often aren't still available.

The state government is pretending that everything is hunky dory. Testing requirements remain in place even though many schools don't have any hope of meeting them. This will mess up many students (and teachers) going forward. Their records will show failures which were hardly their fault.

Jennifer Hayden
@Scout_Finch
·
2h
At the end of this school year, it is very likely we have a teacher shortage and a national crisis.

Every educator I know is FED UP.

Actually we are already there.

Volkonski wrote: ↑Tue Jan 25, 2022 11:34 am
Very few trained substitutes are available so classes are staffed with any available adults who can pass a background check. Alternative staffing is not on a long term basis so classes may have different untrained adults in front of them from day to day.

I hope they have to pass a drug test too...I'd hate to think of those poor kids getting a higher than kite teacher.

Our daughter came home a little earlier than usual today. While she was changing I heard an unusual chiming sound from their livingroom.

Turns out that there is so much extra work for her to do after school that she sets an alarm on her phone to remind her to go home every evening.

High school graduation rates dip in at least 20 states after the first full school year disrupted by the pandemic, an analysis shows—suggesting COVID may have ended nearly two decades of nationwide progress toward getting more students diplomas. https://t.co/QtyxILxfCV

I sent 3 students to the nurse today

all 3 went home positive with covid


22 staff members out

sad-cafe wrote: ↑Tue Jan 25, 2022 9:47 pm I sent 3 students to the nurse today

all 3 went home positive with covid


22 staff members out

Houston Chronicle
@HoustonChron
·
25m
Aldine ISD cancels Friday classes for 3 weeks to combat teacher burnout due to omicron

The substitute-teacher shortage forced this New Jersey school district to give middle- and high-school students an entire month of half-days

https://www.businessinsider.com/substit ... zStJxo0Lxc

The half-days begin on Monday and are set to end on February 25, a notice sent to affected families said. Lakeside Middle School is expected to follow an 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. schedule, while Memorial and Senior High School plan to start at 7:40 a.m. and end at 12:15 p.m.

The district's move to operate on a shortened schedule comes amid a national shortage of substitute teachers, a problem made worse by the recent Omicron-variant surge. As teachers continue to call out sick, the historically underpaid and unstable position has become vital to keeping schools open throughout the pandemic.

Millville Public School substitute teachers are paid between $100 and $150 a day, depending on an applicant's experience and certifications. For a typical seven-hour school day, that's about $15 to $21 an hour.

"The reality of covering these shortages is much more complicated than people may expect," Tony Trongone, Millville's superintendent, said in a statement. "Shortening class periods will allow us to more effectively use the staff we have."

Not sure how this gets them more teachers.

Hard on a lot of the families.

we had a "snow day" Wed and Thursday and now we get Friday off too!!!

With the weekend, that is 5 days. A nice covid break if you ask me!

My grandkids had semester break from half day last Friday until Wednesday. They went back to school yesterday, and now had remote classes today and yesterday tomorrow. At least it's not covid.





Edited for correction.

Volkonski wrote: ↑Thu Feb 03, 2022 5:25 pm The substitute-teacher shortage forced this New Jersey school district to give middle- and high-school students an entire month of half-days

https://www.businessinsider.com/substit ... zStJxo0Lxc

The half-days begin on Monday and are set to end on February 25, a notice sent to affected families said. Lakeside Middle School is expected to follow an 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. schedule, while Memorial and Senior High School plan to start at 7:40 a.m. and end at 12:15 p.m.

The district's move to operate on a shortened schedule comes amid a national shortage of substitute teachers, a problem made worse by the recent Omicron-variant surge. As teachers continue to call out sick, the historically underpaid and unstable position has become vital to keeping schools open throughout the pandemic.

Millville Public School substitute teachers are paid between $100 and $150 a day, depending on an applicant's experience and certifications. For a typical seven-hour school day, that's about $15 to $21 an hour.

"The reality of covering these shortages is much more complicated than people may expect," Tony Trongone, Millville's superintendent, said in a statement. "Shortening class periods will allow us to more effectively use the staff we have."

Not sure how this gets them more teachers.

Perhaps the district is hoping retired teachers will be willing to serve as subs if classroom days are shorter?

Have any explored using high school students to fill-in (as we do in colleges as TAs, etc) for classes in lower grades?

neonzx wrote: ↑Fri Feb 04, 2022 9:36 am Have any explored using high school students to fill-in (as we do in colleges as TAs, etc) for classes in lower grades?

Everything I've read about this says that subs, even desperate replacement subs, must have a high school degree.